“Leadership Is Influence” (Part Two)

This week, we want to explore the reach of Paul’s leadership—even while in prison. Monday we saw his influence on the imperial guard. Today continue looking into Philippians 1 as we see…

His influence affected the Christians in Rome (Phil. 1:14).

The church family at Philippi chose Epaphroditus to take the 800-mile trip to Rome to be with Paul. When he finally arrived, he was sick and exhausted. In fact, Paul was uncertain about his recovery (Phil. 2:25-27). When Epaphroditus delivered his care package, Paul was overwhelmed with this show of love. His words of appreciation waxed eloquent for the man they sent and the beautiful gift he carried (Phil. 4:14-19).

But Epaphroditus also must have shared an update about the Philippian church that included a note about their fears (4:6). The church in Philippi had been planted by Paul and Silas at great personal cost: They were publicly beaten and locked in stocks. It was not easy to be a Christian in this Roman colony. Now, 10 years later, it was still not easy. Listen to Paul’s words of encouragement: “Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:27-29).

The word terrified is a significant word in the original. “He sees the Philippian church as ‘not frightened in anything by (their) opponents.’ Both the main words in this phrase are strong, but the first more so. The church faces ‘opponents,’ those . . . whose strength is such to create a panic-stricken stampede, for that is what the word ‘frightened’ really means” (J. A. Motyer, Philippian Studies, p. 61). Paul in essence says, “Don’t let these adversaries scare you and send you off on a stampede.” He sends word from Rome that will put steel in their spiritual backbone: “Most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (1:14). If Paul could reach people while a Roman prisoner, they could do it on the streets of Rome as free men and women. This was a place where emperors were not favorable to Christians and where in a few years Paul would be beheaded for his faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Gordon Fee suggests in his work on Philippians that some who are greeted in Romans 16 and commended for their hard work could be those who “stepped up to the plate“ when Paul was in prison (Rom. 16:9-16).

We’ll wrap up these thoughts tomorrow.