Philippians 4:21

Salute every saint in Christ Jesus

I.

The description of a true believer.

1. He is a saint, i.e., a separated one.

(1) So God regards him as taken out of the world and set apart for Himself.

(2) So God employs him. He is a chosen instrument. While God uses all men to accomplish His general designs, none but Christians are told off for special spiritual uses.

(3) So the world esteems him; sometimes satirically, sometimes injuriously, as exhibiting a contrast, but often genuinely. There are certain things which will never be said or done in the presence of a Christian.

(4) He becomes more and more saintly: by watchfulness, avoidance of sin, separation from the world, consecration to God.

2. He is in Christ Jesus.

(1) Here he enters a new world and enjoys new experiences, thoughts, etc.

(2) He lives a new life, higher, purer, nobler.

(3) Here he has a charmed existence. Christ guides, protects, supports Him.

(4) He has the promise of a rich reward. With Christ here is to be with Him forever.

3. But only in Christ Jesus is he a saint.

(1) Not in his own resolution, endeavours, achievements.

(2) But in the enjoyment of Christ’s life, participating in His Spirit, cleansed in His blood, following His example.

II. The democracy of the Christian Church.

1. Our Lord established a society of those who believed in Him on the earth, and that society is still recognized by visible signs. There are many belonging to Christ who have not joined themselves to any body of believers. It is a bad thing to stand outside in that way, waiting for a perfect Church. If you should find it and be admitted to it, it would from that day be imperfect.

2. This Church is not a monarchy as Rome has tried to make it; nor an oligarchy ruled by a few. It is a pure true republic. In it all believers are equal before the law. True, it is a theocracy. God governs it. It is subject to Christ; but His will is exerted over individuals according to their voluntary actions. The earliest Church realized it. The latest church will realize it. Every saint is in Christ Jesus. What higher honour can they have. This implies equality of status, privilege, responsibility, and reward.

III. The salutation. Recognize every saint. There are no lines of demarcation between saints.

1. Theological differences are often fictitious. If a man be in Christ he is my brother, whatever creed he may profess.

2. Neither are ecclesiastical lines to be drawn between saints. What matter if a man has been dipped in Jordan or sprinkled, whether he calls himself by one name or another in the army of the saved ones. Because a man chooses to wear one style of livery we are not to stand aloof and say, “I will not salute you.”

3. Let not selfish ends divide saints. Look not so much at the name, wealth and quality, rank, etc., as to the saint side of everybody.

4. What business in the Church of God have jealousy, recriminations, criticism. “Bless and curse not.” Speak as well as you can for every saint; and when you cannot, keep quiet. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

True Christians have

I. One centre--Christ.

II. One character--saints and brethren.

III. One heart--they love one another. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you--The earlier ages of the Church were marked by a spirit of love; so that Christians actually regarded themselves as all members of one family. The moment a man embraced Christianity, he was regarded as a brother by the whole Christian body: a thousand hearts at once beat kindly towards him; and multitudes, who were never likely to see him in the flesh, were instantly one with him in spirit. The love of Christians because they are Christians, no regard being had to country or condition--is this still a strongly marked characteristic of those who profess themselves the disciples of the Redeemer? There was something very touching and beautiful in Christ’s promise to such as should forsake all for his sake--“He shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands.” Thus was strikingly verified a description long before given of God by the Psalmist: “He setteth the solitary in families”--for they who were to all appearance abandoned, left orphaned and alone in the world, found themselves surrounded by kinsmen. The criterion of genuine Christianity remains just what it was: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. In our own time the ends of the earth are being wondrously brought together: there is an ever-growing facility of communication between country and country; and this must rapidly break down many barriers, and bring far-scattered tribes into familiar intercourse. In earlier times, nation was widely divided from nation: the inhabitants of different lands were necessarily almost strangers to each other; and you could not have expected an approximation to universal brotherhood. But then it was, in the face of all obstacles to personal communion, that the spirit of Christianity showed its comprehensive and amalgamating energies: the name of Christ was as a spell to annihilate distance; to plant the cross in a land, sufficed to make that land one with districts removed from it by the diameter of the globe. Alas for the colder temper of modern times! We have been led into these remarks, from observing, in the apostolical writings, the affectionate greetings which the members of one Church send to those of another. For the most part, these Churches had no intercourse the one with the other; they were widely separated by situation; and, had it not been for the bond of a common faith, their members would have been as much strangers as though they had belonged to different orders of being. (H. Melvill, B. D.)