Philippians 1:1-9
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons[a]:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
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.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
footnotes
a. Philippians 1:1 The word deacons refers here to Christians designated to serve with the overseers/elders of the church in a variety of ways; similarly in Romans 16:1 and 1 Tim. 3:8,12.
- The theological truth is the love of God. The Christian gospel is the message of a God who desires the welfare of all people everywhere. To pray to such a God is to get caught up in and carried along with Him in His desire for all our good. Intercession, then, is a means of aligning our dominant desires with God’s and thus becoming an effective channel by which His power is released in the world.
- The sociological fact is that we are all a part of each other. In the social context in which we have our being, everything we say and do affects those who are around us. It is in the context of that sociological inter-dependency that intercessory prayer operates.