When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was a prisoner of Rome's mad emperor Nero. He may have been confined in Ephesus or Caesarea, or locked in the recesses of Rome's infamous Mamertine prison. Yet his letter-thoughts of a man behind bars - speaks repeatedly of joy and rejoicing.

In Paul's day, the Roman prison was a joyless place of damp stone where "neglect, darkness, and stench made it hideous and fearsome to behold." Even so, Paul's letter proclaims that in Christ every Christian has victory over the circumstances of life. And in the joy of the Lord, Paul found the secret of such victory - the way of "escape" from his prison.