Thanksgiving and prayer
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Paul’s thankful remembrance of the Philippians and their partnership in the gospel, he says, was only right, because he had them in his heart. When Paul wrote these words, he was especially conscious of the gospel bond that united him to the Philippians and to all other believers. He was deeply aware of the common grace that they shared. He realized that the cause of the gospel was not just his cause, but the cause of all believers. Paul knew that the outcome of his appeal to the emperor would somehow have an effect on all the believers throughout the Roman Empire. He wanted the Philippian Christians to know, therefore, that as he defended and proclaimed the gospel in Rome, he had them and their fellow believers everywhere in his heart.
From the beginning of their lives as Christians to the time of the apostle’s imprisonment, the Philippians had happily acknowledged the gospel bond that existed between the apostle and themselves. Just lately they had again shown special concern for Paul by sending both a gift and a servant to assist him. Paul knew too that the Philippian believers continually remembered him in their prayers. The apostle appreciated all these gestures of Christian concern, and he wanted to assure the Philippians of his deep and personal concern for them.
So he added a personal note to complete the picture of his relationship to the Philippian Christians. Calling on God, the judge of hearts, as his witness, Paul spoke of his earnest longing to be with his Philippian friends again. During his absence from them, his heart continued to be filled with tender affection for them, affection founded and patterned on the love of Jesus himself. In that spirit of affection and Christian love, Paul wanted to share his joy with the Philippians, if not in person, then certainly by means of this inspired letter, and he wanted the Philippians to read the letter as a genuine outpouring of that same affection and love.
The importance that Paul places on the gospel partnership he shares with the Philippians has much to say also to us. Today we share a gospel partnership with the members of our congregation as well as with the members of our church body, our synod. Our worship life, our mutual support of the Lord’s work at home and abroad, our encouragements to one another to live as Christians are all expressions of that partnership. A similar expression is the special affection and concern we ought to feel and show for one another.
Our gospel partnership is higher and nobler than ordinary earthly relationships, but too often we tend to regard the precious gospel partnerships of our congregational and synodical memberships too lightly. We are inclined to look upon these partnerships not as precious blessings but as tiresome burdens and obligations. Only rarely do we regard the individuals with whom we share this partnership as special. Our relationships with all our fellow believers, our attitude toward our synod and its work, and the enthusiasm and the zeal with which we go about the tasks the Lord has assigned to us could all be significantly improved. We need to see those relationships as the apostle Paul saw them, as elements of our blessed partnership in the gospel. That, in turn, would make our whole spiritual lives more positive and more joyful.