Paul's letter to the Ephesians is one of the most theologically rich books in the Bible. As we saw from the introduction, the apostle wants the church to understand their God-centered worldview, a God-centered identity, and the God-centered communion they have in Christ. These three are foundational to living as a Christian in 2021.

We come to the first imperative in Philippians with Paul moving from how the gospel informs his life, to how it should inform our lives as worthy citizens of God's kingdom. This kingdom living involves standing united as believers to the outside world and standing united inside the church to guard against selfishness and pride that hurt the church's witness. The basis for this unity and harmony comes from the Triune God who first loved and served us in our sin. Thus, we must keep the person and work of Jesus ever before us to maintain our Christian unity and harmony.

As we look back on Paul's personal words that he wrote to the Philippians that he was able to maintain a spirit of joy in spite of the difficulties he was facing, we realize that there is much to be learned from his outlook for us in 2020.

We started off our series in Philippians by looking at Paul's introductory greeting where we find him addressing the age-old theme of identity. For the Christian the questions of who we are, where we are, and what we have from God have been answered once and for all. Special thanks to Brian Sorgenfrei for the opening illustration.