The Apostle Paul was brimming with joy. He'd been spending time in prayer recalling the Philippians and thanking God for their partnership with him in the gospel. As Acts 16 records, it had started with Paul's visit to Philippi, and the conversion of Lydia and the Philippian jailer. Paul is also likely to have returned there a few more times. The Philippians' partnership had continued, both in their proclamation of the gospel and their consistent financial support for Paul's ministry - despite the fact that they would have put themselves in danger by their support for him. Paul's imprisonment would have been a source of shame in the ancient world.

Philippi was a Roman colony in Greek Macedonia which had been populated with military veterans by the Emperor Octavian. As described in Acts 16, the apostle Paul had founded a church there probably around 12 years before writing this letter. At the time of writing, he was likely under house arrest in Rome (as described in Acts 28).

The Sermon on the Mount (SoM) concludes with three major sections in chapter 7:

Do Not Judge, 7:1-6 The image of the speck in your brother’s eye and the plank in your own eye has got to be one of the most memorable word pictures from Jesus’ teaching! We cannot possibly go through life without making some sort of judgment or evaluations on people. In fact, just a few verses later, we are instructed to discern between a true and false prophet (7:15-20). The best way to understand this in the context of the SoM is:

In the realm of interpersonal relationships and in the community; do not judge or condemn a brother or sister’s devotion to God based on what you see and what you don’t see.