Mutual Need, Mutual Care, Mutual Grace

David W Palmer

Paul truly believed that his gospel partners were in his ministry with him. After all, the call and ministry grace came from Jesus; and he assigned it, not only to Paul, but also to those he called to be Paul’s and his partners in this ministry. Paul and the Philippian church had a joint responsibility and a common struggle; but as we have seen, this led to mutual grace, rewards, and benefits:

(Philippians 1:29–30 NLT) “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. {30} We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.”

Following Paul’s Pattern and Peace

From the way Paul spoke in this letter, we hear that he was merely an earthen vessel, given a responsibility by God that was way beyond him alone (See: 2 Cor. 4:6–12, 12:7–10); he needed his partners. Paul opened his heart to them in transparency, about his life, his struggles, and his suffering. The apostle wasn’t trying to present himself like an invincible super hero to his partners; he needed their love, encouragement, prayers, and support.

Amazingly, despite his difficulties and vicissitudes, Paul urged his partners to pattern their lives after his:

(Philippians 3:12 NLT) “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.”

(Philippians 3:17 NLT) “Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.”

As Paul began to conclude his partner letter, he again reminded them of something they had seen in his life. When under the extreme pressure of torture and imprisonment, he and Silas began to sing praises to God. Consequently, Paul experienced God’s unexplainable peace while those around him were bound and undergoing intense torture and shaking. He urges his partners—who are subject to similar persecution and suffering for the gospel—to pattern their response to it after his. In other words, he says that they should imitate his attitude and praise in a prison. The following is Paul’s advice to them about staying in the same peace. We would all do well to follow it:

(Philippians 4:6–7 NLT) “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. {7} Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Partners in the Gospel

The apostle Paul began his letter to his Philippian partners by speaking “grace” over them along with “peace”:

(Philippians 1:1 NLT, 2 NKJV) “This letter is from Paul … {2} Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul’s final words in this Holy Spirit led and divinely crafted partnership document, again focus the readers on its essence—grace:

(Philippians 4:23 NLT) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Those who share their love, prayer, encouragement, and resources with God’s called and sent ministers, partake the grace that is on that ministry—which originates with our Lord and Savior, Jesus. (This is his way of getting it to you.)

(2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV) For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Like Jesus, partners [temporarily] impoverish themselves—by the amount of giving they do—to provide for their partner ministers; which they do in Jesus’s name. They are wisely obeying God in this, and setting themselves up for a very fruitful harvest from what they give:

(Galatians 6:6–7 NLT) Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. {7} Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

Paul’s Philippian contacts may have felt sympathy for him in his “present difficulty.” His suffering, and their wanting to do what they could to alleviate it, may have motivated them to give—making them remote contributors; but Paul noted that they were actually his partners in the gospel—not merely welfare benefactors. In his mind, this was the fundamental issue in this partnership, not sympathy or poverty relief. I encourage you to adopt this as your main reason and motivation for partnering with others in their call and gospel mission; be partners in the gospel, not merely those who sacrifice to alleviate a preacher’s or missionary’s poverty:

(Philippians 1:3–5 ESV) I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, {4} always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, {5} because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Partnership is crucial for the spread of God’s kingdom on earth—through the reconciliatory message of the gospel. Jesus calls, trains, equips, and graces individuals and teams for gospel missions; together, in the same call and grace endowment, he calls others to partner with them. Jointly, they can generate kingdom fruit and contribute greatly to completing Jesus’s mission to reconcile the world to God. Partnership in the gospel truly is an opportunity and privilege.

For example, the giving, prayers, and encouragement of the partners at home may send an evangelist to the field to harvest fruit for Jesus. Meanwhile, his grace comes on them; so they too—collectively—reap a harvest of souls at home. Or consider a church that partners with missionaries, whom God has graced to win over unreached ethnic groups. The grace Jesus gave to that ministry comes back on that church, and then they too have a supernatural empowering to reach the unreached around them. Mutual partnering produces multiplying fruit.

Do you have someone in your heart—someone whose ministry you have adopted to partner with through all of its [without God’s help] insurmountable challenges, ups and downs, costs, and rewards? Jesus did. Paul did, and the Philippians did also.

(Colossians 1:19–20 NLT) For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, {20} and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

(2 Corinthians 5:18–20 NKJV) Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, … God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. {20} Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

(Psalm 68:11 WEB) The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.

(Luke 22:28 CSB) “You are those who stood by me in my trials.”

(Philippians 1:3–6 AMP) I thank my God in every remembrance of you, 4 always offering every prayer of mine with joy [and with specific requests] for all of you, 5 [thanking God] for your participation and partnership [both your comforting fellowship and gracious contributions] in [advancing] the good news [regarding salvation] from the first day [you heard it] until now. 6 I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].