Philippians - Lesson 5

I. Opening Thanksgiving (vv. 3–11)

In this fifth lesson on our study of Philippians, we are going to dive into the opening thanksgiving of this letter. Paul will often—not always, but often—start his letters with a thanksgiving, and there's probably a lesson in that for all of us. The gratitude that Paul has for his fellow believers, for those in his congregations, really comes off the page at us.

Now there are those, in case you're wondering, what are those letters that don't get a thanksgiving? Well, Galatians immediately comes to mind. He has some strong worries about where they're heading. And so he jumps right into the address that demonstrates his concern.

But here in Philippians, well, you can see he thanks his God. That's what our text says here in verse 3, "I thank my God every time I remember you." Although actually, we're going to talk a little bit about the Greek underneath that translation, but you get the sense there's joy really from the very beginning in this letter. The thanksgiving itself, and we'll go from verse 3 to verse 11—I encourage you to have your Bible open as I'm going through this so you can follow along—but the thanksgiving overall, these are some of the key ideas.

II. Key Theological Themes

First, that there is unity within the Philippian church. Paul will also mention the doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ. It's a doctrine that the church has held pretty much from the very beginning. We call it the second coming or parousia, the appearing of the Lord Jesus.

A third topic that we'll find in this passage is partnership—the mention of partnership between Paul and the Philippians. We also find a stress on the importance of discipleship. And then finally, joy. Joy is every believer's birthright. And joy is going to permeate this letter, including here in the thanksgiving.

III. Grammatical & Cultural Nuances

So let's start with that opening phrase, "I thank my God" in the translation here. "I thank my God every time I remember you." Now that in Greek, it's a perfectly excellent translation. The emphasis in that translation is on the temporal—Paul, as he's praying for them, remembers them. But it is also possible that what Paul is saying is, "I thank my God when the Philippians remember me."

So let me talk a little bit about this option. So in this case, what Paul would be saying is Paul would be thanking the Philippians for their financial gift. Thus, he is thanking the Philippians at the very beginning of the letter, something that is a discussion among scholars—is Paul waiting till the end of the letter to thank them? Well, an argument can be made that actually he thanks them in his very first sentence.

Paul thanks them for their partnership, and that you see in verses 5 and 7 in our passage. They were staking their public honor with Paul. They were proud to preach the gospel in Philippi. So is Paul thanking them every time he remembers them? Or is Paul thanking them because they are remembering Paul? It really depends on how you interpret prepositions and the genitive endings. And actually, from a grammatical standpoint, either translation works using the normal grammar rules. You can go either way.

I lean towards the second reading, that Paul is thanking the Philippians for their remembering of Paul. And I say that because of the importance of someone receiving a gift thanking the person that gave them the gift. That was such an important cultural norm in Paul's day. And not just in the Gentile world, but in the Jewish world, everyone felt it was so important to be thankful for a gift that you received. It would almost seem ungracious of Paul not to mention that.

So this way of understanding the text, which also is consistent with the grammar rules, you kind of have both. You follow the grammar rules and Paul is also following the wider social customs that, of course, fit with God's own expectations of living in community, that we're grateful for each other. So he's mindful. Paul is saying, you know, he's mindful of their gifts. He's overflowing with thankfulness to them.

IV. Gospel Partnership (Koinonia)

Paul will say that he's thankful that they have a partnership, a koinonia. This term, which we find, as we read along, in verse 5, "you have a partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." So this idea of partnership, of close fellowship, we actually find Paul using the term koinonia, or that term, in verse 5, and then repeating the term but adding a prefix in verse 7, where he is thanking them again and saying, you know, it's right for me to feel this way because we have this partnership.

So what is this partnership that Paul is referring to? It is possible that, especially in verse 5, Paul is speaking about their salvation, that he's thankful that they accepted the gospel message that he presented. Of course, Paul would be very thankful that anyone accepts the truth, right, that Christ died for their sins. I mean, that thrills Paul's heart, but more likely, that's kind of a given and Paul is thinking gospel here in this active sense of preaching the message that they have shared in this partnership—the partnership of spreading the gospel message.

The Philippians have publicly declared they're on Paul's team. They put their money where their mouth is, if you will. They give of their resources to help Paul's ministry. We'll find out later in this chapter, at the end of this chapter, it appears that they also are preaching the gospel to their neighbors. They're praying for Paul, and in praying for Paul, they are declaring that they agree with his message. They want to honor him. They're, as I said, they're on his team.

When they do this, when they are praying for Paul, Paul would imagine them in a group, their weekly meeting, and they're praying for Paul. What we have to remember is that these meetings are not held in some private, closed-off space—at least in Corinth they're not. These are meetings that are open for visitors to come, for interested Gentiles, God-fearers, and Jews to come and listen. So if that is the case here in Philippi, then their public acknowledgment of Paul, praying for Paul, is a declaration that the guy whom the town council initially imprisoned and then released—there's probably some hard feelings still there among some in Philippi—that guy, that's the guy that they are supporting.

And so we have another phrase: the Philippians had skin in the game, right? This was not virtue signaling for them. They were truly in partnership with Paul. And it wasn't just a partnership that, you know, was a single burst of passion. They regularly, consistently, steadfastly supported Paul.

There is an enthusiasm that was there at the beginning and continued on through until now. What an encouragement for Paul, right? To know that there's a steadfastness, even when—and we'll find this out in chapter 4—they haven't always been able to make that known. It seems as though their own financial resources ebbed and flowed, certainly a situation many of us can relate to. But in the midst of all of that, their faithfulness, it's their faithfulness that Paul is testifying to, that God's grace in their life, it was a consistent drumbeat in their community that they were in partnership with Paul. How they showed it depended on circumstances, but it was always there.

And it is, we'll talk about this a little bit more in depth as we go, but supporting someone who's in prison, accused of a capital offense, that can make your neighbors and members of your family who are not believers, it can really make them question you. They might pull back. So Paul recognized there's a lot at stake for them and their social honor.

Let me give you an example of how things might have played out. Let's say you're a baker in Philippi. Most of the time you'd have regular customers. We have this today in towns—you go to your favorite dry cleaner, your favorite bakery, your favorite butcher. And if that store suddenly changed its position on something that you felt very strongly about, chances are you might take your business elsewhere. Well, that certainly was the attitude in the Roman world.

So you're a baker, you're making loaves of bread each day, and people come by to buy this. And then they hear that you follow Christ, whoever that figure is. And the person preaching that is Paul—who, "Wasn't he the guy whom the council arrested? Wasn't there a real uproar? Wasn't that guy really, maybe he's a magician, right? Because there was an earthquake that ruined our jail. What is this guy?" And you start having these rumors and these ideas, and they're not all flattering to Paul. And he seems like, you know, kind of a rabble-rouser, maybe. I don't know. And now you say you're on his team. You know, I can just go next door and buy my bread there.

And I'm not just making up this as a scenario. There's solid research that's been done about how cultures in the 1st century, in these towns, how they operated, and the real fear—that it was a legitimate fear—that Christian businessmen and women would lose their clients, would lose their business, as they sided with Christ. That meant they were leaving their former pagan practices. So you can see why Paul is so grateful for the continuing fellowship partnership.

V. Good Work & Completion

And so Paul says, "This is not forgotten or unseen by God. God is doing a good work in you that is going to continue until the day of Christ," meaning Jesus' return. And this good work, of course, is not in any way related to how a Philippian or anyone is saved. This good work is predicated on this free gift of salvation, the renunciation of one's old self, the taking on of the new self, Christ. So sin's defeated. It's already defeated in Christ's death and resurrection.

But the Philippians are, because they participate in Christ, they are still participating then in the work of God, in spreading the gospel message—forgiveness offered to enemies, serving the church, suffering as Christ suffered or in the same vein as Christ suffered. And so this work—and this is important because we're going to pick this up again in chapter 2, "continue to work out your salvation"—that can be a scary verse if it's not understood in the proper context.

Their salvation is sure in Christ, but their walk with—when they enter into salvation, they become in Christ, a member of God's family. Remember, Paul started this letter referencing God, our Father, right? So we're now part of this family. And how do we act as family members? Well, we do the good work. Paul will say to the Ephesians, "God has prepared in advance good work for you to walk in." This is in chapter 2, verse 10 of Ephesians. Here, Paul is saying something very similar, that this good work that is going on, this participation, this partnership with me in this ministry is continuing and it will continue to completion. God will complete this.

The idea of completion here is related to the term that means perfect. Think of Matthew chapter 5:48, "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." And that's a fair translation if you understand what perfect meant at that time. And it doesn't mean getting a 100% on an exam. Perfect here means that you are living into what you were designed to be.

Let me give you an example of that. When I flick the switch and the light bulb goes on, I can say that light bulb is perfect because it is doing exactly what a light bulb is supposed to do. So this perfect or completion, moving to maturity, this is what Paul is praising them for. This is a call for believers to be fully invested in the work of God in their neighborhood and, by extension, the world in the specific tasks that God has called them to do, that God's prepared for them to do. And in that, then they are complete. They are perfect in that sense.

VI. Intersecting Love & Knowledge

So Paul then prays, and he shifts to pray that they, as you can see here, that their love would abound, would grow. And the love is related to knowledge—knowledge and depth of insight so that you can discern what is good, what is pure. I think it's interesting that Paul connects love and knowledge. I don't think today we do that very much. I tend to think of knowledge as kind of analytical, just the facts. But Paul isn't contrasting here or saying in any way that love is simply emotion and knowledge is simply facts. This is a love that is based on reality. This knowledge is a knowledge in reality. And love is certainly not an emotion. God is love. And we see the love of God in Christ's incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and promise to return.

I think what Paul is getting at here, he says in a similar way to the Romans in chapter 12, to the Roman church, he says, "don't be conformed to the pattern of this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That's, I think, what Paul is getting at here when he connects love and knowledge. It's seeing the world in a new way and then living in that world based on this new way of seeing the world.

When we think about knowledge without love, it's like facts without a narrative. The absence of love when you have knowledge can lead to great horrors. And the 20th century certainly has many examples of that. We cannot, as believers, separate knowing from acting in love. Paul will say to the Ephesians, "speaking truth in love" in chapter 4 of Ephesians—truth and love together, knowledge and love together. This is a theme throughout Paul.

The emphasis, and if I could draw here from the book of John, the emphasis of love and knowledge together, I think is conjured by Jesus' beautiful image of being the vine. He says, "I am the vine, you're the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you'll bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." So both Jesus here in John and then Paul here in Philippians are encouraging this rootedness in love, God's gospel message. And then from that, these good works that are continuing to be deepened and are informed knowledge by God's full salvation plan that includes forgiveness of sin and reaching out with the gospel to others.

One more point on knowledge that I find just interesting and I don't really know where to go with it, but I'll mention it to you. The term that Paul uses for knowledge has a prefix on it. So it emphasizes knowledge; profound wisdom is what Paul is getting at here. And it's only in the four, what we call the four prison epistles—that's Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians, those four letters Paul writes from prison—it's only in those that Paul uses this term in his thanksgiving. But I don't know necessarily why that would be the case, but I can imagine in the intensity of Paul's imprisonment to want both a profound wisdom and a deep love. I can see where Paul, in experiencing that himself, would then encourage that in his congregations.

VII. Living Pure & Blameless

And Paul says that he wants and desires for the Philippians to be pure and blameless as they await the day of Christ. The term pure here carries the sense of sincerity. The idea is that the person is transparent, we might say. This kind of purity that Paul is talking about is the opposite of someone who's patronizing or, you know, paternalistic—you know, the kind of meddling that someone sometimes does that masquerades as kindness. That's not this term. This term is talking about a sincerity. That's how he wants the Philippians to live, in this sincere manner, and to be blameless.

Now, "blameless" here is not sinless. He is not expecting a congregation where no one sins. Blameless here means having a clear conscience. So, for example, in Acts 24:16, Paul declares, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and all people," using the same language, "blameless." He'll enjoin the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10:32. He tells them, "Watch your own behavior so that no one is offended or led into sin." You can see blameless here is not about sort of navel-gazing yourself to see, you know, if I sinned or not. It's actually outward-looking. And you're thinking, "How do I represent myself in public? Is my conscience clear? Have I done my best? Have I apologized when I needed to? Have I seen someone in need and proactively helped?" That's this blamelessness that Paul is talking about here.

And he says this is coming to fruition on the day of Christ. So this day of Christ is a theme that we find throughout Paul's letters—this second coming of Jesus, the culmination of this present age, which will be culminated in victory as Christ establishes the full reign of his goodness and love and the complete defeat of evil. I mean, evil has been defeated, but we still see the last gasps of evil in our lives. Now that will be—those gasps will be silenced on the day of Christ. And so Paul is concentrating here on believers being prepared for that day.

He wants them to have completed their course. He can kind of imagine the—the participation of believers being in Christ as a journey, as a walk. He'll sometimes use that, a verb in Greek that means to walk or to live out. And sometimes our English translations will say to live out. But the Greek has a little bit more action in it. Paul gets that from the Old Testament way of thinking about being in fellowship with others who are part of the people of God. They're on a journey towards greater holiness until the Lord returns.

VIII. Organic Fruit & True Joy

So this—the result of their growing sincerity, purity, blamelessness is that they'll produce fruit, this fruit that, again, another beautiful word picture of how their actions will bless others. Their fruit, their harvest, it all comes through Christ. None of this is generated under their own efforts. But there is an expectation that goodness will result. A ripe apple, a fresh peach—the fruit will come because the tree is healthy. The fruit grows and the tree is healthy because the Philippians have made right and good decisions, right? Submitting to God's will, allowing God's love to flow, renewing their minds, thus their character and their deeds that reflect the joy and the hope of Christ.

What I'm trying to present here is an organic result. These good works, this fruit, it's an organic result of living in the love of God, being in Christ, and then making these wise choices to step into where you see God working and being part of that ministry. In no way is Paul saying that you have to produce a whole bushel of apples before you're saved. It's not that. It's not that at all. These works are the organic outflow of Christ in you.

I should mention that there's thankfulness throughout this whole passage, but I want to qualify something. Paul does not say that he is thankful for every specific event. He's not thankful for every attitude that's been tossed to him as he sits there in prison. He recognizes—Paul sees things with clear eyes. He recognizes that there is evil and sin still in the world and that can affect him. So he's not thankful for that, but he is thankful that nothing in this world can nullify God's grace. Nothing can prevent God from succeeding in God's purpose, including God's purpose in Paul's life.

Now that gives us a freedom then to be thankful, but to be honest in our thankfulness. Sometimes we face incredibly difficult situations that can create great pain for us and for those we love. God's not asking us here—Paul's not saying be thankful for that. No, be thankful that nothing in the world can nullify God's grace. And in that hope, then you can begin to see how God is being good even in the midst of the difficulties. And those are—that's why Paul prays. It's not something that comes natural to us. We need God's view on this.

Paul is somehow joyful in his chains. That is hard for me to wrap my mind around because I like to get out and do stuff. And I know Paul from his own words seems to like that as well. So now here he is, not able to do that, not able to move around, under house arrest, chained to a Roman soldier. But Paul is somehow joyful. I think it's because Paul understands joy as something deeper than personal enrichment, personal satisfaction, prosperity, even health. The joy is rooted in the belief of our eternal life in a raised and glorified body in the new heavens and the new earth. I'm anticipating the end of chapter 3 here. But Paul's thinking of this now as he's talking about joyful.

I want to state that because I think at times Christians are reluctant to grieve or they paper over real heartache. That's not what Paul is doing here. He's not encouraging us to do that. We'll see this as well in his reaction to Epaphroditus, the end of chapter 2. But Paul begins with God, not with ourselves. He begins with God. He knows that God has good work for us and he knows that God will transform us through Christ and in Christ, perfectly fit us for life in the new heavens and the new earth. And that allows Paul to be thankful.