Dr Paul Allen

“Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown . . .” – Philippians 4:1 – The way Paul addresses the Philippians in this verse is unparalleled in his writings. It is a piling up of no less than five terms of endearment, and it illustrates the love and affection that can and should exist between believers. Over the past few Fridays, we’ve looked at the first three of those designations and the implications they have for the relationship between fellow believers (see here: brethren , beloved , longed for ). Today we come to the final two, which are particularly noteworthy. His Joy He calls the Philippians themselves his joy. And that is a striking designation for a number of reasons. First, given Paul’s overwhelming emphasis on joy throughout the letter (there is some reference to joy and rejoicing 16 times in these four short chapters), it’s significant that he would identify his joy as the Philippians themselves. It’s also striking, secondly, because of where Pa

Christ in Gethsemane (Christus in Gethsemane), oil painting by Heinrich Ferdinand Hofmann (Heinrich Hofmann). The original is at the Riverside Church (Riverside Church, New York City). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Bible specifically talks about 5 different crowns that will be given to some of God ’s people when they enter into heaven.  If you look closely at what these crowns are going to be for - they will be for work that is done for God that is beyond the normal scope of what the average Christian may attempt to do. This is for work that goes far, above and beyond what the average Christian may actually strive for. Just like trophies, rings and plaques are given to sports heroes or winning teams in sports, God apparently is going to be doing the same thing in heaven. He will be giving out certain types of crowns for the people who were willing to go that extra mile, who were willing to give that extra special effort in whatever God had called them to do. These crowns wil