I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, 4 praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, 5 because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right that I should think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, you who are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, 10 to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
The Philippians have been converted through Paul’s preaching of the Gospel and he opens his letter with a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the Philippians and prays for them with joy. The Philippians and Paul have a deep partnership in the work of spreading the Gospel and Paul is confident that God will continue to work in and through them until Christ returns. The Philippians have supported Paul in the past and are now supporting him while he is in prison. His upcoming trial will be an occasion for him to preach the Gospel. The origin of his deep affection for them lies in Christ Jesus.
Paul prays with his deepest affection that their knowledge and spiritual insight will increase so that they will be able to discern what is necessary for their salvation. If they understand the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, they will discern what is true and just and will be found pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness, when Christ returns.
Almighty God, help us to understand the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection so that we too may be filled with every good grace necessary for us to be found pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness when we are called before Jesus. This we pray through the same Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
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