The Epistle to the Philippians
The Epistle to
Philippians (or simply Philippians) . It is a letter
from St. Paul to the church of Philippi. It is one of
the authentic Pauline epistles, written c 62. Pauline
authorship of Philippians is "universally accepted" (Beare,
p. 1) by virtually all Bible scholars, ancient and
modern, with the exception of the kenosis passage in
Philippians 2:5-11. According to some theologians this
may have been a Christian hymn that Paul quoted.
The letter was written to the church at Philippi, one of
the earliest churches to be founded in Europe. They were
very attached to Paul, just as he was very fond of them.
Of all the churches, their contributions (which Paul
gratefully acknowledges) are among the only he accepts.
(Acts 20:33-35; 2 Cor. 11:7-12; 2 Thess. 3:8). The
generosity of the Philippians comes out very
conspicuously (Phil. 4:15). "This was a characteristic
of the Macedonian missions, as 2 Cor. 8 and 9 amply and
beautifully prove. It is remarkable that the Macedonian
converts were, as a class, very poor (2 Cor. 8:2),
though the very first converts were of all classes (Acts
16); and the parallel facts, their poverty and their
open-handed support of the great missionary and his
work, are deeply harmonious. At the present day the
missionary liberality of poor Christians is, in
proportion, really greater than that of the rich" (Moule).
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