Paul and Timotheus, bondmen of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with [the] overseers and ministers;
Paul opens with no title of rank — he and Timothy write as servants, and they greet every believer at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons. Three questions follow: why Paul drops his office, what a "saint" is, and why one church has several overseers.
The title he leaves out changes who this letter is for.
In opening, Paul does not present himself as an apostle, but just as a bondman of Jesus Christ. So we should not treat the experience he goes on to describe as apostolic, and beyond the reach of ordinary Christians. On the contrary, it is the experience of a bondman or servant, and we are all that.
One writer connects the omission to the picture of Christ later in this same letter.
I think this is the key to the greeting in Philippians. There Paul leaves out "apostle" completely and links himself with Timothy as "slaves", or bondmen, of Jesus Christ. In this little book the Lord presents Himself to us as the One who "took upon Himself the form of a slave" (2:7). How could Paul take any title higher than his Master, who had gone to the very lowest depths for his sake?
Three things stand behind the title, starting with being bought.
Three special marks should characterise "a slave of Jesus Christ": redemption, ownership, and devotedness. We were slaves of sin and Satan, but our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us... It was love, the bonds of love, which are stronger than the bonds of steel, that made a freed man become a slave once more, "a slave for ever."
The answer does not depend on how well a person behaves.
Who is a saint? Lydia was a saint; the jailer was a saint... A saint means a holy person, a person separated to God... Yet that is not what makes a person a saint in God's eyes. The Spirit of God calls the Corinthians saints, "saints by calling" (1 Cor. 1:2), and they were behaving very badly indeed... Every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a saint. Every person bought with His precious blood is a saint.
Their position in Christ is where God started with them.
Paul writes this letter to those who are in Christ, as we read in the first verse. This is surely where God began with us... This is the beginning of our history as saints, and is the starting point of true devotedness. A person only stands on the ground of devotedness with understanding when he enters, by faith, into this new position — the new creation God has given him in Christ Jesus.
Paul writes to everyone there, and he repeats one word.
He does not address them as an assembly, for Christian experience is a personal thing which he seeks to promote in every individual. He is careful also to avoid the slightest partiality, for he addresses "all the saints." Five times in the first eight verses he speaks of them "all" — a lovely indication of his pastor's heart.
That breadth is meant to be copied, not just admired.
How often we forget "all the saints." How often our thoughts and prayers include only the saints in one little group that is of special interest to us... if we are walking down here as Christ would have us walk, we will not be content that our hearts should take in any smaller circle than "all the saints." We may not be able to walk with them all in the paths they have chosen, but we may love them, and pray for them, all.
These are the two local services in the church; older translations call the overseers "bishops."
This is the only church where we have the "bishops and deacons" addressed as well as the saints... Bishops and elders are two names for the same officials. Besides deacons, they were appointed by the apostles to the charge which the Lord had given them. The bishops had to do with what is internal, the deacons with what is external. Both were local offices, while the apostle had his authority from the Lord everywhere.
The plural matters, and it cuts against a common arrangement today.
There were plainly many overseers, or bishops, in the assembly at Philippi. The position which bishops hold today in the various denominations is totally unknown and unheard of in the New Testament. It did not come into use until after the days of the apostles. God's way is to have many bishops, or overseers, in one assembly, as here in Philippi, or in Ephesus (Acts 20:28). Man's way is to have one bishop over many "churches".
- Servant — Paul drops "apostle" and takes the lowest title, because his Master took the form of a slave. So the experience it describes is open to every believer.
- Bought — redemption, ownership and devotedness mark a bondman of Christ; love, not force, holds him there.
- Holy — "saint" is not a rank earned by conduct. It is the standing of everyone bought with Christ's blood, as the Corinthians show.
- All — Paul says "all" five times in eight verses; he shows no partiality, and writes to each believer personally.
- Order — several overseers (internal) and deacons (external) serve one local church, named after the saints, not above them.
grace to you, and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul begins his letter to the believers at Philippi with two words: grace and peace. What do they hand the reader, and why does Paul name two givers?
The greeting looks like the polite opening of any letter. One writer says it carries much more:
We must not think of these words as being merely a formal greeting, as we so often begin a letter: "Dear Sir," or "Dear Mrs. …" when the person we are writing to is not dear to us at all. No, this greeting really means what it says. Paul wrote it long ago to the saints in Philippi. Even so, we may take it for ourselves from the Holy Spirit. We may enjoy all the sunshine of those two little words, GRACE and PEACE.
The same writer marks off two kinds of giving, and tells a story to show which one grace is:
Grace means "free, undeserved favour." And thank God, that is just what God has shown us. But let us remember it is grace, not from pity, but from love… A dear child we have known and loved for several years showed me the soles of her shoes, without saying a word. Both had great holes right through to her bare feet. I got her new shoes, and a pretty new dress too… When I gave them to her, she climbed on my knee and buried her head on my shoulder, her heart too full for words. It was grace, but grace moved by love. Who can say whose pleasure was greater, the child's or mine?
That word returns at the letter's end, and it covers a whole life:
Our letter begins with "Grace to you," and ends with "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit"… As we grow older, perhaps we learn to value more highly that grace that picked us up and gave us the privilege of hearing the gospel and believing it. Perhaps most wonderful of all is the grace that has borne with us all along the way, through all these years. It has never cast us off or given us up. It will perform that work, that "good work," begun in us, right on to the day of Jesus Christ. It has all been grace. All must be grace, right from start to finish.
Grace covers more than most readers expect:
In chapter 1:29 we read that God has not only "graced" us, or favoured us, with believing on Christ (the word is almost the same), but also with suffering for His sake. How very, very glad we are that God has graced us with believing on Christ!… But perhaps we do not realise that it is the very same grace that favours us "to suffer for His sake." We rejoice in hope of the glory; we rejoice in the many mansions — all the fruit of grace. But the suffering… ah, somehow that is different! Yet God gives us both the believing and the suffering "on behalf of Christ." And the same grace that gave us to believe can give us the courage, if need be, to suffer.
Grace and peace are not one-time gifts. Paul asks for a steady supply:
Grace and peace he wished them, for they are always needed. Nobody knew that better than Paul. God has opened the source of grace to His saints, and the God of peace is their God. So Paul could wish them a continued outflow of grace and a constant ministry of peace. For the peace spoken of here is not peace of conscience, but peace of heart — the peace of Christ, which He gave His people.
That peace is not cancelled by pressure from outside:
But could Paul honestly wish peace to these saints in Philippi, when they were suffering for their Master's sake? Can peace and persecution go together? Yes, strange as it may seem, they can, and often do… But can we have calm within when there is no calm without? Yes, we can! That is part of what we learn in Philippians.
The verse names two givers together, and one writer says that pairing tells us who Christ is:
Notice how closely God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ stand together here, as joint givers of these good gifts. It would be blasphemy to link the name of men or angels with "God our Father" in this way. In chapter 2 we will read plainly that Christ Jesus is equal with God, but this verse tells us the same wonderful truth.
Paul also calls Him Lord. One writer says readers pass that title by:
In practice people overlook the Lordship of Christ. This is the common address of the letters, but the Christian world loses sight of it.
- Real — the greeting is not a courtesy line; it means what it says, and the Spirit sends it to today's reader too.
- Free — grace is undeserved favour, and love moves it, not pity.
- Whole — grace opens this letter and closes it: it picked us up, has borne with us, and will finish the good work begun.
- Costly — the same grace that grants believing also grants suffering for Christ's sake. It supplies the courage too.
- Guarded — this peace is peace of heart, not of conscience. It holds steady while persecution rages, and both gifts come from one source: God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.