Greetings!

A Greeting of Grace

Phil.1:1-2 “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This greeting is a rather common style of greeting, but there are a couple things that set the tone for the rest of the letter:

Paul refers to himself and Timothy both as servants.

There could be a theological significance — three notable servants of YHWH in the OT are Moses, Joshua, and King David. But, I think that’s unlikely given the Gentile make-up of the Philippian church.

Instead, I think it emphasizes their submission to Christ’s authority and commitment to do His will.

He writes to all the saints. For Paul, a saint was a person called out by Christ to belong to God. It wasn’t a special status. Every believer was a saint for Paul.

He includes the overseers and deacons. Even here you begin to see church governance take place.

Overseers were responsible for spiritual oversight in the church, dedicated especially to the ministry of the word and guarding the church against any false teacher or teaching.

This would be in line with what we think of as a pastor.

He is responsible for being a theological sheepdog for the congregation.

And the term is plural, so there should be other overseers who labor equally with him.

Deacons are servants who would oversee a multitude of practical ministry items. When they were first called in Acts 6, they oversaw the distribution of food to the widows. They were responsible for looking after practical affairs in the body.

This would be in line with what we think of as ministry leaders and heads.

Again, there is a plurality here. As many ministries and needs as the church had, deacons would’ve likely been called forth to oversee those ministries.

Somewhere, lines have been blurred and many churches today more resemble a business trying to find its way to the Fortune 500 list than it resembles what we find in the NT. We typically operate with a CEO, top-down model with deacons serving as boards, but the share holders receive a say-so in day-to-day operations. This may leave some of you with some questions, and it may challenge others of you, and it’s a question that many churches need to consider, but since it’s not Paul’s point in Phil.1, we won’t linger.

After making sure everyone is included, Paul greets the church: “Grace…and peace.” Make no mistake about it, this is a thoroughly Christian greeting that Paul intends…almost a blessing for the church. Essentially he’s saying, “I hope this letter finds you in the grace of God, experiencing His peace.” Now grace is the unmerited favor of God, and because of that unmerited favor, we have peace with God — the hostility because of our refusal to live God’s way — and we experience healing in our broken relationship both with God and others. Things are made right…restored…brought to shalom, a sense of harmony that was destroyed and is destroyed because sin gets in the way and taints everything.

Do you ever have those moments where you just sit back and think, “Man, I’m blessed and everything seems to be right with the world”? That’s typically right before a kid comes bolting in talking about so-and-so said something to so-and-so and as soon as you realize the good, sin reminds you that it ain’t! That’s what Paul is greeting the Philippians with, or saying he desires God to provide for them.

A Prayer of Gratitude

Phil.1:3-8 “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Indeed, it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, and you are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

We really can learn a lot from Paul’s introduction here, especially as it pertains to our prayer lives.

First, he was thankful for the church. Key to being thankful for someone is to be mindful of them in the first place. So, in every remembrance, Paul gives thanks to God.

Second, he prays for them often. We’ll see the content of those prayers, in addition to simply giving thanks for them, in the final few verses. But, he never fails to bring them before God…always praying…in my every prayer.

Third, he prays with joy. It’s not a burden to concern himself in prayer with the church. Now I doubt it was a burden for Paul to pray for any church, but this is the only church he specifically says that he prays for with joy. I wonder why he didn’t say that about a church like the one at Corinth?!

Finally, the way that Paul words this, praying…in my every prayer implies that he’s praying specifically about their needs, “an urgent request to meet a need” is how one scholar puts it.

The reason for Paul’s affection for the church is clear, starting in vs.5 and he again justifies it in vv.6-7 — they were partners with Paul in the gospel ministry. From the get-go, we looked at this in Acts 16 and the founding of the church last week, but from the beginning Lydia pleaded with the missionaries to stay at her home. They were partners in grace, and they didn’t even abandon Paul during his imprisonment, which many would have, because imprisonment was a source of great shame in Paul’s day. He even puts God on the stand, calls Him to be His witness concerning Paul’s affection for the church and the fact that He loved them the same way Jesus loves the church (sacrificially and through service).

This is all evidence of what Paul states in v.6 — that God has started a good work in the church. They readily embraced the gospel and immediately became partners with Paul in that gospel ministry.

I mentioned last week how I can be a bit cynical, maybe cynical isn’t the word…I prefer to take a wait-and-see approach when we’re talking about God working in a person’s life. But for Paul, the evidence is clear. The church’s embrace of the gospel and the way of Jesus was proved from the beginning.

Well this evidence, that God has indeed started a work in their lives, gives confidence for Paul’s final plea before God for the Philippian believers.

For starters, God never leaves His work half-done. It seems rather obvious to Paul that if God starts something, He will certainly finish it.

This truth undergirds and convinces Paul to plea for the church’s growth.

A Plea for Growth

Phil. 1:9-11 “And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.”

Paul prays that their agape, their love, will keep on growing. Sometimes the Greek words for love, especially agape and phileo can be used interchangeable, but the word Paul uses here is often used of God’s selfless and sacrificial love, and I think Paul uses that term on purpose, to set the stage of the type of selfless love he commends to the church as they follow Christ’s example. Further, love is THE distinguishing…or should be the distinguishing mark of genuine followers of Jesus.

James 2:8 “Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.”

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commands.”

Mt.22:37 “He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Interesting here though, Paul gives no object of love. Rather, he simply prays for their love to increase, essentially making it a key characteristic of Christ-followers.

How does he want love to grow? In knowledge and discernment.

Knowledge here is an experiential knowledge, not a knowledge that is deduced from facts. Is it factual? Yes, of course. It must be rooted in what God has declared. But, it is a love that is personally known and expresses itself in everyday life.

Discernment deals with moral decisions, so Paul’s prayer implies that our morality directly affects how our love grows. And, that makes sense, right? If your decisions regarding how you interact with others aren’t rooted in godly morality, you’ll ultimately end up using people for whatever you can gain from them. That’s not a selfless and giving love. That’s anything but!

Well, this knowledgable and discerning love should help the believer know what is best instead of settling on what is good. We’ve talked about this before, but good is the enemy of best. But just think for a minute, if you had twenty bucks and I said you can have this 16-ounce choice ribeye for…$20, or you can have this specially priced 16-ounce wagyu ribeye for…$20, about 1/7 of the average cost, which would you pick? See, here’s the point: we’re all alloted the same amount: 24 hours/day. The question is how we invest it. That’s what Paul is praying — I ask God to give you the ability to know what is the best way to live. Elsewhere he’d say making the most of the time because the days are evil (Eph.5:16). Church, LABC family, can we just be honest for a second? There’s a lot of stuff we chase after that doesn’t amount to much at the end of the day, and then there’s stuff that’s good…really good even, that we chase after. That’s commendable…unless it gets in the way of what’s better. If it prevents you from love God completely, and if it prevents your from loving your neighbor with real and sacrificial love for their good and for the sake of the gospel, at that point it’s not even close to good. Paul wants the church to have such a love that seeks the things that are superior, a love that doesn’t settle for good enough. And honestly, what’s good enough? Who sets that standard?

Let’s move on.

The superior way leads to pure and blameless living, helping us to persevere until the day of Christ, when Jesus returns. It helps us, directs us how to live in light of the ever-impending, soon-coming return of Christ. A knowledgable and discerning love leads us to choose the superior way of living so that we might be right in both desire and deed.

According to Paul’s prayer, it actually results in us being filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes a.) through Christ, and b.) for God’s glory. Let’s break this last part of the prayer down real quick, and as we do, we should be able to put it all together and begin to understand Christian maturity from a biblical perspective.

Most scholars do believe the fruit of righteousness is parallel to what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit in Gal.5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.” The fact that it is a fruit means it’s not something we do but something that is produced in us. Thankfully, this passage lets us know the root of this fruit: Jesus Christ. Further, we’ll know if this fruit is genuine or not by this test: whether or not it’s for God’s praise and glory. Christ changes the believer’s life, enabling him to live for and more like Christ. And as the believer lives more like Jesus, it enables Christ to change him in order that he me live for and more like Christ. It becomes a cycle in which we live.

Now, let’s step back and put the pieces of the puzzle together to understand Paul’s prayer, what Christian maturity looks like, and how we might best pray for others. Christian maturity is possessing a selfless, personal, and discerning love that consistently proves itself by living for a calling higher than self: God, His glory, and His praise. Or, maybe we don’t complicate things. Maybe we say it like Jesus: Christian maturity is loving God with every part of who you are and loving others through service and sacrifice because all of God’s commands hang on these two commands. This is Paul’s prayer. This is God’s Word. This is God’s will for our lives.

Call to Commitment:

Are grace and peace aspects of your day-to-day life?

Do you see others as a blessing or a burden? Are you quick to thank God for the people He’s placed in your life?

Do you rejoice in the gospel and those who partner in its proclamation with you?

What do you concern yourself with in prayer? Is it in line with the model we find in Paul’s prayer, preserved for us in God’s Word?

How’s your love life? Is it selfless? Genuine? Discerning? Do you consistently choose to live for God and His great name? Or do you have a false maturity rooted in self-righteousness or comparative goodness as you focus on your life compared to others? How often does good get in the way of best?