Chapter 1

In order to address the problem of Jewish false teaching in the Philippian church pressing self-righteousness through the Law and tempting believing Jews and Gentiles to discontinue partnership with the apostle Paul’s gospel ministry on account of his and Epaphroditus dire circumstances in the early 60s AD, Paul, the apostle, writes an epistle to the Philippian church, with special attention given to the elders and deacons, in order to exhort them to think the same about his, theirs, and Christ’s sufferings, to watch out for and reject the false teachers, and to rejoice in the LORD, so that they would continue on unwaveringly in their participation with him in his gospel ministry, remaining as innocent and blameless lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, thus not rendering Paul’s ministry void.