Most of us will consider the apostle Paul to be the greatest missionary to have ever lived. Being the writer of half the New Testament, taught directly by Jesus Christ, established more churches than anyone else on record and as far as we know suffered more than any other person in history for the sake of Christ. In fact, God used Paul to even lead Timothy to the Lord Jesus.
Timothy became highly involved in Paul's ministry and was also leading a church, yet both of these great men still recognized one thing: servant-hood. Nowhere in this epistle will you find either one of them boasting in what they have accomplished because they do not put their trust in themselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. From the very first verse, this epistle makes that emphatically clear by declaring that they are themselves, bond-servants of Christ Jesus.
According to man's terms these two individuals have a reason to boast, but not before God. So they do not exalt themselves, but they lift up their God. Notice these two very different individuals:
1.
Paul was quite a bit older than Timothy and
was a Jew. He attended a Jewish based Old Testament strong school thus being
founded in Jewish thought. Paul was also an apostle and had the gospel directly
taught to him by the Lord Jesus Himself.
2.
Timothy was younger than Paul and was a
Greek. Thus his background would have placed him growing up through a Greek
school obtaining a difference in thinking. He was not taught directly by the
Lord Jesus and it is likely that Timothy never even saw the Lord Jesus
throughout any portion of his life. Timothy was not an apostle, but an evangelist.
Thus we have two people who are completely different, yet they are tied together by one thing: Christ Jesus! This word for "bond-servant" is a type of voluntary surrender. It is surrender of volition; of choice. They don't just "know" that Christ is their Master; they understand and obey Him living the life proving that He is their Master. Jesus has the authority over all of who they are. Every word, every thought and every action is all expressed in their obedience to Christ.
Notice that this was a past tense decision. Also notice that it is a continual present tense decision as well. They did not and they do not give Christ a portion of their lives nor do they give Christ a place in their hearts, but they willingly surrender the entirety of their being. They made this choice to follow Christ long ago, yet every day is a new day to voluntarily submit to Christ as your authority.
This word for servant also describes more than just a new believer; it is more even than a growing Christian; it is referring to a disciple of the one true God. Not just a disciple, however, but the implications go much further than even a disciple maker. They are disciples of Christ who are in turn making disciples of Christ who in turn will and are making disciples of Christ. It describes a very mature level, yet as we can see they are still not done. There is and always will be room for growth.
1. Have
I willingly surrendered all of me to all of Him?
2. Every
day am I continually submitting myself to His authority and making Him Pre-eminent
over my life?
3. In
everything that I say, what do I talk about the most? Do I speak of Christ more
than anything else? If not, then what is wrong?
4. Am I
continually embracing His life?
Notice it is at the very beginning of the letter that Christ is made Pre-eminent! From reading the verse you can easily tell that these guys are excited to speak about Christ and it is obvious that His name overjoys them.
From this verse alone we learn the answers to these three questions:
1.
Who wrote the letter? Answer: Paul
2.
Who is with Paul as he is writing the
letter?
Answer: Timothy
3.
Who was this letter directly written
to? Answer: All the saints in Philippi
We must be careful to not just quickly assume that Timothy brought the letter to the saints in Philippi. As we survey this book verse by verse it can kind of seem like that at first glance, but when we reach chapter two we will find that Epaphroditus is actually the carrier of this letter and is the one who delivered it to the Philippian believers (2:19-30). Notice in those verses Timothy hasn't been sent yet at the time these saints would be reading the epistle, but Epaphroditus has.
Notice that he is writing to all the saints who are in Philippi. The word "saint" means "holy one". He doesn't say "to the church" thus making it singular, but he says, "to all the saints" likely meaning there are many believers in Philippi by this time and Paul is being very careful with his words and making sure he is all-inclusive.
The number of believers could very well be a lot more than can fit into one house, thus showing the spread of the gospel throughout the city. There may even be several new believers who will be reading this and Paul wants to meet everybody where they are at so he continues by saying, "to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons:"
Paul does not say to all the leaders (overseers and deacons) and every believer in Christ. Paul does this for four reasons:
1.
He wants both new believers and old
believers, children in the faith and mature Christians to realize that no
matter what position they are in, whether in leadership or not, they are saints
of the one true God.
2.
The second reason he does this is because
he doesn't want anyone thinking that those on leadership deserve to be first in
anything. The leaders in the church were appointed to that office by God, but
in no way does that mean that God loves them more or that they somehow earned
the right because they are all that. They don't deserve to lead someone just as
much as you don't deserve to lead someone, but it is purely by the grace of God
that He has sovereignly placed every individual in Christ to be in a specific
role and perform a specific function in the body that no one else could
perform.
3.
The third reason is showing that Paul
wants each individual believer to have a copy of this letter. Paul recognizes
that this is divinely inspired and he doesn't just want the leadership to read
it and regurgitate it to the rest of the believers, but he wants every believer
to know God's Word and what God says about them on a personal level of being
not just a convert, but a saint.
4.
The fourth and final reason why Paul puts
so much emphasis in them being saints is to guard them from any wrong thinking
or doctrinal attack that could possibly hinder their walk. He isn't going to
hide anything from them, but instead he wants to tell them exactly who they are
in Christ and who God sees them to be now and Paul wants them to stand their
ground on the solid Word of God trusting and banking on these precious truths.
What we learn from this is that whatever position the Lord has placed you in is the highest and most satisfying position that you could be involved in. We need to trust that God has a specific purpose for our lives and we should never get the idea that something is wrong if you are not in a leadership position or if the group you are leading is very small. God has a plan to use each one of our lives in a very strategic way and we need to be willing servants in that plan and allow Him the right that He has to do with us as He pleases. I guarantee that no matter who you are in the body, whether you are a pastor of a 4,000 member church or a 32 year old man teaching a Bible study of six people, God calls us to be faithful in the place that He has us to be in and to trust that He is working all things out for good.
Paul doesn't want his readers to just think that he is talking to the leadership, but please don't get the impression that he is downplaying or in some sense talking against being on leadership or aiming to be on leadership because that is not what he is doing. He has merely listed them second in this order so that his audience may acknowledge and understand that just because they have the title does not mean they are anything special.
Catholicism does not believe that all believers are saints. They have to do certain rituals and sacraments and live a certain way and be a certain person before they can ever even be considered for the possibility of entering into sainthood. Obviously they have never read the book of Philippians because if they had then they would have read the first verse, literally the eleventh word, and they would not be catholic anymore. I urge you, therefore brethren, believe the Bible, God's Holy Word.
The verse goes on to say, "In Christ Jesus." This is one of Paul's favorite sayings. This profound statement so captured Paul's thinking and truly transformed his entire way of life that it made it's way into almost every if not all of his writings, but what does "in Christ" even mean? How can I be in God? The term "in Christ" means that there is a human side to the salvation equation. Christ Jesus the man is seated at the right hand of God and that is exactly where I am at positionally. Paul was excited to have this amazing truth revealed to him. I guarantee that he was overjoyed to be the messenger in telling others these marvelous mysteries as well.
Paul reveals to us that the word "all" gives emphatic stress on the doctrine of unity. Every believer in Christ is unified together as one body. Paul excluded no one! A saint being in Christ is an objective fact about every Christian. A Christian is not defined by how he acts but by his identity in Christ. "In Christ" is a union that views an unholy person as holy and views a sinner as a saint.
Try reading the verse without the words "in Christ Jesus." What happens? It all falls apart. You see if you take out the words "in Christ Jesus", then the words "all the saints" must be taken out as well because there is no such thing as a saint apart from Christ Jesus. Christ is our linchpin. It is because of Christ that we can even be named saints. He is the source of our saintliness and anything holy and good and pure that can ever come out of this broken and weak vessel is wholly a work of God and His grace upon us. One thing that we must never forget is that our position is not based on our experience.
So what we see in the latter part of the verse is that Paul and Timothy are also servants of the church. Servants in the church are made up of overseers and deacons but what is the difference?
An overseer was an authoritative position. This term can be used of all supervisors, not just in the church.
A deacon was a non-authority position. There was probably money that was being collected to be sent to Paul and their needed to be people (deacons) to handle that.
Hebrews 13:7, 17 shows us the parameters of leadership. They are not to be arbitrarily commanding, which means they are not to exercise any type of absolute authority that is marked by unrestrained and/or tyrannical power.
NOTE: In my experience I have often times seen that leaders as a whole correct when you’re wrong, but fail to commend when you’re right. Be the leader that God has made you to be and shine forth Christ in all things.
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