The post The full-fat version of faith appeared first on Anglican Mainstream. by Julian Mann, TCW: THE Prayer Book Epistle reading for today, the Fourth Sunday in Advent, is a beautiful exhortation to faithful Christian prayer.   It comes from...

The post The full-fat version of faith appeared first on Anglican Mainstream.

by Julian Mann, TCW:

THE Prayer Book Epistle reading for today, the Fourth Sunday in Advent, is a beautiful exhortation to faithful Christian prayer.  

It comes from the Apostle Paul’s New Testament letter to the Christian church in 1st century Philippi:

‘Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing [translated in the 20th Century Revised Standard Version as “Have no anxiety about anything”]: but in every thing by prayer and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4v4-7 – King James Version).

Fear can hold churches back in their calling to proclaim, live out and stand up for the biblical message of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. So, Paul’s exhortation to the Philippian church to say No to fear and persist in faithful prayer with thanksgiving as he concludes his letter is consistent with his earlier command to them to ‘stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; and in nothing terrified by your adversaries’ (Philippians 1v27b-28a).

The Christians in Philippi were a persecuted minority in that overwhelmingly pagan city in Roman Macedonia. Paul himself was writing to them from prison where his faithful proclamation of the gospel had landed him. 

But his attitude to his circumstances was exemplary. Paul had urged his Christian friends in Philippi: ‘But I would ye should understand, that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear’ (Philippians 1v12-14).

The word translated ‘palace’ is from the Greek for ‘praetorium’. In the city where Paul was imprisoned, possibly in Caesarea in Judea, hard-bitten Roman soldiers in the governor’s garrison had found out that the Apostle to the Gentiles was in prison because he was a servant of Christ, not for any crime.

If I lived in a country where Christians were imprisoned for their faith, I would struggle, perhaps especially on Christmas Eve, to follow Paul’s example. That is why I would need to turn to prayer with thanksgiving, as the Apostle exhorts, and rejoice in the promise that the peace of God which passes all human understanding will protect the Christian’s heart and mind through the Messiah, made known in the gospel as Jesus.

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