Selie Visa

Jesus is fully God but became fully man in order to reach down to mankind and meet their needs. He took upon himself as the "suffering servant." The pre-existence of Christ cannot be denied. He was with God in the beginning and all things were made by him and nothing was made without him. The humanity of Christ was sinless humanity otherwise the blood he shed on the cross cannot save us. That he is the Son of God reiterated his equality with God.

Humility is the absence of pride. It is necessary for the unity of the church because if everyone think that they are better than the others it will bring about strife and disorder. Lack of humility resulted in a break away group that formed a separate church. Fellowships, concerns for the welfare of others, love and compassion and avoiding discrimination on the basis of status and position.

Paul prays to God for discernment so that their love will abound with knowledge and insight which are necessary to differentiate between good and bad. Through discernment they will be pure and blameless. Selfishness clouds discernment because it is focused on self-worth and immediate gratification and not on God. This will not produce Christians' morals and values.

Paul expects God to complete the good work that he has started with the Philippians. Paul expects this from God because on their own they will not be able to bring the good work to completion. Paul is confident of this because he knows that when God starts a project he always complete it. God's work started in our lives the moment we believed. But we may get weary or discouraged. We need God's grace to help us grow spiritually and carry on the good work until Christ's return.

Since we are partners with them in God's ministry, we joyfully give them financial assistance. It means sharing with them what God has blessed us with. We can also support them through prayers, through words of encouragement and appreciation and by loving them.

Slaves are committed to obediently serve their masters without question for life. Saints are those those who are set apart and dedicated to serve the Lord. We have been bought with the blood of Jesus. Therefore we belong to him. We are slaves to our Redeemer. We are saints through God's work of salvation and sanctification in us and set apart to serve him.