Paul's Letter To Philippian

Introduction “Despite the circumstances of both writer and recipients, joy permeates Philippians, so much so that it may be called “the epistle of joy.” R.C.H. Lenski wrote, “Joy is the music that runs through this epistle, the sunshine that spreads all over it. The whole epistle radiates joy and happiness.” This is one of the reasons why I chose to write my paper on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. His love for this church is evident in his writing and I believe that we can learn a lot from examining the background and meaning of this “letter of joy.” This letter by Paul was different from his other letters in that it was a deeply personal one. He did speak to certain issues within the church, but it was in a very different way and

I will discuss some of the key aspects of its founding, as well as some of the more notable members of the congregation. We will also discuss why this place and these people were so special to Paul. In the second part of the paper I will talk about one major theme that I see in the letter and how that theme can be better understood because of the historical background and setting that has been laid out. There is some debate as to where this letter and for that matter the rest of the prison epistles were written and I will touch briefly on that topic as well. It is my hope that this will be an encouragement to those who may read it. Just as it has been an encouragement to my own soul to read of the amazing love and relationship that Paul had with these dear

He kept in contact through messengers such as Timothy and Epaphroditus who both reported to Paul how the church was doing. “This letter was stimulated by simple friendship, not a need to communicate some corrective or instructive truth.” As such this epistle reads much more as described, like a “personal” letter and does not lend itself to rigid structure and a strict outline. Paul is conversing with his beloved fellow laborers in Christ. I think this is one reason why some have thought this letter to be a compilation of several letters that went together to form one unit. “Despite the strength of some arguments advance in the favor of a composite reading of Philippians, the case for the letter’s unity is even stronger.” There has been no external evidence that Philippians was a composite document. Even the earliest manuscripts around the late second and early third century preserve the book in its current