The Letter to the Philippians

For many of us, the letter to the Philippians is one of the best-loved of Paul's letters. It has been given two titles: it has been called the epistle of excellent things — and so it truly is — and the epistle of joy. The words joy and rejoicing appear again and again in it. 'Rejoice,' Paul writes, 'and again I say, rejoice' — and so, even from prison, Paul turns the hearts of his friends, and ours, toward a joy that no one can take from us. Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned in Rome, and he wrote it with particular purposes. It is a letter full of thanksgiving, written to encourage and hearten the Christians of Philippi in their troubles.