His, Theirs & Yours - Philippians 4:21-23 Series

Philippians 4:20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 21 Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send greetings. 22 All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Opening Discussion

Think of all the greetings that took place when you walked in tonight.

1) Why did you give those greetings?

I assume there is some difference in the way you greeted ones you are closer to than the ones you don’t know well.

2) Why the difference?

3) When you send greetings with someone (“Tell her I said hi!”) – why do you do that?

How to Say Hi

Greetings Are Important

A year and a half after studying the opening greeting of Philippians, tonight we finally come to the final verses of the book where Paul gives his closing greeting. After all that doctrine and truth, he does what he always does after talking about God – he bursts into a doxology in v.20. Paul’s theology always ends in doxology – discussing doctrine always bring him to praise. That’s the purpose of theology. If your theology doesn’t bring you to worship, it’s bad theology. So Paul starts these closing remark by giving to God what is God’s, namely, glory.

And if this is like several of his other letters, at this point Paul took the pen out of the hand of his secretary who has been taking dictation, and he writes a closing greeting with his own hand.

But Paul doesn’t just give us a greeting; he calls us to greet one another. He’s not just saying “hi” to the readers; he’s calling the readers to do something.

21 Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus.

He tells us to greet one another, and then teaches us by example the proper way to greet each other. By looking at his greeting, we learn the right way to greet one another. So we could title this section, “How to say hi.”

That might not have been a burning question on your mind when you drove here tonight. You might feel like you’ve already got a pretty good handle on how to say hi to people. There’s always a temptation to just skip over verses like this, since they just seem like simple pleasantries – nothing really worth studying. It just doesn’t seem all that important, until you realize that this word for greet appears 59 times in the NT. That’s more times than the words redeem, confess, and obey all put together. And on top of all that, there are many other passages that are greetings, but don’t use the word “greeting.” So this is a big deal in the Bible. Greetings are very important.

Greetings Express Love

They are important, because greeting is one of the most fundamental ways to express love. The more you love someone, the more you want to greet them. It’s why we say, “Hey, tell so-and-so I said hi.” Why do we do that? Same reason we give hugs and handshakes. If we love someone, but can’t greet them in person because of distance, we want to send the greeting with someone else. We want them to know we still love them, and that we’re thinking about them, and that we have warmth toward them.

It’s part of love. And that’s becomes obvious when you get a cold reception from someone – you feel that, don’t you? Something happens between you and a friend, you’re not totally sure where you stand with that person now, and the next time you see them, no greeting. They just snub you. They look at you, then turn and walk away without saying a word. That’s not a small thing, is it? How do you feel when you smile at someone, and they frown back? Or you stick out your hand and they just look at it and refuse to shake it? That’s a very significant thing.

Or how about if you’re afraid someone is mad at you or doesn’t like you, and when they see you, they light up, and give you a big, warm, enthusiastic greeting, and there’s no doubt in your mind that it’s genuine? That’s also a big deal.

Greetings are an important part of love, and we are commanded many, many times to give each other especially warm greetings in the church. Twice we are told to greet one another with a holy kiss. A kiss was a not a common, normal greeting for acquaintances back then. That was a greeting only for family and very close friends. We are to greet one another in the church more warmly than people typically greet one another.