Philippians 1:3-5 3I thank my God in every memory of you 4always in every prayer of mine for all of you, doing so with joy and prayer, 5because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
Ancient letters often started with a thanksgiving section, as does this letter. Paul expresses his thanksgiving in the form of prayer. Thanksgiving is an important way to prayer. Paul uses several modifiers that describe when, how, and why he prays for the Philippians. Always answers the when question. Every time he thinks of the Philippians, he says a prayer of thanksgiving for them. This is a powerful model for how to pray for others. Whenever we remember people, we pray for them. His constant prayer for the Philippians is clarified with the phrase in every prayer of mine. We do not know if Paul had a written prayer list, but he constantly prayed for the various churches. Many of his letters include references to his prayers for people.
How he prays is given in the instrumental participial phrase doing so with joy and prayer. This letter has noteworthy multiple occurrences of the word “joy” (charas). This will be a key theme in the letter. It is remarkable that Paul found reasons to rejoice while imprisoned and facing trial and possible execution. One of the sources of his joy was the Philippians. He uses the word prayer (deēsin) twice in verse 4. This common word expresses prayers of petition directed specifically to God. The participle gives the two noun usages a sense of action: prayer is something to be done and not a topic to be discussed.
The reason Paul prays with joy is given in verse 5. The story of how the church in Philippi got started is given in Acts 16. Paul and his companion Silas, Luke, and Timothy went to Macedonia in response to a dream. When they went to Philippi, they experienced immediate success with a woman named Lydia and her household coming to faith. The mission team also met great resistance after freeing a slave girl from demon possession and as a result of a riot, were thrown in jail. While they were in the jail, an earthquake struck, shaking open the doors. The jailor was afraid the prisoners would escape and was ready to take his life, but Paul and Silas remained. Through these events, the jailor and his house came to believe in Christ. From this small core of people, the Philippian church started. Their fellowship grew from that time until when Paul wrote, from the first day until now.
This church was a role model of a group of people whose fellowship (koinōnia) was strong and growing. Paul was not physically with them for long periods of time, although he visited there at least one more time in Acts 20. His investment in their lives came through prayer. The one way he could serve them, even though far away and in prison, was through prayer. Prayer can penetrate any locked door and cross any distance.
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