Thankful Remembrances

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. (Philippians 1:3)

Thank is from euchariste¯o, from which the English word “Eucharist,” a name often used of the Lord's Supper, derives. In that ordinance believers give thanks to God in remembrance of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. In this instance Paul gives thanks for his spiritual brothers and sisters in Philippi who, over the years, had brought him such abundant blessing and joy.

The phrase my God reflects Paul's deep intimacy and communion with the Lord, to whom he belonged and whom he served (Acts 27:23). His thankfulness for the Philippians was to God, emphasizing both that the Lord is the ultimate source of all joy and that it was the Philippians' relationship to Him through Christ that caused Paul to thank . . . God. Paul expressed similar thanksgivings for the believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:4), in Colossae (Col. 1:3), and in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 1:2; cf. 2:13), and for his beloved coworkers Timothy (2 Tim. 1:3) and Philemon (Philem. 4).

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