The Purpose of Paul's Letter

As I write this letter . . .



Paul writes his letter to the Philippians for the following reasons:

1. To thank them for a gift he's received from them (Phil 4:10-11).

2. To instruct them to receive Epaphroditus back into their fellowship (Phil. 2:29-30). Paul sent him back to Philippi for having an unpronounceable name! Actually Mr. E. was ill and Paul urged him to return to his home. E. was supposed to stay with Paul to assist him in his time of imprisonment. Paul wanted to make sure that the Philippians knew that Epaphroditus had not deserted Paul.

3. To encourage them during their time of trails and persecutions (Phil. 1:28-30).

4. To appeal for unity. Chapters 2 & 3 deal with this subject.

An early Christian writer named Polycarp was well aware of Paul's letters to the Philippians. He once wrote to them, "when he (Paul) was absent he wrote letters to you." I always get a kick out of the tarp company named, "Polytarp." Their founder must have studied early church history!

Let's begin.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Philippians 1:1-2

Image
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, 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. Ancient Letter Writing Today when we write letters we start off with who we're writing to, "Dear Mom." And we end our letters by signing our own names. In ancient times it was different and easier. One first identified one's self and then who you were writing to. Have you ever received a letter and had to skip to the end to see who it was from? Long ago they didn't have to! It was settled early on. The Blessing Paul often begins his letters with a blessing.  " Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Starting with a blessing  was also common in ancient letter writing. Paul raised it to a theological art form.  It was Paul's desire to be a blessing to them. Here's a good, short prayer to start the day ...
Read more

Affection and Encouragement

More affection from Paul - You hold me in your heart Philippians 7-8 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.  8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. How do you encourage and gently challenge those you love so much?  I often face this in preaching. I love our congregation so much! People are living loving, faith-filled lives. Yet our challenge, and the challenge of scripture and discipleship, is to keep growing, keep serving and keep loving. Look at how Paul does it: Philippians 9-11 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight  10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,  11 having produced the harvest of righteousness ...
Read more