MONDAY 7th
NIV (v7) – ‘It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.’
ESV (v7) – ‘It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel.’
We started our devotions in Philippians with the word prayer, we moved to purpose and partnership and today we come to partakers, partakers of grace.
Paul tells the Philippian believers that he should feel how he does about them because they were partakers together of grace, this must mean that as they partnered with Paul, they also cared for him which was an evidence of the grace of God in their lives. Later in the letter he says that no other Church had shared the same concern for him than that which the Philippians had 4:14-15 ‘Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.’
We who are saved are all partakers of God’s grace which we often refer to as ‘amazing grace’, the NIV says ‘you share in God’s grace with me’, it speaks of fellowship flowing from grace, this means as believers we are there for one another in the high moments and also in the low, in the good times and what we may consider the bad or tough times, in the joy or in the sorrow, in the smooth or in the rough. The other Churches may have either forsaken or perhaps forgotten about Paul, but the Philippian Church had not and whenever opportunity made itself available, they ministered to him and they met or ministered to his need. Chapter 4 says that they had revived their concern for him, not because they had forgotten him, but circumstance prevented them, but as soon as opportunity arrived, they took it. (4:10-11)
As we partake of God’s grace may it be demonstrated in the love and concern that we all have toward one another, as we pray for each other, as we encourage one another, as we support one another, because we have been brought into fellowship with one another, amazing grace that has impacted our lives outworked in our care for others,
We have probably all heard the saying, out of sight and out of mind, may we never be like this as believers, but whether we can be in fellowship together as gathered Church or as it has recently been unable to gather and so out of sight, may we never forget one another, but continue to be partakers of grace together.