was there. And that beauty is born of a new relationship to God. With Christ, life becomes lovely because human beings are no longer the victims of God’s law but the children of his love.
Eirēnē is a comprehensive word. We translate it as peace; but it never means a negative peace, never simply the absence of trouble. It means total wellbeing, everything that makes for a person’s highest good.
It may well be connected with the Greek word eirein, which means to join, to weave together. And this peace is always connected to personal relationships – our relationship to ourselves, to other people and to God. It is always the peace that is born of reconciliation.
So, when Paul prays for grace and peace on his people, he is praying that they should have the joy of knowing God as Father and the peace of being reconciled to God, to others and to themselves – and that grace and peace can come only through Jesus Christ.
THE MARKS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
1. CHRISTIAN JOY
Philippians 1:3–11
In all my remembrance of you I thank my God for you, and always in every one of my prayers I pray for you with joy, because you have been in partnership with me for the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now, and of this I am confident, that he who began a good work in you will complete it so that you may be ready for the day of Jesus Christ. And it is right for me to feel like this about you, because I have you in my heart, because all of you are partners in grace with me, both in my hands, and in my defence and confirmation of the gospel. God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the very compassion of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love for each other may continue to abound more and more in all fullness of knowledge and in all sensitiveness of perception, that you may test the things which differ, that you may be yourselves pure and that you may cause no other to stumble, in preparation for the day of Christ, because you have been filled with the fruit which the righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ produces, and which issues in glory and praise to God.
IT is a lovely thing when, as Charles Ellicott, the nineteenth-century New Testament scholar and Bishop of Gloucester, puts it, remembrance and gratitude are bound up together. In our personal relationships, it is a great thing to have nothing but happy memories; and that was how Paul was with the Christians at Philippi. To remember brought no regrets, only happiness.
In this passage, the marks of the Christian life are set out.
There is Christian joy. It is with joy that Paul prays for his friends. The letter to the Philippians has been called the Epistle of Joy. The eighteenth-century German theologian Johannes Bengel, in his terse Latin, commented: ‘Summa epistolae gaudeo – gaudete.’ ‘The whole point of the letter is I rejoice; you rejoice.’ Let us look at the picture of Christian joy which this letter paints.
(1) In 1:4, there is the joy of Christian prayer, the joy of bringing those we love to the mercy seat of God.
George Reindrop, in his book No Common Task, tells how a nurse once taught a man to pray and in doing so changed his whole life, until a dull, disgruntled and dispirited individual became a man of joy. The nurse showed how it is possible to use the hands as a scheme of prayer. Each finger stood for someone. Her thumb was nearest to her, and it reminded her to pray for those who were closest to her. The second finger was used for pointing, and it stood for all her teachers in school and in the hospital. The third finger was the tallest, and it stood for the leaders in every sphere of life. The fourth finger was the weakest, as every pianist knows, and it stood for those who were in trouble and in pain. The little finger was the smallest and the least important, and to the nurse it stood for herself.
There must always be a deep joy and peace in bringing our loved ones and others to God in prayer.
(2) There is the joy that Jesus Christ is preached (1:18). When we enjoy a great blessing, surely our first instinct must be to share it; and there is joy in thinking of the gospel being preached all over the world, so that at first one person and then another and another is brought within the love of Christ.
(3) There is the joy of faith (1:25). If Christianity does not make us happy, it will not make us anything at all. Christianity should never be a cause of anguish. The psalmist said: ‘Look to him, and be radiant’ (Psalm 34:5). When Moses came down from the mountain top, his face shone. Christianity is the faith of the happy heart and the shining face.
(4) There is the joy of seeing Christians in fellowship together (2:2). As the Scottish Paraphrase has it (Psalm 133:1):
Behold how good a thing it is,
And how becoming well,
Together such as brethren are
In unity to dwell!
There is peace for no one where there are broken human relationships and strife between individuals. There is no lovelier sight than a family linked in love to each other, or a church whose members are one with each other, because they are one in Christ Jesus their Lord.
(5) There is the joy of suffering for Christ (2:17). In the hour of his martyrdom in the flames, Bishop Polycarp prayed: ‘I thank you, O Father, that you have judged me worthy of this hour.’ To suffer for Christ is a privilege, for it is an opportunity to demonstrate beyond any question of doubt where our loyalty lies and to share in the upbuilding of the kingdom of God.
(6) There is the joy of news of the loved one (2:28). Life is full of separations, and there is always joy when news comes to us of those loved ones from whom we are temporarily separated. A great Scottish preacher once spoke of the joy that can be given with a postage stamp. It is worth remembering how easily we can bring joy to those who love us and how easily we can bring anxiety, by keeping in touch or failing to keep in touch with them.
(7) There is the joy of Christian hospitality (2:29). There is the home of the shut door, and there is the home of the open door. The shut door is the door of selfishness; the open door is the door of Christian welcome and Christian love. It is a great thing to have a door from which the stranger and the one in trouble know that they will never be turned away.
(8) There is the joy of those who are in Christ (3:1, 4:1). We have already seen that to be in Christ is to live in his presence as the bird lives in the air, the fish in the sea, and the roots of the trees in the soil. It is human nature to be happy when we are with the person whom we love; and Christ is the one from whose love nothing in time or eternity can ever separate us.
(9) There is the joy of those who have won other souls for Christ (4:1). The Philippians are Paul’s joy and crown, for he was the means of bringing them to Jesus Christ. It is the joy of parents, teachers and preachers to bring others, especially children, into the love of Jesus Christ. Surely those who enjoy a great privilege cannot rest content until they share it with their families and friends. For Christians, evangelism is not a duty; it is a joy.
(10) There is the joy in a gift (4:10). This joy lies not so much in the gift itself as in being remembered and realizing that someone cares. This is a joy that we could bring to others more often than we do.
THE MARKS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
2. CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE
Philippians 1:3–11 (contd)
IN verse 6, Paul says that he is confident that God, who has begun a good work in the Philippians, will complete it so that they will be ready for the day of Christ. There is a picture here
