KOINONIA

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday: Philippians 1:1-6

Tuesday: Philippians 1:7-11

Wednesday: Philippians 1:12-18a

Thursday: Philippians 1:18b-26

Friday: Philippians 1:27-30

Saturday: Philippians  4:4-9

Opening Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me to recognize the good partner that I have in you and help me to become a faithful partner to those around me. To the glory of your name, AMEN.

Devotional Thoughts:

Good partners matter. If you’ve ever participated in a group project for school or something that required a team effort to accomplish, you know that the quality of the partnership can really affect the outcome. Guy Raz points out in his book, “How I Built This” that while we like to celebrate singular effort, the truth behind most successful businesses and organizations is a good partnership.  Raz states,

“[W]hen I meet the founder of an amazing company that has done wonderful things, I find myself listening not so much to the story of a great idea born of singular brilliance, but to the triumph of a good idea in the hands of a perfect partnership. In my experience, it seems that partnerships have been the rule, not the exception….”

This month, our sermon series is going to be venturing into the book of Philippians. Philippians is a book shaped by good partners. The word Paul, the writer of the book, uses to describe partnership is “Koinonia”. Koinonia can be translated to mean partnership but it also includes elements of fellowship and connectivity. Koinonia is the word used in Philippians 1:5. The context here is important. Paul is in prison. He’s in need of some good partners. As I hope you’ve begun to see in this week’s readings, Paul finds the koinonia he needs, and he finds it in a couple of places. He finds a good partner in Christ and he finds a good partner in the Philippian Christians who have sent him support and encouragement in his imprisonment.

I wonder how often we are lured into the lie which says, “I’ve got this. I can do this all on my own.” I also wonder how often discouragement arises in part because we/I fail to recognize the good partners we have in Christ and in community. Lord, give us fresh eyes to see the places in which you desire to partner with us, courage to welcome your koinonia, and confidence that we would be good and faithful partners to those around us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.