Indroduction to Philippians

Mitchell, Brody, Shannon, and Shelby,

Also Levi and Valerie,

With great pleasure, I completed Philippians. Pleasure, because the message was quite beautiful and simple, and full of Grace. It gave me the peace I hope to rediscover every time I open up the Bible.

Recently, I attained a Bible in which I intended to use my highlighters and occasionally scribble notes in the margins. It has always been a sacrifice for me to leave marks in a Bible. Sometimes, I didn't want to spoil a perfect little antique; other times I would be too humbled to add my own thoughts; but most importantly, I really didn't want to highlight or emphasize anything that would bias my later readings and make it difficult for me to see something new each time.

So this current Bible represents the thoughts I'm having now. I have it color coded, and I my commentary on Philippians starts with this small little anecdote: I had to introduce a new color into the highlighting system.

Specifically, I put various verses in pink that emphasized the church, the relationships believers have with one another, and our shared mission. The body of believers in Macedonia was Paul's pride and joy – with emphasis particularly on joy. It's not just that he uses that word more often, but it's also what John said in 1 John 1:4 when talking about fellowship. They already have joy, but fellowship really completed it. It reaffirmed their reasons for being joyful.

Joy, fellowship, and mission work form a prominent theme in the letter. We know this because it's how he chooses to open it. This is how he chooses to set the tone:

After this, all of the specific issues Paul covers are extensions of themes planted here, right in the beginning.  Most prominent on them - and this can never be stressed enough - is Grace.  All of this means nothing unless he begins and ends on the letter with this context.  For Paul, a proper letter is like a Big Mac, with Grace in the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Everything else, all of the specifics of what it means to be saved by Grace, is really only a continuation of that thought.  Levi, we've both heard the Christian life as the constant metabolizing of forgiveness.  That means, every profound philosophy we have is derived from Grace.  It's an ongoing reaction, and ongoing realization of how profoundly Grace has changed us.  This entire letter, in fact, is really just an expanded version of this singular thought:

God's plan for us is Grace.  Perhaps our understanding of the ticks and tocks, the dotted i's and the crossed t's, requires an understanding of the Trinity, but until those concepts have actually touched us in our lives, we don't actually experience these theological concepts as a reality.

Relationship: Yes, this reflects that we are made after the image of a God who, being triune, is in Himself a relationship.  But true joy in this doesn't come until after we've accepted Grace.

Joy: Is just a word.  Until we've discovered that we're promised everything that's good, and that the means of this promise is through Grace.

Love: We grow in this only as we continue to grow in our appreciation that God has loved us first.  We could not love because our value was conditional upon it, because we were slaves to the law.  Once we accept the new covenant, we still can't technically love because we're sinners.  How, then, do we grow in love?  By leaning on Grace and knowing that Christ through the Holy Spirit starts a good work in you, a good work that you cannot take credit for, and God still credits it unto you.  That's Grace.

Missions: Ahhh...

This is where we can credit this letter with a special emphasis.  Our lives don't have a mission, a purpose in the here and now until one is given to us.  While that, on its own, requires Grace, let's look at the components that make up missions, and how each and every one of those goes back to Grace.

First, it is possible to accept Grace as an individual.  Your salvation is not conditional upon your brothers' and sisters' salvation.  It is also possible to keep that salvation to yourself.  Lord knows that most of us do that, and it's unfortunate.  Still, every life matters.  Your life matters.  That you have accepted salvation is a good thing!  You don't need to evangelize.  God doesn't need you to evangelize.  Other people need you to evangelize.

Yet when you begin to understand Grace more and more, and realize that it's saving you for a relationship with a communal God, sharing that salvation makes it all the better.  

Our very reasons for evangelizing changes.

Since the dawn of time, people have proselytized their philosophies and cultural values.  There's a certain component of spiritual greed and pride in that, and a lack of respect for people different from you.  Even if you proselytize for the good of others, such as advertising a healthy diet or spreading the belief of God, there's an underlying prejudice; you don't actually love the people you're reaching out to.  You're trying to change them and control them.  Graceless missions only makes Christianity indistinguishable from the Borg.

"We like the way we are.  We will make you the way we are so that you will like it, too."

The Gospel is instead merely offering people a gift.  Grace frees us up to like people for who they really are, no strings attached.  Grace allows us to truly build on our desire for relationship.

Only through Grace can missions be a fulfilling means to itself.  Otherwise, it is nothing more than evolutionary theory applied to religion.  Evolution posits that everything must breed and reproduce.  The fittest will survive.  A good species of animal is one that multiplies and carries on from generation to generation indefinitely.  Each generation is really only a collective gene donor that exists for the purpose of donating to the next donor, which is really no purpose at all.  A proper virus is one that spreads more and more until it's everywhere.  This doesn't fulfill anything.

With Grace, we have salvation.  We offer people something.  There is a reason to share it, rather than sharing it first and then backtracking to see if we can add meaning to the chain reaction we started.

Finally, Grace allows us to fail  It allows us to be weak.  It allows us to not only enjoy one another, but to depend on one another.  Grace allows us to say that we're willing to accept that we're pretty sloppy evangelists and have let Jesus down, and look to others for support.  It allows us to persevere even when we're not charismatic enough to complete the mission.  It allows us to work together as a church instead of trying to make it on our own because "We're Christian and empowered and that ought to be enough."  It allows us to be disempowered.  It allows us to heal from the tragedy of a person rejecting Christ, because Grace tells us that we don't have to be Saviors or to bear all the same emotional burdens that Christ did.

And if you get tired of me saying it, too bad.  Paul thought it necessary (3:1).  And it is.  We have to keep on telling ourselves this every day.

All is Grace.

Sincerely,

John Hooyer