Letter to the Philippians written

Paul writes from prison to the congregation he was fondest of, and the letter is in large part a thank-you note.

The Philippians had sent him money through a man named Epaphroditus, who had then fallen so ill that he almost died, and who is being sent home with the letter. That is the immediate occasion, and Paul handles the money with the awkwardness of a man who had made a principle of not taking any: I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Then the sentence that follows it, one of the most quoted in the New Testament and almost always quoted out of its setting: I can do all this through him who gives me strength. What the all this refers to is being well fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want.

His own situation is precarious and he says so plainly. He does not know whether he will live, and works through it out loud: for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. I am torn between the two.

He is also cheerfully pragmatic about rivals. Some preach out of envy and rivalry, hoping to stir up trouble for him while he is in chains, and his conclusion is that it makes no difference: whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

The centre of the letter is a passage most scholars take to be an early hymn quoted rather than composed by him, which would make it older than the letter and among the earliest Christian material of any kind. It describes one who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, and being found in appearance as a man, humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

The reason he quotes it is entirely practical. Two women in the congregation, Euodia and Syntyche, have fallen out, and he names them in the letter and asks a third party to help them.

Joy runs through the whole thing, from a cell, and the recurring instruction is to rejoice.

The letter also contains the only instance in the New Testament of an apostle naming two people in a congregation and asking them to sort out a quarrel. Euodia and Syntyche are described as women who contended at his side in the cause of the gospel, so the disagreement was between two of his own colleagues.

Philippi was a Roman colony, and Paul reminds them that their citizenship is in heaven, which in a town proud of its Roman status is a pointed sentence.

Epaphroditus is described as having risked his life to make up for the help the Philippians could not give in person, and the Greek word used of him is a gambling term meaning to stake everything on a throw.