Tag Archives: Paul and Timothy

PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER…HELLO – 1a

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“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all 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.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Have you noticed how much our protocols have changed over the last few years? I learned at school how to write a formal and an informal letter. There were rules and a structure to the way we addressed people…not only in our letters but also in our interaction with people…family, friends, strangers…in everyday life. Nowadays, for example, in American culture, I have noticed, that the most common way to greet is to say “Hey!”

Electronic messages have upgraded “snail mail”, often replacing the formal greeting “Dear So-and-so,” with “Hi!” I must confess…I prefer the more formal and polite way to start a letter, even if today, we use the shortened version. 

As with all Paul’s letters except for one, his letter to the Galatian church, Paul begins with a greeting and a prayer, which was the accepted way to write a letter in his day, it seems. 

Of course, as a believer in Jesus,  Paul’s greeting would have been God-centred. He was a messenger for the Lord, representing Him to the Roman world. So, Jesus was the core and focus of his entire existence.

What better way, then, to say “Hello” than to confer on Paul’s readers the highest, greatest, and richest of all God that could do for them, as a greeting and a prayer. 

Paul starts his missive by greeting his readers with the title that put them in the standing of who they really were in God’s sight…God’s holy people, and focusing on the one from whom all blessing and favour flow, putting his recipients into the mainstream of who God is… grace and peace. 

What is grace?

Let’s look at the summary of the meaning of grace that AI provides in Google. 

“In the Bible, grace means unmerited favor. It is God giving us His love, forgiveness, and blessings freely, even though humanity does not earn or deserve them. 

The Original Languages

To fully understand the meaning, we look at the original Bible languages:

  • Old Testament (Hebrew – Chen): Often translated as “favor” or “grace”. It denotes a gift of kindness given to someone who has no right to demand it. 
  • New Testament (Greek – Charis): Refers to kindness, goodwill, and unearned favor. It is where we get the idea of grace as a completely free gift from God. 

Key Aspects of Grace

  • Salvation: The Bible teaches that salvation is a gift. You cannot earn it through good deeds; it is entirely a result of God’s grace.
  • Empowerment: Grace is not just a free pass; it is also a transforming power. Biblical grace gives believers the strength to overcome sin and live a life that honors God.
  • The Person of Grace: In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is viewed as the ultimate embodiment and source of God’s grace. 

“Grace” is the atmosphere…the conduit…the pipeline… the motive…attitude…characteristic…God’s “bent”… from whom and through which He works, and provides the strength to be and to do for those who trust in Him. 

The word “grace” is sometimes accompanied by the word “freely” in Scripture. “Freely” means “without a cause”…for no reason at all except that gracious is who God is. 

His grace is the reason for, starts the process, and provides the means through which we receive all the blessings of His salvation. 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬ ‭

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us…”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Through grace, God gives us the power to overcome all the issues that trouble us on our journey through life. Paul found out…

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Grace takes over and provides God’s strength in place of our weakness, whatever the situation. 

Just Imagine…Paul’s prayer for his readers answered…every moment of every day…God’s people experiencing ever-increasing wholeness…all the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection restoring what sin has broken…flowing increasingly because of God’s grace…His undeserved favour…just because that’s who He is…

…and Peter echoes Paul’s prayer with a promise…

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To be continued

SLAVES OF CHRIST JESUS

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Philippians 1:1-2 NLT
[1] “This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and deacons. [2] May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”

Slaves of Christ! What an unusual but illuminating title Paul chose to introduce his letter to the people of the Philippian church. Why not “apostle” or some other title expressing his relationship to Jesus in keeping with his calling?

Perhaps Paul chose the title “slave” because of his situation, a prisoner chained to Roman guards. That’s the way slaves were treated if they fell out of favour with their masters. Imprisonment was the will of the master and the slave had no option but to accept incarceration as punishment for his misdemeanor.

However, Paul did not view his imprisonment as punishment but as privilege. He accepted his situation with gratitude because it was in keeping with what his Master had done for him.

There was no word of complaint against his Master for allowing such treatment, or resentment against the Roman government for finding him guilty of an illegitimate charge. How could he be guilty of and punishable by imprisonment for bowing to Jesus as Lord and giving himself in loyalty to Him, and not to Caesar? Yet, Paul accepted his lot without complaint and used it for the sake of the kingdom. Slave or free was all alike to him as long as he had breath in his lungs to tell the story of Jesus, in prison or in freedom.

It seems that Paul bore the title, “slave” with pride. In his letter to the Colossians, he viewed his suffering, especially at the hands of his persecutors, both Roman and Jew, as a calling and a necessary part of his life. His suffering was specifically a demonstration of what Jesus suffered, rejection and its consequences, by the entire human race represented by Jew and Gentile.

Colossians 1:24-25 NLT
[24] “I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. [25] God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.”

And that included suffering for His sake.

Since…

Isaiah 53:3 NLT
[3]”He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”

Why not accept the same lot as He did? After all, it was for the sake of unity with His people that He suffered.

Although Paul viewed himself as a slave of Christ, even his “office” as a slave equipped him to exercise his commission and the apostolic authority that entrusted him with the message of Jesus.

Like slaves under the Old Covenant who chose loyalty to their master above freedom, and whose ears were pierced as a sign of their permanent slavery, Paul was forever Jesus’ slave by choice. Nothing would ever induce him to choose freedom from in favour of freedom in Christ Jesus. Paul, in Christ, was pierced as Jesus was pierced, to secure his belongingness to Him forever.

Paul included his young “son”, Timothy, in this attitude of slavery to Jesus. Timothy may not have been a prisoner in a Roman jail, but he was also a prisoner of Jesus like his mentor, Paul.

In keeping with Paul’s theme of “partnership” in this letter, it was his bond with Jesus as a slave to a master with no rights or will of his own, that underpinned his humility. He knew how much he depended on his partnership with his fellow believers to help him accomplish his mission. Without embarrassment or shame, Paul called on them for help, binding himself to them in a strong team of togetherness for the sake of God’s kingdom and glory.

So, in fellowship with their Master, Paul and Timothy heartily greeted their readers, with prayers for grace and peace.

“Grace and peace”… for what is Paul praying? Grace…the reason for this amazing salvation, peace… the outcome of faith in this message. God’s grace is His overriding attitude towards us. Yes, He hates our sin. Yes, He judges and condemns sinners. Yes, hell is the penalty for sin but…grace intervened, undeserved, unmerited favour because of who He is.

Paul addressed his readers as “holy people”, another shocking title! Were these not pagans a short while before, indulging in all the pagan foolishness of their godless society? How could Paul address them as “holy”?

This is the miracle of the gospel Paul was under obligation to share with the pagan world. Faith in the Jesus who died for the sin of the the world changed everything. The sinful past of those who believed in Him was obliterated and exchanged for a new life, a new destiny, and a new standing before God. They were now forgiven, clean, declared righteous, and made holy by His shed blood.

Did you get that?

In response to faith in the Son of God, God does the same for everyone. He forgives and forgets their sin, brings them back from spiritual death to spiritual life, cleanses them from their filthy past, declares them not guilty of all the sin they ever committed, attributes Jesus’ righteousness to them, and makes them holy, turning them from sin to God.

So, you see, faith in Jesus triggers a burst of action, God doing amazing things to put us back into fellowship with Himself.

Paul encapsulates all these details in his short address, greeting, and prayer for his readers.

A CHURCH IS BORN

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A CHURCH IS BORN

“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s 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.”  Philippians 1:1.

Today we embark on a journey through another of Paul’s letters, this time one with a completely different tone and motive from his letter to the Galatians. The people of the Galatian church had been influenced by the Judaizers to believe that they needed to become Jews by adhering to all the Jewish laws and customs before they could become followers of Jesus. Paul had to write a very strong letter to them straighten up their understanding of the gospel.

His letter to the Philippian church, by contrast, was a happy one, prompted by deep love for the people in Philippi who were the first on European soil to believe in Jesus.  They had been generous to Paul, sending him financial help on more than occasion. He wrote to thank them and to encourage them in their faith despite the odds stacked against them in the Roman Empire. Paul himself was a prisoner in Rome at that moment, having been sent from Jerusalem for trial before Caesar.

How did this church begin? Paul was evangelising in Asia Minor on his second missionary journey when he had a vision. He was in Troas, having been prevented from travelling north by the Holy Spirit. In his vision he saw a man from Macedonia, a province in Greece, calling him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Assuming that it was God’s Spirit speaking to him, he responded immediately and set sail into a new region.

His first convert in Macedonia was a wealthy Greek woman, Lydia, who lived in Philippi. She and some other women who believed in God, met regularly for prayer beside a river outside the city. On their arrival in Philippi, Paul and his travelling companion, Silas, joined them and Paul used the opportunity to tell them about Jesus. Lydia’s heart was moved by the Holy Spirit. She believed in Jesus and was baptised. She offered her home to the travellers and they remained with her during their stay in Philippi.

Philippi was also the place of unexpected miracles. Paul and Silas were detained for releasing a slave girl from bondage to a demon. The resultant uproar stirred up by the slave girl’s owners, who had just lost their source of income because Paul had evicted the demon who used the girl to tell fortunes, landed Paul and Silas in the city jail, fastened in the stocks and brutally mutilated by a whipping.

In their pain and discomfort, Paul and Silas could not sleep. Instead of complaining about the injustice they were suffering, they began to sing. An unexpected earthquake rocked the prison, burst open the doors and set all the prisoners free. The outcome was another miracle. The jailer took the two men home, washed and cleaned them up, treated their wounds, fed them and listened with astonishment to the gospel. He and his whole family believed and were baptised there and then, adding another whole family to the infant church in Europe.

They were released from prison the next morning, and escorted from jail by the very magistrates who had sentenced them, having been informed by Paul that they had mistreated Roman citizens. Thus began the strong relationship that Paul had with the church in Philippi. Lydia’s house became the centre of the fellowship there.

In his letter to the Philippian church, Paul gives us a small insight into the leadership of the church. He mentions overseers (elders) and deacons. These were not so much offices as functions. There seems to have been a plurality of elders – a wise safeguard against dictatorship which can so easily creep into the church. There was also a group of people who served, called deacons. We can glean the function of a deacon from Acts 6 where men were chosen to serve food to the widows in the church in Jerusalem.

There was no pomp and ceremony in the early church. Everyone was equal, even those who led and those who served. Their leaders were servant-leaders, carrying a great responsibility to ensure that the people were guided by the word of God and were walking in the truth. According to Peter, the role of the elders was to give themselves to the study of the word and to prayer ( Acts 6:4). It was their task to understand and interpret Jesus’ yoke according to His disposition and to bind it on the people, loosing them from every other yoke that brought them into, or kept them in bondage.

How far the church in many quarters has wandered from its original pattern. It is up to us to return to the simplicity of Jesus’ call, “Come, follow me!” and “Remain in me.”

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.