Philippians: the letter of joy

About the book

Philippians is Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, a Roman colony and "the leading city of that district of Macedonia" (Acts 16:12), where he planted his first church in Europe. Lydia and her household were baptized there, and a jailer's household after Paul and Silas sang hymns at midnight in his prison (Acts 16:25).

The letter opens "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:1), and hardly anyone, then or now, has doubted that Paul wrote it; an early list of New Testament books counts it among his letters The Muratorian Fragment. Paul writes in chains, known "throughout the whole palace guard" (Philippians 1:13), and passes on greetings from those of Caesar's household (Philippians 4:22). So the church has traditionally placed the letter in Rome, in the two years of house arrest that close Acts (Acts 28:30), about AD 61–62. Some scholars, noting how often messengers went to and fro, place it in Ephesus in the mid-50s, or in Caesarea. Either way it belongs to the era the map under the Jesus tab calls the church (c. AD 30–90).

The church had supported Paul's work from the first (Philippians 4:15), and the occasion was another gift, sent by Epaphroditus: "a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice" (Philippians 4:18). He had fallen ill and nearly died; now he carries this letter home (Philippians 2:25).

How it unfolds

The tone changes so sharply at the start of chapter 3 that some scholars think two or three letters were joined; many others read it as one letter.

Key passages

Joy runs through the letter. Some preach Christ only to stir up trouble for the prisoner, yet "Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice" (Philippians 1:18). Living or dying, he wants only Christ:

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

This joy comes not from circumstances but from the Lord:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:4

Matthew Henry writes on this verse, "Joy in God is of great consequence in the Christian life; and Christians need to be again and again called to it" Matthew Henry.

In chapter 3 Paul sets aside his pedigree and his zeal for the law: "I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). His righteousness is not his own, "but that which is through faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9), and he presses on toward the goal. The well-loved "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13) is not a promise to achieve whatever we wish, but the secret Paul has learned, "to be content regardless of my circumstances" (Philippians 4:11).

The book and Christ

At the letter's heart is a passage on Christ's humbling and exaltation, written to a church where Euodia and Syntyche needed "to agree with each other in the Lord" (Philippians 4:2):

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

Many scholars think these lines were an early hymn. Therefore God exalted him, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:10). In Isaiah the LORD says of himself, "Every knee will bow before Me" (Isaiah 45:23), and Paul gives that honour, kept for God alone, to Jesus, "to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11). What ‘emptied Himself’ means is taken up in The incarnation, in the doctrine course.

The same Christ is the church's hope. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from there the Lord Jesus "will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21).

Reading it

Philippians takes less than twenty minutes. Read it at one sitting, then a chapter a day for four days. Read Acts 16 first: the man who sang in the prison at Philippi writes to them of joy from another prison.

On the second reading, mark joy and rejoice, one mind, and Christ. Begin with Philippians 1, then go on to Colossians, which Paul wrote in chains at about the same time.

Practice