Morning Moments

To bring us up to speed in our Devotional Study of Philippians remember -

Chapter One is talking about this amazing new life in Christ with its multifaceted relationships. The prophet Amos said, "A threefold cord is not quickly broken." As believers we are in a Brotherhood consisting of servants, saints, shepherds, and sheep-dogs and should at all times in all circumstances remain close and not divided. That was Paul focus in verse one.

As we continue to look at the next few verses, we are reminded of the Blessings this Life of Brotherhood should bring with it and we have been exploring some of the reasons Paul was so blessed. Before we continue our outline, I want us to remember that according to verses 2-7 the blessings are seen as both vertical (from God and horizontal (from the brethren). Hence Paul is rejoicing in remembering, reflecting, recollection, recalling, etc, and is reassured that what God had begun He would continue. The tense shows a presumption on the part of the writer, not a condition. In other words, this is what will happen because, rather than this is what will happen if.

Let me simple say today that Paul's conviction about this - and this is, I believe, extremely important for us to grasp, is based upon three things:

1. Their continued fellowship in the Gospel - fellowship can be broken so DON'T DO IT.
2. The Lord's following through - He will do His part and if you break the fellowship He will chasten you until you GET IT RIGHT OR HE WILL TAKE YOU HOME.
3. The apostle's follow up - Paul understood that it is more than a Christian's responsibility to just "drop babies", that responsibility means that if you have a child you care for that child, and that is what Paul did.

The blessings that come from the Life of Christ in believers is a cooperative work of this support group. Now let's read the verses again -

[1:2] Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3] I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
[4] Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
[5] For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
[6] Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
[7] Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

BLESSINGS!