Kingdom Praying

What Paul teaches us about our prayers for each other.

Genre is very helpful when it comes to biblical interpretation. We need to know what it is exactly that we're reading in order to grasp the correct meaning. Remember what we're doing when we open the Bible. We're seeking to understand what the original writers are conveying to the original readers as best we can, and then fitting it into the context of the whole. This involves not just the historical/grammatical sense, but also what is called the redemptive/historical context. Every part of the Bible fits into a time/place in biblical history. So we need to understand not just what it's saying in a particular place, but where that place is within that history of redemption.

And what we have here in Philippians is a letter, a pastoral letter, written by an apostle to a congregation of believers, a local church. We need to remember that, that what we're reading is not a philosophical or doctrinal treatise, but a letter. At the same time, it helps to know that letters were often used in the first century to convey teaching or didactic material, whether that teaching were philosophical or theological in nature, or both. So what Paul's doing here, in that sense, is not extraordinary. Paul has utilized the conventions of his day to teach pastorally.

All of theology is practical. I'm going to say that again. All of theology is practical, for orthopraxy is built on orthodoxy. Or, in other words, sound Christian practice is the product of sound Christian truth, or theology. When the practice is wrong it is usually because that practice is built upon faulty teaching. The people who avoid theology in search of something more practical are just shooting themselves in the foot. Good theology is essential for good Christian living. All theology, then, is pastoral, in that sense.

But Paul hasn't just used contemporary conventions in the epistle to convey the gospel. We saw that he also changed those conventions to emphasize the unique place that the Philippians hold in society. He Christianized, remember, or rather kingdom-ized, those conventions. He took the typical Roman greeting and appropriated it. Instead of saying “greetings to you,” he said, “Grace to you and peace.” And although later Christian writers followed suit, Paul was the first to do this.

Paul does this in all his letters. We pointed out a week or two ago that he usually does so in a way to begin emphasizing the things that will become themes in each of those letters. So the introduction in Colossians is a little different from Philippians is a little different from 1 Thessalonians is a little different from 1 Corinthians is a little different from Romans.

Now, what has Paul emphasized here in Philippians, so far? Well, so far, he has emphasized the unity of the church, and several things that work toward that unity. There is a recognition of their uniqueness in the society in which they live. There is an emphasis on humility and holiness. And now, in the verses we will cover this week, love. These things work together to produce the kind of unity and righteousness that Paul longs to see in the Philippians.

Remember that our salvation, our redemption in Christ, has an end goal. The Bible is the story, or the history, of God's great acts of redemption—and the final chapters are yet to be realized. You and I are in the same place in redemptive history as were the Philippians. So everything Paul has to say to them is eminently practical for us.

Now, the first eighteen verses of this chapter serve as an introduction to the letter, and, this week, we come to the end of the first half of that introduction. It ends with a prayer. And in the prayer we get to see the substance of the prayers Paul alluded to in verses 3 and 4, when he wrote,

Philippians 1:3-4 ESV - I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

So when he prays for them, this is what he prays. These are the requests he takes to God on their behalf. Now let's focus on that, and learn from it something about the nature of our prayers for each other, what they should be.

The key to answered prayer is to pray biblically. We're going to see that everything Paul asks for on their behalf are things promised them by God through the gospel. This is kingdom praying, and you will see it throughout his letters. If you want to chase down another prayer in another epistle for comparison, check out Colossians 1:9-11. If you do, you will see how similar it is to this one. That's kingdom praying, and in these prayers Paul is asking for God's Old Testament kingdom promises to be fulfilled in New Testament believers. The spiritual and kingdom orientation of these prayers also reminds us of another prayer that many churches still pray in their worship—the Lord's Prayer. In fact, Paul's prayers, here and elsewhere, are just a particularization of the template provided by Jesus in the Lord's Prayer. This is praying that prioritizes the kingdom.

Where our Philippians prayer differs from that in Colossians 1, or elsewhere, is that each is tailored to the specific needs of the church for whom it is addressed. We can learn from this that many of the prayers in Scripture are presented as models for our own praying, meant to be tailored by us for specific needs. And with that in mind, we will take this week to look at this prayer one or two lines at a time.