Sharing With People

Philippians 1:7 KJV

Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

The Christian life is not about people, but it is about sharing with people. So Paul, who is merely a messenger and instrument used of the Lord both sees himself as tied into the work of God and sharing it with others. He expresses three possessions

• My heart
• My bonds
• My grace

 In every case the possession goes back to God

• His heart was filled with compassion for these believers because God had given him a heart for the Gentiles
• His bonds were real and the product of his ministry
• His grace was his as God had given him grace both to serve and to suffer as he did

 In every case his possession moved forward to the believers at Philippi

• His heart was filled with love for these saints
• His bonds had offered them occasion to ministry to him as he had ministered to them
• His grace had extended to them so that they were partakers of the very grace that sustained Paul in his trouble

 And so is the gospel of Christ. It is passed from faith to faith. One who has received from the Lord becomes the channel whereby another receives. One day the one who has received will testify he received not from the channel but from the Lord and will become a channel in his own right.