Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is basically the same way that he opens every single one of his letters. Sometimes it has just his name, or sometimes it has someone else’s name, like Sosthenes in 1 Corinthians, instead of Timothy, and sometimes it’s a little longer, but basically they all have the same elements that we see here.
1. Paul’s position in Christ.
2. Who the letter is written to.
3. And his very common greeting: “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So to open this letter off we see Paul and Timothy, both servants of Christ, for the sake of Christ. And what we see in their lives is a great model of discipleship. When Paul wrote Philippians he was an older man, nearing the end of his life and ministry, whereas Timothy was much younger, and his ministry was just beginning to flourish. And we know a bit of the relationship they had from the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy, wherein Paul calls Timothy “a son in the faith.” This is because He was led to the Lord by Paul, and discipled, or taught, in the things of the Lord by Paul. And this was done largely, as we see in 2nd Timothy chapter 3, simply by Paul’s lifestyle and the way that he modeled Christ before young Timothy. As we see from Paul’s example, discipleship is much more than simply imparting what we know; it’s demonstrating how what we know changes our life, and that was the substance of Paul’s relationship to Timothy; a life demonstrating Christ to another life. 2nd Timothy 3:10, 11 says:
“But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions…”
In essence, Timothy’s life looked a lot like Paul’s life, and Paul’s life looked a lot like Christ, which is what qualified him to disciple young Timothy. If you don’t act like Christ, then you have no business discipling someone else. But the thing is, we should all be discipling someone, which means that we should all be living a life of integrity, which allows us to take someone under our wing, and teach, and show them, the things of God. So make sure that you are living your life in such a way that you are able to teach godliness, without being a hypocrite. Do this by being a “bondservant of Jesus Christ.” A word that literally means “slaves of Jesus Christ.” Or someone who is owned by, and lives for, Jesus Christ.
Ok, there’s the first-half of the first verse; the second-half tells us exactly who he wrote it to: The saints, or “believers,” in Philippi, as well as the church leadership which consisted of bishops, which just means “overseers,” like pastors or elders, and deacons, the ones who serve the church. He then greets them in verse 2 the way I think he greeted everybody; with a mixture of the traditional Greek and Hebrew greetings, while giving them an undertone of the gospel. First, the Greek word meaning “greeting,” slightly tweaked, becomes charis, meaning “grace.” While the traditional Jewish greeting, Shalom, is preserved, meaning peace. And the undercurrent of the gospel that I see in his greeting is this: “Grace to you” is the sum-total of God’s activity towards His children, “And peace” is the result of God’s activity towards His children, which is from God the Father, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I’m fairly sure that he worked that into his greeting on purpose.
Now reading verses 3-7 it says:
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
In these five verses there are some very practical and very important things for us to understand, and in order to do that we need to be sure to keep them all in context. So to give us an overview, what Paul is saying here is that: Everything that the Philippians had done for him, especially their participation in furthering the gospel, and their belief in it, gave him cause to rejoice and thank God for them, as well as make supplication on their behalf; knowing, because of their attitude toward the gospel, that Christ would complete the good work that He had indeed begun in them: that being their salvation. And the more I read and thought about these verses, the more complicated they became; because they deal, not only with Paul’s prayer and rejoicing for the Philippians, but with his assurance of their salvation, which made him pray and gave him joy. Now the complication I face is this: how do I convey Paul’s joy over the Philippians and their proven, genuine, state of salvation, while at the same time hold up one of the “measuring rods” we’re given in Scripture that show us whether ours is a genuine state of salvation. As I thought about this I realized that I could adopt Paul’s joy and rejoice with you over your salvation, but the thing is, I don’t know that you’re saved, even if you think that you are. Now you might be reading this thinking “Joel, that’s harsh! Of course I’m saved!” But I say that because your salvation is between you and God, I only know what you say to me, and what I can see on your life; so if you tell me that you’re “saved” I’ll believe you, I will always work with people under the premise of trust, but I can’t know for sure! Only you and God can be absolutely assured of your salvation.
I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I’m saved because I consistently measure my life against Scripture, and I ask you to believe me when I say that, and I trust that I show you evidence of my salvation by the way that I live, but you wouldn’t want to bet your life on the state of my salvation, because you can’t know for sure.
Recently my wife and I were over at the house of an old pastor-friend of ours and we were talking about something similar to this, and he looked up at me from across the table and said “Joel, I can’t even be sure that you’re saved. I trust that you are, but I wouldn’t bet my life’s earnings on it.” And he went on to tell me that one day, in the church where he pastored, someone came to him after the service and asked, “why do you always preach to us like we’re not saved?” So he responded by telling them basically the same thing he told me; that he trusts that they’re saved, but if not, it was his responsibility to make sure that they knew it. And that is the position that I’m in for the rest of my life, so please, don’t read this and feel all dejected, doubting whether you’re a child of the Lord. Instead, prove to yourself that you are His child by the way that you live your life.
I believe that it is clear from Scripture that the gospel and salvation are to be understood, not simply as a one-time event where Christ is accepted, but as the continuation of repentance, and saving from sinful habits, in every day life. That’s why I say I like to say that if your faith hasn’t changed you, it hasn’t saved. Not to make salvation by works, and not to make it more difficult, but to show that genuine salvation does result in a changed life.
Having said all that, I’m not saying that we should go around doubting everyone’s salvation, because for many people we can be confident that they are indeed saved as we observe their lives, all I’m saying is, we can’t know for sure. We can be pretty sure, but we can’t know.
And I say all that to say that the way I solved my problem is this: to the saved person, everything I say will be joyful to read, it will be refreshing to be measured according to God’s word. To the unsaved, it couldn’t possibly be.
So, please rejoice with me as we look at verses 3-5:
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
Here Paul is saying that every time he remembers anything about the Philippians, he thanks God for them, and in every one of those thankful prayers, which is actually the word for supplication, he asks things of God for them.
Why this joyful, thankful, asking, prayer when he remembers them?
“For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.”
He rejoiced in the memory of them because of their commitment to him, and their commitment to the gospel. The word fellowship in verse 5 literally means “a joint participation in a common interest and activity.” So to be in fellowship with someone means that you have adopted their interests as your own, and together are pursuing the same goals; that is why we can not say that we have fellowship in the gospel, or fellowship with God, yet disobey Him. 1st John makes this abundantly clear when it says:
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
So Paul’s prayerful rejoicing was based on the Philippians fellowship with him in the gospel: On the fact that they had taken the gospel to heart by applying it to their lives, and committed to furthering it with Paul. Which we know from the last post, they did by continually supporting him, even when no one else would. And notice, at the end of verse 5, that their fellowship in the gospel was not just a one-time event; it was from “the first day until now.” It continued in their life, and on that basis Paul could say in verse 6:
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Paul’s confidence was not in a prayer they prayed, or a profession they made at some point in time, but it was in the continual working of Jesus Christ being evidenced in their life! On that basis he could have confidence that God had indeed begun a good work in them. And if God begins it, He will finish. It is consistent with the nature of God for Him to do what He says He will do, to finish what He starts, and to perfect what has been corrupted.
Our salvation isn’t ultimately realized until the day of Christ, until we’re in heaven, perfectly conformed to His image, and freed from this body of sin and death. But the power of God is working in us now, delivering us from evil.
Your salvation was not simply a point in time where you prayed and asked Jesus into your heart; that is not in the Bible. Rather, your salvation is a point in time that was preceded and followed by repentance! A turning from sin, towards God, that didn’t just happen once, but continues to happen today. If it only happened once, you need to question whether it happened at all. You see, God did not come only to save you from the penalty of your sin, but from the power of it. 1st John 3:5-8 says:
And you know that He was manifest to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
This verse is not teaching sinless perfection, that you’ll never sin again once you’re saved, but it is teaching that sin will never again be a lifestyle once you’re saved. If you find yourself sinning as a child of God, you will be uncomfortable, you will be broken, and you will repent! That is a sign of a true believer, not just a one-time turning from sin, but a continual forsaking of sin, and a turning more fully towards God. And Paul saw that in the Philippians lives as they continued in the gospel; which gave him confidence that God had begun a good work in them. And since God had begun it, He would complete it.
In verse 7 Paul continues giving reasons for his confidence that God was working in their lives and that they were His children. He says:
Just as it is right for me to think this of you all (to think that God had started, and would complete, the good work in them), because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
Here Paul further iterates why it is right for him to believe that God had started, and would complete, His good work in their lives. The first reason he gives is “because I have you in my heart,” which can just as properly be translated to say “because you have me in your heart.” And I like the way that fits the context better, however they both lead to interesting conclusions.
The way it’s translated in my Bible, “because I have you in my heart,” leads me to the conclusion that, because of the worshipful joy they brought to Paul’s heart, he concluded that they must belong to God. Their fellowship with him in the gospel, his holding them in his heart, convinced him that they were indeed his brothers in the Lord.
The second way of looking at it, “because you have me in your heart,” is also a very convincing proof of their salvation. It reminds me of 1st John 3:14 which says:
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”
And the heart is a good place, in fact, it’s the only place, to hold someone you love. Do you love the brethren? Do you hold them in your heart? Do you know that you have passed from death to life because you love the brethren? Do you love to be with, and fellowship with fellow believers? These are important questions to ask yourself, and don’t underestimate the implications of your answer. It really is a matter of life or death.
So we’ve seen two reasons for Paul’s confidence that there’s was a genuine state of salvation. First, they continued in the gospel. 1st John 2:19 says:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
Secondly, they showed that they were saved because they loved the brethren.
And third, it says in verse 7 that, “both in my chains, and in the defence, and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.” What this is saying is that they were willing to suffer persecution, and be affiliated with Paul, and with Christ, despite what it might cost them.
A true believer’s life is characterized by sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. Romans 12:1 says:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
Because of what Christ has done for us, it is only reasonable that we sacrifice for Him. If He asks you to lay down your life for Him, He’s not asking too much. Just think of what He’s done for you, and what He’s saved you from… Nothing is too much for Him to ask.
This is the same God who, when He spoke, galaxies came forth, the earth was created, He said to the sea, “you will come this far and no further.” In the New Testament He rebukes the wind and the waves and they obey Him. Then He looks at us, and gently asks us to do His will, and we say NO! Not wanting to be uncomfortable, not wanting to give up the sin we love. Not wanting to be a living sacrifice, which is the one reasonable thing that we should do.
Are you saved? That’s the question you need to ask, and answer, for yourself. I’ve only given you the tools Paul presents here:
1. Are you continuing in the gospel?
2. Do you love for the brethren?
3. Are you living a life of sacrifice?
If you see those things in your life, then you can have assurance, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God has begun a good work in you, and that He will complete it. But if not, or if you struggle with these things, repent. Confess your sin and turn to God. 1st John 1:9 says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Just imagine the freedom in a life cleansed from ALL unrighteousness! That freedom is ours in Christ. And we can rejoice in the fact that we are saved. And we can rejoice with each other that our lives testify to the fact that we are saved. Basically, as saved people, we can be rejoicing all the time!
In conclusion, I want you to think of this: The worst mistake you could ever make is believing that you’re saved, when all the evidence says that you’re not. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says:
“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you do not stand the test.”
All that I’ve tried to do in these pages is give you tools from the book of Philippians that will allow you to asses yourself, so please, do that. And then, after measuring your life next to Scripture, act accordingly. If you need to repent and settle accounts with God, then do it! Or if you find that the life of Christ is indeed in you, that you are continuing in the gospel, that you do love the brethren, and that you are sacrificially obedient to Christ, REJOICE! Knowing that the good work which God has begun in you WILL be completed! NOTHING can stop the process once it’s been started, and that is GREAT cause for rejoicing! God is so good!
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