“I Am Confident Of This Great Fact” Philippians 1:6

The book of Philippians is a book filled with tenderness and personal love coming from the great Apostle Paul as he expresses his affections to the Philippian saints.  On Paul’s second missionary journey, he visited this grand place and had a very fruitful ministry in Europe, for two noteworthy families were saved – Lydia and her family and the Philippian jailer and his family (Acts 16).  The Philippian epistle is one of Paul’s prison epistle; and the prison epistles are: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.  They are designated as such because they were written while he was imprisoned in Rome for two years (Acts 28:30).

Although Paul was experiencing hardship, he did not allow his circumstance to dictate an attitude of bitterness!  Instead, great joy and confidence exuded from the heart of the Apostle as he wrote this tender and personal letter to these saints.  This letter is really a “thank-you note” expressing Paul’s undue gratitude for the generous way in which these saints ministered to his needs.  After hearing about Paul’s incarceration, these saints dispatched the pastor, Epaphroditus to minister to Paul.  So Paul is greatly thanking them for their financial support; moreover, Paul was grateful to God as he remembered them (1:3), and exhorted them to spiritual maturity (1:27).  Apparently, there were only these major areas of concern in this book:  the rivalry issue among the believers, chapter 2:3-4; 4:2; and the infiltration of “enemies of the cross” who had invaded the church (3:1-3, 18-19).

In verse 6, Paul was so overcome with confidence – confident that God will consummate what He had begun.  What was Paul so confident of?  He was confident that God would complete the great work of salvation He had begun in the saints.  God has never begun a salvation project, and because of some circumstance, abandon it!  God will complete the work of salvation He has started in us.  He will continue His work in us until the day of Christ Jesus; that is, He will continue His work until we are caught up to meet Him in the air (I Thess. 4:17).  Now, that is a fact to rejoice iOur God did not just save us to abandon us.  He will complete His work in us until we are just like Him.  Well, how do you know?  Because, my bible informs me that we will be just like Christ, for we will experience a change – a real transformation.  This transformation involves being glorified, receiving a glorified body at the rapture (I Corinthians 15:51-53).  Yes, we will experience a change, for I John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:  but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.  In closing, our great and awesome God has never started a project and didn’t finish the project.  In the future, we are going to be put on display, as trophies of the grace of God (Ephesians 2:7).  Our God is indeed a Master Craftsman!  May God bless!.