Nine words of thanks giving written long ago from a lonely Roman prison cell might, if heeded, break down most of the barriers that divide families, hinder the growth of churches and separate friends.

Ten years earlier, Paul, the apostle, who penned these words, had visited Philippi, introduced a few there to his Lord, spent an unusual night in their jail and, upon being set free by an earthquake that shook the prison doors off their hinges, started a church.