"Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace,[d] both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
Okay so this just seems like Paul saying "hey guys I've been praying for you and i hope you can live a good Christian life". But there's more to it than that. First we see that Paul says "servants of Christ Jesus". What does that mean? Well, this is the ESV translation but in others it says "slave". The idea here isn't that of a paid servant, or a bought slave made to do all of the master's bidding It is someone who willingly serves his master and is even happy to do so! Paul, therefore, just by saying servant, was able to let them know that he loved doing what he was doing. Maybe that's completely irrelevant, but I don't believe so. It shows us an example to live by. It's also a great example of how ALL scripture is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16).
Next, we see Paul's standard greeting of "grace to you and peace from our God". This isn't anything spectacular, but in this he was reminding them of the grace and peace they have access to through Christ. In verses 3-5 Paul says he always thanks God when he remembers them. Wow! That's pretty cool don't you think? And then he says that every time he prays, he joyfully prays for them! The text says it is "because of their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." What does that mean? Simply that they were brothers and sisters in Christ. So, doesn't this infer that we should always be in prayer for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? I believe so. Again, just by Paul greeting them, we can gain spiritual truth.
Verse 6 is a very popular verse that we see quoted on coffee mugs, youth room walls, Facebook walls, and wherever else you can put a bible verse. But what does it really mean? Let's get deep here. Paul starts off with "and i am sure of this". This means that it wasn't just wishful thinking, Paul knew that God will bring His work to completion. The next part says "that He who began a good work in you". What good work? This one is pretty easy, it's our salvation. The process by which God forgives us our sins on the basis of Christ's finished work on the cross, and then makes us more Christ-like every day. The ending of the verse is "will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ". Now most people don't really get the depth of this. If the process is to make us more Christ-like, then that means that we will be like Jesus one day! And this is not the final day of judgement, but the day that our salvation is completed, A.K.A. when we die. So that means our death, is actually us becoming like Christ! New perspective on death huh? Well as we'll see later in Philippians 1:21, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But we'll save that for later.
Verse 7 is interesting. Paul says "it is right for me to feel this way about you all, because i hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." What does all that mean? It means 1. Paul holds these believers in the center of his thought and feeling. 2. These believers were actively assisting Paul in his ministry. and 3. These believers were seriously defending the truth of the gospel. Verse 8 says Paul yearns for them with the affection of Christ Jesus. That's big! We can see that Paul seemed to have a special place in his heart for the Philippian believers.
Verses 9-11 show what Paul wants these believers to have. Again, we can also take these things to heart and learn from them. The reason i don't wanna get in detail, is that Paul does just that later in the letter and we'll get to it. One thing i do want to touch on is the very end. "To the glory and praise of God". That's it. That's the purpose of everything is God's glory. Never forget that. Also never forget that all scripture is profitable. Even this seemingly irrelevant greeting has some deep spiritual truths in it.
If you're still reading then you must really love God's word, or have just been really bored. I hope it's the first :) Well I hope i was able to clearly depict the truth in this passage. I pray that the Holy Spirit will take these words and use them "to the glory and praise and God". ~ The Disciple Jesus Loves
