Introduction to Philippians

Title and authorship

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. No apostolic title is claimed — the only other letter where Paul opens this way is Philemon, and both are written to people who needed no convincing of his standing.

The address is unusual in a second respect: to all the saints with the overseers and deacons Philippians 1:1. It is the one letter opening that names church officers, and even then they are mentioned after the whole congregation rather than before it.

The letter is written from imprisonment Philippians 1:13, and it names the guard: the whole praetorian guard knows why he is in chains, and there are believers in Caesar's household Philippians 4:22. It is also a thank-you letter — the Philippians had sent money by Epaphroditus, who nearly died on the errand Philippians 2:25–30 Philippians 4:18.

Date

The imprisonment is most naturally the Roman one with which Acts closes Acts 28:30–31, which places the letter in the early sixties of the first century.

Two details support it. The praetorian guard and Caesar's household both point to the imperial capital. And the letter assumes enough time has passed for news to travel to Philippi and a delegate to travel back, with word of Epaphroditus's illness making a further round trip Philippians 2:26.

Paul expects a verdict soon and can argue either outcome Philippians 1:20, so the letter sits close to a decision. Scripture gives no year.

Backgrounds

Philippi  was a Roman colony in Macedonia , settled with army veterans and proud of its citizenship — which is why the letter twice reaches for civic language, telling them to conduct themselves as citizens worthy of the gospel Philippians 1:27 and reminding them that their citizenship is in heaven Philippians 3:20.

It was the first church Paul founded in Europe, and Acts tells the story: a riverside prayer meeting, a businesswoman named Lydia, an exorcism, a beating, a night in the stocks, an earthquake, and a jailer baptized before dawn Acts 16:12–34. Paul had been flogged there without trial as a Roman citizen, and this letter — written from another prison — is the warmest thing he wrote.

The congregation had supported him financially more than once Philippians 4:15–16, and alone among the churches. Two problems are visible: a quarrel between two women who had worked alongside him Philippians 4:2, and pressure from teachers urging circumcision Philippians 3:2.

Theology and purpose

The letter's argument is carried by one word — phronein, to think or be minded — and by a hymn.

The practical problem is a congregation with a fracture in it. Paul's answer is not arbitration but a mind: have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus Philippians 2:5. What follows is the hymn of Philippians 2:6–11, and its shape is the argument. Christ, being in the form of God, did not treat equality with God as something to be clutched; he emptied himself, took a servant's form, humbled himself, and obeyed as far as death — the death of a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name.

Downward through seven steps, then upward by God's act. The hymn is quoted to settle a dispute between two women, which is the most striking thing about its placement: the highest Christology in Paul's letters is deployed as a remedy for a church quarrel.

The letter's other subject is joy, and its persistence is the point. Rejoice is repeated until it becomes conspicuous Philippians 4:4, written by a man in chains awaiting a verdict, to a church he loved and could not visit.

And chapter 3 supplies the personal accounting behind it. Everything Paul could have counted as advantage he reckons as loss for the sake of knowing Christ Philippians 3:7–8 — the ledger of a man who has already decided what he will not be sorry to lose.

Additional notes

Note — "to depart and be with Christ" Philippians 1:23. Paul, weighing execution against release, says he desires to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. The verse is read by some as describing a conscious state entered at death, and it deserves a careful answer rather than a quick one.

Three things in Scripture bear on it, and two of them are in this letter.

First, Paul states his own hope twice in Philippians, and both times it is the resurrection. He wants to attain to the resurrection from the dead Philippians 3:11, and he says the body of our humiliation will be transformed when the Savior comes from heaven Philippians 3:20–21. A letter that names its author's expectation explicitly, in two places, does not leave it to be inferred from a third.

Second, Paul's teaching elsewhere is consistent and detailed. The Christian dead are asleep, they rise at the coming, and the living do not precede them 1 Thessalonians 4:15–16; the change happens at the last trumpet 1 Corinthians 15:51–52.

Third, the verse itself contrasts two things, not three. Remaining in the flesh means fruitful labor; departing means being with Christ. Paul does not describe an interval, name a location, or say anything about what lies between — and for one who sleeps, no interval is experienced. The next moment after departure is the coming, so departing and being with Christ are a single prospect however long the grave lasts.

The verb is analuō, to loose a ship's cable or strike a tent; its noun form describes his death in his last letter 2 Timothy 4:6. Honest readers differ here; the reading set out is the one the letter's own two statements of hope carry.

Outline

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