Preface

This volume continues the series we began with Ephesians: confessional Lutheran studies of the four letters Paul wrote from prison. The letter taken up here is Philippians, the second of the captivity letters. Two more will follow: Colossians and Philemon. As the church has long held, all four were most likely written from Rome around AD 60–62, during Paul’s first imprisonment, while he waited under guard for his trial before Caesar.

This series stands as a companion to an earlier four-volume series, Letters to the Church Under Pressure, which took up James, First Peter, the Johannine letters, and Hebrews. Volume One of the present series, In Christ, worked through Ephesians. Readers who came along for that volume will find the same voice and the same confessional commitments here. Readers beginning with Philippians may do so without loss; each study stands on its own, though the four prison letters together form a single witness to the Christ for whom Paul wore his chains.

Philippians is the most personal of Paul’s letters and, by every measure, the most joyful. The word rejoice and its cognates appear sixteen times across four short chapters. Paul calls the Philippians my joy and crown. He thanks God for them every time he remembers them. He prays for them with joy. He tells them, again and again, to rejoice: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! And he does this from prison. The chains, as we said in the first volume, are real. But Paul is not writing under the chains; he is writing through them, in a kind of joy that the chains cannot reach. The theology of the cross teaches us that the hidden things of God do their deepest work in suffering. Philippians is a working example of the doctrine.

Luther knew this letter well. His 1519 sermon Two Kinds of Righteousness is an exposition of Philippians 2:5–6, and the letter’s third chapter could serve as his own story. There Paul counts his Pharisaic righteousness as liabilities, even as dung, that he might be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ (Phil 3:9 ESV; see the note on translation in Session 5). That is the autobiography of every justified sinner. We were once confident in something we had built. We have learned, at the foot of the cross, that the building has to come down. Whatever gain we had we now count as loss. The only righteousness we now wear is one we did not weave. Luther knew this passage by heart, not because he had memorized it, but because he had lived it.

Philippians is also home to one of the most exalted Christological passages in the New Testament, the Christ Hymn of 2:5–11. Paul calls the Philippians to have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, and then he sings: who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave. The Hymn descends from heaven to the manger, from the manger to the cross, and then ascends: As a result God highly exalted him. The whole gospel is here in seven verses. The Formula of Concord draws on this passage in its treatment of the person of Christ (FC SD VIII), because here Paul has done the theological work for us, in song.

This study is the fruit of teaching Philippians to ordinary congregations and small groups. Like the volumes that preceded it, it is written for adult Bible study classes, for small group settings, for Sunday school teachers preparing lessons, and for individuals who want to read this letter carefully with a confessional Lutheran guide at their elbow. It assumes nothing more than a willingness to open the Scriptures and to take their teaching seriously.

The eight sessions of this study follow Philippians in order. Session 1 takes up Paul’s opening greeting, his thanksgiving for the Philippians’ participation in the gospel, and his prayer that their love would abound in knowledge and insight. Session 2 engages Paul’s reflection on his chains and his startling confession: For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. Session 3 works through the call to live worthy of the gospel and the great Christ Hymn of 2:5–11. Session 4 follows Paul into the bracing call to keep working out our salvation with awe and reverence (traditionally, “with fear and trembling”), and his commendation of Timothy and Epaphroditus as living examples of the gospel life. Session 5 turns to Philippians 3 with its searching account of every Pharisaic confidence counted as loss for the far greater value of knowing Christ. Session 6 continues into Paul’s pressing on toward the upward call and his naming of Christians as citizens of heaven. Session 7 gathers the closing exhortations: rejoice always, do not be anxious, think about whatever is true and worthy of respect and pure. Session 8 closes the letter with Paul’s hard-won lesson in contentment and his gratitude for the Philippians’ renewed support.

Each session is built for use in a single class meeting of about an hour. The teaching content is followed by a “Gathering the Threads” synthesis and a set of discussion questions designed for group conversation but useful also for individual reflection. A “Looking Ahead” paragraph and a closing prayer round out each session. Group leaders may wish to read the session in advance, mark the passages they want to highlight, and select a subset of the discussion questions appropriate to the time available.

My hope is that those who use this study will come away from Philippians not only better informed about its argument but more deeply formed by its joy: joy that is not a feeling produced by favorable circumstances but the steady gladness of those who know that Christ is theirs and they are His, in life and in death. Paul wrote from prison. The chains were real. But what came back to the church at Philippi was a letter so saturated with joy that the Church has been singing from it ever since. May the same Spirit who spoke through Paul speak through this study to those who use it. To God alone be the glory.

Larry Herzog Jr.

July 2026