I do not have any time to get into the themes today. But, at least now we understand the background of the letter, and next time we can get into the themes. But, I wanted to leave you with a bit of good news, because I know that you all were aching for what Sosthenes had to go through. It seems that that beating led to his conversion. He seems to have been between the time that he was beat up in front of Gallio's judgment seat until the time that Paul wrote the first epistle to the Corinthians that he was converted, and ended up traveling with Paul to Ephesus, where this epistle was written from.
There is also the idea that maybe Sosthenes had to beat it out of town because the other Jews were against him now. Not only had he messed it up in front of Gallio, now he had turned coat and joined the Christians. So, perhaps Paul's leaving Corinth was not just to get back to Jerusalem, but to help Sosthenes not to be beaten up again. All things work together for good, even beatings, to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
See, right away he states his authority. Now, why do you think he did that? Anybody who knows anything about the book of I Corinthians knows that Paul was going to deal with problems. In Philippians, he is not dealing with problems, at least nothing that is very great. So what he is doing here in Philippians 1:1 is he is stating an equality with those to whom he is writing. He is making a personal appeal and emphasizing his submission and dependence to Jesus Christ. You see, that he is on the same level as they are in regard to this. They are all servants of Jesus Christ. And so he is showing himself there to be, then, in willing service to his master.
This is important because after Paul left, there was somewhat of a void in Corinth. Obviously, there was someone there who Paul trusted to keep things going - perhaps Gaius, or Crispus. It does say that Pricilla and Aquila left with Paul, and evidently Sosthenes, as we saw in I Corinthians 1:1, was also with Paul by the time of its writing.
As we have seen, the apostle Paul has snubbed the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, 13 times, perhaps making him a candidate for the Lake of Fire.
