I am a Servant of Christ

Paul with Timothy, wrote the book of Philippians. I discovered this while reading chapter one. Now I'm not sure if that means that Timothy wrote it to Paul's diction or exactly what that means. But chapter one opens with these words:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons

Paul and Timothy introduce themselves as Servants of Christ Jesus. And they write to the Philippi believers.

Made me ask myself, how do I introduce myself to others?

I find it depends on the situation...Hi I'm Annette, I'm Justin's mom, or I run Sassy the black dog, or my husband is Jim, the preacher at ____________ church. I rarely think to introduce myself as Annette, servant of Christ Jesus. Somehow that seems odd to me. I have to wonder....should it? I have when leading a seminar for women, introduced myself as a believer in the Lord as it seems pertinent to what I am teaching, but shouldn't my faith in Christ be pertinent to all that I do in life?

I need to think on this more, as right now when I ponder it a bit, I think...how would I do that? Can I just put it "servant of Christ Jesus" into every conversation? What if people find that offensive? Is it enough to just act like a Christian? Should I merely wait for an invitation to speak of my faith? and so forth.

And I know that Paul/Timothy are writing this as a letter, which is somewhat different. Okay I found out from Robert Jamieson that Timothy did not share in the writing of this book. He was there to share greetings to the Philippi Church. Timothy

mentioned as being well known to the Philippians (Ac 16:3, 10-12), and now present with Paul. Not that Timothy had any share in writing the Epistle; for Paul presently uses the first person singular, "I," not "we" (Php 1:3). The mention of his name implies merely that Timothy joined in affectionate remembrances to them.

Like did they, all the time, wherever they went, introduce themselves as the Servant of Christ? Somehow I question that..... they were writing with a purpose to a Philippi church, it was important to their readers to know that they were believers, and calling themselves servants of Christ set the tone.

I do have to consider, why did Paul use this greeting "servant of Christ" with the Philippi church? He didn't use it with some of the other churches that he wrote to. Different commentators say there are different reasons for this.

• Wesley says that he did so to "tenderly and modestly joins with himself his son" Timothy.
  
• John Gill says he did so to show that title servant of Christ was important and not a bad thing to be.

  but "servants of Jesus Christ"; not of men; nor did they seek to please men by preaching the doctrines and commandments of men, and which are suited to the carnal reasonings, lusts, and pleasures of men; for then the character here assumed would not belong to them: but servants of Christ; and that not in such sense only as all mankind are, or in right ought to be, since all are his creatures, and therefore ought to serve him; nor merely as all the saints in common are, being bought with the price of Christ's blood, and being effectually called by his grace, and so made willing to serve him from a principle of love, without servile fear, and with a view to his glory; but as ministers of the word, and preachers of the Gospel; they were his servants in the Gospel, they served him under the ministerial character, and as such were the servants of the most high God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; so that this title is far from being mean and despicable, it is high, honourable, and glorious.

• BW Johnson tells us that he used this terminology to link himself to his readers. He was a servant of Christ just as they were.

I have to admit, I feel more affinity to Johnson's view of why Paul introduced himself as a "servant of Christ". It's often what I will do when teaching a seminar, find ways to give relevance to what I am saying to the people I am teaching. If I can link myself to them, it gives what I have to say more meaning.

I still think there is more thinking I can do on this. I don't want to be person who hides what I believe, not that I do that, but sometimes I think I could be more bold in telling folks that I am a servant of Christ. For that is what I am.

What do you all think?