Though my business fails, though I become unemployed, though I lose my home, though my cancer is incurable, though the stock market crashes, though my marriage ends in divorce, though my friends forsake me, though my dreams die, though my husband is murdered, though my wife runs off with another man, though my health deteriorates – yet will I worship the Lord. What if? How will you survive?
The at large citizens of Philippi, along with the chamber of commerce and authorities from City Hall, went out of their way to treat Christians harshly. So, Paul addressed this conflict forced upon the Philippian believers by the society in which they lived. He wrote, not because he wanted his readers to pity themselves, but because he wanted to help them find joy in a culture that held venomous hostility toward Christ and His followers. How did he make that happen? However he made it happen, it can happen for you as well.