August 29, 2022

Philippians 1:1-11 (HCSB)
Greeting
1 Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, 4 always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, and you are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and establishment of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, 10 so that you can approve the things that are superior and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Mark Stephens
 In these first few verses of Philippians, you catch Paul’s mood but once you learn his circumstances you may scratch your head. He sincerely had a positive outlook toward his audience. In these first few verses of chapter 1, he distributed accolades to his ministry team –all of this from prison. We all know Paul ends up here more than once. Not because of a heinous crime but for being an obedient follower. It is difficult to think that one could be in a positive frame of mind in his situation. There was no mention of worry about his current condition. He was optimistic about the growth within the church plant. He was building them up even though his situation wasn’t so sunny. Joy is a common emotion in these opening verses. He prayed for their future in the church, for their success in ministry. What a guy! Let’s heed Paul’s examples and emulate his positive outlook. Find joy in your circumstances (no matter those circumstances), pray for your fellow believers, build up those around you, and help grow the church from wherever you are. Simple way to sum it up – Paul had “Joy, joy, joy, joy down in his heart, down in his heart to stay.”

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