Greetings!
Philippians 1:1-2
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all of God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with
the overseers and deacons; Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
When I was a senior in high school, I
received a strange letter in the mail. Those were the days when mail carriers
still brought something other than bills and circulars and announcements that
“you are pre-approved” for “our plan to drive you into deeper debt” and other
such junk mail.
The thing that made this letter
strange was that I recognized the writing on the envelope, but I couldn’t place
it. There was no return address, but the writing was so familiar that I just
knew I had seen it before.
I just wondered: Who is this letter
from?*
When we read Greco-Roman letters,
they make this matter a little easier; the writer identifies himself at the
outset of the letter. So we know that Paul and Timothy wrote it. Paul was
Timothy’s mentor and spiritual father, and Timothy was well known to the church
in Philippi. Scholars believe that Paul was the primary author, and Timothy was
most likely his secretary.
The most important part of the
salutation is what is and isn’t included. In most of Paul’s letters, he
includes his qualification as Apostle. However, we find none of that in his
letter to the Philippian church. Why not? Because he doesn’t need to include
it. You see, in many of Paul’s letters, he is writing to remedy some problem in
the church. But he is writing to encourage the church in Philippi during a
tough time. He doesn’t need to lean on his qualifications. Instead, he simply
notes that this letter comes from Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.
At this moment we find our first
issue. The word that our Bible has translated “servant” is the Greek word douloi. While the translation “servant”
is ok, it doesn’t carry the force of its true meaning. The Philippian church
would have always seen a doulos as a
slave. Here’s the difference: a servant is an employee. A servant has the
choice to work or not, and a servant gets paid a wage. But a slave is owned by and subservient to a master.
Does this make you a little bit
uncomfortable? It does me. We like to think of ourselves as complete free agents;
we are in charge of ourselves and we can do whatever we want. Here’s the thing:
if we want, that’s completely true. We can
do what we want. However, we talk about accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior
– we recognize the Savior part easily; Jesus saves us from our guilt and sin
and from the punishment of that sin. But when we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, we
are in effect, positioning ourselves as slaves.
Here’s the deal: we like to have
things our way. We like to have choices. We like to believe that we are
sovereign, that we are in control of our own lives. Some of us have realized
that this control is a mirage, that we really have much less control than we
would like to think, but most of the time, we live our lives catering to
ourselves. I’m not talking about non-Christians here – I am talking about us. I
hear all the time about what people do like and don’t like – without even a
thought as to whether God likes it or not.
And then it comes to evangelism. When
I say that word, some people start to get uncomfortable. Some of you just might
have the spiritual gift of evangelism. I know there are some of you with a
passion for evangelism; you are always telling someone the Good News about
Jesus. But there are others here who cringe when they hear the word, because
you know it means that you’re going to have to go way out of your comfort zone
and maybe you’ll get rejected, maybe you’ll get laughed at, maybe it will
affect a relationship with a friend or co-worker.
Hear me: a slave does not operate
within his or her comfort zone. A slave obeys his or her master. Period. And
this is what we are called to do and to be as Christians. Those who
automatically obey what God tells us. Sure, we can disobey, but we don’t. Because we, like Paul and Timothy, are
called to be slaves of Jesus Christ.
The other part of this slavery is
that a slave must rely on his master for everything. The question, then, is:
What kind of Master is Jesus? Understand as we go through Philippians that this
is the Master to whom every knee will bow and who every tongue will confess, to
the glory of God the Father. But we also know this Master as the One who we can
depend on in times of trouble. This is the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
This is the lover of our souls. He is also the One who went to the cross on our
behalf, serving us as no other.
This is the Master who gives everything to His subjects.
Paul and Timothy are writing this
letter as slaves to Jesus Christ, which indicates that they aren’t writing it
on their own. Indeed, as Jesus’ slaves, everything they do must be under the
authority of their Master, which includes any letter they write. In 2
Corinthians 5:20 and Ephesians 6:20, Paul refers to himself as “Christ’s
ambassador” which means he has been given the authority to speak on behalf of
Christ. So we should not simply read this as a letter from one early church
leader to a church; this is God’s voice speaking.
Before we go on, I want to
acknowledge that the spoken word is powerful. God spoke the world into
existence, and God, in creating humanity in His own image, gave us powerful
voices as well. As Christians, we, too, are called to be Christ’s slaves as
well as ambassadors, so when we speak, we speak on behalf of Christ Himself.
How are you using your words? Do your words build up or tear down? Do you
listen to the Holy Spirit directing you to speak to someone or even when not to
speak? You might be the encouragement someone needs today. You might be the
only one speaking Truth to someone you love. I have had experiences where
someone has been on my mind and I’ll call them or drop them a note or even an
e-mail, and they’ll later tell me that they were so discouraged that day and
the call or the note was exactly what they needed.
One more thing before we get to the
audience of Paul’s letter. As Christ’s slaves, understand that everything we say or do is under
scrutiny. We all live in a fishbowl. Know that you will stumble, but that our
Master is forgiving. But also know that when we misrepresent Him, we are, in
essence, taking God’s Name in vain. That commandment is not just about not
saying “God” as a swear word. It’s about misrepresenting Him in the world and
giving Him a bad name. So watch what you’re saying, out of respect for His
Name.
OK, now that we have that all
straight, let’s look the audience of this letter. Paul writes this: To all of God’s holy people in Christ Jesus
at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons;
I like that the NIV translates hagioi as “all of God’s holy people”
because it literally means “the holy ones.” Other more literal translations
render this: To all the saints in Christ
Jesus, who are in Philippi. Unfortunately, the term “saints” has so many
connotations that it is completely unhelpful here. When we think of “saints” we
mostly think of some outstanding Christians who are holier, more sanctified,
more virtuous, and who have maybe even done a miracle. They are the elite,
while we are just regular Christians. There is just one problem with this kind
of thinking: the Bible does not support it whatsoever.
There are not two classes of
Christians. There is no distinction of holiness between clergy and laity
either, for that matter. The Bible sees Christians as “God’s holy people”
period. God’s people are those who are set apart by the Holy Spirit for God’s
purpose in this world – to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world. So do you know any saints? They’re sitting around
you. Turn to a Christian around you and say, “Hi, saint.”
Much like Christ’s slaves, all of God’s holy people are called to
live out God’s character in the world.
Paul addresses all of God’s holy
people “together with” the overseers and deacons. I love the wording he uses;
there are some leaders who expect to rule a church with an iron fist: my way or
the highway. I know some of us have heard the sentiment: “the church has to
change and if the people won’t, then the pastor should just change things and
we can find new people.” This is not the kind of leadership that Paul is
calling for in Philippi. The Philippian Church is led by overseers who take a
servant leadership role and by deacons, whose title is a transliteration of the
Greek instead of a translation. Transliteration means they just took the Greek
word and made it into an English word – if we were to translate it, deacon
would be “servant.”
I actually see a lot of servant
leadership in this church. When the church council meets, I see people who are
actually working. I see many of the same people who are serving in the kitchen
for our lunches and dinners and many who work to set up before special events
and clean up afterward. I like the policy in our district that anyone working
for the district must have their own area of ministry, and I expect that of the
leaders in ministry here in the church.
The point is: in the church in
Philippi, leadership worked alongside the laity (which is just a fancy church
word meaning “the people”). They weren’t two separate classes or categories
requiring different letters from Paul. They were one.
So we now get to Paul’s greeting.
Now, I’m so familiar with Paul’s standard “grace and peace” that I was going to
go off-the-cuff to explain it to you, but I decided to do some research and I
found out something new (funny how that happens, isn’t it?!) Where Paul says , “grace”
he is taking a traditional Greek greeting, chairein
which means “to rejoice” but had come to mean “greetings” (kind of like “howdy”
is an abbreviation of “how do you do?” but nobody who says “howdy” expects an
answer), and he turns it into charis,
which means “grace.” Grace is the unmerited favor of God – meaning there is
nothing we can do to somehow deserve it. While our sin deserves death, God’s
grace gives us life, and life abundantly.
To this, Paul adds the traditional
Jewish “Shalom” which is so much more
than just “peace” – it is wholeness and healthiness and prosperity as well. So
instead of simply saying, “What’s up?” he greets the Philippian church with
grace and shalom.
Paul has this tendency to make
everything into a sermon, so even his greeting is one. He isn’t satisfied just
to greet the church with “grace and peace” but he needs to include in there the
fact that of where this grace and shalom
comes from. Grace and peace to you, from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, Paul and Timothy here have
the authority to bring greeting not only from themselves, but from God and
Jesus.
But even more, this greeting stands
as a reminder that grace and shalom
only come from one source. God is the giver of grace, and God is the only one
through whom shalom comes. God gives
wholeness. God is wholeness. It is
only through God that we can be who God made us to be.
Next week we will continue with
Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer. Your assignment for next week is to start
reading the book of Philippians. Try to read the whole book; it’s not all that
long and if you read one chapter per day, you can cover it in less just over
half the week. Then concentrate on chapter 1:3-11, where we will be next week.
*By the way, I had written the letter
to myself as a part of an assignment in 8th or 9th grade.
The teacher compiled them and held them until we were weeks away from graduation
and then mailed them out.
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