GetWisdom PaperturnSampler FINAL SinglePages - Flipbook - Page 100
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LIVING FOR WHAT REALLY MATTERS
city.”15 Antiochians saw the various Jewish sects as one large
group, but the people who followed Jesus were different: Suddenly, Jews and Gentiles were coming together as one people.
Quickly seeing the difference between Judaism and Jesus, a
different name was needed, so the Antiochians coined the term
little Christs, or Christians. This occurrence in Acts 11 is the
first time we read the word Christians (Christianos; Χριστιανς,
pronounced khrees-tee-a-nos) in the Bible. It is thought that
originally the term was used sneeringly of Jesus followers, like
we see in Acts 26:28: “But Agrippa did answer: ‘Keep this up
much longer and you’ll make a Christian out of me!’” (msg).
But the early church claimed the term, happily acknowledging
the desire to be little Christs.
In the opening of his letter, Paul wasn’t simply acknowledging the
people of Philippi or even the body of believers in Philippi. He was
reminding them that they were sacred, holy, and consecrated. Moreover,
the Greek word for saints in this passage is almost always plural,
illustrating that this whole community is set apart for the Lord. This
is important, because as Paul moves on to address bishops and deacons,
he does so in the context of the larger community. Scripture doesn’t
share specifically what a bishop or deacon did in the early church,
but this leadership wasn’t over the fellowship of believers. Rather, the
bishops and deacons were part of the set-apart community. How do
we know that? Let’s again look at the words Paul used in Philippians 1.
5. Circle the first word in the phrase below:
with the bishops and deacons (nrsv)
With. If we look at that term in the BLB, we discover that the
word literally means “including,” denoting “togetherness,” “union,”
and “completeness.”16 That doesn’t seem much like a hierarchy, does
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