Learning to Sing in the Chains: The Way Down is the Way Forward

Paul writes his most joyful letter from prison. That is not a coincidence; it is the argument! The Letter to the Philippians is not about positive thinking. It is a message from a man in chains inviting a fractured church to follow Jesus in the only direction the gospel moves: downward! Christ emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and died. So Paul says — have this mind in you.That is the demand and the invitation at the heart of this letter. Joy is not a feeling to be received or just a character in a Pixar movie, It is a life to be learned only through self-giving, through unity that costs something, through counting others as more significant than yourself, and through pressing on when you want to be finished. This summer, we follow Paul into that downward way. Not to admire Christ's pattern from a distance, but to be formed by it. The chains are real, we all feel it! But guess what, so is the song!