It is a question an author once asked, a question that intrigued me. Which man was more free: was it the emperor or was it the missionary? Was it Nero or was it Paul?
Was it Nero in his palace surrounded by attendants, his table overflowing with delicacies, his eyes overwhelmed with visual delights? Or was it Paul in his prison cell surrounded by soldiers, bound by chains, dependent upon the charity of others? Was it the man who was free to come and go as he pleased or the man who was held captive?
It is always an exercise in encouragement to read the book of Philippians, but the encouragement flows all the more when we consider the context in which Paul wrote it. Scholars agree that Paul wrote this letter from prison and most likely the prison in Rome in which he was confined around 62 AD. He writes to the citizens of a Roman colony in Philippi to remind them how to live as citizens of a heavenly kingdom here on earth. He writes to encourage them and to rejoice in all God has done and is doing. He writes as a man who,
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