Since I’ve been back in the states, I’ve been able to spend a lot of extra time with family. My youngest sister and I are very close, so we’ve been doing lots of things together. She even helps me with language study by holding up flash cards and watching cartoons in my target language with me. When I first came back to the states a little over a month ago, she made a list of things we should do together before I leave to go back to the Middle East. At the top of her list was a Bible study.
We snuggled up on the couch, with our Bibles in hand, and our study eventually led us to Philippians 1.
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
We talked about how there is a church full of believers in Philippi that Paul is writing to. We talked about who “overseers and deacons” are. We also talked about how we know someone named Timothy and how it could feel strange to meet someone named after Jesus, but we didn’t want to get sidetracked. So we continued…
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”
I asked my sister what she thought it meant to be a partner in the gospel. She got really deep for a moment and wondered if it’s possible to be a part of the gospel. Are we all partners in the gospel because we are a part of the gospel story? In a way that could be true, but I’d rather give all the credit of the gospel to Jesus. Jesus’ sacrifice and ascent from the dead is the gospel. The result of that wonderful miracle is our salvation. We had nothing to do with it. At least that’s how I see it.
After that, we talked about what it meant to share the gospel. My sister said to me, “I’m not like you. I feel like I can’t explain Jesus well to other people.”
You know what I told her? “Sometimes, I feel like I can’t either.”
She couldn’t believe me for a minute. I told her, “There’s nothing that makes me special or qualified to share the gospel with people. The only way I can do it is because I know God is helping me.” God gets all the glory. If someone hears the good news through something that I say or do and that person meets Christ, that’s God’s work. And I’m only humbled to be a part of it.
Later that week, my sister turns ten. Her birthday happens to land on a Sunday, and she is ecstatic to go to church on her birthday. During the sermon that Sunday, my pastor just so happened to reference the same verse in Philippians that my sister and I talked about, and he added an important observation. Paul is writing to the Philippians as his beloved community. Christian community plays a special part in the work of sharing the good news. And everyone is able to play a part.
So, I’m not different from my sister in that way. God can speak through her mouth just as much as He can speak through mine, right?