Letter to the Philippians

I have you in my heart

Paul founded the Church of Philippi (an important Macedonian city, near to the Egnatia Roman way, that connected the Eastern and the Western part of the empire) during his second missionary journey, answering to a divine inspiration. In the letter to the Philippians the apostle often mentions his «bonds» (see Phil 1,7.13.14.17); together with «the whole praetorian guard» (Phil 1,13), intended as the emperor’s personal guard, this makes some scholars think that Paul is writing about his Roman incarceration: therefore, the text’s date would be in the 60s of the first century AD. In the initial greetings Paul quotes two of the community’s ministries: «bishops and deacons» (see Phil 1,1); we will write about them in the post on the first letter to Timothy. The main theme in Phil is the warm friendship between Paul and the Christians of Philippi: «I have you in my heart, [...] God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. [...] Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved» (Phil 1,7-8; 4,1). Only from that community Paul accepted gifts for his support; in the other ones he preferred to renounce his right, adding to the efforts for preaching the ones of a manual work to maintain himself: he did it to avoid insinuations about his alleged economical interest in announcing the Gospel (see Acts - episode 4).



«You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no Church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need. Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account. But I have all things, and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God [even here Paul uses the religious vocabulary referring to the Philippians’ good deed: the real worship to God is helping the needy neighbor]. My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus» (Phil 4,15-19).
The apostle invites the Philippians to remain united, avoiding divisions and quarrels, by the quote of a hymn used in the ancient Church: «make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross» (Phil 2,2-8). In this first part Paul speaks about Jesus’ progressive descent: He has the maximum (He is “equal to God”), however he does not greedily grasp to this good, He empties Himself until assuming the «human form» (in all except the sin: for this reason, He is «in the likeness of men» and not “equal”; see Rom 8,3; 2Cor 5,21; Heb 4,15). The servant condition indicated in the text is exactly the human one: in comparison to divinity, it exposes to sufferance and death. Jesus’ crucifixion is a further descent: it is the Roman cruelest punishment, that was reserved to rebel slaves. It is the end of life of a «cursed» man (see Deut 21,23; Gal 3,13), accepted for “obedience” to God’s Project. The consequence of this descent is paradoxical and unexpected: «Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father» (Phil 2,9-11). God answers to Christ’s descent with an exaltation that gives Him universal sovereignty (here is present, even if not explicitly, the idea of the resurrection). His journey of descent and exaltation seems to be without effects: we could say that Christ simply went back in the divinity He previously had come from; however, a more attentive reading points out two achievements: every tongue can now confess that Jesus the man is even the Lord (a noun used for God in the Greek Old Testament) and God Himself is recognized as a «Father».
Paul even exhorts the Philippians to watch out for the Christian preachers that affirm the necessity to continue obeying Moses’ Law. The apostle, remembering his belonging to the Elected People and his past behavior of irreproachable Pharisee, writes: «However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus [do you remember his vocation on the way to Damascus?]» (Phil 3,7-12).
In the next post we will read the letter to the Colossians.