Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Philippians 1:1-11

¹Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ; To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and servants: ²Grace to you, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³I thank my God whenever I remember you, ⁴always in every request of mine on behalf of you all, making my requests with joy, ⁵for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now; ⁶being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace. ⁸For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. ⁹This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; ¹⁰so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ; ¹¹being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I call myself and Timothy "servants of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:1), the word is doulos — a bondslave, one wholly owned. Not a hired hand who serves for wages, but a man whose life is no longer his own. And when I say I am "confident that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion" (Philippians 1:6), the word for "began" and "complete" are the words a man uses of a work he has undertaken and will not abandon halfway — God is the one who starts, and God is the one who finishes. Your standing does not rest on your grip, but on his.

Where else you say this

That same confidence — that God finishes what he starts — I take up again when I tell you no one and nothing can separate you from his love, for what he foreknew he also glorified (Romans 8:29-39). That my prayer is for love "with knowledge and all discernment" (Philippians 1:9), so that you approve what is excellent — I press the same thing on the Colossians, that they be filled with the knowledge of his will (Colossians 1:9-10). And this ache to hold a whole church in the heart I confess also to the Corinthians, that I carry the anxiety for the churches daily (2 Corinthians 11:28).

The situation

The Philippians were dear to me — the first fruits of the gospel in Macedonia, a church born by a river when Lydia's heart was opened (Acts 16:14). They had "partnership in the gospel from the first day until now" (Philippians 1:5), which is no mere sentiment: they sent me help again and again, and now they had sent Epaphroditus with a gift, though it nearly cost him his life in the sickness that followed. And I write these lines in chains, under guard in Rome, not knowing whether I will live or die — yet full of thanksgiving every time I remember them. That is why the joy in this letter is not a shallow thing.

The hard question

You may ask: how can I say "I am sure" God will complete the work (Philippians 1:6), when I spend the whole letter urging them to strive, to stand firm, to work out their salvation? Does his certainty not make my striving pointless? Look again — I do not set the two against each other. In the same breath I tell them to work out their salvation "for it is God who works in you" (Philippians 2:12-13). His finishing is not the enemy of your effort; it is the ground of it. You labor not to make him faithful, but because he is. Rest there, and then run.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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