It seems clear that there is a high level of mutual respect between Paul and the Philippian church. They are concerned about him, and vice versa. I wonder how that is reflected in relationships within churches today.
They knew that Paul was in custody awaiting trial. They were worried about what that might mean, and about how Paul was coping in this adverse situation.
In line with the proverb that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ Paul is keen to reassure them that, not only is he surviving reasonably well, but that there are some significant benefits to be drawn from his circumstances. As F.F. Bruce (Philippians) comments: “when the gospel became a talking point because of Paul’s presence in Rome, the Christians exploited the situation and began to bear their public witness with greater confidence and vigour.” I wonder if there are situations which we ought to exploit, but where that is not happening.
There are three key
words in verse 14 – confident, dare and boldness (NRSVA translation) – which demonstrate
the positive way in which the Christian community is speaking the gospel, that
speaking, no doubt, including both action and word. I wonder to what extent
such words reflect our sharing of our faith.
One of the challenges
for today’s church is that of being confident in the gospel. We excuse
ourselves saying that things are not easy for people of faith in a secular
society that is largely indifferent to religion. However, things were not easy
for a Christian community, one of whose key leaders was in custody. We need to
learn to be confident Christians.
We sometimes talk of
daring someone to do something. I wonder what we dare do for God. We sometimes
talk about encouraging each other. That is Biblical, and good. I wonder if we
should dare each other to do gospel things.
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