Before Paul teaches us about joy, suffering, humility, contentment, or living worthy of the gospel, he begins by telling us who we are, whose we are, and where everything we need for the Christian life comes from.
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
— Philippians 1:1–2
There are places in Scripture where it is tempting to read quickly.
The opening greetings of New Testament letters can be one of those places.
We see the names of the author and recipients. We read the familiar words grace and peace. Then we hurry ahead, looking for the teaching we assume will begin a few verses later.
But there are no wasted words in Scripture.
Before Paul writes about joy in suffering, the advancement of the gospel, living worthy of the gospel, the humility of Christ, working out our salvation, pressing toward the goal, our heavenly citizenship, or learning the secret of contentment, he begins with two sentences that quietly establish the theological foundation beneath the entire Christian life.
Paul and Timothy are servants of Christ Jesus.
The believers in Philippi are saints in Christ Jesus.
Grace and peace come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Servants of Christ.
Saints in Christ.
Grace and peace from Christ.
These small words reveal an enormous reality.
The Christian life is a life that belongs to Christ, is found in Christ, and is sustained by what comes from Christ.
Servants of Christ Jesus: He Owns Us
Paul begins:
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus…”
The Greek word translated servants is douloi, the plural form of doulos.
The word can be translated servant, bondservant, or slave. While each English word carries different associations, the central idea is one of belonging.
A doulos lives under the authority of another.
Paul could have introduced himself in many ways.
He was an apostle.
He was a church planter.
He had suffered for the gospel.
He had received extraordinary revelation.
He had been entrusted with a significant ministry.
He had theological training, Jewish ancestry, religious accomplishments, and a testimony of radical conversion.
But Paul begins Philippians by identifying himself as one who belongs to Jesus Christ.
A servant of Christ Jesus.
Before Paul tells us what he has done, he tells us whose he is.
This confronts one of the deepest assumptions of the human heart: the belief that we belong to ourselves.
Our culture tells us to discover ourselves, define ourselves, express ourselves, protect ourselves, and build lives centered around the fulfillment of ourselves.
The gospel tells us something radically different.
“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”
— 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
Jesus Christ does not merely improve our lives.
He claims them.
He does not become one priority among many competing priorities.
He becomes Lord.
To belong to Christ means that our bodies belong to Him.
Our time belongs to Him.
Our homes belong to Him.
Our marriages, motherhood, work, ministry, gifts, suffering, ambitions, possessions, and plans all come under His authority.
This is not the language of oppression.
It is the language of redemption.
We were once enslaved to sin, unable to free ourselves from its dominion. Christ purchased us with His own blood, brought us under His gracious rule, and made us His own.
The Christian has not moved from belonging to a cruel master to belonging to no master at all.
We have been brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The question is no longer merely:
What do I want to do with my life?
The better question is:
Lord Jesus, what would You have me do with the life that belongs to You?
Saints in Christ Jesus: He Defines Us
Paul continues:
“To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi…”
The word translated saints is hagioi, the plural form of hagios, meaning holy ones or those set apart for God.
Paul is not writing to a small group of spiritually exceptional Christians.
He is writing to all the saints.
Every believer in Philippi is addressed this way.
The struggling believer.
The mature believer.
The suffering believer.
The believer still learning obedience.
The believer who will need correction.
The believer involved in disagreement.
All the saints.
Why can Paul call ordinary Christians saints?
The answer is found in the three words that follow:
“in Christ Jesus.”
Their holiness is inseparable from their relationship to Christ.
They have been set apart by God and brought into union with His Son.
Steven Lawson writes:
“Being in Christ Jesus makes all the difference to everything.”
Before their conversion, the Philippians belonged to this present evil world and lived under the dominion of darkness. But through the saving work of God, they had been delivered from darkness and brought into vital union and communion with Jesus Christ.
They had been washed in His blood.
Given a new standing in grace.
Made citizens of the kingdom of God.
They were no longer defined by who they had been apart from Christ.
They were now in Christ Jesus.
This little prepositional phrase carries enormous theological weight.
Paul does not merely say that the saints believe about Christ.
Or admire Christ.
Or follow the teachings of Christ.
They are in Christ.
The New Testament repeatedly uses this language to describe the believer’s union with Jesus.
We have died with Christ.
We have been raised with Christ.
We are seated with Christ.
Our lives are hidden with Christ.
We are justified in Christ.
We are being sanctified in Christ.
We will be raised because we belong to Christ.
Christianity is not fundamentally the renovation of the old life.
It is not God helping us become improved versions of ourselves.
The gospel brings us into an entirely new realm of existence.
Once we were in Adam.
Now we are in Christ.
Once we belonged to the kingdom of darkness.
Now we have been transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
Once we stood condemned in our sin.
Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The Philippians lived in a real city.
They lived under Roman authority.
They had families, responsibilities, occupations, struggles, relationships, suffering, weaknesses, and disagreements.
Geographically, they were in Philippi.
But their spiritual location was somewhere else.
They were in Christ Jesus.
Where they lived was not the same thing as where their lives were found.
Later Paul will remind them:
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
— Philippians 3:20
The Philippians lived in Rome’s world.
But they belonged to Christ’s kingdom.
They lived in Philippi.
But they were in Christ.
The same is true for every believer today.
We live in homes and communities.
We are wives, mothers, daughters, friends, employees, church members, caregivers, and neighbors.
We carry histories.
We experience failures.
We endure suffering.
We receive responsibilities.
We walk through circumstances that profoundly affect us.
But none of those things occupies the position Christ occupies.
Our circumstances describe where God has placed us.
Our responsibilities describe where God has called us to faithfulness.
Our past may explain some of the battles we fight.
But Christ defines who we are.
The Christian’s deepest identity is not found by looking inward.
It is found by looking to Christ.
Grace and Peace From Christ: He Sustains Us
Paul finishes his greeting:
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Greek word translated grace is charis.
The word translated peace is eirēnē.
These words were familiar features of Paul’s letters, but familiarity should not cause us to overlook their theological significance.
Grace and peace have a source.
They come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian life begins with grace.
We are saved by grace.
We stand in grace.
We are strengthened by grace.
We are sanctified by grace.
We serve by grace.
We persevere by grace.
And one day, we will be brought safely into the presence of Christ because the God who began His work in us will bring it to completion.
Everything begins with God’s initiative.
Everything depends upon God’s provision.
Everything ends with God receiving the glory.
The Christian life is not merely difficult without the grace of God.
It is impossible.
We cannot manufacture the resources necessary to sustain ourselves.
We cannot produce our own righteousness.
We cannot regenerate our own hearts.
We cannot sanctify ourselves through willpower.
We cannot preserve ourselves by determination.
We cannot carry ourselves into glory.
We need grace.
Grace upon grace.
Grace that saves.
And from reconciliation with God flows peace.
Later in Philippians, Paul will write about the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
Then he will speak of the God of peace who will be with His people.
But here, at the very beginning of the letter, Paul pronounces grace and peace over the saints.
The Christian does not live from an empty supply.
The fullness of Christ’s all-sufficient life flows to those who belong to Him.
We do not begin by grace and then continue by our own strength.
The same Christ who saves us sustains us.
Of Christ. In Christ. From Christ.
The late British theologian J. Alec Motyer draws attention to the exclusive place Jesus Christ occupies in relation to the Christian.
Paul’s opening greeting presents this relationship through three small but significant words:
We are servants of Christ Jesus.
We are saints in Christ Jesus.
We receive grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We belong to Him.
We are found in Him.
We receive everything necessary for life with God from Him.
The Christian life is Christ-centered from beginning to end.
Jesus is not merely the One who saves us and then sends us away to build our own lives.
He is not an addition to an identity we have already created.
He is not one relationship among many equally defining relationships.
He occupies an exclusive place.
He is our Lord.
He is our righteousness.
He is our life.
He is our peace.
He is our hope.
He is our sufficiency.
When Something Else Takes the Place That Belongs to Christ
The truth of Philippians 1:1–2 does more than teach us doctrine.
It examines us.
If Christ occupies an exclusive place in relation to the Christian, then we must ask what we are tempted to place where only Christ belongs.
What defines you?
Is it your marriage?
Your motherhood?
Your children?
Your appearance?
Your ministry?
Your success?
Your failures?
Your suffering?
Your past?
Your political identity?
The approval of other people?
Even good gifts become crushing masters when we ask them to tell us who we are.
Motherhood is a gift.
Marriage is a gift.
Ministry is a gift.
Work is a gift.
Friendship is a gift.
But none of them can bear the weight of becoming our deepest identity.
Only Christ can occupy that place.
Perhaps you are exhausted because you are trying to produce what can only be received from Christ.
You are trying to make yourself righteous enough.
Strong enough.
Useful enough.
Disciplined enough.
Loved enough.
Holy enough.
You are trying to sustain by human effort a life that can only be sustained by divine grace.
Philippians begins by redirecting our eyes.
Before Paul tells us what to do, he reminds us whose we are.
Before he commands Christian obedience, he establishes Christian identity.
Before he teaches us how to rejoice, suffer, serve, persevere, or live worthy of the gospel, he points us to Jesus Christ.
Behold Christ
Look again at Philippians 1:1–2.
Christ is the Master to whom Paul belongs.
Christ is the One in whom the saints are found.
Christ is the Lord from whom grace and peace come.
Everything leads us back to Him.
The Christian life cannot be understood apart from Jesus Christ because the Christian life does not exist apart from union with Jesus Christ.
We belong to Christ.
We are in Christ.
We receive from Christ.
And perhaps this is where we should begin our journey through Philippians.
Not first by asking how to become happier.
Not first by searching for the secret of contentment.
Not first by learning how to endure suffering.
But by asking a more foundational question:
Do I understand what it means to belong to Jesus Christ?
Because before Paul teaches us about joy, he reminds us where true joy must begin.
In Christ.
Do I think of my life as belonging entirely to Jesus Christ, or are there areas I still insist belong only to me?
What identity am I most afraid of losing?
Where am I trying to manufacture strength, peace, righteousness, or perseverance that I can only receive through the grace of God?
Lord Jesus, forgive me for the ways I have lived as though my life belonged to me. Forgive me for allowing created things, even good gifts, to occupy the place that belongs to You alone.
The Meek Momma 
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