Philippians 4:18-23 - Greetings

4:18

We are taking all this a verse at a time, but we need to remember that we should really look at the whole section at once. Paul makes it clear that he now has everything he needs and is no longer in need. Moreover, the gifts were a fragrant offering, ie they were acceptable to the Lord. Paul is using language from the Law on offerings and sacrifices here. So he is mixing accounting language with religious language. We should also note that their gifts were “pleasing to God”. We rightly remember that we are sinners and are saved purely by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ. However, we can do things that do actually please God. They do not earn salvation in any way, but we are in a relationship with God, and in a relationship one party can do things that please the other. We need to appreciate this, not so that we become proud, but so that our relationship with the Lord deepens.

4:19

Giving to Paul may well have been very costly for the Philippians, but after all the spiritual blessings of sharing in the work of the gospel Paul assures them that God will also meet all their needs. Note the personal “my God”. God is not an abstract concept, He is the living God who made us, who knows us, and who makes Himself known to us. The needs that God will supply will be both spiritual and material. We always want to separate the two, but in reality they go together. And God supplies these according to the “riches of His glory in Christ Jesus”. In Christ we have everything, all of God’s plans are fulfilled in and through Christ.

4:20

All this culminates in an outburst of praise, all this being everything that has gone before in the letter. God’s plans are perfect and wonderful beyond our comprehension. Men hate God, but we should love Him, for His plans are always for the best. When we put our trust in Him we find this to be true.

4:21-23

We now come to the close of the letter. “Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus” (NIV) is actually “Greet every saint in Christ Jesus” (ESV). In the Bible “saint” does not refer to a “special” Christian, but to anyone who belongs to Christ. “those of Caesar's household” probably refers to anyone who worked in the emperor’s service, rather than implying that someone in the emperor’s family had been converted.

The letter started with grace and it finishes with grace.