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Verse by Verse Devotional on Philippians by Pastor Jack #284

October 12, 2015 | by: Jack Lash | 0 comments

Posted in: Philippians

Christians in Caesar’s Household?

4:21 " All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household. "

Paul was in chains in Rome when he wrote this letter. And, in sending greetings to the Philippian believers from Rome, he includes special mention of believers who were " of Caesar’s household."

Rome ruled the world. Caesar was not only king of a vast empire, he was ‘Lord’. The justification for crucifying Jesus was that He was a king and therefore in opposition to Caesar. Nero was Caesar at this moment in Rome. He was a scoundrel who murdered his own mother, brother and wife. His administration was corrupt and vile. And yet the Christian faith had sprung up even in this most unlikely place. As Calvin says, "It is no common evidence of divine mercy that the Gospel had penetrated that sink of all crimes and iniquities."

Finding Christians in Caesar’s household is like finding them in the Kremlin under Soviet rule, or in the families of the National Organization of Women or in the household of a Muslim tyrant. But it happens. It happens because God’s grace is mightier than sin. It happens because the One who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. It happens because God wants to show that there is no pit too deep, no culture too corrupt, no place too evil, no darkness too deep, for the grace of God to penetrate. And who would know this better than the man writing these words, who himself had been the world’s chief persecutor of the church until he had an encounter with his Opposition, and was completely subdued.

We don’t know whether the believers in Caesar’s household came to faith under the influence of Paul or before he arrived. However, we know that Paul was especially boastful of the fact that God’s light had penetrated this ultimate place of human darkness.

O Lord, if You can subdue members of Caesar’s household, if You can subdue Paul the murderer of Your people, then You can certainly subdue the people in my life that I think of as hopeless causes. Please help me to pray and love and proclaim Your truth in the hope of Your mighty power. And please subdue me to Yourself totally. Transform my darkness into light that I might be a trophy of Your magnificent grace: courageous, bold and true. Help me be always confident in the overpowering might of Your grace.

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