Paul’s most joyful letter, written from a Roman prison — a gladness rooted in Christ, not in circumstances.
The hymn of Christ — who went down in humility and was raised on high — formed into a habit of mind.
Everything counted loss beside the treasure of knowing Christ Jesus — and pressing on to take hold of him.
Nothing is sent to us and nothing to sign up for — this simply adds a quiet recurring reminder to your own calendar, with a link back to your place in the study.
Paul wrote to the church at Philippi from Roman custody, around AD 61 — to the first congregation he had planted on European soil. Acts 16 remembers its unlikely founding members: a merchant of purple cloth, a delivered slave girl, a jailer washed and baptized at midnight. Years on, they had sent Paul a gift by the hand of Epaphroditus, and this letter carries his thanks — and something far larger than thanks.
From its first lines the letter is about partnership in the gospel, from the first day until now — and about a joy that a prison cell could not touch, because it was never located in circumstances. Its aim is the one Paul names for himself in chapter three, and the course takes its title from it: that I may know him.
It opens in thanksgiving and prayer, then turns the tables: Paul’s chains have served to advance the gospel rather than stall it. At the letter’s center stands the hymn of Christ (2:6–11) — the descent of the Son into humility and death, and God’s exaltation of him on high — planted not as doctrine to admire but as the mind believers are to share. Chapter three does the accounting: everything counted loss beside the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Chapter four ends in a peace that guards and a contentment that is learned.
Seventeen lessons, each built around the letter’s own words in the Berean Standard Bible. You read the passage itself, tap its key words open, work through interactions that press the text into life, and write short reflections kept privately on your device — until the capstone gathers your whole journal into a review of the letter.
Fifteen to twenty-five unhurried minutes. Each lesson is a complete sitting — a passage, its teaching, an interaction or two, and a moment to write. Your place is kept, so stopping mid-lesson costs nothing.
They build. The study walks the letter in order — Paul’s argument gathers weight as it goes, and the hymn of Christ at its center reads differently once you’ve seen what leads to it. The final lesson gathers your own journal into a review of the whole road.
Yes — the whole course, including audio narration, is free. No account, no payment details, no catch. If you’d like one short email when a new study opens, the sign-up at the bottom of the page is the only list we keep.
The Berean Standard Bible (BSB) — a clear, modern, word-faithful translation. You read the full passage text inside every lesson; the study never asks you to take our word for what the text says.
No. Your journal and your progress are saved privately in your own browser, on your own device. Nothing you write is sent to us or stored on a server.
Every lesson is fully narrated — the teaching, the scripture, the prayers. Listen and read together, or let the narration carry a passage while you sit with it. Audio streams while you’re online.
James arrives in September, and a new study follows each month. Leave your email and we’ll send one short note each time one opens — nothing else.