your partnership in the Evangel

:5 for your partnership to the evangel from the first day until now, :6 having this same confidence, that He Who undertakes a good work among you, will be performing it until the day of Jesus Christ… Philippians 1

Evangel means: Good News. Partnership in the Evangel signifies: receiving and forwarding the Good News. Isn’t that the purpose of a message of good news: receiving, sharing and passing it on? The Philippians had understood this from the first day on. When Paul, in the above mentioned passage, writes about the good work which God has began in them, he is referring to their partnership in the receiving and the sharing of the Good News; not as something exceptional, but as a logical consequence of knowing the Good News. This is so because Good News tells its own story; at least, so it for those who believe it. Anyone receiving a message that he has been sent a million euros, for keeps, will have a very difficult time not sharing this good news with others. Except, if such a message is regarded as pure nonsense. Then, one will become, either, angry or shrug his shoulders concerning it. Those are precisely the kind of reactions the Good News brings on. In our insane world, it is past-off as unbelievable or as silly talk (>Acts 17:32). In the religious world, people tend to become angry. It is argued, why should anyone serve God, if He is the Saviour of all mankind, anyhow? Why ‘work’, if all is for free? However, in the midst of all those people (“= for Jews a stumbling block, for gentiles foolishness), there are some who do believe this Good News. Not as an accomplishment of their own, but on account of Him (the Sender) Who has persuaded them of the truth of this well-message. That is why Paul writes about the good work which He has began, will to the very end complete it. This too, is a message of very Good News! ——————————— translation: Peter Feddema

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