There is so much packed into the first few verses of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, that it would be easier to split his first couple of sentences into two separate parts, even though that means dividing it up mid-sentence.

Take a look at the first part in Philippians 1:3-4:

In order to examine this initial part of Paul’s letter, we will break it into four phrases. But before digging into those, it is helpful to understand that Paul follows a very common procedure in his letter writing during the first century, especially in this letter.

Letters in Paul’s day very commonly included an opening section that was filled with statements of thankfulness, or prayer, or even best wishes to the reader. In Paul’s case here, he fills this with thanksgiving for the church at Philippi. But before he is finished, we will see that he is thankful for several reasons. He is thankful for them overall. He is thankful because they remembered and supported him. He was thankful for their partnership in his ministry. He was thankful because God was working in their lives.

All of this comes out in the next few verses. We will look at a portion of this now, and examine the rest next week.

Paul begins perhaps one of the most encouraging letters in the New Testament in a most encouraging way. Using his standard greeting, with a few twists, he manages to convey a strong sense of encouragement to the people at Philippi.

Read it for yourself in Philippians 1:1-2:

As mentioned, there are a few twists to Paul’s greeting in this letter. First of all, he does not introduce himself as an apostle. He doesn’t need to. His apostleship is not in question in Philippi; they know well who Paul is.

Paul also includes Timothy in his greeting. Timothy may have been a big part of planting the church at Philippi, and he certainly was known to them. The implication here is that Timothy was with Paul as this letter was being written. Timothy is also included in the greetings of several other Pauline letters.

Finally, Paul identifies Timothy and himself as servants, or slaves. Paul is offering himself as a servant, and expecting the Philippians to follow his example.

Paul now turns to the recipients of his letter. He addresses “all the saints.” The word used here conveys the sense of being “set apart,” in much the same way as the words “sanctification” and “holiness” do. Paul frequently addresses his letters with the idea of “being in Christ.” In fact, this theme is central throughout all of Paul’s writings, and shows just how deep this understanding was in his own life.