From Servants to Saints

She had just finished an Alpha course when her company relocated her to the other end of the country. International students in your outreach café become Christians in the final months of study and return home to Iran, China, and Mexico. Your cousin, a believer, works 12-hour shifts offshore two weeks a month. Letters and emails are no substitute for face-to-face encouragement and mentoring, but sometimes there is no choice. What do you say? What is it necessary to include?

Paul is a master at long-distance discipleship. He packs the conventional letter-writing style full of gospel explosives that send shards through the rest of the letter. Unusually, he omits to mention his apostolic credentials and simply refers to himself and Timothy as servants of Christ, modelling equality, partnership, and servant leadership. His recipients are called "saints." Overseers and deacons are acknowledged, but every Philippian Christian is part of God’s holy people.

Right from the start, in the face of some selfishness and disunity, Paul reminds them of what is more important than anything: who they are in Christ. The stereotypical greeting is transformed as they are showered with ‘grace and peace’—unmerited kindness, harmony, and security granted through the Father and the Son. Well before the age of tweets and sound bites, Paul encapsulates the wonder of the gospel in a couple of verses packed full of depth and glory.

If we share Paul’s concern for new believers far away, his joy may also encourage us. Thankful prayer gobbles up the kilometers of separation. When someone becomes a Christian, God is at work, continuing what he has begun. As we pray for a believer’s protection and flourishing in Christ, as we write messages they read and reread, we can trust God to complete what he has started (v 6).

Respond in Prayer

Thank you, Father, for Paul's example of long-distance discipleship. Thank you, too, that what he wrote centuries ago still speaks and disciples us today. In Jesus' name, Amen.