The Jews of Jesus’ day lived in homes meant to house an entire extended family, with several rooms situated around a common courtyard. A family’s home in that patriarchal society was known as a “beth ab,” which means, “the father’s house.” This style of living gave the people of God an opportunity to use their shared resources to care for the needs of the whole family at once. If a family member – or a passing stranger, for that matter – found themselves in trouble, the family would use their resources to rescue that person and to bring them back into the father’s house. This lifestyle was the exact opposite of the world that Paul would enter when he arrived in Philippi. There, the worldview was all about competing for power and pleasure and leisure, about putting your needs and desires above everything else. How will the message of Jesus be understood in a culture so completely different than that of the Jews? Follow Paul into the city and discover how the gospel of Jesus clashed with a worldview not unlike the value systems of the West today.
