seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may 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.
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IMHO
Well, Paul's [Saul's] writing a letter to the church in Philippi. That's where he planted his first church, back before God broke him out of prison chains in Philippi.
In Acts 16 we read, Paul [Saul] was in prison, like the prisoner in the Wizard of Id comics, and a guard was assigned to him. The guard fell asleep, and that's when God created an unusual earthquake. The earthquake broke the chains that held the prisoners secure, and it opened all the jail locks. Paul [Saul] and all the other prisoners could have just walked away. But they stuck where they were.
In Acts 16 we read, the guard woke up, panicked, and then Paul [Saul] yelled out to him.... "it's ok, we're all still here".
The guard was converted right there. Yay!
So, in this letter to the Philippians, he brings that up to remind them just who he was. Paul [Saul] had no reason to put the guard in harm's way in order to get out of jail. Paul [Saul] didn't claim that Jesus showed up and opened the locks for him [which surprises me a bit since he was so adamant that Jesus knocked him down and saved him], I would think he would continue with story of the event on the Road to Damascus and let Jesus knock down a prison just so he could let Paul [Saul] out.
Paul [Saul] was with Timothy in Philippi. Timothy was there in the first church Paul [Saul] planted. Timothy [I think] was the first kid in the Bible raised "Christian". Timothy was a boy when his family first Believed. They raised Timothy to be a Christian. Timothy was just a boy, by our standards, when he started working in the church and joining evangelic events.
I thought for a while that Paul [Saul] had eyes on Timothy for another reason, like Paul [Saul] was in some kind of closet, if you know what I mean. I accused Paul [Saul] for starting the "priestly predator behavior".
Maybe that's why Paul [Saul] was so adamant about throwing the male prostitutes out of the church in Corinth! Maybe they knew something?
Well, at any rate, we're reading the letter that Paul [Saul] wrote to the Christians in Philippi.
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Here's a link to the commentary I read.
For your fellowship in the gospel: This was one reason Paul was thankful for the Philippians. The idea is that the Philippians “partnered” with Paul in his spreading of the gospel through their friendship and financial support, and they did so from the first day until now. They didn’t wait to see if Paul was a “winner” before they supported him. They got behind Paul and his ministry early.
He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ: When Paul thought of the beginning of God’s work among the Philippians (from the first day), it was natural that he also thought of the day when that work would be complete. Paul also expressed his confidence in God’s ability to complete that work.
This I pray, that your love may abound still more and more: The Philippians had a lot of love, and they showed it to Paul. Yet Paul didn’t hesitate to pray that their love would abound still more and more. It doesn’t matter how much love for others we have; we can still have more!
That you may be sincere and without offense: When we approve and receive the things that are excellent, we become sincere (speaking of inner righteousness) and without offense (speaking of outer righteousness that can be seen). Till the day of Christ means that these things become increasingly evident in our life until Jesus comes.
The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel: Paul here answered a concern of the Philippians. He wanted them to know that God’s blessing and power were still with him, even though he was in prison. He was not out of the will of God, and God’s work still continued.
When Paul was with the Philippians, there were amazing examples of the sovereign power of God, culminating in a divine jail-break and their vindication before civil magistrates (Acts 16:11-40). We are not surprised that the Philippians wondered where the power of God was in Paul’s present imprisonment.