Wednesday 05 November 2008

Background

(For some background to Paul's letter to the Philippians, read thebeginning of Monday's background notes.)

Here, Paul is advising the Christians at Philippi about the bestway to live their lives. Paul had visited the Church at Philippiand he was looked to for advice and leadership. Paul gives the bestadvice possible - take responsibility for yourself, but do socarefully. I would hope that Paul would give the same advice today,even if he had email, text and telephones at hand. Maturity is allabout taking responsibility for yourself.

It is reasonable to think that the Christians at Philippi werebeing persecuted because Paul also tells them to undertake thingswithout murmuring and argument. 'Don't complain' seems to be thegist of his advice. Keep your heads down and don't cause troublefor the sake of causing trouble.

This means they would always be facing new situations and problems.Paul was telling them to make up their own responses to thesituations in which they found themselves. They had been taught thebasics - they had to develop the answers for themselves.

To Ponder

The Bible doesn't have all of the answers tomodern problems. How can we make sense of the Bible and stillrespond well to modern issues? Is this the same as takingresponsibility for ourselves?

Is silence a proper response when unjust thingshappen? How might our response be different if we are thevictims?

How do we know when we need to takeresponsibility for our actions, rather than do what we aretold?