Philippians 23-4:21 NIVUK
[21] Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. [22] All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. [23] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. https://bible.com/bible/113/php.4.21.NIVUK
Goodbyes are never easy. I think particularly how my wife’s family used to respond when we said farewell after a trip to see them, many years ago when my daughter’s cousins were much younger. They would understand that we would be gone for a while. They would not understand that we would return. So every time left, it felt like it was the last. There were always floods of tears.
Now the goodbyes have gotten a bit more routine. We’re used to them. We’re all grown-ups now. We realise that we will be back. A few years isn’t so long in the grand scheme of things. Plus, with modern technology, it’s easier to stay in contact.
In these verses, Paul is saying goodbye to people he may never see again. He knows it. They likely know it too.
Goodbyes are often the time when relationships are put at risk, or even break.
Yet Paul does something remarkable. He uses this farewell to actually strengthen the relationship bonds between the Philippians and other believers.
That might seem like a strange thing to say, but bear with me.
Before we go any further, though, we must understand the ancient Middle-Eastern concept of greeting. That is key to understanding these verses.
When I was a teenager, you sometimes greeted your friend by hollering across the street.
Now we're all too civilised to do that. Instead, we have polite nods across the room, or waves, or handshakes or greetings like ‘Hello’, or ‘Hi’ or, in Scotland certainly, ‘Y’alright, big man!’
This is nothing like that. Nothing at all.
The word ‘to greet’, from the Greek aspazomai, means ‘to draw to one's self’. It meant to greet with an embrace and, yes, a kiss (1 Corinthians 16:20). It was a powerful momentary gesture of warmth and vulnerability. It was anything but superficial. But such was the regularity of its usage and the time spent on it, that journeys were often delayed just because travellers kept meeting people. It is a singular act of hospitality and love.
That is what Paul is telling the Philippians to do here. He is not asking them to wave, or even to shake hands. He is asking them to extend warmth and love and vulnerability.
And yes, in Biblical history, there are examples of this greeting being abused:
2 Samuel 10-20:9 NIVUK
[9] Joab said to Amasa, ‘How are you, my brother?’ Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. [10] Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bikri.
Luke 48-22:47 NIVUK
[47] While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, [48] but Jesus asked him, ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’ https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.22.47.NIVUK
What makes these events so shocking is not just the violence and the betrayal, but that an act of affection and hospitality is brutalised and abused.
Paul knows this. Yet here he tells the Philippians to make themselves vulnerable anyway: to set themselves up to be hurt by others.
And what follows, in three blink-and-you’ll-miss-them verses, is something quite astonishing.
The first of these is that we should use this gesture to strengthen fellowship with all people who follow Jesus:
Philippians 4:21 NIVUK
[21] Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus.
Now, before we become all glib and say, ‘Of course we should! They are our brothers and sisters in Christ!’, we should remember what has happened in the last four chapters.
In Philippians 1:15-18, Paul talks of those who are seeking to foment division by preaching the true Gospel with entirely false motives, while he is in prison and is unable to defend himself on the public sphere.
In Philippians 2:1-11, we find Paul’s emotional appeal for unity through humility, aimed to a church that clearly struggled in this.
In Philippians 3:1-2, Paul strikes a blow against those who falsely claim to be following Christ and are instead trying to divert people to a false Gospel, and later on in the chapter (Philippians 3:15-21), he implores them to join together in following him as he follows Christ.
In Philippians 4:2-3, Paul deals with the division, likely caused by incidental opinions and personalities and not by the cause of the Gospel.
Paul is saying that despite all this, and no matter the ethnicity, nationality, citizenship or loyalties of the brother or sister in Christ in front of them, they should greet all believers in Christ.
And not just a casual ‘Hello’ or wave of the hand either.
That was simply not part of their culture.
Now do you see how amazing this command is?
How revolutionary it is?
How can we bear a grudge, or stereotype or look down on another Christian if we have to greet them like this?
How can we fail to love them?
This act of greeting another believer seems to be so simple, and yet is utterly profound.
We see just how profound in the next two sentences, the first which tells us to strengthen fellowship with prisoners:
Philippians 4:21 NIVUK
[21] The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. https://bible.com/bible/113/php.4.21.NIVUK
So where was Paul?
Was he on a cruise ship or a luxury resort or a retreat or a missions base or a theological institution?
No.
He was in prison.
He was in prison facing a highly uncertain future.
His own death was a highly realistic possibility (Philippians 1:20-24).
And there were other Christians with him, in the pain and the squalor and the deprivation.
Maybe some of them were also facing the possibility of execution. This was Rome under Nero – a man who set Christians on fire to light up his garden in the evening. A man who thought nothing of feeding Christians to lions for entertainment.
Yet these people, suffering though they were, thought of and greeted the more affluent, more free church in Philippi.
This ought to send shivers down our spine.
It is as if prisoners of conscience in Evin prison in Tehran, or any labour camp in North Korea, or Al Ha’ir Prison in Saudi Arabia, was to send our church a letter, passing us heartfelt greetings and showing genuine concern for us.
How awesome would that be? And how challenging, that someone in such dreadful circumstances could think of us?
But Paul is still not done. He wants us to strengthen fellowship not just with all people who follow Jesus and with prisoners, but also with the persecuted:
Philippians 4:22 NIVUK
[22] All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.
Now, this is utterly astonishing.
Imagine that your church received a message from a senior official in the government in Pyongyang, or Tehran, or Riyadh. Imagine that official was confessing their faith in God and sending a personal, and warm, greeting to your church.
How would you feel?
Would it not make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end? Or send a shiver down your spine?
Make no bones about it, that is what we are talking about here.
And then some more.
Nero’s persecution of Christians was violent and hate-filled. There was no rhyme or reason to it. To be a Christian in his household would be the absolute ultimate in betrayal towards him.
And yet, not only are there Christians there, but – and this should really stun us – they send their warm greetings to the church in Philippi.
Think about that. These people have to live every day of their life constantly, and, one would have to assume, nervously, looking over their shoulder, knowing that discovery of their allegiance would lead to certain painful death.
And yet, despite their thoroughly precarious situation, they are thinking of and caring for the Philippians.
They are working out the principle Paul taught a few chapters earlier:
Philippians 5-2:3 NIVUK
[3] Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, [4] not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. [5] In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: https://bible.com/bible/113/php.2.4.NIVUK
That is what led them to disregard their own situation, even just for a little while, and send their warm greetings to a church in a much better situation than their own.
This teaches me a lot about what it means to truly live for Jesus. We’d like to think that it’s all about the grand gestures – the public displays of faith, such as baptisms and testimonies and sermons. They are important. They have their role to play.
But most important are the small decisions we take every day, even every minute.
What Paul is writing about here seems like nothing. If we’re honest, we tend to just skip over verses like these.
But what we see here is how Paul wants the Philippians to join in a simple, but profound, action that will strengthen their fellowship with the rest of the Body of Christ.
And what does he want them to do?
Greet their fellow believer. From the heart.
It might not seem like much, but the change of attitude it could produce would be utterly profound.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, save me from believing that I have to do something big to strengthen my relationships with other believers. Help me instead to learn how to do the little things, the simple things, sincerely and from the heart. Amen.
Questions
1. Why are these three greetings so significant? What do they have to say to us?
2. What is striking about the second two? How are these an example of the principles set out in Philippians 2:1-11?
3. How will you strengthen your relationships with your fellow believers?
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