Philippians 4:2-9

Choose Joy
Part 9

We don't know anything about the two women mentioned in this passage, beyond what is written here.

The first thing we can notice is that they were co-workers of Paul - people who laboured to share the gospel. Yet for whatever reason they seem to be fighting - publicly and bitterly. There is a mismatch between what they believe and how they are acting; even from the teaching Paul delivered in this same letter in chapter 2 when talking about the humility of Jesus.

The best way to melt away the hostility is to have the same mind in Jesus and God, through the Holy Spirit. Paul shows the way it can be done my modelling Jesus.

Paul felt and obligation to get involved here. Not to take sides, or for entertainment but out of love and care for these women. He involved himself out of love. He affirmed and recognised them as valuable people in the church and pleaded with them equally to make this right. He wanted to restore this rift.

"In the Lord"

A phrase that Paul wrote several times in the book of Philippians. By this he meant something that is not normal. Something that is enabled by the power of God's Spirit working in His people.

Paul's list

In the next section Paul appears to move on quickly into this list. There is a connecting thread between this list and the context of this broken relationship.

Paul's main goal here is now to address conflict that comes from outside the church - persecution.

The main tool Paul would call us to use is Joy. Not a joy from our own happiness but a joy from God that we can draw on even when things are tough.

From Joy comes the ability to be gentle. The original Greek here is talking about not taking revenge and being forgiving to those who wrong us. We should not respond to evil with evil.