SATURDAY 5th
Philippians 1:1-18
NIV (v5) – ‘. . . because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now . . .’
ESV (v5) – ‘. . . because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.’
We come today to the letter that Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi. In the book of Acts, (chapter 16) we have the account of when Paul went down into Philippi and met with some who were down by the river where a prayer meeting was being held. During this prayer meeting Paul and those with him spoke to some of the women and one of them was Lydia, who responded to the message and was baptised along with her household, she invited Paul and his companions to stay at her home. The same chapter tells us that Paul had already had some bother on his way to the prayer meeting with a woman who had the spirit of divination (16:16) and she kept bothering him for many days, till finally Paul commanded the spirit to leave her, good news for the woman to have been delivered, but bad news for those who owned her as they were no longer able to make a living out of her and they had Paul and Silas arrested which in turn led to them being thrown into prison. And we know the story, at midnight they prayed and sang hymns and a miracle took place, first that brought them (Paul and Silas) deliverance from their prison chains, but secondly, more importantly led to the jailor being delivered from his chains, the bondage of sin and he and his household were converted and baptised, thus a Church was being planted in this city of Philippi.
It is to this Church this letter is written and I just love the fact that Pauls introduction to the Philippians in Acts 16 was through a prayer meeting and here as he writes to them his introduction is to tell them that he is praying for them! Prayer! And he says in verse 3 that he thanks God for them, not just once-in-a-while, but in every prayer with joy. The experience he had had with them while in Philippi had filled Pauls heart with joy, he then continues to say that he thanks God ‘because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now’. (v5) He did not see them as two separate things, Paul here and Philippi there but as a partnership, together for the gospel.
Whenever I read this phrase it always reminds me that we as believers today can partner with others for the sake of the gospel, we can partner in prayer for them, we can partner in giving out of our resources toward mission enterprise and activity, we can partner by going and some have done by serving abroad but others through some form of short term mission. Mission to me has always been important, from a young child I always got excited about mission and not just of hearing the reports of those active in mission but to be able to support as well in whatever way and for the last ten years I have been able to go as well as I supported mission and partnered with some in Hungary who have become close and personal friends who like Paul I regularly give thanks to God for.
Spend some time today praying for mission, for those you may know who are serving abroad, or involved in mission in some way, pray for mission opportunity, for the need is as real in our local neighbourhoods as it is abroad.