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This wonderful letter was written toward the end of the life of one of the greatest men who ever lived. Paul of Tarsus was intelligent, courageous, intense, devoted, zealous. He was a rabbi. He was a scholar and a theologian and an expert in Judaism. He was a Pharisee, which means he was very serious about practicing Judaism.
He was also a Roman citizen. He spoke and wrote Greek and was familiar with Greek and Roman culture.
Paul was a prophet – one who heard clear messages from God. In all of history there have been very few prophets. He was also an apostle, a special representative of the Son of God. There have been fewer apostles than prophets. As an apostle, someone raised up, sent out and empowered by the Son of God, to represent the Son of God, Paul wielded great spiritual authority.
Paul was a very special apostle – the apostle to the Gentiles, specially equipped and sent to reach and teach the non-Jewish peoples of the world.
Paul was one of the greatest evangelists of all time. He was a missionary and congregation planter.
This great apostle and scholar wrote much of the New Testament and left a tremendous imprint on Christianity and Western civilization.
Rabbi Paul was one of the very greatest human beings who ever lived. We should pay attention to his writings that have been preserved for us.
After his third missionary journey, the Rabbi from Tarsus had been arrested in Jerusalem and sent to Rome, the capitol of the mighty Roman empire, to stand trial. He was in some kind of confinement, awaiting his trial. From there he and Timothy wrote this letter to the community in Philippi.
A little background on that community and this letter to them. Charles Ryrie informs us that the community in Philippi was founded by Paul on his second missionary journey. This was the first community to be established by him in Europe. Paul’s relationship with the community was always close and cordial. Having helped him financially at least two times before this letter was written (4:16) and having heard of his imprisonment in Rome, the community sent Epaphroditus with another gift. This is a thank letter for that gift. Epaphroditus had become almost fatally ill while with Paul and on his recovery Paul sent him back with this letter. Though somewhat obscured by Paul’s gentleness in this letter, some of the problems in the community are seen beneath the surface. These included rivalries and personal ambition (2:3-4, 4:2), the teaching of the Judaizers (3:1-3), perfectionism (3:12-14) and the influence of those who rejected moral standards (3:18-19) (Ryrie Study Bible, paraphrase).
This letter has dual authorship. It was written by Paul, and his disciple, Timothy, himself, a great Messianic Jewish leader.
It starts off with them introducing themselves:
Paul and Timothy, slaves of Messiah Yeshua. I love the way these two great men introduce themselves – not as a mighty apostle and his disciple – but as slaves of Messiah. That tells us that they understood their relationship to Yeshua to be the most important thing about them. That was at the very core of their identity.
Paul and Timothy understood themselves to owned by Messiah. They belonged to the Son of God who had created them and then graciously redeemed them at a huge cost to Himself. As slaves, they understood themselves to be obligated to do what Yeshua commands.
If this great apostle and his disciple viewed themselves as Messiah’s slaves, alive to do what the Son of God wanted, not what they wanted, shouldn’t we have the same servant-like attitude? That we are here to serve Messiah, and not ourselves? That we are completely at His disposal? That we are committed to His interests, and not our own, His will, His agenda, His priorities?
Next, Paul and Timothy address three groups of people in the community: the spiritual leaders; those who assisted them; and the rest of the community.
To all God’s holy people in Messiah Yeshua at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: The overseers were the leaders of the community. These were men entrusted with the responsibility to lead the community. Today we would call them pastors or ministers or elders or Messianic rabbis. Then there were the deacons. They were the servants of the leaders. They assisted the leaders and served the people in practical ways. The third group were the ordinary members of the community.
Next comes Paul and Timothy’s greeting. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. This greeting is a prayer. Paul and Timothy are praying that God the Father and His Son, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah would bless the Philippian community with grace and peace. Grace is unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor. Peace is wholeness, completeness, a state of well-being. Human beings who are fallen and damaged – desperately need grace and peace, don’t we? Thanks be to God the Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah for giving us grace and peace; that it is the generous, good nature of the Father and the Son to give unmerited favor and restore wholeness to their fallen and broken creatures who don’t deserve it – especially to the sons and daughters of God, who have ended their rebellion against the High King and His Son and have been reconciled to the Father because of the atonement made possible by the Son.
It’s important to understand that both God the Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah give grace and peace. God the Father is not Messiah the Son. The Lord Yeshua is not God the Father. Messiah Yeshua is Lord – fully divine, fully deity, fully God, but distinct from God the Father. The Father and the Son are two distinct, divine persons who share the same divine nature and Spirit, and it is the nature of both the Father and the Son to give grace and peace.
I really like this greeting. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. It is so much more meaningful that the greetings we use today: “Hi”, “hello” or “hey.” We can learn from Paul and Timothy how to make our social interactions more meaningful. We can do better than hello, hi, or hey. I’ve told you what I have been doing. Some someone asks me the standard: Hi. How are you? I’ve been responding: How am I? I am blessed. Blessed by the Three-In-One God of Israel who alone gives eternal life to those who transfer their loyalties to God. How are you? When you greet someone in person, or send an email or letter, consider adding some kind of prayer in that social interaction.
Next comes the main part of the letter. It starts with an expression of thankfulness and joy: I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Good News from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Messiah Yeshua.
Every time this community came into Paul’s mind, He thanked God for them. When he prayed for them, he felt joy. Why? Because this community had their priorities in order. They understood that they were to carry on Messiah’s mission. They continued believing and proclaiming God’s Message about salvation, from the day they heard it, right up to the present. And, they had a terrific partnership with Paul in the work of proclaiming the Good News. Not all of them could go where he went, and do what he did. But they could support him financially, and pray for him and encourage him – and that made the Rabbi thankful and happy.
Paul was confident that this wonderful community – a community that had a good beginning; a community that had their spiritual priorities in order; a community that was in partnership with him in the ministry – would have a good ending – that God would bring them to a successful finish. And, I am confident that if we know the Three-In-One God, and are loyal to Father, Son and Spirit, and have our priorities in order, so that we are focused on proclaiming the Good News and doing good things; teaching those who are interested and building up the community from within, that we will have a successful life in this world, and a good end, followed by eternal life.
This was a community that was worthy of Paul’s gratitude and joy. 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 Good News, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Messiah Yeshua. It was right for Paul to feel warmly toward the Philippians because they had been his loyal partners while he was free to proclaim the Message and now, while he was in prison. That kind of loyalty is a rare and precious thing.
Not only was Paul feeling joy and gratitude because of them, but he was also feeling intense love for them. He loved them and missed them. I like the way he expresses the intensity of his love for them: God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Messiah Yeshua. In other words: Sometimes I think I feel I love you as much as Messiah does! What a great thing for a community of Christians and Messianic Jews to be loved by a great spiritual leader like this. Again, it was their loyalty to him and their partnership in the mission of the Messiah that helped create these feelings. May we have that same kind of loyalty to the Lord’s representatives and to the proclamation of the Good News!
After identifying themselves, and praying for grace and peace to come to them, and after Paul expresses his gratitude and joy and love for them, Paul takes prays for them. His prayer focuses on two things: love and righteousness. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Messiah, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Messiah Yeshua – to the glory and praise of God.
My prayer is that your love will increase. Love is the desire to do something good for others, to see them helped, lifted up, so that they can reach their maximum potential. God’s nature is one of love. It is His nature to love His creatures, to bless them, to help them, to want them to be whole and happy. However, the nature of fallen human beings is not one of love. We are by nature selfish and self-centered. We primarily care for ourselves and those closest to us. We do not have God’s kind of love for humanity. Love is one of the greatest virtues, and we need to become more like God, who is love; we need to grow in our desire and ability to love. That’s what Paul prays for the Philippians.
He also prays that they love wisely. My prayer is that you will love wisely. Love is connected to truth and to wisdom. To really love, you have to do what is good and beneficial. To truly love, you have to understand what God loves and what He hates. We need to love what God loves and dislike what He dislikes. You are not really loving someone if you give him foolish advice or do things that wind up harming him.
You have a girlfriend that you like, and you pressure her to have sex before marriage. That is not love because that is not in her best interests.
You are a psychiatrist and you have a patient that you like, and he tells you that he is struggling with feelings of homosexuality, and you tell him that those feelings are natural and good and he should act on them – that is not loving that patient.
Love must not be confused with being nice. There are times when love needs to be tough. If you are talking to a non-Christian, is it loving to tell him that he is a nice person and has nothing to be concerned about? Or, is it loving to tell that person that unless he turns to God, he is going to Hell? Is it loving to not discipline a rebellious child, and allow him to do whatever he wants? Is it loving for a Messianic Community to hold their members to God’s standards, and exercise congregational discipline with the goal of restoring them?
It takes wisdom to know what may be the loving thing to do for someone – what to give or withhold; what advice to give; what to say and how to say it; how tough or how gentle to be. That’s what Paul prays for. My prayer is that you will love wisely.
In addition to praying that they increase in love and that they love wisely, he prays that they live with a high level of morality – that they may be pure and blameless for the day of Messiah, filled with the fruit of righteousness. What is the result of living in a way that is pure and holy, full of right living? The glory and praise of God. That’s fantastic! Moral living honors the Moral God! The way we live can bring honor to the Creator and get others involved giving honor to God and saying nice things about Him! And, everyone is better off when the Creator is honored, because God is worthy of the respect of every creature and should be honored by every creature. And the creature is better off when he honors the Creator. And, those around that creature are better off when the Creator is honored by that creature. That should motivate us to live morally pure lives.
How do we live in a way that is pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness? That kind of moral living comes through Messiah Yeshua. When we know who Yeshua is, and when we become loyal to Him and we receive His Spirit; and when we get close to Him and stay close to Him, by practicing the Spiritual Disciplines, we have the ability to live a life that is pure and holy, full of right living and right actions; a life that honors God and causes others to think about Him.
That is my prayer for myself and my family in 2013, and for all of us who are part of Shema. And, that we would be blessed by an abundance of grace and peace from God the Father and Messiah the Son; and that we would be a community that is passionate about the Good News; and that we would grow in love and love wisely. Amen?