Daily Reading: Philippians 1:1-6- Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1 is a powerful letter of great joy that has a minor theme of partnership woven throughout it. One of the strongest partnerships mentioned in the Bible was that of Paul and Timothy. Both men were instrumental in founding the church of Philippi mentioned in Acts 16. Right from the start of this letter, we learn a valuable lesson that we will benefit greatly as we start to see our ministry work not as Lone Rangers but as partners together (Philippians 1:1).
Ministering unto others is a difficult undertaken and it is helpful to do it together with a partner for multiple reasons. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he could send Timothy to the Philippians and he already had established a relationship with them. Besides having a great partner in the Gospel, two things you are going to especially need as you minister; grace and peace (Philippians 1:2).
As you follow the progression of Paul’s writing is that one of the benefits of receiving God’s grace and having a sense of the peace that Jesus has given to us is that both grace and peace leads to thanksgiving (Philippians 1:3).
Since we have peace with God through Jesus we can be assured that our salvation is secure in Christ. Christ is working in and through our lives and because of this, there is confidence in the Gospel going forward (Philippians 1:6).