5a Overcoming the Hurdles

Many Christians thank God in good times, pray urgently in hard times, and forget to pray in busy times. It may strike us as strange that the apostle Paul overflows with thanksgiving and prayers for other people while he is confined to a dingy, dark Roman prison cell. Even in the most challenging and uncertain personal circumstances, Paul expresses his deep gratitude and joy to God for the believers’ partnership in the gospel and his unflagging confidence that the sovereign God will finish the good work He began in their lives.

Over the next two weeks we will look at Paul’s short prayer in Philippians 1 which can help us overcome our spiritual dryness and excuses for prayerlessness. We’ll see that the gospel should define our relationships with other Christians and guide our priorities in prayer. Paul’s prayer will also encourage us to overcome the obstacle of perfectionism and self-fulfillment by refocusing our attention on “what is excellent” (Phil. 1:10) according to God’s standards.

As we read this passage I want you to look for the three reasons Paul is praying for the Philippians.

Pray

What are the three reasons Paul is praying for the Philippians?

Partnership in the Gospel

God’s ongoing work in their lives

His heart-felt love for them

What do we know about Paul’s as he is writing the church at Philippi?

We know that it is one of the Prison epistles so Paul was incarcerated in a Roman prison.

Despite being imprisoned, how does Paul start this letter?

Here in Philippians, as in so many of his other letters, the apostle launches immediately into expressions of profound gratitude to God for the ongoing work of grace among “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi” (v. 1). In our study of Colossians 1 (session 4), we saw that Paul’s is not a fair-weather sort of thanksgiving, for he writes to those believers facing doctrinal threats while he endures the daily discomforts and uncertainty of imprisonment. Paul again writes from prison and he reassures the Philippian church that “what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (v. 12).

Why, when his personal circumstances seem so abysmal, is Paul overflowing with joy? Look in verse 5

Verse 5 gives the reason: “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

Does anyone know the greek word here that is translated as partnership? It is often also translated as fellowship.

Partnership translates the Greek word koinonia, commonly rendered “fellowship” elsewhere in the New Testament (see Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3). Christians today often use the word fellowship to mean warm friendship with other believers—a nice chat during the coffee break after church or meeting together for a meal. But in the ancient world, koinonia often conveyed the idea of a financial or business partnership. Indeed, Paul explains that earlier in his ministry only the Philippian church “entered into partnership [koinonia] with me in giving and receiving” (Phil. 4:15). They financially supported the apostle “once and again” while he was in Thessalonica and in recent days they sent Paul more gifts, supplying his needs while in prison and likely prompting him to write this letter. The Philippian believers shared Paul’s trouble, giving sacrificially to meet the apostle’s needs and to promote the advancement of the gospel, and they were also partakers with him of grace. So Paul thanks God for the church’s true gospel koinonia.

This concept of partnership still holds true today.

When missionaries write to their home churches and individual supporters, they regularly express gratitude for financial partnership and urge readers to partner with them in prayer. These expressions point us to the true nature of distinctly Christian fellowship. Indeed, by sharing in their troubles, giving joyfully and sacrificially, and regularly petitioning God on their behalf, we may have a profound “partnership in the gospel” with these missionaries—a partnership like Paul and the Philippians shared.

What was Paul sure of in verse 6?

In verse 6, Paul expresses confidence in God’s ongoing work in the lives of these believers: “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.” Similarly in Philippians 2:13 Paul asserts that God is at work among these believers “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We can often grow discouraged when we consider our relative lack of progress in certain areas of our Christian life. This is particularly true for many of us when it comes to our practice of prayer (or lack thereof). Paul’s declaration that God has begun and will complete His good work in our lives should engender confidence in those who feel that they can’t change, that they will never learn to pray effectively. Be encouraged—God always finishes what He starts.

Thus far we have seen that Paul’s joyful thanksgiving is motivated first by the Philippians’ longstanding gospel partnership with him and, second, by his confidence that God will complete the good work He has started among these saints. What is Paul’s third reason he prays for them?

In verses 7-8, Paul offers a third reason he prays for the church in this way: his heart-felt love for them. The apostle declares, “I hold you in my heart, … God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Paul’s deep emotion for these friends exceeds natural human love because it flows from his own profound experience of the love of God in Christ. Commentator Walter Hansen writes, “Paul’s life in Christ Jesus brings all his relationships within the sphere of Christ’s love. … his longing … is really the love of Christ motivating and empowering him.”1 During times of spiritual dryness and prayerlessness, we need God to grant us a fresh understanding and experience of the love of Christ for us and for our fellow Christians.

If we were to sum up Paul’s fellowship with the Philippian church, what would we say was the root of that fellowship?

Paul again and again brings us back to the gospel—the good news that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has saved us from our sins and reconciled us to Himself. The term “gospel” is used nine times in the four chapters of Philippians, making this arguably the most gospel-focused of all of Paul’s 13 letters. Paul has a “partnership in the gospel” with the Philippians, and he calls them to let their “manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:5,27). Paul brought the gospel to Philippi, and now he is in prison for the defense, confirmation, and advancement of that gospel. Paul also labors in gospel ministry alongside his friends such as Timothy, Euodia, Syntyche, and Clement. Thus we see that the gospel defined Paul’s relationships, calling, and aspirations.

When we gather a a group to eat, talk after church, or in small groups like this, what is the focus of our conversations?

This relentless gospel-focus challenges us to consider what ties our relationships together. It’s natural to talk about our work, families, and the latest game, but these things aren’t central to true Christian fellowship. Only the gospel is strong enough to bring people together from different ethnicities, social classes, employment sectors, personality types, and life circumstances. The gospel should be preeminent in our relationships with other believers and should direct our priorities, conversations, and prayers. A new or renewed gospel focus in our lives and relationships will help us overcome the hurdles of spiritual dryness and antipathy in prayer.