Philippians 1

Paul challenges us to consider what really matters.

Being baptized requires becoming vulnerable to at least one other person.

Paul’s words about humility should be handled with care.

Paul’s words about humility should be handled with care.

Let me cut to the chase, brothers and sisters. Is this what you think living in Christ looks like?

The work of advancing the kingdom doesn't translate into fair compensation as we understand it.

I find more than a dozen military references in the Pauline corpus. In Philemon, Paul includes in his greetings “Archippus our fellow soldier.” In this week's second reading, Paul advises his readers to stand firm and strive side by side. The former Roman soldiers living in Philippi would have heard a reference to a Roman military formation.

The Philippians would have read "striving side by side" and thought of a phalanx of infantrymen.

The early church fathers had a saying: "The best bishop is a bad bishop." In other words, we sometimes grow more through adversity than we do by encouragement and supportive spiritual direction.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians puts me in mind of the annual ritual of Christmas letters and how much I enjoy receiving them, though I have to admit that sometimes the correspondence can veer off into the stratosphere of braggadocio. You know the type.