by Bryon Mondok

Created on: February 10, 2009

My daily trip to the mailbox is not very exciting. My mail is usually somewhere between pretty forgettable to downright depressing. What usually waits for me in my box are unsolicited ads and unwanted bills. If a book comes in from Amazon or a movie from Netflix arrives, that puts spring in my step. I really look forward to the mail I get from a missionary family we support that works in Kenya. The cards they send are always brightly colored; handmade and hand-written. Sometimes the front of the card is garnished with a startling African photo. But what I like best are the words of encouragement thoughtfully written on the inside telling me how much my friendship is valued and my prayers for the work coveted. Most of all, I'm informed that they are praying for me and my family and the challenges we face. They remind me that they're standing with me, and, best of all, that God is for me.

The Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians, much the same way, is a message of encouragement to a body of church goers whose lives can easily get caught up in the mundane routine and sometimes treacherous events of work-a-day life.

Philippi was a Roman Colony. Rome established colonies for its pensioned veterans of war. Romans were not too thrilled to have bored, battle-hardened warriors in their city so they settled their vets in Roman outposts in order to bring "freedom" and "civilization" along with the fastest growing religion of the day, the Caesar Cult, to outlying Roman territories. This is the environment the Christian church existed in during the First Century. Christianity was not yet tolerated by Rome. In fact, quite the opposite since Christians preached that Jesus was Lord. Which meant Caesar wasn't. This was not a safe message to be spreading. Paul reminds the Christians in Philippi that their citizenship was not Roman; were colonists of Heaven.

So the main theme of Paul's letter is encouragement. This is the opposite of what you'd expect since most likely Paul wrote this letter from prison. He, too, was living the consequences of a faith that ran contrary to Roman politics and affairs of state. Although he was under house arrest, he still faced execution. Death is not something anyone looks forward to especially when the Romans were experts in dispensing death creatively and cruelly. He used this horrible situation to encourage the Philippians.

God is able to take any condition and redeem it for His purpose if the opportunity is offered Him. Paul does just that.

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