Introduction

Paul wrote this letter to the believers in Philippi, a province of Macedonia (Acts 16:6-40). That group of believers was the first group planted by Paul in the Roman empire in Europe, and this letter was written while he was imprisoned in Rome for his preaching of the good message about Yeshua Messiah.

The main reason for Paul’s writing this letter was because he wanted to thank the believers there in Philippi for the gift that they had sent to help him in prison. His second reason for writing was so that he could encourage them and strengthen their faith despite difficulties that they would face, as well as his own difficulties. Paul advised them that they need to humble themselves like Yeshua had humbled himself when he was here on the earth. He reminds them again about the goodness and mercy of God, and how their faith in Messiah saves them. It’s no longer necessary for them to be constrained by the Law of Moses and human beliefs. Then he wrote about the peace and happiness that God gives to those united in Messiah.

Note that Paul (or his scribe) regularly refer to the ‘messiah’ (Greek ‘Χριστὸς’) in this letter without a preceding article, i.e., no preceding ‘the’, thus he uses the word (which originally meant ‘chosen or anointed one’) as another name for Yeshua (rather than as a title—for example, compare ‘Governor’ with ‘the governor’), hence we capitalise it here as ‘Messiah’.

This is still a very early look into the unfinished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.