"But you yourselves are also having known, Philippians, that in [the] first of the Good News, after I went out from Macedonia, no one assembly shared with me unto [the] word of giving and receiving if not you all only...that even in Thessalonica even once and twice unto my need you sent."
-Yes the Philippians HAD done beautifully. Even though Paul was content, they had shared with him and showed Paul that they cared about him.
-This wasn't the first time they had done so. Paul recounts how after he planted the church in Philippi and moved on to plant churches in other places that no other assembly shared with him. Not one. He had helped to plant many other churches throughout Asia Minor to that point, and this assembly in Philippi was the youngest by far, but these were the ones who shared with him. They were aware of the need, they saw the opportunity, and they did something about it. Granted they were the closest to and the most aware of Paul's needs and what all he was doing, but that is part of meeting needs. Proximity definitely helps to facilitate both awareness of and ability to meet needs.
-Paul looks back and remembers how after he had just gone to Philippi and planted the church and had only been with the Philippians a short time, and God had done such a work in their hearts and lives (and used Paul in the process) that they were eager to share in meeting his needs right from the get go. And it looks like after he left Philippi that Paul next went to Thessalonica but was only there for three weeks (Acts 17.1-2), and yet he tells us here that the Philippians sent multiple times in those few weeks to help meet his needs while he was there. It could have been easy for them to just send something one time and then feel like they had done their duty. But sharing - giving and receiving - was not for them a duty. It was a delight.
-Paul refers to it as the logos of giving and receiving. It is the practical expression of koinonia, of sharing not only in the needs but in the lives of fellow believers. Check out how Paul related what they did to the assembly in Corinth (2Corinthians 8.1-5). We see an assembly that eagerly gave all that they were as well as all that they had to the Lord and then to others (certainly to Paul - and to one another no doubt, as well as to those they didn't even know). And that, apparently out of some real poverty - they didn't have anything to spare, and yet they gave all that they had. They trusted the Lord and put it all in His hands - a magnificent picture of worship, this.
-Isn't it interesting that this beautiful expression of God working in and through His people centered on something that is so core to the human condition, such a fundamental lesson we struggle to learn from infancy. Parents have to teach their kids to share, and they have to do this from the get-go, because we are preprogrammed NOT to share. This is the native impulse of fallen man, is it not - to scream and hold tightly onto what is "mine!" (Classic illustration of this by Bill Cosby - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuLKBorjwrk). Thus eager generosity becomes a core part of the metamorphosis, the beautiful work of grace God weaves into the lives of His people, of those He is gathering to Himself for the sake of His Name, to declare and show off His excellencies both now and forever.
-Clearly the Lord gave the Philippians grace to be incredibly generous. And He is able to give you and me and all believers a similar grace (cf 2Corinthians 9.6-11). We can hold onto so much of our stuff so tightly, so consumed with taking care of our own, so concerned about what tomorrow may bring, so captive to a mindset of scarcity. May God indeed give us the grace to let it go, to put our stuff and our loved ones and our future and our entire lives into His hands and free Him up to use all the overflowing resources He has put at our disposal to be a source of blessing to all those around us.
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