At the time of writing this letter, Paul was being held prisoner (Php 1:13). Over the course of his ministry Paul was held prisoner many times (2Co 11:23), though the only places of imprisonment mentioned in the biblical record are Philippi (Act 16:23), Jerusalem (Act 22:23-30), Caesarea (Act 24:23-27) and Rome (Act 28:16; Act 28:30). Of these four places, Rome is the most likely as the place from which Paul wrote his letter to the Philippian church. Ephesus has also been suggested as a possibility. There is no doubt that Paul met severe opposition in Ephesus (1Co 15:32), but there is no certainty that he was imprisoned there.<\/p>\n
Purpose of the letter<\/p>\n
If the letter was written from Rome, the occasion was probably Pauls two-year imprisonment when he was awaiting the outcome of his appeal to Caesar (Act 25:12; Act 27:1; Act 28:16; Act 28:30). The church in Philippi sent one of its members, Epaphroditus, to Rome to help Paul and to give him a gift from the church. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians to thank them for the gift (Php 1:5; Php 4:18) and to correct wrong attitudes that had developed among some in the church (Php 2:1-4; Php 2:14; Php 4:2-3).<\/p>\n
The Philippian church was the first church Paul established in Europe (Act 16:11-40; see PHILIPPI) and he seems to have had a special affection for it (Php 4:1). His letter to it was warm and optimistic, expressing the hope of a quick release and an early visit to Philippi (Php 1:25; Php 1:27; Php 2:24).<\/p>\n
Contents of the letter<\/p>\n
After thanking the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel, Paul prays for their further spiritual growth (1:1-11). Far from being discouraged because of his imprisonment, he rejoiced over the good that has come from it (1:12-26).<\/p>\n
Paul encourages the Philippian believers to be united (1:27-30) and to have the same humility and concern for others as Christ had (2:1-11). They must demonstrate in practice the nature of their salvation (2:12-18). For two examples of practical Christianity, he refers them to Epaphroditus and Timothy (2:19-30).<\/p>\n
Developing the idea of Christian completeness, Paul shows that it comes not from lawkeeping, but from the power of the living Christ within (3:1-16). The certainty of Christs return should encourage Christians to be more holy (3:17-21), as they submit to each other and trust steadfastly in God (4:1-7). In a final note of thanks, Paul assures them that God will reward their sacrificial giving (4:8-23).<\/p>\n
PHILIPPIANS, LETTER TO THE At the time of writing this letter, Paul was being held prisoner (Php 1:13). Over the course of his ministry Paul was held prisoner many times (2Co 11:23), though the only places of imprisonment mentioned in the biblical record are Philippi (Act 16:23), Jerusalem (Act 22:23-30), Caesarea (Act 24:23-27) and Rome … Continue reading “PHILIPPIANS, LETTER TO THE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encyclopedic-dictionary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}