The following quotes are taken directly from The New Testament in Its World
An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians
N. T. Wright (Author) , Michael F. Bird (Author)
INTRODUCTION
Paul’s epistle to the Philippians overflows with effervescent joy, sparkling with the delight of family affection. It is encouraging and refreshing, reminding readers of the sheer magnificence of Jesus the Messiah, and of their common joy in him.
The letter was written in prison in—we will argue—Ephesus. While in chains, Paul contemplates the potential end of his life’s work, and looks ahead to what might lie in store. It shows Paul as joyful even amid adversity. It is a mature and measured piece of writing. Paul displays heartfelt gratitude to the Philippians, whom he regards as nothing less than his joy and crown. Indeed, this letter goes to show that Paul remained tied with bonds of affection to his churches. He never ceased to be delighted at the joy they gave him.
Paul, it seems, had entered into financial partnership with the Philippians; this contrasts interestingly with his refusal to accept money from Corinth, a move which may have been prompted by his anxiety lest the Corinthian church would suppose it ‘owned’ him. For Paul, his arrangement with the Philippians was reciprocal: they supported him materially in his ministry, and they in turn shared the fruits of his labour. At the same time, he warns them against potential intruders, he mediates a dispute between two female leaders, and he exhorts the Philippians to live out the Messiah-story as a counter-imperial colony of heavenly citizens.
The centrepiece of the letter is the famous poem of Philippians 2.6–11, narrating the story of Jesus’ incarnation, humiliation, and exaltation. This becomes a paradigm for the Philippians’ attitudes and behaviour, as it had been for Paul himself. And, since the poem displays the biblically rooted narrative of the Messiah as an implicit contrast to all human empire (remembering that Philippi was a proud Roman colony), we are not surprised at the many hints throughout of the antithesis between Christ and Caesar—a contrast that was to be displayed in the way the followers of Jesus would ‘shine like lights’ in the world.
Philippians 2:5-11Revised Standard Version
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,[a] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippi
The ancient Macedonian city of Philippi is known today by its Greek name Krenides, in the north-east of modern Greece. The town was settled from the nearby island of Thasos in the fourth century BC. Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, aware of silver and gold mines nearby, annexed the region in 356 BC, renaming it ‘Philippi’ in his own honour. The city was a significant outpost for the border with Thrace to the east. Located as it was on the Via Egnatia, it was an important stop on the land route to the Hellespont and into Asia Minor for those travelling further east.
The city remained important even after the Roman conquest of Macedonia in 168/7 BC. However, in 42 BC the plains of Philippi were the site for one of the most famous and important battles in Roman history, when Mark Antony and Octavian defeated the republican forces of Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar.
In Paul’s time Philippi had a population of about 10,000, about one tenth of the size of Thessalonica, ninety miles west along the Via Egnatia.
Philippi was a classic romanized Greek city, complete with a Roman system of government. The colonists enjoyed Italian legal status and certain tax exemptions. Most local first-century inscriptions are in Latin, not Greek. A cohort of praetorians, troops from the emperor’s own personal guard, was garrisoned in Philippi.
The resident religions reflect the diversity of the city. As many as thirty-five different deities were venerated in Philippi. Prominent among them were the Thracian Horseman, Dionysus, Artemis/Diana, Silvanus, and not least the burgeoning cult of the divus Augustus.
The Philippian church had the distinction of being the first church in Europe, and the first phase of Paul’s mission in Macedonia (that is, northern Greece). It marks Paul’s move away from cities with a sizable Jewish population, like those in Asia Minor, to cities that were essentially gentile and pagan in both religion and culture.
Luke reports several events from Paul’s initial visit. These include the conversion of Lydia, a gentile God-worshipper; the exorcism of a fortune-telling slave-girl; and the trouble into which this plunged Paul and Silas when the girl’s owners saw that their business was ruined.
Where was Paul when he wrote to the Philippians?
Most commentators have suggested that Philippians was written from Rome, with some favouring Caesarea. We prefer a setting in Ephesus, with a date in the early to mid-50s, for several reasons:
1. We know that Paul spent considerable periods of time in Ephesus. Not only that, but an Ephesian imprisonment is a sound deduction based on Luke’s report of Paul’s tumultuous time there, his own reference to the ‘troubles we experienced in the province of Asia’, and his enigmatic remark about how he ‘fought wild beasts in Ephesus’. All this could well be a metaphor for how he faced imprisonment and a capital trial in Ephesus.
2. Paul’s travel plans cannot be squared with the composition of the captivity letters from Rome. We know from Romans that Paul was hoping to travel to Spain after passing through Rome, yet he told Philemon to prepare a guest-room for him as he hoped to visit him in Colossae. If we place both of these letters in Rome, then it would imply a very strange route, either to travel to Spain in the west via the interior of Asia Minor in the east or vice versa. However, if we locate these two letters in an Ephesian imprisonment, then the incongruity is removed. A trip to Colossae from Ephesus is easily manageable, as is the correspondence between Ephesus and Philippi.
3. Timothy is the co-author of Philippians, yet we have no evidence that Timothy accompanied Paul to Rome. He more likely remained in Ephesus where even the Pastoral Epistles place him.
4. The claim that Paul’s reference to ‘the praetorium’ and the ‘saints of the household of Caesar’ implies a Roman rather than Ephesian provenance is inaccurate. While it is true that Asia (that is, western Asia Minor) was a senatorial rather than imperial province, it is hardly unexpected that, given the prominence of the city, an imperial residence with imperial administrators and a skeleton garrison would be found in Ephesus.
The Philippians were undisturbed by the anxieties and idleness that affected the Thessalonians; they did not experience the factionalism and immoralities of the Corinthians. That said, the Philippians were not without their own struggles.
In addition, Paul was worried that Jewish-Christian missionaries, similar perhaps to those who had made trouble in Galatia, either had arrived or might soon arrive on the scene and cause similar problems. Paul refers disparagingly to those who preach Christ out of self-serving motives, and in highly charged vitriolic language he warns of ‘those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh’. Their message is to announce the superiority of their inherited privileges as Jews and to urge male gentiles to be circumcised, and they put confidence in the flesh.
‘Submission, as portrayed in Philippians, is not the consequence of oppression or coercion. Rather, it is offered freely, and reflects the self-giving character of God in the salvation events (2.6–11). Moreover, as the recipients of that grace, believers are exhorted to demonstrate a similar self-kenotic behaviour/mindset in their mutual relations. Regardless of the context of social order, gender and status, each believer is called to treat the other as a “superior” as Christ submitted to God.’
M. Sydney Park, Submission within the Godhead and the Church in the Epistle to the Philippians, 185.
THE ARGUMENT OF PHILIPPIANS
Greetings, thanksgiving, and intercession (1.1–11)
The letter begins with a greeting from Paul and his co-author Timothy, addressed to God’s holy people in Philippi with particular mention of the ‘overseers’ and ‘deacons’, who were left in charge after Paul departed (1.1) and about whom Paul is prayerfully thankful (1.2–3). Paul is thankful because the Philippians are ‘partners in the gospel’ (see 1.5), ‘partners in grace’ (1.7 NTE/KNT); they are in the gospel business, the grace business, along with Paul, and their gift proves it.
Paul here gives a rare hint of what he thinks happens immediately after a Christian death: ‘I would really love to leave all this and be with the Messiah’ (NTE/ KNT [amended]). That will not be the end; there is still the resurrection to come. But being with the Messiah will be immediate, vivid, deeply joyful.
The advance of the gospel (1.12–26)
Paul’s imprisonment, far from hindering the gospel, has served to promote it (1.12). The whole imperial garrison knows that Paul is in chains for his message about a new kyrios, a new emperor (1.13). This has given the local church fresh courage to proclaim the word of the gospel (1.14). Paul adds that not everyone preaching about Jesus has the right motives. But he is sanguine: what matters is that the Messiah is being proclaimed (1.15–18b) (see box: ‘The gospel at work in Philippi’).
Exhortations to unity and to the imitation of Christ (1.27—2.18)
Paul’s exhortation here is central to the letter. The Philippians are to stand firm, united in the faith, whatever happens. They will be sharing the sufferings of the Messiah—and of Paul himself.
Paul’s previous request for unity among his readers is to be achieved by actively cultivating certain virtues, particularly those connected with learning to think (as we might say) messianically—in other words, thinking as Jesus thought. Their union with him is the ground for such character-development, however counter-intuitive this was in greco-roman culture.
THE CHRIST ‘POEM’ – (Phil. 2.2–11 NTE/KNT)
5 This is how you should think among yourselves—with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus:
6 Who, though in God’s form, did not
Regard his equality with God
As something he ought to exploit.
7 Instead, he emptied himself,
And received the form of a slave,
Being born in the likeness of humans.
And then, having human appearance,
8 He humbled himself, and became
Obedient even to death,
Yes, even the death of the cross.
9 And so God has greatly exalted him,
And to him in his favour has given
The name which is over all names:
10 That now at the name of Jesus
Every knee within heaven shall bow—
On earth, too, and under the earth;
11 And every tongue shall confess
That Jesus, Messiah, is Lord,
To the glory of God, the father.
The poem provides the foundation for the challenge to self-sacrificing unity (2.1–18) and also, in chapter 3, for self-abnegating discipleship. The poem depicts Jesus’ life in three stages: pre-existence (v. 6), incarnation (vv. 7–8), and exaltation (vv. 9–11), each of which has received extensive scholarly treatment. The weight of the poem rests on the decision (of the one who was all along equal with God) to become human, and to travel the road of obedience to the divine saving plan, yes, all the way to the cross. The point is that that decision was not a decision to stop (in some sense) being divine. It was a decision about what it really meant to be divine (see ‘Emails from the edge: help with harpagmos’). His subsequent exaltation demonstrates that on the cross Jesus had done what, in Israel’s scriptures, only Israel’s God can and will do. Paul has, in effect, rethought Israel’s monotheistic tradition and discovered Jesus at its heart, not as an abstract theory but as a human of recent historical memory as well as of present spiritual experience.
The poem then works out the new patterns of thinking and living (2.12–18).
Warning against Jewish interference (3.1–21)
The first verse looks like a letter-ending, but instead it precipitates Paul into a sharp warning against possible Jewish proselytizers. He was, as we saw, probably thinking of what had happened in Galatia. Paul assures the faithful that they are already ‘the circumcision’ (3.3), and that they are to imitate him in discovering the truly Jewish way, following the Messiah through self-renunciation to resurrection. Paul insists that he hasn’t arrived at the glorious goal; true maturity means knowing that you must still keep pressing on forwards towards the goal (3.12–13). He urges the Philippians to follow his example rather than that of his opponents, ‘enemies of the cross’ (3.18–19).
Exhortation to unity, gentleness, and excellence (4.1–9)
Paul adds several short exhortations, all part of what it means to ‘stand firm in the Lord’ (4.1). These focus on a double injunction: his readers should think about anything that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy (4.8), while at the same time they should live in the way he has himself exemplified (4.9).
PHILIPPIANS AND THE BIG PICTURE
No wonder Philippians is cherished by many, with the majestic heights of its christology, and its call to imitate Jesus, pursue godly virtues, and promote the gospel. Many today find it more immediately relevant to contemporary church life than some other letters. Key themes for focus are fellowship, citizenship, and humility.
Most Christians think of ‘fellowship’ as a Christian version of ‘friendship’, which is a start but doesn’t go nearly far enough. Fellowship is not simply what you do over coffee after church, but what the church does (for instance) with the missionaries it supports, and with the poor in its own community. Churches are called to ‘fellowship in the gospel’, entailing giving to and receiving from gospel-workers, local and overseas, to promote the gospel. The fellowship Paul enjoyed with the Philippians continued even while he was in prison, and that has served as a model for the church’s work ever since. This has nothing to do with paternalism, and everything to do with genuine partnership, mutual giving and receiving, and a commitment to shared goals won from shared resources. It is such giving that is, Paul says, ‘a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God’ (Phil. 4.18). The budgets of all churches must find a place to put something on the altar of sacrificial worship in order to facilitate fellowships in the gospel that are as fruitful in the human realm as they are beautiful in God’s eyes.
Second, when Paul says that ‘our citizenship is in heaven’ (3.20) he is emphasizing that the Messiah, who reigns in heaven, and who will one day return from heaven, is the object of our hope and loyalty. There was nothing wrong with being a citizen of Rome, just as there is nothing wrong with being a British or even Australian citizen. But when the gospel of Jesus is unveiled it reveals the true empire, the true citizenship, the true lord, and in that light all the pretensions of empire, not least the arrogant and blasphemous claims of the emperor himself, or the propaganda of power-hungry presidents, are exposed as folly. The church’s vocation is not to bless the power, policies, and pantheon of civic leaders, but to measure them by the standard of Christ, to pursue the things that make for peace and justice, and to proclaim that all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The church was never intended to be the religious department of any empire, but always to be building for the true kingdom, setting up an embassy for the one true lord, living lives according to his symbols, his teaching, his story, and no other. If that means suffering, that will mean following the pattern of the Messiah, and confidently expecting his rescue and reward. The church’s loyalty cannot be auctioned off to those who promise it political influence; nor can its core convictions be pummelled into submission to fit the reigning zeitgeist. For citizens of heaven, the gospel should be declared, not domesticated.
Third, Paul focuses on humility. This looms large in Philippians 2.1–5, and is the centrepiece of the poem of 2.6–11. Humility was regarded in the ancient world as weakness, the characteristic of inferiors and slaves who had been kicked down to the bottom rungs of society. Pagans usually prized (as most people still do) ‘honour’ and fame, usually built on the backs of others. But for the Messiah and his people it is different. Paul is more than capable of giving commands. But most of all he wants his readers to absorb the story of Jesus, specifically the story of his humility, death, and exaltation, and to ‘work out’ what their ‘salvation’ is therefore going to mean in practice (3.12). He wants them, in other words, to adopt a form of moral reasoning shaped by the story of Jesus as the bedrock of their single-minded unity.
The Carpenter's Nail 