Philippians

No. 442 Philippians 1:9-17
Paul is writing this letter from prison, and he wants the Philippians, who are worried about him, to see something they might have missed. Do not assume, he tells them, that my imprisonment has been a setback....
No. 463 Philippians 2:25-30
As Paul closes this section of his letter, he turns to a man named Epaphroditus, someone we would otherwise never have heard of. Epaphroditus was not an apostle or a famous teacher. He was the Philippians'...
No. 734 Philippians 1:1-8
Philippians is a letter Paul writes from prison, and it is the warmest thing he ever put on paper. He opens with Timothy beside him, greeting the church at Philippi, the congregation that had loved and...
No. 773 Philippians 3:7-12
Just before this, Paul listed the things he had once counted as his assets: born into the right people, circumcised on the right day, a Pharisee, blameless under the law. Then he crosses the whole ledger out....
No. 847 Philippians 2:12-18
Paul gives the Philippians a command that has puzzled people ever since, and then immediately gives the reason that seems to cancel it out. Work out your own salvation, he says, with fear and trembling. And...
No. 2286 Philippians 2:1-11
Paul urges the Philippians to unity and humility, to count others better than themselves and to look to others' interests. And to move them to this, he points to the mind of Christ. Have this in your mind, he...
No. 2738 Philippians 4:1-7
Writing from prison, Paul gets personal. He names two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who worked hard beside him in the gospel, and pleads with them to agree in the Lord, asking the church to help them mend it....
No. 2885 Philippians 4:8-23
Paul brings his letter home with a call to fill the mind well: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable, think on these things. Then he speaks of contentment. I have learned, he says,...
No. 3460 Philippians 1:18-30
Paul, writing from prison and facing possible execution, holds life and death in a striking balance: for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He is genuinely torn between two goods, to depart and be...
No. 3869 Philippians 3:13-21
Paul describes the Christian life as a race run with singular focus: one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward...
No. 4116 Philippians 2:19-24
Paul tells the Philippians he hopes to send Timothy to them, and in commending him, he pays Timothy a high compliment while lamenting a common failing. I have no one else like him, Paul says, who will be...
No. 4218 Philippians 3:1-6
Paul warns the Philippians against those who put their confidence in religious credentials and outward marks, and he insists that true believers put no confidence in the flesh. Then, to make the point, he...