This is a letter Paul wrote to the church he had established in Philippi and you can feel the love and enthusiasm he has for them.

Verse 6 really encourages me that I don't need to know it all or have everything perfect right now, God is perfecting me. His work of salvation has been done and if we died tomorrow, those who have accepted Jesus as our Saviour can be confident that we are saved. However, the journey of perfection involves growing to become more and more like Him and it's exciting to see how different things are as we continue on that journey. God doesn't change us in the wink of an eye (we wouldn't recognise ourselves if He did it that way) but little by little our Heavenly Father perfects us by pruning, shaping, moulding, healing and making us more like Him so we can do all He has created us for (Heb 13:20-21).

Verse 27 tells us to “conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel” is all part of God's work in us, standing firm, not being intimidated, it's all a work of the Holy Spirit in us.  People watch us, they see how we act, how we react, how we behave with other Christians. This verse makes it clear that we are to stand and work together, not to criticize or argue but to learn and grow united, standing strong. We are all working towards the same goal, we may go about it in a different way but that God has made us all different, given us different abilities, callings, talents and gifts.  We are one body so we all have our part to play and we can all learn something from each other because we all have our own experience of the same almighty, infinite God. We see that no-one knows it all.

Our standing together and God's perfecting work in us will also help us to “not be intimidated” because our faith will be strong and we'll know that we have the love, support and prayers of our brothers and sisters.

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Father God, thank you for the work you're doing in me, please continue it and make me more like you and help me to grow in love and unity with all my brothers and sisters. Amen.