Reflections on the Epistle of Joy: Saint Paul's Letter to the Philippians

Reflections on the Epistle of Joy: Saint Paul's Letter to the Philippians

Philippi, in northeastern Greece, was a city of some importance in the Roman province of Macedonia. Lying on the great road from the Adriatic coast to Byzantium, the Via Egnatia, and in the midst of rich agricultural plains near the gold deposits of Mt. Pangaeus, it was in Paul’s day a Roman town (Acts 16:21), with a Greek-Macedonian population and a small group of Jews (see Acts 16:13). …Paul, according to Acts (Acts 16:9–40), established at Philippi the first Christian community in Europe. He came to Philippi, via its harbor town of Neapolis (modern Kavalla), on his second missionary journey, probably in A.D. 49 or 50, accompanied by Silas and Timothy (Acts 15:40; 16:3; cf. Phil 1:1) and Luke, if he is to be included in the “we” references of Acts 16:10–17. … 

Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi was written while he was in a prison somewhere (Phil 1:7, 13, 14, 17), indeed in danger of death (Phil 1:20–23). Although under guard for preaching Christ, Paul rejoices at the continuing progress of the gospel (Phil 1:12–26) and expresses gratitude for the Philippians’ renewed concern and help in an expression of thanks most clearly found at Phil 4:10–20. Much of the letter is devoted to instruction about unity and humility within the Christian community at Philippi (Phil 1:27–2:18) and exhortations to growth, joy, and peace in their life together (Phil 4:1–9).... 

This beautiful letter is rich in insights into Paul’s theology and his apostolic love and concern for the gospel and his converts. In Philippians, Paul reveals his human sensitivity and tenderness, his enthusiasm for Christ as the key to life and death (Phil 1:21), and his deep feeling for those in Christ who dwell in Philippi. With them he shares his hopes and convictions, his anxieties and fears, revealing the total confidence in Christ that constitutes faith (Phil 3:8–10). The letter incorporates a hymn about the salvation that God has brought about through Christ (Phil 2:6–11), applied by Paul to the relations of Christians with one another (Phil 2:1–5). Philippians has been termed “the letter of joy” (Phil 4:4, 10). It is the rejoicing of faith, based on true understanding of Christ’s unique role in the salvation of all who profess his lordship (Phil 2:11; 3:8–12, 14, 20–21).

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

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Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the holy ones in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the overseers and ministers: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right that I should think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, you who are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, brothers, that my situation has turned out rather to advance the gospel, so that my imprisonment has become well known in Christ throughout the whole praetorium and to all the rest. - Philippians 1:1-13

 
If Paul’s Letter to the Romans is his epistle of theology, then Philippians is his letter of joy. Paul tells them he is a slave for Christ, not just an apostle, or disciple, but one who now fully realizes the price he must pay in suffering, as he too is conformed to the Cross of Christ. This is given real form in the fact that he writes to them while in prison, in chains, for preaching the Gospel of Christ.

 
Yet, he is encouraged by their faith, and he assures them that the good work begun in them will come to its fulfillment. He tell them how much he wishes he could be with them – like all good pastors he finds joy in the people who have been entrusted to him.

Paul has fought long and hard battles for the Phillippians and for all those to whom he has been called to preach the Gospel, and build the foundations of the Church. He has had to fight pagan Gentiles, Jews, Roman authorities, Jewish Christians who wished to impose the regulations of the Mosaic Law upon Gentile Christians, and unseen powers wishing to overcome his ministry. With the Phillippians he is allowed to see and feel in his heart that his suffering has not been in vain, that indeed the Gospel has taken root, and is changing hearts, minds, and souls.

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But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself. - Philippians 3:20-21

 
“…our citizenship is in heaven,…”. How often have you heard someone say something similar to the following; “this is the only life I know,” or “I live a good life, so if there is a heaven I should be there someday.”  Responses such as these exhibit a life grounded in citizenship here, as obviously short-termed as it might be, and/or an attitude that “good works” with out faith is enough to enter heaven.  What is missing? “ ...we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.”

 
Scripture teaches us that faith without works is dead, and works without faith is empty, for we cannot save ourselves.  Our citizenship in heaven is in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus in the power of the Father’s Holy Spirit defeated death and transforms our life, our existence, giving us citizenship in the Kingdom of his Father.  

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 [But] whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. - Philippians 3:7-11

This powerful proclamation from Saint Paul shows the continual importance and influence of that event on the road to Damascus upon his life, when he encountered the Risen Lord Jesus.  The Lord whose Body, the Church he had persecuted because he felt he had known all truth by following the Law of Moses and that the followers of The Way (as early Christians were called) were wrong in their faith.  

On the road to Damascus Paul discovered that righteousness was not of his own doing by following the Law but “through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God,…”.  That by faith he would be conformed to his death and share in his resurrection.  

 
Even though most of us were baptized as infants; this does not mean we cannot have our own road to Damascus experience. Possibly, even more than once in our lives, where our heart and mind, soul and spirit is redirected too Christ and we discover a deeper yearning for his truth, his salvation, and we become more willing to give our lives for his service. 

 
At the end of our lives, the only thing we take with us is our lives; may they be rooted in Christ!

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For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.  If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer.  I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.  Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.

Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing.  For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well—since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. - Philippians 1:21-30

 
These beautiful words of the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saint Paul of Tarsus, to the Church at Philippi and to all Christians until the end of time; reminds us that for us while we are here that "living is Christ” and therefore, a “life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” What is the life like?  Saint Paul instructs us:

 
(1) It is ecclesial, that is lived out as member of Christ’s Body, the Church: "standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.” (2) It is lives without fear or shame: "no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation.” (3) It is Christ-like: "For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.” 

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...but emptied (?κ?νωσεν) himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. - Philippians 2:7

 
Because of Christ’s self-surrender to God the Father in his sacrifice and death on the Cross, divine love unceasingly flows into creation and fills it wholly. … Love always involves hope and faith, and faith and hope lead to love. Humankind is called to love God because through the Incarnation God shows his love towards people in the highest degree as the One who loved  them first. - The Theology of Kenosis of Fr Dumitru Staniloae, by Ciprian Burca in SOBORNOST 41:2

 
The Divine Emptying (?κ?νωσεν/ekenosen) in the biblical Greek.  Kenosis or emptying refers to the fact that the Son of God became flesh, he emptied his divinity into our humanity and took the form of a slave, a slave to the will and sinfulness of human beings. He took upon himself our shame of sin and nailed it to the Cross, destroying death and opening for us the path to eternal life in the Kingdom of the Father.  

As Scripture says, “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” - John 15:13.  Whenever you feel unsure, alone, perplexed; take time and look at the Holy Cross, contemplate the depth of God’s love for you that is revealed in the Holy Cross and know that all is well.  The Victory has been won by he who knew no sin and yet took our sins to the Cross of death and transformed it into the Cross of Life, and life in it fulness.

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Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,

Who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.

 
    Rather, he emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    coming in human likeness;
    and found human in appearance,

    he humbled himself,
        becoming obedient to death,
        even death on a cross.

 
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
    and bestowed on him the name
    that is above every name,

    that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

    and every tongue confess that
    Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. - Philippians 2:5-11

 
When we see that our Lord Jesus “emptied himself,” and “humbled himself,” in obedience to the Father, accepting “even death on a cross.”  That this became the cause of his exaltation: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 
As the Lord who is the glory of the Father; Jesus is for us our Light and our Salvation. For our confession of faith in God, is not to a cerebral philosophical God, or a distant ruling all-powerful God, but to the God of love, who showed us the depth of love, in the self-donation of Jesus upon the cross, which becomes the great the Light of the world.  

 
We see God in Christ, we experience the healing presence of God in Christ, we are forgiven in Christ, we are given new life in Christ. On this Saturday he brings light to those living in the darkness of Sheol/Hades, and gives light to our darkened eyes here on earth, so that we can see (with faith) that we have a Savior and Lord.

 
Today the Light of Christ has overcome and scattered the darkness of sin and death, for those who died before his coming in the flesh and for us, a people in darkness, who now see a great Light.  

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So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.  Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.  But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.  In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.

 
I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be heartened by hearing news of you. - Philippians 2:12-19

Saint Paul had great affection for the Church at Philippi.  They had followed his teachings and took to heart his words to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” 

 
These words resonate in us during this season of Great Lent; to approach our faith and the life we live that flows from it in a joyful and serious manner.  Joy and seriousness are not counter emotions in the life of a Christian.  Joy comes from the steadfast faith we have in the love of God poured out upon us.  Seriousness comes also from our steadfast faith, that by sharing in the Cross of Jesus, we also share in the Kingdom of peace, prepared for us by the Father.  

 
The mystery of salvation is life through death, where death cannot hold us because of the victory of Christ, and death therefore becomes a passage from mortality to immortality in the power of the Holy Spirit.   

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 [But] whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ.  More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

 
It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus].- Philippians 3:7-12

This powerful confession of faith and life of Saint Paul, shows how grace can transform a life.  He has come to realize since his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus many years before, that salvation and the fulness of life with God is not dependent on the works of the law, but on faith in Jesus Christ.  

 
So much so had Saint Paul given his life over to Christ, that he could say: “…I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ…”  We know what torture, pain, and imprisonment he suffered in bringing the knowledge of Christ to the Gentiles.  He knew that eventually he would wear the martyrs crown; but nothing could deter him in his ministry of sharing Christ, for by the “sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”  

 
We should remember that the Philippians were a community that Saint Paul greatly prized for the way in which they had given up their pagan religions and embraced the faith of Christ. So he shares with them these deepest convictions of his own faith.  Although, he has not reached perfect maturity, which is possibly an illusion to his martyrdom, which will be perfect maturity; he tells them “I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus],” as he hopes they will and we will also.

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So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. - Philippians 2:12

 
This sentence from Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, has its roots in the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament:

 
terror and dread fell upon them.

By the might of your arm they became silent like stone,

while your people, Lord, passed over,

while the people whom you created passed over - Exodus 15:16

 
Fear and dread of him fell upon all the inhabitants of the coastland, upon those in Sidon and Tyre, and those who dwelt in Sur and Ocina, and the inhabitants of Jamnia. Those in Azotus and Ascalon also feared him greatly. - Judith 2:28

Serve the Lord with fear;

    exult with trembling,

Accept correction

    lest he become angry and you perish along the way

    when his anger suddenly blazes up.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him! - Psalm 2:11

 
On that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them. - Isaiah 19:16

 
Paul is encouraging his beloved faithful at Philippi to remain serious and committed to their pilgrimage of faith in Christ.  He knows from his own experiences that it is not always easy to stand up and be counted as a committed follower of Christ, that it involves sacrifice of self and the pain of being ostracized for being one who rows against the tide of the world.  

 
May we remain faithful to our calling and “work out (our) salvation with fear and trembling.”

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Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: - Philippians 1:1

 
For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain; - Titus 1:7

 
We see from the very beginnings of Christianity, as reflected in the New Testament, the existence of the ministry of bishop.  The bishop (in Greek, “episcopos” - sing. and “episcopoi” - pl.) were installed as “overseer” of each new Christian community founded by the apostles.  While often referred to as the “successors of the apostles,” the Jesuit theologian Gerald O’Collins, has coined a possibly more accurate term, “successors to the apostles,” thereby preserving the unique calling of the apostles through their direct encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus.  

 
In the First Letter of Timothy we see the New Testament requirements for a bishop: “Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher,” (1 Timothy 3:2).  We can deduce from this passage that the apostles, looked for not only one who had leadership qualities, but also a man who had the respect of his fellow believers for his steadiness, maturity, and compassion.  As Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian readers of this passage we may be surprised to see that bishops could be married, at least once, in the biblical era of the Church.  While the law of celibacy entered the Latin Church for all in major orders in the year 1139A.D., the celibate episcopacy has its roots (not uniformly) in various parts of Christianity from the earliest centuries.  Today among the Ancient Churches only the Assyrian Orthodox Church of the East allows for bishops to be married.  

 
The ministry of the bishop in the early church was intimately tied to the eucharist.  The eucharist was the sacrament that, “made the church,” and all her other sacraments and all her ministries flowed from the eucharistic liturgy.  St. Ignatius of Antioch writes in his Letter to the Philadelphians, “For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of his blood; one altar, as there is one bishop.”  St. Ignatius sees the bishop as the one who guarantees the unity, the truth, and the catholicity of the Church.  We see in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans, “Let that be deemed a proper eucharist which is administered either by the bishop or by one to whom he has entrusted it”.

In the third century, a century after St. Ignatius, we find in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, that the bishop was ordained to “shepherd the flock” and “to offer Thee [God] the gifts of the Thy Holy Church”.  In the same vein the Syriac writing usually referred to by its Latin title Didascalia Apostolorum, states “that the eucharist is offered only through the bishop who for this reason occupies ‘the place of God’ in the church”.(see, Eucharist, Bishop, Church by John Zizioulas, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001)

 
In the New Testament the word for church, “ekklesia” is used close to eighty times and fifty-seven of those times it refers to a specific concrete “gathering”.  The experience and understanding of the church for early Christians was simultaneously local and universal because of the eucharist, presided over by the bishop who simultaneously affirmed the unity of the concrete gathering and their unity with the  universal (catholicity) gathering of all true believers.  This liturgical-theological truth was so engrained in the mind of the early church, that even with the advent of the Constantinian period and the interfacing of church governance with Imperial Roman governance, could not destroy its memory.  So in making the bishop a territorial administrator with priests to preside at the eucharist of numerous parishes, with the church’s population exploding after Constantine; to signify this ancient sense of unity a portion of the bishop’s consecrated bread would be taken to his parishes reminding them that he is still their eucharistic presider.  

 
These brief reflections remind us that, “power” in the church is not like that of the world.  Power within the church always remains God’s power and those who are called to govern do so ultimately as ministers of service, service that is ordained by their intimate proximity to the eucharist.  Let us conclude with the final exhortation and witness of St. Ignatius, who came to realize that his imitation of Christ at the eucharist would eventually call for his imitation of Christ as martyr.  On his way to Rome he writes to the Christians there, “I am the wheat of God.  Let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.” (Letter to the Romans, St. Ignatius of Antioch). 

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- Rev. David A. Fisher