The first of the three captivity letters we will consider in this volume was actually the last one written. Paul addressed it to “the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi.” At the time that the apostle wrote this letter, Philippi was still a rather important city. It had a long and eventful history. When Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, began to expand the Macedonian Empire shortly after he seized the throne in 359 B.C., he quickly annexed the territory in which the city called Krenides (meaning “fountains”) was located. He enlarged and fortified the city, then named it Philippi, after himself.
For many years the riches extracted from the gold mines around Philippi helped both Philip and Alexander maintain their armies and enlarge their kingdom. Their conquests brought Hellenistic culture and the Greek language to the entire Mediterranean world and, according to God’s divine plan, paved the way for the preaching of the gospel in the entire area. If Philip and Alexander had not extended their empire so far to the east, the apostle Paul and the gospel could not have later moved so rapidly west.
The Romans conquered the old Macedonian Empire some two hundred years after its founding by Philip. By that time the gold mines around Philippi were exhausted, and the city had become a ghost town. But subsequent events made Philippi an important city again, this time in the Roman Empire. In 42 B.C. Philippi was the site of the battle in which Brutus and Cassius, who had led the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar, were defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian, who later became Caesar Augustus.
Soon after that battle, Philippi was made a Roman colony, and Mark Antony settled some of his veterans there. After Augustus became sole ruler of the empire in 31 B.C., he continued the policy of settling retired veterans in Philippi. In Paul’s day Philippi was the leading city of one of the four political regions from the old Macedonian Empire. The fact that the Egnatian Way, the main road from Rome to Asia, ran through Philippi also made the city strategically important to the Roman Empire.
The policy of designating certain key cities throughout the vast Roman Empire as colonies and settling veterans and their families there was advantageous to both the veterans and the empire. The veterans were rewarded for their service to the empire with land grants and special political privileges, and the empire had loyal Roman citizens situated at strategic points throughout its conquered territories.
As a Roman colony, Philippi was a Rome in miniature, a little bit of Italy on foreign soil. Its inhabitants were primarily Roman. The few natives that remained after the Roman conquest gradually merged with the Roman settlers. Like all the colonists throughout the empire, the Philippians took great pride in being Roman. They dressed as Romans, used Roman coins, and maintained Latin as the official language of their city. Realizing this helps us understand how quickly the Philippian townspeople could be stirred up by charges that Paul and his companions were “Jews . . . advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” (Acts 16:20).
It also casts light on many of the references and expressions Paul uses in his epistle to the Philippians. Families of Roman veterans would surely identify with the Praetorian Guard and Caesar’s household. The lesson on Christians’ heavenly citizenship would be particularly meaningful to those who were so proud of their earthly citizenship. And Christians who, no doubt, were constantly pressured to worship the emperor and persecuted when they refused needed to be reminded of the greatness of the glorified Christ and encouraged in their loyalty to him.
Philippi was located at the extreme northern end of the Aegean Sea in what is now Greece. Like many ancient cities, it was situated on a hill overlooking a plain. The Gangites River, along which the small Jewish community in Paul’s day met for prayer, was located about a mile east of the city. After receiving his “Macedonian call” at Troas, Paul took a ship to Neapolis. Then he traveled by foot on the Egnatian Way to Philippi, and there he founded the first Christian congregation on the continent of Europe.
In Acts chapter 16 Luke tells us of Paul’s first visit to Philippi and the founding of the congregation there. This took place during Paul’s second missionary journey. From the first Sabbath contact with a little group of women who met for prayer along the river to God’s dramatic deliverance of Paul and Silas from prison at midnight, there is high drama and wonderful evidence of the Lord’s hand controlling the movement of the gospel westward from Jerusalem to Rome. This author suggests the reading of Acts chapter 16 as background before studying the epistle to the Philippians in detail.
From Philippi, Paul and Silas continued on to Thessalonica. Timothy, who was also in the apostle’s party, remained behind briefly in Philippi before joining the apostle again. Luke remained longer in Philippi to provide spiritual leadership for the young congregation.
On his third missionary journey, Paul visited Philippi twice, both as he was outward bound and as he was homeward bound. The last stop was brief and unplanned. Paul had wanted to sail from Corinth to Syria, but the discovery of a plot against his life by hostile Jews persuaded him to retrace his route through Macedonia toward Asia. It was on this return journey that Luke again rejoined the apostle.
The extraordinary experiences that the apostle and the members of the congregation had shared—as well as the eager, generous faith of Philippian believers like Lydia, the converted jailer, and others—resulted in a special relationship between the congregation at Philippi and the apostle Paul. The Philippians sent gifts to help the apostle and support his work on several occasions. During Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, they even sent one of their own members, Epaphroditus, to deliver a gift to the apostle and to remain with him to assist him. The Philippians were very concerned about the apostle’s welfare during his confinement in Rome and were eager to know of the outcome of his trial before the imperial court.
Unlike Romans or Colossians or other epistles of Paul that center on great doctrinal themes, Paul’s epistle to the Philippians is in many ways an inspired, friendly personal letter. It passes easily from one subject to another, as our own letters generally tend to do. Much of what the apostle writes in his epistle to the Philippians was prompted by the visit of Epaphroditus to Rome. The Philippians’ gesture of love in sending him both a gift and a helper touched the apostle deeply. No doubt he acknowledged their goodness at once, perhaps through someone traveling back to Philippi soon after Epaphroditus had arrived in Rome. In this epistle, however, Paul makes grateful, written acknowledgement of the Philippians’ generosity, which had served to greatly increase his joy.
Naturally, Epaphroditus had brought the apostle a report about conditions in the Philippian congregation. The report was generally good. The Philippian Christians were adorning their Christian confession with lives that honored the Lord. They were giving constant evidence of a loving and generous spirit. They were ready to suffer, if necessary, for the sake of Christ. The congregation had grown and seems at the time to have been untroubled by doctrinal controversy or severe persecution.
Yet there were certain areas in which the congregation at Philippi, like every Christian congregation, needed encouragement. With great tact Paul urges all the members to strive for greater harmony and humility in Christ. He warns them against some of the spiritual dangers that surrounded them. He makes a personal plea to two of the congregation’s women, Euodia and Syntyche, to settle their differences in a God-pleasing way. And he includes many practical suggestions for growing in faith and in Christian living.
Because they were deeply concerned about their beloved apostle’s welfare, the Philippians were eager for a report about the apostle’s personal well-being and the progress of his trial. Early in the epistle Paul provides us with the most detailed information we have about both.
Epaphroditus, who had been sent to Paul by the Philippians to serve the apostle’s needs, had worked so diligently at his task that he had become gravely ill. After Epaphroditus had recovered from his near-fatal illness, the apostle thought it best to send him back home to Philippi. No doubt Epaphroditus was disappointed that he had not been able to stay longer with the apostle. Perhaps he wondered how the believers back home would receive him if he returned sooner than they expected. Paul also was concerned. In this epistle, which Epaphroditus carried back to Philippi, the apostle explained the circumstances of his faithful servant’s return and encouraged the Philippians to lovingly receive him and honor him for the work he had done.
In the 104 verses of his epistle to the Philippians, we can observe many sides of the apostle Paul’s personality. We see him as a joyful servant of Christ, an optimistic prisoner, a humble crossbearer, a thoughtful administrator, an untiring idealist, a tactful pastor, and a grateful friend, but the epistle’s primary focus is not on the man Paul. It is on the Lord Jesus, whose grace made the apostle everything he was.
The thread that holds together all the subjects that Paul treats in this very special epistle is the faith and joy in Christ that filled his heart. Joy in Christ, in fact, is the key thought of the entire epistle, the music that runs through it and the sunshine that radiates over it. The apostle had found the unique joy that comes only to those who have been led by the Holy Spirit to rest their faith and hope in Christ. He was confident that nothing, not even the discouraging circumstances of his captivity, could take that joy away from him.
In this epistle he shares that joy with the Philippians and with Christian readers of every age. As we study this little gem of an epistle, we pray that the Holy Spirit will also fill our hearts with the joy the apostle knew and move us to express and to share that joy with others in what, without Christ, would be a joyless world.