12 - The shape of the Church

Summary

So far we have shown that the foundation of all that Paul has to say in Philippians is Jesus Christ himself. We have seen how believers are related to Jesus Christ in various ways. Now we must examine what Philippians has to tell us about the resulting structure, i.e., about the character of the Christian community.

THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH AS CORPORATE CHRISTIAN EXISTENCE

It goes without saying that Paul views individual believers as constituting communities. In 4:15 the company of people to whom Paul is writing are described as a church and placed alongside other similar groups.

Another name for this group is ‘saints’. This name is almost always used in the plural in the NT (in 4:21 ‘every saint’ is in effect plural). This could of course be because Paul is addressing a group rather than an individual, but in fact he is thinking of the group who comprise the people of God.

But the most important indication of the corporate nature of Christian existence is seen in the concept of fellowship (koinonia), which is particularly stressed in this letter (1:5; 2:1; 3:10; cf. 1:7; 4.14f.). The basic idea is that two or more people have a common possession, concern or interest in which they participate, and consequently they share together in it. Depending on the situation the elements of participation in the common object or the activity of sharing together may be uppermost.

In 1.5 Paul refers to the sharing of the readers with regard to the gospel.