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It has been my observation recently that the vast majority of preaching seems to take place directly out of big, meaty, theological chunks halfway through books. And, of course, there are some exceptional messages that have come from this. However, I believe 'all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness' (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I therefore decided I would study the first verse of Philippians to see what truths we could pick out from Paul and Timothy's greeting.

Philippians 1:1 'This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the elders and deacons.' (NLT)

Paul and Timothy begin this letter by naming themselves, clarifying the source of the letter and therefore the authority it holds. In this case, the authority belongs to Paul and to Timothy, two well-respected leaders in the global church at the time. In fact, the church in Philippi, to which this letter was written, was a church that Paul himself had planted and therefore this greeting has a particularly personal feel to it. The authority however is not simply lapped up by Paul and Timothy. They are both acutely aware of the need to remain humble as leaders, and so quickly continue their opening sentence with a description of themselves that shows before any content has been drawn out where their hearts lie. By declaring themselves to be ‘slaves of Christ Jesus’ they are doing three things.

Firstly, they are immediately passing on the recognition of authority from themselves to Christ, who gives them this authority. Repeatedly in his letters Paul mentions that his call as an apostle is not something he came up with himself but that he received this call from Jesus; we too must ensure that we are aware of what the personal call for our lives is. If we are in a situation in our lives where we do not feel like we are heading in a particular direction and do not have a ‘holy ambition’ then the place we must look for this is Jesus. By studying and trusting Scripture, and by listening to the Holy Spirit as well as prophecies given by our Christian brothers and sisters we too can receive a calling from God.

Secondly of course, we must do as Paul and Timothy do here by immediately reflecting any glory we receive onto Christ. By living our lives in order to receive glory that we may shine that glory toward Christ we are doing as much with our lives as anyone could ever ask. Jesus himself lived the perfect life yet explained it away by saying that he only did what he saw his Father doing (John 5:19). When we are living our lives in the manner that we can say that we only do what we see our Father doing then we will be in our heavenly bodies so we ought to aim as high as possible now!

Thirdly, Paul and Timothy are using a concept that would have been very familiar in society at the time. It has been estimated that in Rome, obviously the capital of the ancient Roman empire, upwards of 70% of the population were probably slaves. This was an underlying and very apparent part of society and effectively meant this. In Roman culture, slaves were literally possessions. As much as they were clearly people, by not being Roman citizens and by being bought and sold the standard free person would literally have treated a slave as an object with particular functions. By referring to themselves as slaves Paul and Timothy are calling to mind a picture that is not familiar to us in western culture; the closest we can get by comparison would be if Paul and Timothy had referred to themselves as kitchen appliances, for example. They have a use and on the whole would be expected to carry out their function successfully. Their worth however is only derived from fulfilling that function; once a kettle cannot boil any more then it is discarded, and a new kettle must be purchased. This statement here carries the same connotations. Paul and Timothy are making the claim that they are called for defined purposes, and in order to be of any worth they must fulfill those purposes. Having said this, slaves did hold a place in society, and being a slave to a very wealthy family would certainly not have been sneered upon. Paul and Timothy here are clearly not intentionally ridiculing themselves; they are acknowledging that, by being slaves of Christ, they are in a place of honour and privilege.

The target of this letter is also stated at the outset: ‘to all of God’s people in Philippi’. Interestingly enough, the word in Greek here translated as ‘God’s people’ is hagios, which literally means a ‘most holy thing’, or a ‘saint’ - this letter is addressed to God’s people, who have the title ‘saint’; if we are a part of God’s people by believing in Jesus Christ then we too can claim this title! In what Martin Luther referred to as ‘the great exchange’ Jesus has taken our sin on the cross, but not only that has credited to us his righteousness so that we can justly take this title of ‘saint’ in full confidence based on the knowledge that we have done nothing for it, but Christ has done everything. Note that this truth is stated so plainly before Paul and Timothy have even begun to convey the body of their letter! The gospel underlines everything we do, say and think as Christians, and we ought always to ensure that any service we perform stems from the truth of the gospel. If we are to worship God this must come from a recognition of his work on the cross. If we are to take part in a small group all the while we are to be those who are so aware of our blessed position; we are those who have been credited with the title ‘saint’ by the only One who could possibly justly do so. The next time you get some business cards printed why not put the title ‘saint’ on there?!

While this letter was obviously written for this particular congregation of believers there is a call for us to ‘listen in’ and glean what we can from it. Although the letter appears to be primarily focussed at the general people of the church in Philippi there is a clear invitation to the elders and deacons to take on board everything that is said, and as members of the body of Christ we can be sure to find truth that is directly applicable to us herein. And this is something that we ought always to be aware of; far too often we hear a piece of encouragement or rebuke from one party to another, yet we fail to take any content on ourselves. Rather than simply congratulating our brother for bringing such a good prophecy, we should ourselves be encouraged to step out more in faith and ask God to use us more in a similar manner. In a similar way, rather than simply acknowledging another brother’s sin, mourning with him and helping him to repent we should really be those who also spot the areas in our own lives that need special attention. It is too easy to talk to the drug addict about his problem without realising that we ourselves are addicted to money, work, sex, socialising and clothes. Although none of these on the surface have as much of an impact on life if we are addicted to them then we are not living in the truth of the gospel, which is true freedom in Christ. Even if we do have a title such as elder or deacon, we will never find ourselves in a situation where we cannot find encouragement and/or challenges.

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

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