Paul's letter to the Philippian Christians was intensely personal. It had been some ten years since Paul had started this first church on European soil. Paul, in his Roman captivity, had learned of the persecution in which the church was suffering. He used his present situation to encourage his fellow believers to live victoriously in their plight. In order to grasp Paul's passion for the ministry, let us dig deeply into his thoughts using methods of Bible study: Exegesis: the act of drawing out the meaning of a specific text to determine what the author originally intended to communicate Hermeneutics: concerns interpretation; establishing principles or rules for understanding and interpreting texts Homiletics: the art and science of preaching, specifically the study of composing and delivering sermons