The distinguished preacher, Phillip Brooks, once shared, "There are two things to be aware of in life: A timid surgeon and a timid preacher of the gospel. Neither of them will do you much good in life''s journey."

As we open our scripture lesson for today, we see that the Apostle Paul is hardly a timid preacher and he certainly performs major surgery on the religious thinking that under-girded the setting of life of this passage.

Paul begins in verse one with an exhortation to rejoice in our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not apologetic about the number of times he has urged the church at Philippi to always focus on their relationship to Jesus Christ. Paul never wanted any set of circumstances to prevent the Christian believer from drawing strength from the inner happiness …