by Larry Ferrell | November 17, 2017
What do you do when you pray? Perhaps you will answer, “Well, I ask God for anything I really need. If I get desperate enough for something or if I end up in real trouble, I pray to God about it.” Is this really what prayer is all about? An answer to that question comes from the opening chapter of Philippians. The apostle Paul has just introduced himself to the Christians at Philippi had he greeted them in the name of Jesus Christ. Now he mentions how he prays for them, beginning with spiritual needs. In Paul’s mind spiritual realities always came before physical ones. He was not insensitive to material needs. At times he mentioned them, but he knew that these were always less important than spiritual things – for himself first of all and also for all Christians. Paul’s prayer is a great prayer. It’s an example of prayer on which we may pattern our own prayer life.

In his prayers Paul always thanked God for evidence of spiritual blessing among Christians. Although Paul was sensitive to the problems in his churches, he was even more sensitive to the mercies of God. He knew people’s hearts. He knew that there is no good in man that can satisfy God. He knew that Christians live a great deal of their lives in the flesh instead of in the Spirit. He knew that we all fall short of what God would like us to be. But Paul also acquainted with God’s grace and he gloried in it. He knew that God has provided wonderfully for His children – for their salvation and for their constant and continuing growth in the Christian life. Consequently, Paul was continually thankful for these things. Do your prayers follow this pattern?

The thing that Paul is most thankful for inn regard to the Christians at Philippi is their fellowship with him in the gospel “from the first day until now” (v.5). What does this mean? The word fellowship has been so watered down in contemporary speech that it conveys only a faint suggestion of what it meant in earlier times. When we speak of fellowship today, we generally mean no more than comradeship, the sharing of good times. But fellowship originally meant much more than sharing of something, like the fellowship of bank robbers dividing their loot. It meant a sharing in something, participating in something greater than the people involved and more lasting than the activity of any given moment. When the Bible uses the word, it means being caught up into a communion created by God. This is what Paul was so thankful for in the case of the young church at Philippi. They may have had things in common. But Paul is not speaking of these. He is thankful for their share in the gospel of God. They had been taken up into a divine fellowship. They were united, not upon a social level, but by their commitment to the truths of the gospel.

Paul mentions fellowship three times in this epistle. He points to our fellowship in the gospel of God, our fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and our fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. In this way he teaches that we have the privilege of sharing in the full nature of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What a privilege for Christians! If you are a Christian, you already have a share in the gospel. That fellowship is yours by virtue of your conversion to Christ. The fellowship with the Spirit is something in which you grow. It is also possible that in God’s great tenderness and gentle compassion you may also touch upon the fellowship of the sufferings of our Lord.

Philippians 1:3-5 Reflection Questions:
What do you do when you pray? In your mind are spiritual realities before physical ones?
How has this study changed the way you pray?
Is your fellowship with the Holy Spirit growing?

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