SECTION 1. — A . CH. 1:1, 2. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:1. The absence of any assertion of authority here and in 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1 is explained by the evident and unanimous loyalty to the Apostle of these two Macedonian Churches. This permitted him to place his beloved disciple and himself on the same level as alike doing the work of the one Master: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. Cp. Romans 16:21; 1 Corinthians 16:10, and note under Romans 1:1. This reminds us that Paul and Timothy were together when the Gospel was first preached at Philippi. For the same reason the name of Silas is added in 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1. The association of Timothy with Paul in other Epistles recalls also the close spiritual relationship recorded in Philippians 2:19-22; 1 Corinthians 4:17.Saints: see under Romans 1:7. This common designation of all Christians, read in the light of the Old Testament, implies that God had claimed for Himself all the professed servants of Christ, thus placing them, in privilege and solemn obligation, on a level with, or rather infinitely above, the holy objects of the Old Covenant.In Christ Jesus: as in 1 Corinthians 1:2. In distinction from the Old Covenant, our consecration to God is brought about through the historic facts of Christ and is consummated by spiritual union with Him.Who are etc.: emphatic assertion that at Philippi there are saints in Christ Jesus.All the saints: so Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:2; but not Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:2. Totality is very conspicuous in Philippians 1:3-4; Philippians 1:7-8. Writing to the Philippian Christians as individual saints, Paul thinks of them all without exception.Bishops and deacons: evidently two orders of Church officers. So 1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Timothy 3:8 : cp. Ep. of Clement, ch. 42, in my Corinthians App. I. In Acts 20:28 Paul speaks of the elders of the Church at Ephesus as bishops; thus implying, as here, a plurality of bishops in one Church. That the two titles describe one office, is implied in Titus 1:5; Titus 1:7. Our word bishop is an English form of the Greek word here used, which denotes an overseer. Elder was a Jewish title: cp. Matthew 16:21; Numbers 11:16; Exodus 3:16; Exodus 3:18.Deacons: see under Romans 12:7. Why Church officers are mentioned in this greeting and in no other from the pen of Paul, is matter of mere conjecture. Something unknown to us brought them to his mind while writing; possibly the part they had taken in the contribution of which this letter is an acknowledgment. [This is not forbidden, though not favoured, by the absence of the article.] Doubtless Paul’s reference would be understood by those to whom it was written.Philippians 1:2. Word for word as in Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Philemon 1:3. The suitability of these well-chosen words had printed them on the mind of Paul. He desires for his readers grace or favour, and, resulting from it, peace, i.e. inward rest arising from consciousness of safety, from our Father, God, and from Jesus Christ, the one Lord or Master. SECTION 2. — PRAISE AND PRAYER FOR THE AT . CH. 1:3-11. I thank my God for all my remembrance of you, always in every petition of mine on behalf of you all making the petition with joy, for your fellowship in furtherance of the Gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ; according as it is right for me to be of this mind on behalf of you all, because I have you in my heart, both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, all of you being partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I long for you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love yet more and more may abound in knowledge and all discernment, so that ye may approve the excellent things, that ye may be sincere and without stumbling to the Day of Christ, being made full of the fruit of righteousness, that which is through Jesus Christ, for glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3. The first person singular shows us that Paul thinks of himself alone as writer of this letter. Accordingly, in Philippians 2:19, Timothy is spoken of merely in the third person. He is associated with Paul only in the superscription. Contrast 1 and 2 Thess., where by the first person plural maintained throughout Paul joins with himself Silvanus and Timothy as sharing his sentiments, thus reminding us that they had recently shared his labours and perils at Thessalonica. On the other hand, this Epistle was evoked by special liberality towards Paul alone.Paul’s entire remembrance of the Philippian Christians, i.e. all that he remembers about them, this looked upon as one pleasant memory, is a ground of thanks to God. My God: as in Romans 1:8. The good work wrought in his readers, Paul feels to be a personal gift to himself from God, before whom in the solitude of his own spirit he stands: for this work was an answer to his prayers and in part a result of his own labours.Philippians 1:4. A collateral statement showing with what good reason Paul thanks God for his entire remembrance of his readers. So good was this remembrance that every prayer for every one of them was to him always a matter of joy. This joy explains his thanks. And it becomes, even in his prison at Rome, the key-note of the Epistle. So Philippians 1:18; Philippians 1:25; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:17-18; Philippians 2:28-29; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:1; Philippians 4:4; Philippians 4:10. Always . . every… all justify and expound all my remembrance of you. With this acknowledgment of universal excellence compare the more guarded, yet strong, language of 1 Corinthians 1:4-8.Petition, or supplication: a definite prayer prompted by felt need: so Philippians 1:19; Philippians 4:6; Romans 10:1; Luke 1:13. It suggests urgency.This unmixed delight aroused in the breast of Paul by his every thought about the Christians at Philippi gives to them a unique place of honour among the Churches of the New Testament. We shall, therefore, eagerly gather together as we pass along all indications of their character and conduct, and shall regret that these are so scanty. Philippians 1:5. This verse is parallel with, and expounds, for all my remembrance of you, stating the special feature in the Philippian Christians which evoked Paul’s joy and gratitude.Fellowship: a disposition to share with others effort, toil, peril, enjoyment, or material good, either by receiving from them a share of their good or ill, or by giving to them a share of ours. It is a word very common and important with Paul: e.g. Romans 12:13; Romans 15:26-27; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 10:18; 1 Corinthians 10:20; 2 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 8:4; 2 Corinthians 8:23; 2 Corinthians 9:13; 2 Corinthians 13:13. In furtherance of (or for) the Gospel: aim of this co-operation, viz. to spread the good news of salvation. For this end the Philippian Christians worked together, either one with another, or the whole body with Paul and others. For an example of such co-operation, see Philippians 4:3. And their brotherhood was not only universal but had been constant throughout their entire Christian course: from the first day until now. Constancy is the great test of personal worth. A fellow-worker always ready to co-operate is beyond price. That this one excellence is here given as itself a sufficient reason for Paul’s unmixed joy and gratitude, reveals its unique importance. And this we can understand. For, that God has committed the spread of the Gospel to the voluntary co-operation of a multitude of workers, gives special value to a virtue which leads a man to work easily with others. And, since all sin and selfishness tend to set man against man, the spirit of brotherhood implies all Christian excellence. It is therefore a sure test of character. For its only source is that love (see Philippians 1:9) which is a fulfilment of the Law. This spirit of brotherhood prompted the contribution of which this letter is an acknowledgment: cp. Philippians 4:14. And in this matter also the Philippian Christians showed equal constancy: Philippians 4:15. But whether Paul refers here to this special form of brotherhood, we do not know. Certainly it was not his sole reference. Philippians 1:6. A firm persuasion underlying Paul’s gratitude for his readers’ co-operation for the spread of the Gospel. Complete: bring to perfection, to the goal towards which it tends: Romans 15:28; 2 Corinthians 7:1.Begun, complete: same contrast in 2 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 3:3. The co-operation was a good work, but so manifestly incomplete that Paul can speak of it only as a good work begun. He traces it, however, to a personal Worker, Whose Name he need not mention. And he is sure that what He has begun He will complete. Thus the work already done assures Paul that greater things will follow. And the prospect of these greater blessings makes his remembrance of the Philippian Christians so pleasant. This is the real significance of all present spiritual good in ourselves or others. Its incompleteness proclaims that from the same personal Source greater things will come. The Day of Jesus Christ: as in Philippians 1:10; Philippians 2:16; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:14. The frequent use of these simple words in this definite sense shows how definite and important in the minds of the early Christians was the Second Coming of Christ. Until the Day of Christ; suggests a further spiritual work during life, like that already begun, to be consummated in the Great Day. This phraseology suggests that Paul did not know certainly that the Return of Christ would be delayed for centuries after the last of his readers had been laid in the grave. But the Day of Christ not the day of death, must ever be the aim of His servants’ forward look. For in that Day, and not till then, will the good work which God is now doing in His people’s hearts be completed and manifested. Not for the day of death, which will rend asunder what God has joined, but for the Day of their Lord’s return, His servants wait. In that Day He will present to Himself the spotless Church. And towards that consummation tends our present growth in spiritual life. Philippians 1:7. A statement in harmony with, and thus supporting, the confident hope just expressed.To be of this mind: to cherish this hope. [The word rendered mind is a link connecting this Epistle with that to the Romans, and suggests a common author: cp. Romans 8:5; Romans 11:20; Romans 12:3; Romans 12:16; Romans 14:6; Romans 15:5; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:5; Philippians 3:15; Philippians 3:19; Philippians 4:2; Philippians 4:10.On behalf of you all; recalls the universal terms in Philippians 1:3-4.Right: same word as righteous and just. That simple justice demands this firm expectation of the final consummation of every one of his readers, implies strong proof of their sincerity and excellence. Similar thought in 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:13 : cp. Philippians 1:6.Because etc: ground of the right just mentioned. Its ultimate ground is uncovered in the last words of the verse, for which the preceding words prepare the way. It was not Paul’s love for his readers that made it right to expect that the work begun in them would be completed, but his loving remembrance that the smile of God which shines on him shines also on them. The Philippian Christians have an abiding and large place in Paul’s heart: and this moulds all his thought about them. My bonds; implies that Paul was in prison while writing this letter: so Philippians 1:13-14. This clause is to be joined probably to the foregoing. Within the narrow limits of Paul’s prison walls, his readers are ever with him. And whenever, either to visitors in his prison or before heathen judges or elsewhere, he defends against attack the truth of the Gospel, or when he endeavours to impart to believers a firmer and fuller knowledge of it, he thinks ever of his beloved converts at Philippi. Thoughts of them dispel in part the gloom of his dungeon, and strengthen his defence of the Gospel. Thus the changing circumstances and occupation of the Apostle throw into relief his constant thought of them.All of you being etc.: the aspect in which they are present to him. Partakers: cognate to fellowship in Philippians 1:5 : they were joint-sharers with him.Grace: the undeserved favour of God, to which Paul owes whatever he has or is: so 1 Corinthians 15:10. God’s smile rests, as he remembers, on every one of his readers. Therefore, while looking forward to the completion in himself of that which the grace of God has begun, Paul feels himself bound by his sense of right to expect a like completion of the work begun in them. Thus his hopes for them are traced to the only sure ground of hope, the undeserved favour of God.Philippians 1:8. This verse supports the new thought introduced in Philippians 1:7, viz. that Paul has his readers in his heart. God, my witness: a genuine trait of Paul, Romans 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:5. Long-for: same word in Philippians 2:26; Romans 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Timothy 1:4.You all; maintains the universality which is so marked a feature of this section. Tender-mercies: same word in 2 Corinthians 6:12; see note. While Paul fears his readers in his heart, he feels that his love for them is an outflow of the tender mercies of Christ. That divine tenderness is the element in which Paul’s love breathes and lives. Thus, to Philippians 1:7; Philippians 1:8 is a climax.Such are Paul’s first thoughts about his readers. As he turns in thought to them, one feature of their character absorbs his attention viz. their harmonious co-operation for the spread of the Gospel. This co-operation is universal, and has been constant throughout their course. So sure a mark is it of Christian excellence that it makes every prayer for them a delight, and every remembrance of them thanks to God. The secret of this joy is Paul’s firm confidence that what he sees in his readers is but the beginning of a development which will not cease till consummated in the Day of Christ’s Return. And this confidence is made obligatory to him by his loving recognition, amid his various hardships and labours, of the evident grace of God shining upon them as well as upon himself. And, while protesting his yearning for them, he remembers that its source and the element in which it moves are not human but divine, that his love is but an outflow of the tender love which fills the breast of Christ. Philippians 1:9. After mentioning for a moment in Philippians 1:4 his petitions to God for his readers, Paul now adds to his thanks for the good work already begun in them and his hopes for its completion a definite prayer for its progress: and this I pray. The matter of this prayer, he describes as its purpose: he prays in order that their love etc.Love: the principle which prompts us to do good to our fellows; as always when not further defined. So Romans 12:9; Romans 13:10; 1 Corinthians 13:1 ff. It is the distinctive feature of the Christian character. By asking for its increase, Paul assumes its existence. And rightly so. For it is implied (Philippians 1:5) in fellowship, of which mutual love is always the animating principle.Knowledge: more fully scientific knowledge, an orderly and comprehensive acquaintance with something; as in Romans 1:28; Romans 3:20; Romans 10:2 : a favourite word of Paul, especially in his later Epistles. Its frequency there is a mark of his mature thought, and perhaps of his deepening conviction of the need, in order to escape prevalent dangers, of a fuller knowledge of the Gospel. Discernment: perception of qualities. Frequent in classical Greek for perception by the bodily senses. Paul desires for his readers a comprehensive acquaintance with things divine and a faculty of distinguishing right from wrong in the various details of life. The word all recalls the number and variety of these details. Abound: either itself abundant in quantity or results, as in 2 Corinthians 1:5; Romans 3:7 or possessing abundance of knowledge and discernment, as in 1 Corinthians 8:8; 2 Corinthians 8:7. According to the one interpretation, Paul prays that his readers’ love may increase and their increasing love be associated with knowledge: or, that the knowledge which already enriches their love may increase, and thus enrich it still more. The difference here is slight. Perhaps the latter sense is nearer to Paul’s thought. For he passes at once in Philippians 1:10 to the desired result of knowledge and discernment, showing that of them he thinks chiefly.Yet more and more: further and further in the same direction. This is a courteous acknowledgment that his readers’ love is already rich in, and enriched by, knowledge. Philippians 1:10. Further purpose, and then a final purpose, of the enrichment in knowledge.Approve, or prove: put to the test with good purpose, i.e. to detect the good. The excellent things: literally, the things that differ. But the good aim already implied in the word rendered approve, and the result which Paul expects (in Philippians 1:10 b) to follow this proving, imply that the difference referred to is that of superiority. Same words in same sense in Romans 2:18. Same purpose in Romans 12:2. Only a divinely given comprehension of the great realities and discernment of moral details will enable us to distinguish the comparative excellence of various modes of action. And no gift is of greater practical worth. That ye may be etc.: i.e. seek Christian intelligence in order that it may mould your character.Sincere: unmixed with any foreign matter. So 1 Corinthians 5:8; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Peter 3:1; Wis 7:25. [The meaning is well illustrated in Plato’s Phædo pp. 66a, 67a.]Without-cause-of-stumbling: having nothing against which either themselves or others may strike their foot and fall. Same word in the latter sense in 1 Corinthians 10:32; in the former sense in Acts 24:16. Here perhaps in the former sense, causing themselves to stumble. For Paul is referring to the development of his readers own spiritual life. Everything foreign to the Christian life tends to trip up in the Christian course him who tolerates it. Paul desires for his readers spiritual intelligence in order that they may accurately distinguish moral qualities, in order that thus there may be in them no mixture of impure elements and that they may escape the peril of falling which such foreign elements involve. The Day of Christ: as in Philippians 1:6. The recurrence of this thought reveals its firm hold of the mind of Paul.To the Day etc.: ultimate goal of Paul’s thoughts about his readers. He desires them to be pure and to be preserved from falling in order that they may be so found in that day. Same words and thought in Philippians 2:16; Ephesians 4:30; 2 Timothy 1:12. The slightly different words in Philippians 1:6 note a slightly different thought, viz. the time to which he desires his readers’ spiritual development to continue.Philippians 1:11. A collateral element in Paul’s prayer, placing beside the foregoing negatives, without mixture and without stumbling, a positive blessing. He desires them not only to stand erect in the Day of Christ but to be then full of fruit.Righteousness: right doing, conformity with the moral standard, as in Romans 6:13; Romans 6:18; Romans 6:20.Fruit of righteousness: the good results growing naturally, in the moral order of the universe, out of right doing. Same words and similar thoughts in James 3:18, Proverbs 11:30. This harvest of blessing, only to be had by right doing, Paul desires his readers to have to the full. [The difficult accusative καρπον specifies the remoter object of the desired filling. The Philippian Christians are its immediate object. The fruit of righteousness is, as matter of fact, that with which they are to be made full. But perhaps the accusative case represents the fruit rather as the extent of the fulness, or as the aim of Paul’s prayer. He desires his readers to be made full in the sense, and to the extent, of obtaining the fruit of righteousness. Same construction in Colossians 1:9. The fruit is through Jesus Christ. For only through His agency come good works and their good results. They thus show forth the glory and praise of God, i.e.His splendour evoking admiration (see under Romans 1:21) and verbal acknowledgment. And this ultimate result of the blessings which Paul asks for his readers is also the final aim of his prayer for them. He prays for them the more earnestly and confidently because he knows that the answer to his prayer will reveal the greatness of God and evoke in earth and heaven a louder note of praise to Him. Cp. Romans 15:7.As usual, Paul’s first thought about his readers is praise to God for them. But the incompleteness of the good work for which he gives thanks moves him at once to pray that the work begun in them may make progress. So good is the work that Paul needs only to pray that it may advance in the same direction. For in their spirit of brotherhood he recognises that love which is the essence of the Christian character. Especially he prays that, as hitherto so in greater measure, their love may be rich in general Christian intelligence and in the faculty of discerning moral excellence, such excellence being a condition of spiritual purity and safety and of that right doing which will produce a harvest of blessing and thus make the Philippian Christians rich indeed. This harvest of blessing can come only through Christ, and will reveal the splendour of God and thus redound to His praise. SECTION 3. — PAUL’S BONDS, , AND FRIENDS. CH. 1:12-18. Moreover, I wish you to know, brethren, that the matters touching me have fallen out rather for progress of the Gospel; so that my bonds have become manifest in Christ in the whole Prζtorian and to all the rest, and the more part of the brethren having become confident in the Lord through my bonds are more abundantly bold to speak fearlessly the word of God. Some indeed even because of envy and strife, but others also because of good will, proclaim Christ. These, out of love, knowing that for defence of the Gospel I am set. But the others out of a spirit of faction announce Christ, not purely, thinking to raise up affliction for my bonds. What then? Only that in every way, whether pretence or truth, Christ is announced. And in this I rejoice; yes, and I will rejoice. After praise and prayer for his readers, Paul now speaks about himself; i.e. about (Philippians 1:12-14) the results of his imprisonment, about (Philippians 1:15-17) his enemies and friends, and about (Philippians 1:18) the joy indirectly caused to him both by friends and enemies.Philippians 1:12. To know: literally, to come to know, to learn. Paul now begins to give information.I wish you to know: similar words in 1 Corinthians 11:3; cp. Romans 1:13; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13.The matters touching me: the entire circumstances, doings, and experiences, of Paul. Same words in same sense in Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7.Progress: same word in Philippians 1:25; 1 Timothy 4:15; Galatians 1:14; Luke 2:52; 2 Timothy 2:16. The Gospel makes progress (same idea in 2 Thessalonians 3:1) geographically, when the good news is carried from place to place; numerically, when one after another believes it and confesses Christ; spiritually, when as a power of God it more and more moulds the inner and outer life of men. The word rather suggests a comparison or contrast between the expected and actual results of the events or circumstances about which Paul here writes, and thus implies that these events were likely to hinder the Gospel. Notice that the hardships involved in them are, throughout the Epistle, left entirely out of sight. The only point present to Paul’s thought is their effect upon the spread of the good news of salvation. Philippians 1:13. A result of the things which happened to Paul, stated as a proof and measure of the progress of the Gospel caused thereby. [ωστε with the infinitive throws the emphasis on the foregoing statement, and indicates that the words which follow are a result affording proof and measure of this statement. Philippians 1:13-14 tell to how great an extent the events and circumstances which threatened to hinder the Gospel have actually helped it forward.]My bonds; indicates the nature of the events referred to in Philippians 1:12 as likely to hinder the Gospel, viz. Paul’s imprisonment, and confirms the suggestion in Philippians 1:7 that this letter was written in prison. Paul will now tell us how his arrest, which for so long time put an end to his active and successful labours, actually helped forward the cause for which he laboured.Manifest in Christ: set visibly before the eyes of men in their relation to Christ. Similar thought in 2 Corinthians 3:3 : ye being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ ministered by us. The real nature of Paul’s imprisonment was made public, as occasioned not by crime but by the prisoner’s relation to Christ.The Prζtorium: a Latin word denoting something belonging to the Prζtor, a title given to the leader of the Roman armies. It denotes sometimes the general’s tent. The same word denotes in Matthew 27:27; Mark 15:16; John 18:28; John 18:33; John 19:9 the residence of a provincial governor. Similarly Acts 23:35, Herod’s prζtorium. In a few clear cases, e.g. Tacitus, Histories bk. i. 20, it denotes the imperial body-guard, the Prζtorian regiments, a corps of some 10,000 picked troops instituted by Augustus, and stationed, under Augustus in part, under Tiberius entirely, at Rome. This reference would give good sense here. We can conceive Paul, a prisoner who had appealed to Cζsar, committed to the charge of Prζtorian soldiers, one of them always with him; and that thus the Gospel which Paul preached became known throughout the whole Prζtorian guard. It has been suggested that the word refers to a great camp of the Prζtorians established by Tiberius just outside Rome. But we have no proof that the word is ever so used. It is therefore better to accept here the indisputable reference noted above. See a very good note by Lightfoot. Inasmuch as the residence of a Roman governor was also called Prζtorium, the use of this word here is not in itself absolute proof that this Epistle was written from Rome. But it somewhat confirms other indications (especially Philippians 4:22) to this effect.And to all the others.] Not only within the limits of the imperial body-guard, but to every one around, the nature of Paul’s imprisonment became known. Philippians 1:14. A second result, showing further how much the events which happened to Paul have aided the progress of the Gospel.The more part of the brethren; reveals a minority, even among Christians, whose confidence in Christ was not increased by Paul’s bonds. This minority must have included the opponents mentioned in Philippians 1:15. Possibly it may have included also some timid friends in whom Paul’s imprisonment evoked, not faith, but fear.In the Lord; must be joined, not to brethren, to which it would add no meaning, but to being-confident specifying in very emphatic manner the Personal Ground of their increasing confidence. Through Paul’s imprisonment most of the Christians around reposed new trust in Christ: for they saw in Paul, as they had never seen before, the presence and power and sufficient grace of Christ. Thus was Christ magnified in Paul’s body: Philippians 1:20. [This use of the Greek dative to denote an instrument is not uncommon: see Romans 11:20; Romans 15:18. To take my bonds as the ground of confidence, though grammatically admissible, (see Philemon 1:21,) gives no intelligible sense. Paul’s imprisonment was the occasion, and in this sense the instrument, of trust in Christ, but could not be its ground. Moreover, the ground of this confidence is clearly stated: it is in Christ.]More-abundantly bold; recognises previous abundant boldness, which is now surpassed. Fearlessly; adds definiteness, and thus emphasis, to more-abundantly bold. No mixture of fear weakened the courage with which they proclaimed the word of God.Thus in a twofold way did Paul’s imprisonment aid the spread of the Gospel it threatened so seriously to hinder. By means of his long confinement, Christ became known throughout the most influential part of the Roman army, and to all the men around the prisoner. And such was his conduct in prison that he became to most of the Christians at Rome a revelation of the universal grace of Christ, and thus led them to put in Him new confidence and, trusting in Him, to give to the winds all fear and with greater courage than before proclaim the message of God. Philippians 1:15. The last words of Php 1:14 remind Paul that not all who speak the word of God are prompted by confidence in Christ evoked by his imprisonment. Among them he distinguishes two classes inspired by different motives.Because of envy: moved by vexation at Paul’s success: same words in Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.Strife: active opposition, a natural result of envy. Same words together in 1 Timothy 6:4. Even ill-will prompted by my success and a resolution to oppose me are motives to some men for preaching Christ.Good-will: either something which seems good to us, as in Luke 10:21 or a wish for the good of others, as here. These senses often coalesce, as in Romans 10:1. The meaning here is determined and expounded by the word love in Philippians 1:16.Proclaim: as heralds announce the coming of a king. Proclaim Christ: as in 1 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 15:12; 2 Corinthians 1:19; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 11:4. The hostility to Paul, revealed in Philippians 1:15, on the part of some who preached Christ, indicates a conception of the Gospel radically different from his. This suggests that these were Judaizing teachers like those referred to in Galatians 1:7; Galatians 6:12 and like the apparently similar teachers mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:4; 2 Corinthians 11:13; 2 Corinthians 11:22. And the suggestion is strongly confirmed by the plain reference to such teachers in Philippians 3:2-3.Philippians 1:16-17. Further description of the two classes who preach Christ, justifying the foregoing account of them; and arranged, like 2 Corinthians 2:15-16, in inverse order. Out of love: the inward source of their preaching. Grammatically we may render either They who preach out of love do so knowing that etc., or These preach out of love knowing etc. To a similar alternative interpretation Philippians 1:17 is open. Since the words out of love add definitely to the sense already conveyed by the word good-will in Philippians 1:15, noting that this good-will is the central Christian virtue of love, I prefer, with A.V. and R.V., the latter interpretation [So Hebrews 7:21; Hebrews 12:10. The other in Romans 2:7-8; Galatians 4:22. The preaching prompted by good-will springs out of love. This can only be love towards Paul, in contrast to the hostility described in Philippians 1:17.Knowing that etc.: ground of this special manifestation of Christian love. Notice here genuine phraseology of Paul: so Romans 5:3; Romans 6:9; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:6; 2 Corinthians 5:11.Defence of the Gospel: same words in Philippians 1:7. For this purpose Paul has been set by God in his present position in the Church. These men know this. And their Christian love inspires sympathy with the Apostle in his great work, and moves them to preach the Gospel committed to his charge. Consequently, in addition to men of baser motives there are those who also because of good-will proclaim Christ.Philippians 1:17. Another class who preach Christ. They must have been included in, and therefore not more numerous than, the minority (Philippians 1:14) whose confidence in Christ was not increased by Paul’s imprisonment. Whether they constituted the whole minority, or whether there were in it others of different spirit, we do not know. Out of a spirit of faction: same words in Romans 2:8, where see note. They denote a low and mercenary spirit, ready to do base work for hire or in order to gain selfish and contemptible ends. One such motive is mentioned in Galatians 6:12. Paul thus traces to their source the envy and strife spoken of in Philippians 1:15. He intimates that his opponents were annoyed at his success, because it interfered with their own selfish aims, and that on this account they stirred up conflict against him. Announce Christ: bring the news that Christ has come. It is practically equivalent to preach Christ, but leaves out of sight the official position of the herald. These words, which are in part a repetition, are added here to expose the incongruity of announcing Christ out of party spirit.Not purely: a comment. With this announcement of Christ was mixed a base element. Thinking to raise up etc.: exposition of the foregoing. It justifies Paul’s charge that the preaching referred to was an outflow of mercenary spirit. For my bonds: i.e. for Paul in prison. So Romans 8:26 helps our weakness. They thought that what they were doing was making or would make Paul’s imprisonment more bitter to him. How this was to be, Paul does not say. But we can easily suppose that these were Jewish Christians who, like the Judaizers in Galatia insisted on the continued and universal observance of the Jewish law as a condition of the salvation brought by Christ. They knew that the Apostle strongly denounced their teaching as subversive of the Gospel. And they supposed that by earnestly preaching Christ and winning converts, and thus raining influence in the Church, they would annoy Paul and make him feel more keenly the confinement which limited his effective opposition to them.Affliction: usually, external hardship. Here and in 2 Corinthians 2:4 it denotes severe inward sorrow caused by the unworthy conduct of Christians.This implies that to Paul such conduct was hardship as real as actual persecution. Notice the contrast between the friends who know, their action being based on truth and reality, and the opponents who suppose but who labour, as Philippians 1:18 will show, under delusion.Philippians 1:18. What then? literally, for why? same words in Romans 3:3. They support, under the form of a startled question, or seek support for, something foregoing. Paul has just said that even his opponents, speaking with mercenary motives, nevertheless announce Christ. This assertion he will now strengthen.In every way: expounded in detail by the following words. Pretence: as a cloak concealing the real motive. In truth: the apparent corresponding with the real. Paul supports the assertion in Philippians 1:17 by saying that it only amounts to this, that in every variety of mode, some being actually what it seems to be, and some a mask covering most unworthy aims, Christ is nevertheless announced. The second repetition of this last thought reveals its large place in Paul’s thoughts about the various motives of the preachers at Rome. In this great fact Paul has present joy: and future joy awaits him, for reasons which he proceeds to give. Thus did his opponents fail. They thought, by propagating a Gospel which he condemned, to make his fetters more painful. Their efforts caused him joy, and gave him a hope of still further joy to come. We have seen that Philippians 1:15 implies teaching about Christ and the Gospel by Paul’s opponents quite different from his own. We naturally ask, How could Paul expect from such teaching good results? In very different language does he speak of opponents in Galatians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 11:15. An answer is not far to seek. Efforts to lead astray Paul’s converts could do nothing but harm, and were therefore denounced in strong terms. But the words preach Christ suggest that the activity of the adversaries at Rome was directed chiefly to those outside the Church. Such activity would at least spread the name of Christ, and might open a way for purer teaching. Possibly also, in accordance with the calmer tone which breathes throughout the letters written in prison, Paul’s maturer thought may have detected a better side even in teaching which aroused his indignation while engaged in active labour in the face of many enemies. His joy reminds us that very imperfect teaching may be better than no teaching, and warns us not to despise imperfect forms of Christianity. Probably the worst form of it is better than the best non-Christian teaching. Such are the tidings about himself which Paul sends to his readers. His imprisonment has brought the name of Christ into influential circles which otherwise it could hardly have reached; and the bondage of one preacher has opened the lips of many. It is true that some of these are moved by ill-will. They think by their activity to make the prisoner’s chain more galling. But by preaching Christ they are doing good. So completely have they missed their aim that their efforts to trouble Paul have caused him abiding joy. SECTION 4. — PAUL’S HOPE, IN VIEW OF LIFE AND DEATH. CH. 1:19-26. For I know that to me this will result in salvation through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my eager expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always so now also, Christ will be magnified in my body whether through life or through death. For to me to live is Christ: and to die, gain. But if to live in the flesh be my lot, this to me is fruit of work. And what I shall choose for myself I do not know. Moreover, I am held fast from the two sides, having my desire for dissolution and to be with Christ: for it is very far better. But to abide in the flesh is more necessary, because of you. And, being confident of this, I know that I shall abide, and abide with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your ground of exultation may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you again. After describing his outer surroundings of bonds, friends, and enemies, Paul closed § 3 by describing their inward effect upon him, viz. joy now and further joy in the future. This joy marks the transition to § 4 which describes his inner life in its relation to his outward surroundings. In Philippians 1:19-20 Paul justifies the joy expressed in Philippians 1:18, by a confident hope: and in Philippians 1:21-26 he looks at this confidence in its relation to the alternative of life and death which is now before him.Philippians 1:19. A reason, viz. knowledge of the result, justifying Paul’s joy that, even by his enemies and as a mask concealing a wish to annoy him, Christ is proclaimed. Not his only reason, but one suiting his course of thought, which now passes from the life around him to the life within.This: as in Philippians 1:18, that Christ is proclaimed even by enemies and in pretence.Salvation: in its usual sense of final deliverance from the spiritual perils of earth into eternal safety; as in Philippians 1:28, Philippians 2:12; Romans 1:16; Romans 10:1; Romans 10:10; Romans 11:11; Romans 13:11. Paul’s joy that Christ is preached is not dimmed by the ill-will which occasioned it: for he knows that this effort to add bitterness to his imprisonment will work out for him spiritual safety and final deliverance. How this is to be, he does not say. But we know that, to the faithful, hardship develops spiritual strength, and thus fits for the battle of life and leads to final victory. In this way tribulation works endurance and hope: Romans 5:3. Similarly, Paul’s thorn in the flesh was designed by God to preserve him from spiritual peril: 2 Corinthians 12:7. Just so, the ill-will of his enemies was a safeguard preserving him for final salvation. Consequently, it could in no degree dim his joy that Christ was preached. Indeed his joy was increased by the manifest victory over all evil involved in the spiritual benefit resulting from his enemies’ attempt to vex him.The word salvation cannot mean release from imprisonment. For Paul is quite doubtful, as we shall see, whether life or death awaits him: there is no visible connection between his enemies’ hostility and his own escape from prison, and no indication that the word is used here in any other than its ordinary sense. Supplication or petition: as in Philippians 1:4. His readers’ urgent request to God was a means through which Paul expected these good results. He knows that they pray for him, and is sure that God will answer their prayers in the development of his own spiritual life in spite of. and by means of, the hostility of his enemies. Another note of genuineness: cp. Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians 1:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:2. It reveals Paul’s high estimate of the value of prayer for others.Supply, or bountiful supply: see under 2 Corinthians 9:10. Grammatically, the Spirit of Jesus Christ may be either Himself the matter supplied (cp. Galatians 3:5) or the Author of the supply. The practical difference is very slight. For the Holy Spirit given is Himself the active source of all spiritual good: and He supplies our need by Himself becoming the animating principle of our life. He is therefore both Giver and Gift. But since the Holy Spirit is usually thought of as definitely once for all given to all who believe, it is better to think of Him here as actively supplying Paul’s various spiritual needs. Notice two channels through which Paul expects blessings. He knows that his readers at Philippi will pray for him; and that in answer to their prayer the Spirit of Jesus will by His own presence supply the spiritual needs occasioned by Paul’s peculiar circumstances. Philippians 1:20. A personal and appropriate condition on which depends the realisation of the assured expectation just expressed: according to etc.Eager-expectation: see under Romans 8:19. To this, the word hope adds the idea of expected benefit. That in nothing etc.: negative side of the expectation, as usual placed first. Put-to-shame: deserted by God in the hour of trial and thus covered with ridicule by the failure of his hopes. Paul is sure that in nothing that awaits him will this happen. Same word in same sense in Romans 5:5. This objective sense involves also here the subjective sense of fear of ridicule, as in Romans 1:16. But the trust in God which pervades this page suggests that Paul thinks, not of what he will feel, but of what will happen to him.In all boldness: positive side of Paul’s expectation. Christ will be magnified: in the subjective view of men, to whom Christ will occupy a larger place through that which they see in Paul; cp. Luke 1:46; Acts 10:46; Acts 5:13; also Leviticus 10:3. Notice that in this enlargement Paul is represented not as himself magnifying Christ, but only as His body the locality in which Christ will be magnified.Boldness, or unreserved speech: see under 2 Corinthians 3:12. Paul has an assured hope that God will give him grace to speak the whole truth without fear of consequences, and that in his unreserved speech will be revealed the greatness of Christ. An example of this in Acts 4:13. Thus the realisation of Paul’s hope depends upon himself. But even for courage he trusts to God and to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Already Christ is always magnified in Paul. And he has a firm hope that what has been hitherto will be now also, even amid his peculiarly trying circumstances. This modest recognition of his own moral excellence is in close harmony with 2 Corinthians 1:12. In my body: special locality of the revelation in Paul of the greatness of Christ. The weakness and suffering and peril of Paul’s fettered body will show forth the greatness of Him who is able to fill His servants, even in prison, with confidence and peace and joy. The body is specially mentioned as that side of Paul which comes in immediate contact with his hard surroundings and in which is seen manifested the greatness of Christ. The importance here given to the body is a note of genuineness. Cp. Romans 6:12; Romans 8:13; Romans 12:1.A tremendous alternative overhanging Paul’s bodily life cannot be overlooked in this eager glance into the future. In any case, Christ will be magnified. But Paul knows not whether it will be ‘through the continued preservation of his body in life, or through his death.’ Such is the failure of the attempt to make Paul’s imprisonment more galling. His opponents think to annoy him by preaching a Gospel he does not approve. Their attempt to vex him fills the prisoner with joy. For their preaching, though containing serious error, makes known the name of Christ to some who perhaps otherwise would not hear it. And Paul knows that their hostility is one of the many things working together for his good, giving occasion for Christian patience, and thus strengthening him for the remaining battle of life. That he is unmoved by such annoyance, evokes a sure confidence of final salvation. And this confidence is supported by knowledge that the beloved ones at Philippi pray for him and that the Spirit of Christ will supply his every need. This assurance of final victory rests upon an assurance that in every trial God will give to Paul a courage which will show forth the greatness of Christ, and is not shaken by his uncertainty whether life or death awaits him. Philippians 1:21-26. The just mentioned alternative, whether by life or by death, as it presents itself to the wavering thought and feelings of Paul.To me; introduces conspicuously the personal experience of Paul. To live is Christ; proves that Christ will be magnified… by life. Cp. Colossians 3:4, Christ your life; Galatians 2:20, Christ lives in me. Christ animates and permeates Paul’s entire activity, so that all his words and acts are really said and done by Christ and are therefore an outflow of Christ living in him. Consequently, the personality of Christ is the centre and circumference of the entire life of Paul. If so, in his body the character and greatness of Christ will ever appear. And the various events of life, pleasant and unpleasant, will but show how great Christ is.To die is gain.] Whatever earthly wealth the Christian loses by death, he gains in the wealth of heaven infinitely more. For all material good is but a scanty and dim outline of the eternal reality. And none except the servants of Christ can speak of death as gain. Others may bravely give up life in a noble cause. They thus endure with worthy aim, so far as they can see, the loss of all things. The Christian martyr suffers no loss, for he knows that death is immediate enrichment. These last words were not needed to prove that Christ will be magnified in Paul’s death. For the martyr’s dying courage is part of the life which Christ lives in him. But they strengthen the proof already given. For the greatness of Christ is revealed in every one who calmly looks death in the face for Christ’s sake, and declares it to be gain. Such victory reveals the presence of one greater than death. These words are also a contrast suggested by the alternative now before Paul. Philippians 1:22. To live in flesh; takes up to live in Philippians 1:21. The added words are needed, after the implied reference to a life beyond the grave, to show that Paul refers now, not to his real life which is exposed to no uncertainty, but only to life in mortal flesh.Work: immediate result and embodiment of sustained effort. Fruit of work: further result developed from work done, according to its own organic laws. If Paul continue to live on earth, his continued life will be work done; and from this work he will gather good fruit. Close coincidence in Romans 1:13.[Two renderings of this verse, as in R.V. text and margin, are possible. (a) The words If to live in the flesh may be a complete conditional clause; and this is to me fruit of work a direct assertion limited by the foregoing condition. In this case we must supply from the general train of thought some such words as be my lot. The following words, and what I shall choose, will then come naturally as an additional thought. The word if will suitably introduce one side of the alternative of life and death which now fills the thought of Paul. And this alternative suggests easily the inserted words be my lot. For Paul is now uncertain what his lot will be. Or we may take (b) If to live in flesh… fruit of work as one conditional clause, and the words what I shall choose for myself I know not as the main assertion. That which in (a) is expressly stated, viz. that Paul’s life in flesh brings with it fruit of labour, is in (b) only casually implied, the main assertion being that Paul knows not what to choose. The question is whether this is to me fruit of labour is an independent and direct assertion, or is merely subordinate to the assertion following. The importance of the thought contained in these words favours the former supposition. Moreover, to (b) the word if (ει) presents a difficulty. For, although it may be used, as Ellicott follows Meyer in saying, in a syllogistic sense as in Colossians 3:1, we have no case in the N.T. of this use where the idea of uncertainty is altogether absent. And here there is no doubt whatever that for Paul to live is to work and to have fruit of his work. Nor have we in the N.T. a case of και used as (b) would require. On the other hand, the supplied words required by (a) are easily suggested by the terrible alternative before the prisoner awaiting his trial. Paul is sure that in his body Christ will be magnified, but knows not whether this will be by preserved life or by a martyr’s death. If he live, his life will be a continued incarnation of Christ. If he die, death will enrich him. These last words seem to give a preference to death. But this, Paul repudiates. To him both death and life are gain. He therefore takes up the alternative of life, and tells its real significance and worth. Instead of saying simply to live in flesh, this is to me fruit of work, Paul expresses the uncertainty of his present position by prefixing the word if, conveying easily the sense if it be my lot to live in the flesh etc. This exposition gives the chief prominence to the most important words of the sentence, this is to me fruit of work, which the other exposition hides in a conditional clause. In spite therefore of the preponderant judgment of both ancient and modern expositors, I venture to give a slight preference to (a). But the practical difference is not great.] I do not know or I do not say. The latter is the meaning everywhere else in the N.T. of the word so rendered. The former is its more common use in classical Greek. And as a reader was accustomed to the one or the other, he would probably interpret Paul’s words. The difference is slight. The latter interpretation makes Paul simply silent: the former makes him silent because he has nothing to say. Philippians 1:23. Additional detail about Paul’s state of mind in view of the great alternative.Held fast from the two sides: whichever way he looks, from that side comes an irresistible influence. To live in the flesh is for Paul a prolonged incarnation of Christ, and brings with it work producing a harvest of blessing. And to die is gain. Yet, in spite of this double and contrary compulsion, Paul has a desire in the matter. It is for dissolution: literally, taking-to-pieces. A cognate word, in the same sense of death, in 2 Timothy 4:6. Often used in classical Greek in the sense of release or departure. And to be with Christ: inseparably connected in Paul’s thought with dissolution. While saying that a double compulsion from two directions holds him fast, he yet acknowledges that his desire goes in the direction of dissolution and the immediate companionship of Christ which it gives. Over this preference Paul lingers, and supports it by a direct assertion: for it is very far better. That he looked upon the state entered at death as a companionship of Christ very much better than his present state of fruitful work, implies that in his view the departed servants of Christ are, while waiting for the greater glory of the resurrection, already in intelligent intercourse with Him infinitely closer than the fellowship enjoyed on earth. Notice that Paul’s thought about death is not, as with many, mere rest from the hardships of life, but actual intercourse with Christ. A close coincidence with 2 Corinthians 5:8, where see note and thus another mark of common authorship.Philippians 1:24. Paul’s wavering thought, drawn in different directions, turns again to the advantage of continuing on earth.To abide in the flesh: similar phrase in Romans 6:1; Romans 11:22-23; Colossians 1:23. Although his wearied heart yearns for the fuller fellowship with Christ which death will bring, he recognises the more pressing need that he remain a time longer in the weakness of bodily life. Notice the contrasted comparatives: very far better and more necessary.Because of you: the beloved Christians at Philippi as representing all those whom Paul’s continued life will benefit. Philippians 1:25. Two renderings possible: and, being confident of this, I know that, or and this I confidently know that etc. The former refers the word this to the foregoing, making the necessity of Paul’s continuance in the flesh a ground of his assurance that he shall so continue: the latter merely makes a very strong assertion without giving any reason. Paul’s habit of giving reasons favours the former rendering. He is quite sure that there is more need for him to remain than to depart; and this assurance convinces him that that which is more needful will be his actual lot.Abide: absolutely, continue in his present state. Abide with you all: relative continuance, prolonged association with the Christians at Philippi. Progress and joy of faith: probably progress in the Christian life and the joy which always accompanies growth, both progress and joy being derived from faith, the unique condition of Christian life. Philippians 1:26. Further aim of Paul’s continuance with his readers. It is evidently a purpose of God, who will preserve him.Ground of exultation: as in Romans 4:2.May-abound: that you may have more and more to glory in and boast about. This increase of matter of exultation will be in Christ: for He is the element, as well as the ground, of all Christian boasting. So 1 Corinthians 1:31. In me: Paul liberated from prison would be to the Philippians an occasion of increased exultation, Christ being its element and ground. Similarly in Philippians 1:20, ‘Christ will be magnified in my body,’ and Philippians 1:14, confident in the Lord through my bonds.Through my presence with you again; expands in detail in me. Paul’s presence once more at Philippi after his imprisonment will give to the Christians there in his person an increased confidence and exultation in Christ. Thus will his continued life increase his readers’ faith in God, and consequently their joy and their spiritual growth. The ground and worth of the confidence in Philippians 1:25 we cannot now determine. If, as we have good reason to believe, the pastoral Epistles are genuine, this confidence was justified by the event. And possibly the Holy Spirit may have revealed to Paul, by spiritual insight into the needs of the case, God’s purpose to deliver him from the terrible peril of his trial before Nero and to restore him to active work. (Cp. Acts 27:22-26, a close parallel.) But the assured expectation of evil recorded in Acts 20:25 was, as we learn from 1 Timothy 1:3, not actually realised. And the matter is unimportant. The truth of the Gospel preached by Paul rests upon a broad historical basis, of which his testimony is only one factor, and not upon his personal infallibility.Section 4 gives us invaluable insight into the inner life of one of the greatest of the early followers of Christ, at a crisis which tests most severely the character of any man, viz. amid health and strength, the alternative of life and death. The uncertainty which breathes in every line accords with the statement in Acts 25:11; Acts 27:1, that Paul went to Rome to be tried before Nero, a judge whose verdict and sentence no one could foresee. Yet, in this uncertainty, there is in the mind of Paul perfect certainty touching all that is really dear to him. He knows that even the hostility of false brethren is leading him to eternal safety, and as a ground of this confidence knows also that the hope he cherishes cannot be put to shame and that whatever awaits him will serve only to show forth the greatness of Christ. On the other hand, the uncertainty which has left its record even in the trembling phraseology of these verses pertains only to matters about which Paul was indifferent; in view, not of possibilities equally worthless, but of alternative prospects of equal and infinite value. Each side of the alternative has irresistible allurement. Continued life is continued manifestation of Christ in Paul, and work fruitful in a harvest of blessing. His presence on earth is needful for his converts, whose confidence in Christ will be increased by his return to them. But death is immediate enrichment: for it takes him at once to the presence of Christ. Yet the wearied eye and heart of the prisoner turn from the fascinating vision. For the sake of his children in the faith he cheerfully acquiesces in what seems to him to. accord both with their need and with God’s purpose, and looks forward confidently to restoration to active work for them. SECTION 5. — SUNDRY , BY THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST CH. 1:27-2:18. Only act as citizens worthy of the Gospel of Christ, that, whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand in one spirit, with one soul together contending by your belief of the Gospel, and not affrighted in any thing by the adversaries, which is for them proof of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God: because to you it has been graciously given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer on His behalf; having the same contest, such as ye saw in me and now hear to be in me. If there be then any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender feelings and compassions, make full my joy, that ye may mind the same thing, having the same love, with united souls minding the one thing; doing nothing by way of faction nor by way of vainglory, but with lowliness of mind each counting others better than themselves; not each of you looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God, did not count His equality with God a means of high-handed self-enrichment, but emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men: and, found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself becoming obedient even unto death, death on a cross. For which cause also God exalted Him beyond measure, and graciously gave to Him the name which is beyond every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow of heavenly ones and earthly ones and those under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved ones, according as always ye have obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may become blameless and pure, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a generation crooked and perverted, among whom ye are seen as luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may have whereof to exult in the Day of Christ that not in vain I have run, neither have laboured in vain. Yes, if even I am being poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all. and, the same thing, rejoice ye all, and rejoice with me. After speaking in §§ 3, 4 about the things concerning himself, Paul comes now to those immediately concerning his readers. He bids them stand firm in face of their enemies, Philippians 1:27-30; exhorts to unity, Philippians 2:1-2; and to unselfishness, supporting this exhortation by the example of Christ, Philippians 1:3-11; points out that on this depends their salvation, Philippians 1:12-13; exhorts them to a spotless life, Philippians 1:14-16; and concludes with an expression of joy on their account, Philippians 1:17-18.Philippians 1:27-30. Only: as in Galatians 2:10; Galatians 3:2; Galatians 5:13. All that Paul has to say is summed up in this one exhortation.Act-your-part-as-citizens: same word in Acts 23:1, from the lips of Paul: a remarkable coincidence. Also 2 Maccabees vi. 1; xi. 25. It represents the Church as a free city, like those of ancient Greece, of which all Christians are citizens. Possibly this word here, and the cognate word in Philippians 3:20, were suggested by the municipal rights which distinguished the citizens of the Roman colony of Philippi from the provincials around: cp. Acts 16:20. Citizenship involves privileges and duties. Paul therefore bids his readers act worthily of the Gospel, which is both their charter of privileges and their law.This general exhortation the rest of § 5 expounds in detail. In order that… I may hear that etc.: the first detail in Paul’s exhortation, in the form of a purpose which he bids his readers have in view in their behaviour as citizens of the Kingdom of God. He urges them to act worthily in order that he may have the joy of hearing about their worthy conduct. He thus adds to his exhortation a motive, viz. his own attentive interest in them. Cp. Philippians 2:1.Whether… or: two ways in which, as circumstances may determine, Paul hopes to hear about his readers, viz. either by visiting and seeing them and thus hearing from their own lips, or if absent by the report of others. Even in their midst, he would hear about their steadfastness. In this case, hearing would be associated with coming and seeing, in the other case, with absence. The form of the alternative suggests that Paul thinks chiefly of hearing about his readers from a distance. Re assumes that his life will be spared. Otherwise, he would neither visit nor hear about them. That ye stand etc.: the matter Paul wishes to hear about his readers; and consequently the real object of his first exhortation. Stand: maintain your position in the Christian life. A word and thought familiar to Paul: Philippians 4:1; Ephesians 6:11-14; Romans 5:2; Romans 11:20, etc. It suggests the presence of enemies or dangers threatening to drive them back or cause them to fall. In one spirit: one animating principle moving the many members of the Church, this principle looked upon as the element in which they maintain their position: either the One Holy Spirit, who is (1 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Corinthians 12:11) the one personal inward source of life and harmony to the many servants of Christ; or the inward harmony which He imparts to those in whom He dwells, as suggested by one soul. Since this Person and this harmony are cause and effect, the distinction is unimportant, and was perhaps not clearly marked in the writer’s mind. Notice that, as in an army, so in the Church, harmony is a condition of steadfastness. The disunited fall. Now follow two collateral clauses, each noting a condition of the desired steadfastness, viz. mutual help in the conflict, and fearlessness. Contend: the Greek original of our word athlete. It represents the Christian life as a struggle for a prize, like the athletic contests of Greece. See note under 1 Corinthians 9:27.Together-contending: athletes represented as comrades in one struggle, each helping the others. Similar word in Romans 15:30, where Paul begs his readers to join with him, by praying for him, in the struggle of his apostolic work. But here he does not expressly mention his own conflict; and on the other hand the words one spirit, one soul, place conspicuously before us the desired union of the Philippian Christians one with an other.Paul remembers that his readers are engaged in one great struggle, and desires that in it all may act together, as though the many were impelled by the soul of one man, this harmony being a condition of the steadfastness of which he hopes to hear. Soul: see under 1 Corinthians 15:53. It is that side of man’s immaterial nature which is nearest to the body and directly influenced by it, and through the body by the outer world; and is thus distinguished from the spirit, which is that in man nearest to God and directly influenced by the Spirit of God. The soul is therefore the emotional side of man, that which is roused by his surroundings. Paul desires that his readers be moved by one impulse. The faith (or belief) of the Gospel: belief that the good news is true. The Gospel is the object-matter believed. So 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 2:12; cp. faith of Christ in Philippians 3:9.Philippians 1:28-30. A second collateral clause, noting a second condition of steadfastness, with comments upon it.Affrighted: as a horse takes fright at a sudden alarm. In anything: any adverse circumstances, be they what they may. Adversaries: same word in 1 Corinthians 16:9; and, of one tremendous opponent, in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. The definite term the adversaries shows that the conflict implied in the foregoing words was in part caused by abiding personal enemies, Jews or Gentiles. Samples may be found in 1 Thessalonians 2:14; Acts 17:5; Acts 16:19, these last being at Philippi. Paul bids his readers not to be frightened out of their compact rank by any attack of their enemies.Which is etc.: an encouraging comment on the fearlessness which Paul desires in his readers. Destruction: see under Philippians 3:19 and note under Romans 2:24. Proof: same word in Romans 3:25; 2 Corinthians 8:24. The fearlessness of the persecuted will be to their enemies a proof that eternal ruin awaits them. For it will reveal supernatural help given to the persecuted, and thus prove that God is with them, and that consequently their opponents are fighting against God. An example of this in Acts 4:13; Acts 5:39. To them or for them: this proof being an objective reality before their eyes, whether they see it or not. Salvation: as in Philippians 1:19. Their own courage, being evidently divinely given, is to them a proof that God is with them and that therefore they are on the way to eternal safety. So is every manifest work of God in us an earnest of final deliverance.And this from God: not only actually a proof, but designed by God to be such. Both the courage and the proof therein implied are from God. Taken in itself, this last statement might cover destruction as well as salvation, stating that both elements of the proof are from God. But, since the explanation which follows in Philippians 1:29 refers only to the persecuted, probably to them only refer the last words of Php 1:28. Philippians 1:29. A proof that the courage of the persecuted was designed by God to be to them a proof of their ultimate salvation.Graciously-given: or given-as-a-mark-of-favour or grace: frequent with Paul, found only with him and Luke. A cognate word, frequent with Paul, is found elsewhere only in 1 Peter 4:10 : see under Romans 1:11.On-behalf-of Christ: in order to advance His pleasure or interests. To believe in him: a phrase very common with John, with Paul only Romans 10:14; Galatians 2:16. The repeated words on his behalf lay great stress on the fact that the sufferings endured by the Philippian Christians were endured in order to help forward the Kingdom of Christ. God had ordained, in His favour towards them, that they should not only accept as true the promises of Christ but also undergo suffering in order to advance a work dear to Him. Their sufferings were, therefore, part of a divine purpose; and consequently the proof involved in them was part of that purpose.Since the mention here of faith is only casual and is designed chiefly to throw into prominence the sufferings for Christ which follow faith in Him, it is unsafe to base upon these words a definite proof that faith is a gift of God. But, since we should never have believed in Christ had He not first spoken to us, and had not God exerted upon us influences leading us to accept the words of Christ, we may in this guarded sense speak of faith as a gift of God. Similarly, sufferings are gifts of God’s favour: for they come upon us by His design and for our good. This seems to me all that can fairly be inferred from this verse. The scantiness in the N.T. of proofs that faith is a gift of God was perhaps occasioned by the danger lest, if it were taught more definitely, we might wait for faith as for some gift not yet bestowed, instead of at once accepting the promises of Christ. Philippians 1:30. A statement collateral and subordinate to that of Php 1:29, giving to the persecuted still further encouragement. Conflict: the ordinary word for the athletic contests referred to in Philippians 1:27.The same conflict or the same sort of conflict as ye saw in me: close coincidence with Acts 16:19-24. The persecutions of Paul’s readers arose from the same cause, and therefore belonged to the same category, as his own scourging and imprisonment at Philippi. They might therefore look for similar divine help. And this letter tells them that similar hardships and perils surround him now at Rome. When Paul was before their eyes at Philippi, they saw in him a conflict like their own present troubles. And now from a distance they hear tidings which reveal in his person a similar conflict. Yet at Philippi they saw him unmoved by his enemies. And from this letter they hear that he is unmoved now. Thus Paul brings the example of his own courage to inspire his readers. Turning to the Christians at Philippi, Paul’s one thought is that they may act in a manner worthy of the spiritual commonwealth to which they belong and of the good news they have heard. His own deadly peril reminds him that they also are exposed to hardship and peril. He therefore bids them maintain their position in face of their foes; and to this end exhorts them to contend bravely shoulder to shoulder, armed with their belief of the good news; and to be undismayed by their enemies. Their fearlessness will be a proof of the destruction awaiting their foes and of the deliverance awaiting them, and this by God’s design. For their persecutions are no mere accident, but are a part of God’s great purpose of mercy, He having ordained that they shall not only believe the promises of Christ, but also suffer to advance His kingdom. Their hardships have the same source and the same gracious aid as the hardships at Philippi from which God so wonderfully delivered Paul, and as the hardships now at Rome, in which, while he writes, Christ is daily magnified. Philippians 2:1-2. Another exhortation arising out of, and in part repeating and developing, the exhortation in Philippians 1:27-30.If there be then: an appeal based on the conflict just mentioned. Encouragement: speech calculated to prompt to action or endurance: same word as exhort in Romans 12:1, where see note.In Christ: if in the spiritual life, of which Christ is Himself the surrounding and lifegiving element, there is anything to move you. Cp. 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 10:1.Consolation: kind words to one in sadness, thus distinguished from the word rendered encouragement. Such kind words Christian love ever prompts. ‘If love prompts words of comfort to those in sorrow, remember me in prison at Rome and yield to my request.’ Fellowship of the Spirit: either a sharing with others the gift of the Holy Spirit, or brotherliness prompted by the Spirit. The latter would give to the word fellowship the same sense as in Philippians 1:5, and is suggested by the Christian harmony so earnestly desired in the words following. It is therefore the more likely interpretation. A close parallel in Romans 15:30, where an appeal is supported by reference both to Christ and to the love of the Spirit, i.e. the love with which the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of those in whom He dwells. Tender-mercies: as in Philippians 1:8. To this word, the word compassions adds the idea of pity towards one in distress, viz. Paul at Rome. Thus the 4th plea is related to the 2nd, which recalls the idea of distress: the 3rd is related to the 1st, giving the divine source of the disposition Paul desires. If there is anything in Christ moving you to yield to my request, if my sufferings claim the consolation which love is ever ready to give, if the Holy Spirit whom ye have received as the animating principle of a new life is a spirit of brotherhood, if in your hearts sufferings can evoke tenderness and pity, etc. The earnestness of this fourfold appeal prepares us for a request of the highest importance.To the word any before tender-mercies all uncials and many cursive MSS. agree to give a form utterly ungrammatical and unintelligible, a manifest error. The error extends only to one or two letters, and makes no appreciable difference in the meaning of the passage. That an error so evident has passed uncorrected in all the older and many of the later Greek MSS. is certainly remarkable, and proves that even the agreement of the best copies is no absolute guarantee against error. But one trifling slip does nothing whatever to shake our confidence in the general accuracy of our copies. Moreover it reveals the accuracy of the transcribers, an accuracy not less valuable because it is sometimes unthinking. Philippians 2:2. An earnest request, for which the foregoing pleas have prepared the way.Fill up my joy: implying that if the readers will yield to Paul’s request nothing will be wanting to make him full of joy. Cp. 1 Thessalonians 3:8-9. We have here again (cp. Philippians 1:4) the golden thread of joy which runs through and illumines this Epistle. Notice that, although grammatically fulfil my joy is the matter of Paul’s request, it is really another plea, the actual request being added, in the form of a purpose, in the words following. This first request is an appeal to fill with gladness the heart of the prisoner awaiting his trial at Rome.That ye may etc.: the real request, put in rather furtively as the aim the readers are to have in view. They must resolve to mind the same thing. By so doing they will fill Paul with joy. Mind: as in Romans 8:5. The same thing actuated by a like aim; as in Philippians 4:2; Romans 12:5; 2 Corinthians 13:11. This purpose is expounded and developed in two participial clauses. The same thing, which Paul desires in his readers, is love one to another, the same love in each breast.The one thing: stronger than the same thing, stating that the readers are not only to agree in thought and aim but to agree in one definite aim. That this aim is to be Christ and His Kingdom, Paul leaves them to infer. With-united-souls: similar words in Philippians 1:27. It is best to connect this word closely with those following, as describing the manner in which they are to mind the one thing, thus giving to this clause the chief weight. The harmony is to pervade not only the intelligence but the emotions. Cp. from the soul in Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 3:23. The earnestness of these repeated pleas reveals the infinite importance of Christian unity: and this is confirmed by similar language in Romans 15:5; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:3-6, and by the Saviour’s prayer in John 17:21-23.Philippians 2:3-4. Two other participial clauses, each warning against a disposition fatal to Christian unity and commending the opposite virtue.Faction: as in Philippians 1:17.Vainglory, or empty glory: an appearance without reality. By way of faction and vainglory: two distinct paths, along neither of which would Paul have his readers go. He warns them both against a mercenary spirit and against a desire for empty show. In this clause we have no verb. Since the repeated word by-way-of suggests actions along a mental line marked out, it is better to supply the word doing. It was needless to insert it: for action was clearly implied. Lowliness-of-mind: see under Colossians 3:12. It is suggested by the word mind in Philippians 2:2. [The Greek article indicates the well-known virtue of humility.] This virtue must be in active exercise when Christians compare themselves with others. Looking-at: not making his own interest the goal of his forethought. See under 2 Corinthians 4:18.But also; rather softens the foregoing absolute prohibition. Paul now requires, not that the interest of others be the only object of our thought, but that it have a place along with our own interest. Similar teaching in 1 Corinthians 10:24; 1 Corinthians 10:33; 1 Corinthians 13:5. It is therefore another note of common authorship. Whether the above warning against selfishness was prompted by something special at Philippi, we have no means of knowing. The universality of selfishness, imperilling everywhere Christian unity, forbids us to infer from these words such special occasion. Philippians 2:5-11. A new sentence bringing suddenly before us the supreme example of Christ. A close coincidence with Romans 15:3; 2 Corinthians 8:9. Since the example of Christ does not bear directly on Christian unity, but is the absolute opposite of every kind of selfishness, which is a universal hindrance to unity, it is best to understand the example of Christ as adduced simply to give the strongest possible support to the words immediately preceding. Have this mind etc.: ‘cherish in yourselves as an object of your thought the thought and disposition which was in Christ.’ Also in Christ Jesus: the mind which was actually in Christ and that which Paul desires in his readers being placed side by side. Notice that although the words which follow refer to the not yet Incarnate Son, (see under Philippians 2:7,) He is here called Christ Jesus. So 2 Corinthians 8:9; 1 John 4:2. This reveals Paul’s intense conviction of the continuous and undivided personality of the Eternal Son and the God-Man. This made it easy to give to the Pre-incarnate Son the name He bore as Man among men; the more so because only through His appearance in human form is the Eternal Son known to men. It is specially easy here because Paul is really adducing the example of the Incarnate Son, tracing however the example of Christ on earth to the purpose of the not yet Incarnate Son contemplating His approaching life on earth. See below.Philippians 2:6-11. The thought of Christ which Paul desires in his readers he expounds in Philippians 2:6-8, in its successive stages of self-emptying and self-humiliation until He hangs dead on the cross, this being the lowest point in His descent. Then follows in Philippians 2:9-11 His exaltation by the Father, until to the Name of Jesus is paid universal homage, all this being a divine recompense for His self-humiliation and an inducement to men to follow His example. We have thus a unique and infinite example of unselfishness, crowned by unique honour. Philippians 2:6-8. The voluntary descent of Christ, in its two successive stages.Philippians 2:6-7 describe His original condition, and His surrender of it at His Incarnation: Philippians 2:8 describes the condition then assumed, and His action to the moment of death. We thus find the Son in three positions, in His original glory, as man on earth, and dead upon the cross.Form: that in which essence manifests itself; the sum total of that by which an object is distinguished from other objects and thus made known. Whatever, we can see, hear, or touch is the form of a material object: whatever we can grasp with the mind is the form of a mental object. It is to the essence what the outside is to the inside, what the manifestation is to the underlying and unseen reality. It is “the utterance of the inner life” (Trench) of whatever exists. Same word in the N.T. only Mark 16:12; also Daniel 5:6; Daniel 5:9-10; Daniel 7:28; Daniel 4:33; Isaiah 44:13; Job 4:16. Cognate words in Romans 2:20; 2 Timothy 3:5; also Galatians 4:19; Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:10; Philippians 3:21. It is closely related in sense to image, which however suggests the idea of comparison and similarity.Existing: a more emphatic word than being, yet common. It recalls the condition and surroundings of existence. These words refer evidently to the not yet incarnate Son. For they describe His state when He emptied Himself by becoming in the likeness of men, i.e. by His birth as a human child. To this, as we have seen, the words Christ Jesus are no objection. Nor is it an objection that this is an example for men on earth. For the action even of the Father is made in Matthew 5:45-48 an example for men. Moreover the entire action of Christ on earth is an outflow in human form of His divine nature. See under Philippians 2:11. These words therefore describe the Eternal Son before, and apart from, His incarnation. He was then in the form of God. And since, without an intelligent mind to grasp it, form would lose its real significance, we must conceive the Son contemplated by the Father and by the bright ones of heaven. They saw in Him an expression corresponding to the essence of God. This implies that the Son was, before His Incarnation, a Person distinct from the Father. And, if so, a divine Person. Other wise His self-manifestation would be (cp. 2 Timothy 3:5) a deception, which is inconceivable. Consequently, these words imply equality with God. And this is explicitly assumed in the words following. See Dissertation iii.The phrase in the form of God was chosen doubtless for contrast to form of a servant. This contrast reveals the supreme unselfishness of Christ. On the Mount the Incarnate Son assumed, in the presence of the chosen Apostles, as He did after His resurrection to the disciples going to Emmaus, a form, or mode of self-manifestation, different from that in which they were accustomed to see Him: Mark 9:2; Mark 16:12. And our bodies, having laid aside their present transitory shape, will share, as their mode of self-presentation, the glorious form in which Christ Himself will appear: Philippians 3:21.His equality with God: literally the existing in a manner equal to God. The Greek article points to a definite thought already before us. And this is found, and found only, in the words existing in the form of God. For He who thus existed must have also existed in a manner equal to God. These last words tell us the inner reality underlying the form of God. And, as we have seen, He whose existence can be thus described must be divine. In these words Paul’s teaching about the nature of the Son finds its culmination. Throughout his Epistles the Son occupies a place infinitely above that of the loftiest creatures. He is here explicitly assumed to be equal to God.This equality Christ did not count a means of high-handed self enrichment: or, more literally, no high-handed self enriching did He deem the being equal to God. [The verb underlying the substantive I have rendered high-handed self-enrichment means to snatch, to take hold of quickly with a strong hand. With such strong-handed taking, very frequently injustice is associated, yet not always: for the word is used of a man grasping his own sword; and in John 6:15; Acts 8:39; 2 Corinthians 12:2 the same word is used without any thought of injustice. But it always denotes taking hold of, or snatching, something not yet in our hands. This is made quite certain by an argument in Chrysostom’s Homily (vi. 2) on this passage. The precise word here used is found in non-Christian Greek only, I believe, in Plutarch’s Morals p. 12a for a violent act of seizure, according to the usual active sense of the termination. For the booty seized, the passive form αρπαγμα is common in later Greek. Lightfoot quotes three passages from early Christian writers in which apparently this meaning is given to the word αρπαγμος which is used in the passage before us. It is so understood here by him and Ellicott and several early Greek writers. But these two modern commentators suggest no reason why Paul passes by the common phrase αρπαγμαηγεισθαι and uses instead the rare word αρπαγμος. The natural explanation is that the word chosen expresses a sense not conveyed by the word passed over. And, if so, the difference of sense must be sought in the different termination. Moreover, Lightfoot’s exposition gives to αρπαζω the sense of refusing to let go that which one already securely holds, a sense which it never has. The real meaning of the verb is illustrated by one of Lightfoot’s own quotations, Eusebius, Church History bk. viii. 12, where we have τονθανατοναρπαγμαθεμενοι written about men who, casting themselves from high roofs, laid violent hands on death and made it their own. Evidently death was not theirs until they threw themselves down. Lightfoot compares the words ευρημα and ερμαιον. But, like αρπαγμα, these words denote always an acquisition, not an ancient possession. And equality with God was to the Eternal Son no acquisition. Consequently it could not be an object to be snatched hold of. Again if, as Lightfoot interprets, the Son did not clutch His equality with God, we must suppose that he allowed it to go from His grasp, that He gave it up. Surely this is inconceivable. The Son gave up the form of God, i.e. the utterance of the inner reality of the divine existence, in order to assume the form of a servant: but, even when He had emptied Himself, He was in very truth essentially equal to God.The force of this combined objection seems to me irresistible. The exposition before us makes Paul use a rare word which suggests a meaning he did not intend instead of a common word expressing exactly his intended meaning; gives to the root of the word here used a sense it never has, viz. to hold fast something already in one’s hand; and implies that the Son of God did not refuse to give up His equality with God. Meyer and Hofmann, expositors unsurpassed for grammatical accuracy and exegetical tact, give to the word αρπαγμος its natural sense, and interpret the passage to mean that the Son did not look upon His divine powers as a means of self-enrichment. They understand this passage to describe the Son contemplating His own divine powers in view of His approaching entrance into the world. He did not look upon his equality with God as a means of laying hold for Himself, after becoming man, of the good things of earth, wealth, enjoyment, power; but, instead of this, laid aside the form of God, i.e. the assertion of His divine powers, and took His lot merely as a man among men. Christ thus presents an infinite contrast to the gods of Homer, who ever used their superhuman powers for their own enjoyment.This exposition seems to me altogether satisfactory. It accepts the natural grammatical meaning both of the root and the termination of the uncommon Greek word here used. Meyer appropriately compares a similar word used in 1 Timothy 6:5 to describe persons who looked upon piety as a means of gain. In their thought piety and gain were coincident: to have the one was to have the other. And it agrees most fully with the context. For Christ’s refusal to use His divine powers to take for Himself as man material good was the highest conceivable example of seeking not His own things, but the things of others. The Latin writers generally, Tertullian, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose, Augustine, led astray by the Latin rendering rapina, a word denoting plunder, explain this passage to mean that Christ did not look upon His equality with God as an act of robbery, in other words, that He deemed Himself to be justly equal to God. This exposition is quite consistent with the following word αλλα: see my Corinthians p. 124. But it gives to the words equality with God the meaning of assumption of equality with God, a meaning in no way suggested by the context; and makes injustice to be the most conspicuous idea of αρπαγμος, an idea not belonging to the word. Moreover, it reduces this passage to an exposition of in the form of God with no direct bearing upon Christ’s self-humiliation as an example of unselfishness, thus leaving unexplained its emphatic position in the sentence. This exposition is based on the Latin versions, and is almost confined to the Western Church. It thus came into the English Versions, Protestant and Roman Catholic. But it is rejected by almost all modern expositors. Of Greek commentators, Origen (On Romans bk. v. 2, p. 553) expounds the passage to mean did not reckon it a great thing for Himself that He was equal to God: and he is followed by Theodore of Mopsuestia and by Theodoret. But the connection between this exposition and Paul’s Greek words is not evident. Chrysostom expounds it to mean that Christ did not look upon His own equality with God as something which He had taken by force, and which since it was acquired by force might be lost by force and must therefore be carefully guarded. Instead of doing this, and conscious that His equality with God was securely His own, Christ emptied Himself, thus laying aside for a time the manifestation of His equality with God. This exposition gives to the word αρπαγμος the sense of αρπαγμα, and thus fails to explain Paul’s substitution of a rare and less suitable word for one common and altogether suitable. And it makes the connection between Philippians 2:6 and Philippians 2:7 so distant as to be unrecognisable, On the other hand, it holds fast the true sense of αρπαζω, viz. to take hold of something not yet in our grasp. A somewhat similar exposition is found in other Greek writers. Others again quote the words of Paul as an example of the condescension of Christ, without expounding their exact meaning.Lightfoot says that his own exposition “is the common and indeed almost universal interpretation of the Greek Fathers, who would have the most lively sense of the requirements of the language,” and gives a long list of quotations. These quotations support him in rejecting the exposition of the Latin Fathers. But not one of them confirms his own exposition. So far as I know it is not supported by any ancient writer. And inasmuch as the writers he quotes evidently understood αρπαγμος in the sense of acquirement or something acquired, and Chrysostom speaks of this as implied in the word, they really contradict the exposition they are quoted to support. On the other hand, I do not know of any ancient writer who holds Meyer’s view. We are therefore left, in the interpretation of this difficult passage, without any help from the early Christian writers. See farther in the Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v. p. 115. Philippians 2:7. Exact opposite of counting His equality with God a means of self-enrichment.Himself: emphatic. A grasping hand frequently empties those on whom it is laid. So did the hand of the Eternal Son: but it was upon Himself that the violent hand was laid. The two participial clauses following specify with increasing clearness the way in which the Son’s self-emptying was manifested. The likeness of men: close coincidence with Romans 8:3, in the likeness of the flesh of sin. It suggests that Christ was not in every respect a man. And this is fully consistent with Paul’s frequent description of Him as Man: e.g. Romans 5:15; Romans 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:21; 1 Corinthians 15:47; 1 Timothy 2:5. Since the human race is older than sin, we may think of the essential attributes of manhood without thought of sin, and, using the word in this correct sense, speak of Christ as truly man. On the other hand, the universality of sin justifies our including it now in our conception of mankind. In this sense, Christ was not man, but in the likeness of men. For in outward form He was exactly similar to the race which inherited Adam’s sin. In all things He was made like to His brethren: Hebrews 2:17. These two modes of viewing our race forbid us to infer from this verse that Christ was not actually man.Being-made: literally having-become: same word in Romans 1:3; Galatians 4:5. By clothing Himself in a humanity like that of other men, the Eternal Son entered a mode of existence new to Him. These words are Paul’s counterpart to John 1:14, The Word became flesh.By entering a mode of existence like that of Adam’s children, the Son took the form of a servant, or slave. For creatures are essentially the property of the Creator, bound to use all creaturely powers to work out His will. This simple exposition forbids us to infer from these words that Christ was ever servant to an earthly master. The Son assumed the obligations of a creature. He who had been recognised by angels as bearing the form of God presented Himself on earth to the eyes of men as one doing the work of another. In connection with His entrance into human life, and with His assumption of a creature’s form, the Son emptied Himself. These words involve the whole mystery of the Incarnation. They therefore demand in their exposition the utmost caution and reverence. The words emptied Himself assert that the Son exerted upon Himself an influence which deprived Him, while on earth, of some fulness which He previously had, and made Him in some sense empty. And this suggests that this self-emptying was the negative condition of His assumption of a servant’s form. It will help us to understand these words if we first note a broad distinction between certain elements which go to make up, so far as we can understand it, the nature of God. Love is the essence of God: 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16. Consequently, to lay aside His love, even for a moment, would be not to empty, but to deny and mutilate Himself. For an empty vessel still retains all its essential parts. Nor could the Son (cp. 2 Timothy 2:13) interrupt the full exercise of His infinite love. Indeed of that love His entire life on earth was a ceaseless outflow. Moreover all the moral attributes of God are involved in His unique attribute of love. To be untrue or unjust would be unloving. Consequently, the essential truth and justice of the Son could not even for a moment become inoperative. These therefore were not in any way laid aside at the Incarnation. On the other hand, the natural attributes of God stand in a different relation to Him. His power is not necessarily, like His love, always in full exercise. It is active only so far and in such manner as His love and wisdom determine. To refrain from its full exercise is therefore not inconsistent with the nature of God. A limitation even of knowledge does not necessarily contradict infinite love. Yet both power and knowledge increase immensely the practical value of love. With this distinction in view we turn to the recorded life of the Incarnate Son. We find Him (Luke 2:52) growing in knowledge, and yet acknowledging at the close of His life (Mark 13:32) that He did not know the day of His return. Yet strangely mingled with this human ignorance we find in Him divine omniscience: John 2:25. The Son was guided (Luke 4:1) by the Holy Spirit; and in the strength of the Spirit (Luke 4:14; Matthew 12:28) were wrought His miracles. This limited knowledge reveals the presence in the God-Man of a human Spirit capable of limitation and increase. And that the indivisible personality of the Eternal Son accepted the limitations of a pure human spirit, and was anointed for work (Acts 10:38) by the power of the Holy Spirit, implies a renunciation for a time and for man’s salvation of the full exercise of His divine powers. See under 2 Corinthians 8:9. To this renunciation indisputably refer the words before us. How He who from all eternity knows all things, and by the word of His power upholds all things, could in any sense accept the limitation of human knowledge and become a medium of the operation of the power of the Holy Spirit, is beyond our thought. It is to us inscrutable, because divine. But it is the mystery of divine love.Notice that although in one sense, as here stated, the Incarnate Son was empty, in another sense even upon earth He was (John 1:14) full of truth and grace. The difference is only verbal. The words of John look upon grace and truth as contents of the Son’s divine personality: the words before us assume that they are part of His nature and therefore remain with Him even when He had emptied Himself.We may therefore reverently believe that, in order to save man, the Eternal Son entered a life subject to human limitations; and that in order to do this, while retaining in full exercise the infinite love which is the essence of God and which could not be even for a moment inoperative, the Son deliberately laid aside, by an influence upon Himself which no creature can exert, the full exercise of His divine powers, thus permitting them to become for a time latent. Guided by infinite wisdom and prompted by infinite love, the Eye Omniscient was for a moment closed, and the power which made the world became latent. The possibility of this self-emptying lies deep in the mystery of the Divine Trinity. But it is the most wonderful outshining conceivable of the infinite splendour of divine love. Every attempt to understand the Great Renunciation must hold fast the real Manhood, the unchangeable Divinity, and the undivided Personality, of the God-Man. Since the exercise of the Son’s divine powers were the utterance of His inner essence, of His equality with God, that which He laid aside was the form of God. But this is not expressly asserted here. On the other hand, we have no hint, and no reason to believe, that He laid down His equality with God. We are merely told that He did not look upon it as a means of seizing for Himself the good things of earth. Philippians 2:8. Further and final descent of the Son, in graphic delineation. Some ancient versions and the Rheims Roman Catholic version punctuate, being made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man: He humbled Himself. But this extension of the last clause of Php 2:7 is rather tautological, and gives to the words He humbled Himself an unaccountable abruptness: whereas the punctuation of the A.V. and R.V. gives to the whole sentence a more harmonious and majestic flow and to each clause due weight. Paul describes first the not yet incarnate Son, then His descent into humanity, then depicts His condition as a man among men, and His further descent, until He reaches its lowest point and hangs dead upon the cross.Fashion (in N.T. only 1 Corinthians 7:31) differs from form as any occasional appearance or visible clothing differs from an expression which corresponds to actual inner reality. The form of God is the appropriate self-manifestation of the Son’s essence, of His equality with God. The fashion as a man was the outward guise of humanity, a visible clothing bearing only a distant relation to the actual nature of the Son. It is practically the same as in the likeness of men, except perhaps that it recalls more conspicuously the outward aspect of Christ as an individual man. In this outward guise, by those who sought Him, the Incarnate Son was found. This last word keeps before us, as does the conspicuous repetition of the word form, the self-presentation of the Son both as God and as man. Humbled Himself: chose for Himself a lowly path. Such was Christ’s every step from the manger to the grave. Becoming obedient: mode of Christ’s self-humiliation. It is related to He humbled Himself as is taking the form of a servant to He emptied Himself. Having laid aside the manifestation of His divine powers and become Man, the Son entered also the path of obedience, the normal moral state of man. He thus manifested in the human form of obedience His essential and absolute devotion to the Father. As far as to death: the extent of Christ’s obedience. [Cp. 2 Timothy 2:9; Hebrews 12:4. In the path of obedience He went on till He reached the grave.Death upon a cross: a graphic detail marking the extreme limit of the downward path which God marked out for His Son on earth, and which He obediently trod. He refused not to die a criminal’s death. This was the lowest step of the lowly path entered when He emptied Himself. Such is the example by which Paul supports his exhortation that his readers seek not their own things, but also the things of others. It is found in the visible human life of the Son of God, of whom therefore Paul speaks as Christ Jesus. The thoughts which manifested themselves in the Incarnate Son he bids us think in ourselves. And, since these thoughts were earlier than the incarnation, he lays open to us the mind of the pre-existent Son. Contemplating His approaching life on earth, He did not look upon His divine powers as a means of grasping the good things which are to so many men objects of highest ambition and desire; but gave up, for the term of His life on earth, the exercise of these powers, thus leaving His divine personality in a sense empty, accepted the distinctive features of service, and became like men. Nor was this all. A further descent begins where the first ended. We go to seek the self-emptied Son, and we find Him clothed in a guise such as men wear. He treads a lowly path marked out for Him by divine command, until it leads Him to death in its most shameful form. As we gaze at Christ dead upon the cross, and remember the splendour from which He came and the earthly possibilities which were within His reach, and remember also that He left that glory and endured that shame of His own free will and in order to save the lost and to make them sharers of His glory, we see in Him an example of unselfishness the most sublime we can conceive. Philippians 2:9-11. The matchless exaltation which followed the matchless self-humiliation of Christ.For which cause also God: the divine recompense for the foregoing. Him: emphatic; the divine Author and divine object of this exaltation placed side by side. Highly exalted: literally exalted-beyond measure. Graciously-given: same word in Philippians 1:29. The name given was a mark of the Father’s favour to the Son.Beyond every name: corresponding to exalted-beyond measure. This name comes up to, and goes beyond, every other. Same thought in Hebrews 1:4. As a definite object of thought, it is the name. Not necessarily the name Jesus, which is merely that by which He was actually known among men; nor any special articulate sound; but the name which belongs to, and denotes, in heaven and earth, the personality of Him that was born at Bethlehem. For this, not an articulate sound, is the one essential point. The exaltation and name of Christ are a gift of the Father, as in Ephesians 1:20-22; Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 15:15; 1 Corinthians 15:27. Philippians 2:10-11. A purpose of God in exalting Christ.In the name of Jesus: so 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 4:14; James 5:14. A name is personality as known and recognised among men, and as distinguished from others. In the recognised personality of Jesus abides the Majesty before which God designs all to bow.Every knee bow: graphic delineation of the act of worship. So Ephesians 3:14; Romans 11:4; Romans 14:11.Those-in-heaven: its angelic in habitants. Same word in Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Corinthians 15:40; 1 Corinthians 15:48-49.Those-on-earth: living men. Same word in Philippians 3:19; 1 Corinthians 15:40; 2 Corinthians 5:1.Those-under-the-earth: the dead, in contrast to the living. So Homer (Iliad bk. ix. 457) speaks of Pluto as “Zeus under the earth.” It is unsafe to infer from this term that Paul thinks of universal worship earlier than the resurrection. His threefold division includes angels and men at the moment of writing: and he divides the latter into those now living and those already dead. Without thought of time, looking only at the persons belonging to these three all-inclusive classes, Paul says that God exalted Christ in order that every one of them should bow to Him. Nor is it safe to infer from every knee that angels and departed human spirits have bodily form. For these words were naturally prompted by Paul’s thoughts about living men: and with these he easily associated angels and the dead. Acknowledge: see under Romans 14:11.Every tongue acknowledge; completes the picture of worship. The words every knee bow, every tongue confess are appropriately taken from Isaiah 45:23 (quoted in Romans 14:11), where God solemnly announces His purpose of salvation for the Gentiles. And inasmuch as that ancient purpose will be fulfilled in homage paid to Christ, and only thus, the submission to God foretold by Isaiah is legitimately stated here in the form of submission to Christ.Jesus Christ is Lord: confessed submission to the rule of Christ; so 1 Corinthians 12:3. For the glory of God the Father: manifestation of the Father’s greatness, evoking His creatures’ admiration, this being here represented as the ultimate purpose for which God exalted Christ. As ever, Paul rises from the Son to the Father. Close coincidence in 1 Corinthians 15:28 : cp. Ephesians 1:12; Ephesians 1:14.We cannot conceive this worship and praise to be other than genuine. Consequently, all men are embraced in the purpose of salvation which raised Christ from the grave to the throne. But this by no means implies that all men will actually be saved. And, as we shall see under Philippians 3:19, Paul did not expect that all men will eventually be saved. The harmony of the two passages is found in the truth that God has made the fulfilment of His own purpose of mercy contingent on man’s submission and faith. Nor can we, from the word those-under-the-earth, infer a probation in Hades, even for those who did not on earth hear the Gospel. For it is quite possible that the fate of these will be determined by their acceptance or rejection of such light as they had on earth. And, if so, their eternal song will be a designed result of Christ’s victory over death. The whole passage is so easily explained by Paul’s teaching elsewhere that we cannot fairly infer from it any further teaching about the position or prospects of the dead.Christianity differs from all other religions in presenting a perfect model of human excellence, suitable alike for all persons in all circumstances, an absolute standard by which every one may and must be measured and judged. To this example appeal is constantly made in the N.T.: 1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 15:3; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:6. This being so, it might be expected that of the human life of Christ we should have a very full record, that we should be told much about Him in whose steps we are bidden to tread. Such is not the case. If from the Gospels we deduct the miracles and teaching of Christ, there remain only scanty memorials of the Saviour. It is well that this is so. Had we more details, we should imitate these, forgetting perhaps the deep underlying principles of the sacred life. As it is, we are directed chiefly, as in the passage before us, to those elements in Christ apparently furthest above reach of imitation, to His incarnation and His death for our sins. The reason is evident. In these supreme events shone forth in its intensest lustre the inmost heart of the Eternal Son. Consequently, Paul bids us, not to do as Christ did, but to have the mind that was in Him. Notice specially, in the example of Christ here set before us, two elements, unsparing self-abnegation for the good of others and unreserved obedience to God. These led the Son from heaven to earth, and from earth to the grave; and from the cross and the grave, in a ruined world, to the splendours of the eternal throne and the ceaseless songs of wondering angels and of a ransomed human race. In that path it is ours to tread. Philippians 2:12-13. Philippians 2:12 is an exhortation based on the foregoing; Philippians 2:13 is a reason for it. The one main exhortation is prefaced by several preparatory clauses.So then etc.: a designed moral consequence of the foregoing. Beloved-ones: Philippians 4:1 twice: a mark of the tenderness of this epistle. Cp. Romans 12:19; 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 7:1. Obeyed: viz. the apostolic authority of Paul. For only thus can we account for the mention of his presence and absence. Such authority he claims over his children in the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 4:14-15; 1 Corinthians 4:21; 1 Corinthians 5:3. He does so in confidence that his commands are the will of God. This mention of obedience recalls the example of Christ in Philippians 2:8, and the authority (1 Thessalonians 2:6) with which Paul might command.They had always obeyed: close agreement with Philippians 1:5, from the first day until now. This recognition of previous obedience softens somewhat Paul’s silent assumption of authority. He only bids them continue to act according as they had always done. They were not to act as though their action were prompted by Paul’s presence. [The word ως is omitted in the Vatican MS. and some good versions. But its omission is so easily accounted for that we may with some confidence retain it. It gives the readers’ subjective view, in Paul’s wish, of their own conduct.]Now much more: the absence of the teacher’s help making their own care more needful. With fear and trembling: with anxious care as in a matter serious and difficult: a Pauline phrase; see 1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5. It suggests the real peril to which Christians are exposed, and especially the great peril of selfishness.Salvation: as in Philippians 1:19 : deliverance from the perils which surround the Christian life. That it is their own salvation is good reason why they should work it out with anxious care, and with even greater care in Paul’s absence than when his watchful eye is on them.Work-out: literally be working out: same word in Romans 5:3; 2 Corinthians 4:17; 20 times in the Epistles of Paul, 3 times in the rest of the N.T. it is akin to the word in Philippians 2:13. It denotes effective effort, and implies that deliverance day by day is a result of persistent work: cp. Ephesians 6:13. While using all means to strengthen our spiritual life, we are bringing about our present and final deliverance. So sailors have often toiled to save their ship from the rocks and themselves from a watery grave.Philippians 2:13. Encouragement to work out our own salvation. Paul assumes that there is One who works in us, speaks of Him as a definite object of thought, and calls Him God. [To this last word he gives great prominence by bringing it to the beginning of the sentence.] Works: 1 Corinthians 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Romans 7:5; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:2, instructive parallels; 17 times with Paul, 3 times in the rest of the N.T. Like the kindred word in Philippians 2:12, it is a note of Pauline authorship. The cognate substantive is used in Philippians 3:21. It is the in-working activity of God. In you: within your personality, body or spirit: cp. Ephesians 2:2; Colossians 1:29; also Ephesians 1:20. Even to will, the inward determination to act, is a result of God working in us.And to work: the inward effort to accomplish the formed purpose. Both the purpose and the energy with which we work it out are here said to be an inward work of God. His good-pleasure: that which seems good in the sight of God, as in Matthew 11:26, suggesting possibly that it is for the good of others. Same word as good-will in Philippians 1:15; where however the context makes the idea of benefit to others much more conspicuous than here.On-behalf-of His good-pleasure: in order to accomplish a purpose pleasing to God. Cp. Ephesians 1:5; Ephesians 1:9.This verse by no means implies that these divine influences are irresistible. And indisputably they are resisted. For God’s good pleasure is (1 Timothy 2:4) that all men be saved; whereas not all men are saved. Even to an impenitent man Paul says (Romans 2:4), God is leading thee to repentance; although evidently the divine influences were completely thwarted. Yet in all cases these influences are real and of infinite worth. For without them there would be no good in man. But their actual effect depends upon our surrender to them.We have here a plain statement of prevenient grace, a divine influence in man preceding and producing whatever in him is good, from the earliest desire for salvation to final victory over the last temptation. Philippians 2:12-13 present two opposite and yet completely harmonious sides of the Christian life. The latter is the source and ground and motive of the former. All good in man, from the first good desire, is an outworking of a divine purpose and power. Through the Gospel, and the written and unwritten Law, God is ever exerting an influence leading men to repentance and salvation. He does this in order to gratify His own desire to save and bless. The actual result depends upon man’s self-surrender to these influences. Other influences would lead him in an opposite direction. Man’s only choice is to which of these influences he will yield. On this depends his fate. Consequently, if he rises, he rises entirely by the power of God: if he sinks, it is because he refuses influences which would raise him.These divine influences ever prompt, and are designed to evoke, human effort. Consequently man’s earnest effort is a condition of salvation. But both this effort and its good results are the outworking of the purpose and power of God. A knowledge that our own purposes are from God, and that our efforts are armed with His power, and that our victory will gratify Him, are strong encouragement to put forth all our powers. The exhortation in Philippians 2:12 is to Christian perseverance; and thus takes up and completes that in Philippians 1:27-30. In Philippians 2:27. Christian harmony was mentioned casually as a condition of victory, and in Philippians 2:1-2 it was made matter of direct exhortation. In Philippians 2:3-4 we were warned against selfishness, the great enemy of Christian harmony. And in Philippians 2:5-11 this warning and its implied exhortation were supported by the unique example of Christ’s self-humiliation for the good of others and His exaltation by God. This supreme example Paul brings, in Philippians 2:12-13, to bear upon his readers. But instead of bidding them to imitate Christ, or rather to cherish a disposition like His, which would be merely a repetition of Php 2:5, he bids them, by obedience, work out their own salvation. He thus implies that the only way of safety is the path of self-humiliation and obedience trodden by Christ: a lesson we all need to learn. Underneath an apparently abrupt transition we find, as so often with Paul, an important lesson. A similar train of thought occurs in 1 Corinthians 9:22-27, where Paul says that his own salvation depends upon his efforts to save others. Since the Eternal Son, instead of using His divine powers to obtain for Himself the good things of earth for which so many strive, allowed them to remain latent, and trod the path of self-humiliation and obedience, a path which led Him to infinite glory, thus marking it out as the way of safety, walk ye along the same path, remembering the spiritual perils which surround you, and therefore walk as carefully in my absence as in my presence. Do this remembering that in our own moral efforts God is working out His own good pleasure. Philippians 2:14-16. After exhortations to courage, unity, unselfishness like that of Christ, and the implied warning that upon obedience depends personal salvation, Paul adds an exhortation touching the manner in which he would have these exhortations obeyed.All things; covers and goes beyond the matters already mentioned. Murmurings: 1 Corinthians 10:10 : talk expressing dissatisfaction, especially clandestine talk as grumbling often is. It is most easily understood here of dissatisfaction with the rough lot referred to above, such dissatisfaction being really murmuring against Him who has allotted our earthly position and surroundings.Doubtings or reasonings: ideas closely allied, that about which we reason being naturally open to doubt while the reasoning continues. Same word in Romans 1:21; Romans 14:1; 1 Corinthians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:8; James 2:4; Luke 9:46-47. Dissatisfaction with our lot arises necessarily from want of faith in Him who with infinite wisdom and love has chosen for us our path and who will soon cover us with the splendour of heaven and fill us with eternal joy. Hence all murmurings are an outward expression of inward doubtings. And both these are utterly unworthy of children of God. Therefore, whatever duties and burdens life lays upon them, Paul bids his readers do all things without murmurings and doubtings.Philippians 2:15-16. Aim of the foregoing exhortation: then a statement about the readers’ relation to the world: and lastly a further aim touching Paul and his work.That ye may-become etc.: a designed result of laying aside murmurings and doubtings.Blameless: men with whose outward aspect none can find fault. Pure or mixtureless: men in whose inward disposition there is no foreign element. Thus blameless and pure correspond respectively to without murmurings and without doubtings.Children of God: Romans 8:16; Romans 8:21; Romans 9:8 : a point of connection between Paul and John, John 1:12; John 11:52; 1 John 3:1-2; 1 John 3:10; 1 John 5:2. A similar phrase in Romans 8:14; Romans 8:19; Romans 9:26; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 12:5; Luke 20:36; Luke 6:35; Matthew 5:45. These words here, without any special occasion, reveal the deep root of this thought in the writer’s mind, and are thus a mark of authorship. They note a close relation to God.Spotless: Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 5:27; Colossians 1:22; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19; Jude 1:24; Revelation 14:5 : without blemish, or anything to cause reproach. Notice three negatives, blameless, mixtureless, spotless, emphasising absence of all evil inward or outward. That this absence of evil is represented as a result to be attained by avoiding murmurings and doubtings, suggests that these defects are the last to cling to the Christian; that he who avoids them will escape all evil. And rightly so. For absence of doubt is perfect faith: and absence of murmuring reveals profound inward peace. These words reveal also Paul’s high appreciation of the present moral character of his readers. Generation: see under Ephesians 3:5. Crooked: opposite to straight, as in Luke 3:5. Crooked generation: Acts 2:40.Perverse: twisted in different directions, especially of misshapen or mutilated limbs. So Matthew 17:17; Luke 9:41 : generation unbelieving and perverted. Instead of being upright, they were crooked in character and conduct: instead of being a normal growth, they were deformed cripples. Among such men and in conspicuous contrast to them, Paul desired his readers to be without blemish, thus revealing their divine lineage: children of God, spotless in the midst etc. Since the stress evidently rests on the words spotless in the midst etc., describing what sort of children of God the Philippians were to be, we cannot infer from these last words that Paul looked upon them as not yet children of God. Consequently, this verse in no way contradicts Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:6.Among whom etc.; keeps up the contrast between Christians and those around them. Are seen: same word in Matthew 6:5; Matthew 6:16; Matthew 6:18 also rendered appear in Matthew 1:20; Matthew 2:7; Matthew 2:13; Matthew 2:19. It is akin to the Greek word for light, and denotes in its simplest form to give light: e.g. John 1:5; John 5:35. Similarly, the form here used is found in Matthew 24:27; Revelation 18:23. But in a wider sense it is constantly used for the visible manifestation of an object, whether by its own light or by light cast upon it. The participle is the Greek original of our word phenomenon. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/beet/ SECTION 5. — SUNDRY , BY THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST CH. 1:27-2:18. Only act as citizens worthy of the Gospel of Christ, that, whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand in one spirit, with one soul together contending by your belief of the Gospel, and not affrighted in any thing by the adversaries, which is for them proof of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God: because to you it has been graciously given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer on His behalf; having the same contest, such as ye saw in me and now hear to be in me. If there be then any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender feelings and compassions, make full my joy, that ye may mind the same thing, having the same love, with united souls minding the one thing; doing nothing by way of faction nor by way of vainglory, but with lowliness of mind each counting others better than themselves; not each of you looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God, did not count His equality with God a means of high-handed self-enrichment, but emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men: and, found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself becoming obedient even unto death, death on a cross. For which cause also God exalted Him beyond measure, and graciously gave to Him the name which is beyond every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow of heavenly ones and earthly ones and those under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved ones, according as always ye have obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may become blameless and pure, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a generation crooked and perverted, among whom ye are seen as luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may have whereof to exult in the Day of Christ that not in vain I have run, neither have laboured in vain. Yes, if even I am being poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all. and, the same thing, rejoice ye all, and rejoice with me. After speaking in §§ 3, 4 about the things concerning himself, Paul comes now to those immediately concerning his readers. He bids them stand firm in face of their enemies, Philippians 1:27-30; exhorts to unity, Philippians 2:1-2; and to unselfishness, supporting this exhortation by the example of Christ, Philippians 1:3-11; points out that on this depends their salvation, Philippians 1:12-13; exhorts them to a spotless life, Philippians 1:14-16; and concludes with an expression of joy on their account, Philippians 1:17-18.Philippians 1:27-30. Only: as in Galatians 2:10; Galatians 3:2; Galatians 5:13. All that Paul has to say is summed up in this one exhortation.Act-your-part-as-citizens: same word in Acts 23:1, from the lips of Paul: a remarkable coincidence. Also 2 Maccabees vi. 1; xi. 25. It represents the Church as a free city, like those of ancient Greece, of which all Christians are citizens. Possibly this word here, and the cognate word in Philippians 3:20, were suggested by the municipal rights which distinguished the citizens of the Roman colony of Philippi from the provincials around: cp. Acts 16:20. Citizenship involves privileges and duties. Paul therefore bids his readers act worthily of the Gospel, which is both their charter of privileges and their law.This general exhortation the rest of § 5 expounds in detail. In order that… I may hear that etc.: the first detail in Paul’s exhortation, in the form of a purpose which he bids his readers have in view in their behaviour as citizens of the Kingdom of God. He urges them to act worthily in order that he may have the joy of hearing about their worthy conduct. He thus adds to his exhortation a motive, viz. his own attentive interest in them. Cp. Philippians 2:1.Whether… or: two ways in which, as circumstances may determine, Paul hopes to hear about his readers, viz. either by visiting and seeing them and thus hearing from their own lips, or if absent by the report of others. Even in their midst, he would hear about their steadfastness. In this case, hearing would be associated with coming and seeing, in the other case, with absence. The form of the alternative suggests that Paul thinks chiefly of hearing about his readers from a distance. Re assumes that his life will be spared. Otherwise, he would neither visit nor hear about them. That ye stand etc.: the matter Paul wishes to hear about his readers; and consequently the real object of his first exhortation. Stand: maintain your position in the Christian life. A word and thought familiar to Paul: Philippians 4:1; Ephesians 6:11-14; Romans 5:2; Romans 11:20, etc. It suggests the presence of enemies or dangers threatening to drive them back or cause them to fall. In one spirit: one animating principle moving the many members of the Church, this principle looked upon as the element in which they maintain their position: either the One Holy Spirit, who is (1 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Corinthians 12:11) the one personal inward source of life and harmony to the many servants of Christ; or the inward harmony which He imparts to those in whom He dwells, as suggested by one soul. Since this Person and this harmony are cause and effect, the distinction is unimportant, and was perhaps not clearly marked in the writer’s mind. Notice that, as in an army, so in the Church, harmony is a condition of steadfastness. The disunited fall. Now follow two collateral clauses, each noting a condition of the desired steadfastness, viz. mutual help in the conflict, and fearlessness. Contend: the Greek original of our word athlete. It represents the Christian life as a struggle for a prize, like the athletic contests of Greece. See note under 1 Corinthians 9:27.Together-contending: athletes represented as comrades in one struggle, each helping the others. Similar word in Romans 15:30, where Paul begs his readers to join with him, by praying for him, in the struggle of his apostolic work. But here he does not expressly mention his own conflict; and on the other hand the words one spirit, one soul, place conspicuously before us the desired union of the Philippian Christians one with an other.Paul remembers that his readers are engaged in one great struggle, and desires that in it all may act together, as though the many were impelled by the soul of one man, this harmony being a condition of the steadfastness of which he hopes to hear. Soul: see under 1 Corinthians 15:53. It is that side of man’s immaterial nature which is nearest to the body and directly influenced by it, and through the body by the outer world; and is thus distinguished from the spirit, which is that in man nearest to God and directly influenced by the Spirit of God. The soul is therefore the emotional side of man, that which is roused by his surroundings. Paul desires that his readers be moved by one impulse. The faith (or belief) of the Gospel: belief that the good news is true. The Gospel is the object-matter believed. So 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 2:12; cp. faith of Christ in Philippians 3:9.Philippians 1:28-30. A second collateral clause, noting a second condition of steadfastness, with comments upon it.Affrighted: as a horse takes fright at a sudden alarm. In anything: any adverse circumstances, be they what they may. Adversaries: same word in 1 Corinthians 16:9; and, of one tremendous opponent, in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. The definite term the adversaries shows that the conflict implied in the foregoing words was in part caused by abiding personal enemies, Jews or Gentiles. Samples may be found in 1 Thessalonians 2:14; Acts 17:5; Acts 16:19, these last being at Philippi. Paul bids his readers not to be frightened out of their compact rank by any attack of their enemies.Which is etc.: an encouraging comment on the fearlessness which Paul desires in his readers. Destruction: see under Philippians 3:19 and note under Romans 2:24. Proof: same word in Romans 3:25; 2 Corinthians 8:24. The fearlessness of the persecuted will be to their enemies a proof that eternal ruin awaits them. For it will reveal supernatural help given to the persecuted, and thus prove that God is with them, and that consequently their opponents are fighting against God. An example of this in Acts 4:13; Acts 5:39. To them or for them: this proof being an objective reality before their eyes, whether they see it or not. Salvation: as in Philippians 1:19. Their own courage, being evidently divinely given, is to them a proof that God is with them and that therefore they are on the way to eternal safety. So is every manifest work of God in us an earnest of final deliverance.And this from God: not only actually a proof, but designed by God to be such. Both the courage and the proof therein implied are from God. Taken in itself, this last statement might cover destruction as well as salvation, stating that both elements of the proof are from God. But, since the explanation which follows in Philippians 1:29 refers only to the persecuted, probably to them only refer the last words of Php 1:28. Philippians 1:29. A proof that the courage of the persecuted was designed by God to be to them a proof of their ultimate salvation.Graciously-given: or given-as-a-mark-of-favour or grace: frequent with Paul, found only with him and Luke. A cognate word, frequent with Paul, is found elsewhere only in 1 Peter 4:10 : see under Romans 1:11.On-behalf-of Christ: in order to advance His pleasure or interests. To believe in him: a phrase very common with John, with Paul only Romans 10:14; Galatians 2:16. The repeated words on his behalf lay great stress on the fact that the sufferings endured by the Philippian Christians were endured in order to help forward the Kingdom of Christ. God had ordained, in His favour towards them, that they should not only accept as true the promises of Christ but also undergo suffering in order to advance a work dear to Him. Their sufferings were, therefore, part of a divine purpose; and consequently the proof involved in them was part of that purpose.Since the mention here of faith is only casual and is designed chiefly to throw into prominence the sufferings for Christ which follow faith in Him, it is unsafe to base upon these words a definite proof that faith is a gift of God. But, since we should never have believed in Christ had He not first spoken to us, and had not God exerted upon us influences leading us to accept the words of Christ, we may in this guarded sense speak of faith as a gift of God. Similarly, sufferings are gifts of God’s favour: for they come upon us by His design and for our good. This seems to me all that can fairly be inferred from this verse. The scantiness in the N.T. of proofs that faith is a gift of God was perhaps occasioned by the danger lest, if it were taught more definitely, we might wait for faith as for some gift not yet bestowed, instead of at once accepting the promises of Christ. Philippians 1:30. A statement collateral and subordinate to that of Php 1:29, giving to the persecuted still further encouragement. Conflict: the ordinary word for the athletic contests referred to in Philippians 1:27.The same conflict or the same sort of conflict as ye saw in me: close coincidence with Acts 16:19-24. The persecutions of Paul’s readers arose from the same cause, and therefore belonged to the same category, as his own scourging and imprisonment at Philippi. They might therefore look for similar divine help. And this letter tells them that similar hardships and perils surround him now at Rome. When Paul was before their eyes at Philippi, they saw in him a conflict like their own present troubles. And now from a distance they hear tidings which reveal in his person a similar conflict. Yet at Philippi they saw him unmoved by his enemies. And from this letter they hear that he is unmoved now. Thus Paul brings the example of his own courage to inspire his readers. Turning to the Christians at Philippi, Paul’s one thought is that they may act in a manner worthy of the spiritual commonwealth to which they belong and of the good news they have heard. His own deadly peril reminds him that they also are exposed to hardship and peril. He therefore bids them maintain their position in face of their foes; and to this end exhorts them to contend bravely shoulder to shoulder, armed with their belief of the good news; and to be undismayed by their enemies. Their fearlessness will be a proof of the destruction awaiting their foes and of the deliverance awaiting them, and this by God’s design. For their persecutions are no mere accident, but are a part of God’s great purpose of mercy, He having ordained that they shall not only believe the promises of Christ, but also suffer to advance His kingdom. Their hardships have the same source and the same gracious aid as the hardships at Philippi from which God so wonderfully delivered Paul, and as the hardships now at Rome, in which, while he writes, Christ is daily magnified. Philippians 2:1-2. Another exhortation arising out of, and in part repeating and developing, the exhortation in Philippians 1:27-30.If there be then: an appeal based on the conflict just mentioned. Encouragement: speech calculated to prompt to action or endurance: same word as exhort in Romans 12:1, where see note.In Christ: if in the spiritual life, of which Christ is Himself the surrounding and lifegiving element, there is anything to move you. Cp. 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 10:1.Consolation: kind words to one in sadness, thus distinguished from the word rendered encouragement. Such kind words Christian love ever prompts. ‘If love prompts words of comfort to those in sorrow, remember me in prison at Rome and yield to my request.’ Fellowship of the Spirit: either a sharing with others the gift of the Holy Spirit, or brotherliness prompted by the Spirit. The latter would give to the word fellowship the same sense as in Philippians 1:5, and is suggested by the Christian harmony so earnestly desired in the words following. It is therefore the more likely interpretation. A close parallel in Romans 15:30, where an appeal is supported by reference both to Christ and to the love of the Spirit, i.e. the love with which the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of those in whom He dwells. Tender-mercies: as in Philippians 1:8. To this word, the word compassions adds the idea of pity towards one in distress, viz. Paul at Rome. Thus the 4th plea is related to the 2nd, which recalls the idea of distress: the 3rd is related to the 1st, giving the divine source of the disposition Paul desires. If there is anything in Christ moving you to yield to my request, if my sufferings claim the consolation which love is ever ready to give, if the Holy Spirit whom ye have received as the animating principle of a new life is a spirit of brotherhood, if in your hearts sufferings can evoke tenderness and pity, etc. The earnestness of this fourfold appeal prepares us for a request of the highest importance.To the word any before tender-mercies all uncials and many cursive MSS. agree to give a form utterly ungrammatical and unintelligible, a manifest error. The error extends only to one or two letters, and makes no appreciable difference in the meaning of the passage. That an error so evident has passed uncorrected in all the older and many of the later Greek MSS. is certainly remarkable, and proves that even the agreement of the best copies is no absolute guarantee against error. But one trifling slip does nothing whatever to shake our confidence in the general accuracy of our copies. Moreover it reveals the accuracy of the transcribers, an accuracy not less valuable because it is sometimes unthinking. Philippians 2:2. An earnest request, for which the foregoing pleas have prepared the way.Fill up my joy: implying that if the readers will yield to Paul’s request nothing will be wanting to make him full of joy. Cp. 1 Thessalonians 3:8-9. We have here again (cp. Philippians 1:4) the golden thread of joy which runs through and illumines this Epistle. Notice that, although grammatically fulfil my joy is the matter of Paul’s request, it is really another plea, the actual request being added, in the form of a purpose, in the words following. This first request is an appeal to fill with gladness the heart of the prisoner awaiting his trial at Rome.That ye may etc.: the real request, put in rather furtively as the aim the readers are to have in view. They must resolve to mind the same thing. By so doing they will fill Paul with joy. Mind: as in Romans 8:5. The same thing actuated by a like aim; as in Philippians 4:2; Romans 12:5; 2 Corinthians 13:11. This purpose is expounded and developed in two participial clauses. The same thing, which Paul desires in his readers, is love one to another, the same love in each breast.The one thing: stronger than the same thing, stating that the readers are not only to agree in thought and aim but to agree in one definite aim. That this aim is to be Christ and His Kingdom, Paul leaves them to infer. With-united-souls: similar words in Philippians 1:27. It is best to connect this word closely with those following, as describing the manner in which they are to mind the one thing, thus giving to this clause the chief weight. The harmony is to pervade not only the intelligence but the emotions. Cp. from the soul in Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 3:23. The earnestness of these repeated pleas reveals the infinite importance of Christian unity: and this is confirmed by similar language in Romans 15:5; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:3-6, and by the Saviour’s prayer in John 17:21-23.Philippians 2:3-4. Two other participial clauses, each warning against a disposition fatal to Christian unity and commending the opposite virtue.Faction: as in Philippians 1:17.Vainglory, or empty glory: an appearance without reality. By way of faction and vainglory: two distinct paths, along neither of which would Paul have his readers go. He warns them both against a mercenary spirit and against a desire for empty show. In this clause we have no verb. Since the repeated word by-way-of suggests actions along a mental line marked out, it is better to supply the word doing. It was needless to insert it: for action was clearly implied. Lowliness-of-mind: see under Colossians 3:12. It is suggested by the word mind in Philippians 2:2. [The Greek article indicates the well-known virtue of humility.] This virtue must be in active exercise when Christians compare themselves with others. Looking-at: not making his own interest the goal of his forethought. See under 2 Corinthians 4:18.But also; rather softens the foregoing absolute prohibition. Paul now requires, not that the interest of others be the only object of our thought, but that it have a place along with our own interest. Similar teaching in 1 Corinthians 10:24; 1 Corinthians 10:33; 1 Corinthians 13:5. It is therefore another note of common authorship. Whether the above warning against selfishness was prompted by something special at Philippi, we have no means of knowing. The universality of selfishness, imperilling everywhere Christian unity, forbids us to infer from these words such special occasion. Philippians 2:5-11. A new sentence bringing suddenly before us the supreme example of Christ. A close coincidence with Romans 15:3; 2 Corinthians 8:9. Since the example of Christ does not bear directly on Christian unity, but is the absolute opposite of every kind of selfishness, which is a universal hindrance to unity, it is best to understand the example of Christ as adduced simply to give the strongest possible support to the words immediately preceding. Have this mind etc.: ‘cherish in yourselves as an object of your thought the thought and disposition which was in Christ.’ Also in Christ Jesus: the mind which was actually in Christ and that which Paul desires in his readers being placed side by side. Notice that although the words which follow refer to the not yet Incarnate Son, (see under Philippians 2:7,) He is here called Christ Jesus. So 2 Corinthians 8:9; 1 John 4:2. This reveals Paul’s intense conviction of the continuous and undivided personality of the Eternal Son and the God-Man. This made it easy to give to the Pre-incarnate Son the name He bore as Man among men; the more so because only through His appearance in human form is the Eternal Son known to men. It is specially easy here because Paul is really adducing the example of the Incarnate Son, tracing however the example of Christ on earth to the purpose of the not yet Incarnate Son contemplating His approaching life on earth. See below.Philippians 2:6-11. The thought of Christ which Paul desires in his readers he expounds in Philippians 2:6-8, in its successive stages of self-emptying and self-humiliation until He hangs dead on the cross, this being the lowest point in His descent. Then follows in Philippians 2:9-11 His exaltation by the Father, until to the Name of Jesus is paid universal homage, all this being a divine recompense for His self-humiliation and an inducement to men to follow His example. We have thus a unique and infinite example of unselfishness, crowned by unique honour. Philippians 2:6-8. The voluntary descent of Christ, in its two successive stages.Philippians 2:6-7 describe His original condition, and His surrender of it at His Incarnation: Philippians 2:8 describes the condition then assumed, and His action to the moment of death. We thus find the Son in three positions, in His original glory, as man on earth, and dead upon the cross.Form: that in which essence manifests itself; the sum total of that by which an object is distinguished from other objects and thus made known. Whatever, we can see, hear, or touch is the form of a material object: whatever we can grasp with the mind is the form of a mental object. It is to the essence what the outside is to the inside, what the manifestation is to the underlying and unseen reality. It is “the utterance of the inner life” (Trench) of whatever exists. Same word in the N.T. only Mark 16:12; also Daniel 5:6; Daniel 5:9-10; Daniel 7:28; Daniel 4:33; Isaiah 44:13; Job 4:16. Cognate words in Romans 2:20; 2 Timothy 3:5; also Galatians 4:19; Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:10; Philippians 3:21. It is closely related in sense to image, which however suggests the idea of comparison and similarity.Existing: a more emphatic word than being, yet common. It recalls the condition and surroundings of existence. These words refer evidently to the not yet incarnate Son. For they describe His state when He emptied Himself by becoming in the likeness of men, i.e. by His birth as a human child. To this, as we have seen, the words Christ Jesus are no objection. Nor is it an objection that this is an example for men on earth. For the action even of the Father is made in Matthew 5:45-48 an example for men. Moreover the entire action of Christ on earth is an outflow in human form of His divine nature. See under Philippians 2:11. These words therefore describe the Eternal Son before, and apart from, His incarnation. He was then in the form of God. And since, without an intelligent mind to grasp it, form would lose its real significance, we must conceive the Son contemplated by the Father and by the bright ones of heaven. They saw in Him an expression corresponding to the essence of God. This implies that the Son was, before His Incarnation, a Person distinct from the Father. And, if so, a divine Person. Other wise His self-manifestation would be (cp. 2 Timothy 3:5) a deception, which is inconceivable. Consequently, these words imply equality with God. And this is explicitly assumed in the words following. See Dissertation iii.The phrase in the form of God was chosen doubtless for contrast to form of a servant. This contrast reveals the supreme unselfishness of Christ. On the Mount the Incarnate Son assumed, in the presence of the chosen Apostles, as He did after His resurrection to the disciples going to Emmaus, a form, or mode of self-manifestation, different from that in which they were accustomed to see Him: Mark 9:2; Mark 16:12. And our bodies, having laid aside their present transitory shape, will share, as their mode of self-presentation, the glorious form in which Christ Himself will appear: Philippians 3:21.His equality with God: literally the existing in a manner equal to God. The Greek article points to a definite thought already before us. And this is found, and found only, in the words existing in the form of God. For He who thus existed must have also existed in a manner equal to God. These last words tell us the inner reality underlying the form of God. And, as we have seen, He whose existence can be thus described must be divine. In these words Paul’s teaching about the nature of the Son finds its culmination. Throughout his Epistles the Son occupies a place infinitely above that of the loftiest creatures. He is here explicitly assumed to be equal to God.This equality Christ did not count a means of high-handed self enrichment: or, more literally, no high-handed self enriching did He deem the being equal to God. [The verb underlying the substantive I have rendered high-handed self-enrichment means to snatch, to take hold of quickly with a strong hand. With such strong-handed taking, very frequently injustice is associated, yet not always: for the word is used of a man grasping his own sword; and in John 6:15; Acts 8:39; 2 Corinthians 12:2 the same word is used without any thought of injustice. But it always denotes taking hold of, or snatching, something not yet in our hands. This is made quite certain by an argument in Chrysostom’s Homily (vi. 2) on this passage. The precise word here used is found in non-Christian Greek only, I believe, in Plutarch’s Morals p. 12a for a violent act of seizure, according to the usual active sense of the termination. For the booty seized, the passive form αρπαγμα is common in later Greek. Lightfoot quotes three passages from early Christian writers in which apparently this meaning is given to the word αρπαγμος which is used in the passage before us. It is so understood here by him and Ellicott and several early Greek writers. But these two modern commentators suggest no reason why Paul passes by the common phrase αρπαγμαηγεισθαι and uses instead the rare word αρπαγμος. The natural explanation is that the word chosen expresses a sense not conveyed by the word passed over. And, if so, the difference of sense must be sought in the different termination. Moreover, Lightfoot’s exposition gives to αρπαζω the sense of refusing to let go that which one already securely holds, a sense which it never has. The real meaning of the verb is illustrated by one of Lightfoot’s own quotations, Eusebius, Church History bk. viii. 12, where we have τονθανατοναρπαγμαθεμενοι written about men who, casting themselves from high roofs, laid violent hands on death and made it their own. Evidently death was not theirs until they threw themselves down. Lightfoot compares the words ευρημα and ερμαιον. But, like αρπαγμα, these words denote always an acquisition, not an ancient possession. And equality with God was to the Eternal Son no acquisition. Consequently it could not be an object to be snatched hold of. Again if, as Lightfoot interprets, the Son did not clutch His equality with God, we must suppose that he allowed it to go from His grasp, that He gave it up. Surely this is inconceivable. The Son gave up the form of God, i.e. the utterance of the inner reality of the divine existence, in order to assume the form of a servant: but, even when He had emptied Himself, He was in very truth essentially equal to God.The force of this combined objection seems to me irresistible. The exposition before us makes Paul use a rare word which suggests a meaning he did not intend instead of a common word expressing exactly his intended meaning; gives to the root of the word here used a sense it never has, viz. to hold fast something already in one’s hand; and implies that the Son of God did not refuse to give up His equality with God. Meyer and Hofmann, expositors unsurpassed for grammatical accuracy and exegetical tact, give to the word αρπαγμος its natural sense, and interpret the passage to mean that the Son did not look upon His divine powers as a means of self-enrichment. They understand this passage to describe the Son contemplating His own divine powers in view of His approaching entrance into the world. He did not look upon his equality with God as a means of laying hold for Himself, after becoming man, of the good things of earth, wealth, enjoyment, power; but, instead of this, laid aside the form of God, i.e. the assertion of His divine powers, and took His lot merely as a man among men. Christ thus presents an infinite contrast to the gods of Homer, who ever used their superhuman powers for their own enjoyment.This exposition seems to me altogether satisfactory. It accepts the natural grammatical meaning both of the root and the termination of the uncommon Greek word here used. Meyer appropriately compares a similar word used in 1 Timothy 6:5 to describe persons who looked upon piety as a means of gain. In their thought piety and gain were coincident: to have the one was to have the other. And it agrees most fully with the context. For Christ’s refusal to use His divine powers to take for Himself as man material good was the highest conceivable example of seeking not His own things, but the things of others. The Latin writers generally, Tertullian, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose, Augustine, led astray by the Latin rendering rapina, a word denoting plunder, explain this passage to mean that Christ did not look upon His equality with God as an act of robbery, in other words, that He deemed Himself to be justly equal to God. This exposition is quite consistent with the following word αλλα: see my Corinthians p. 124. But it gives to the words equality with God the meaning of assumption of equality with God, a meaning in no way suggested by the context; and makes injustice to be the most conspicuous idea of αρπαγμος, an idea not belonging to the word. Moreover, it reduces this passage to an exposition of in the form of God with no direct bearing upon Christ’s self-humiliation as an example of unselfishness, thus leaving unexplained its emphatic position in the sentence. This exposition is based on the Latin versions, and is almost confined to the Western Church. It thus came into the English Versions, Protestant and Roman Catholic. But it is rejected by almost all modern expositors. Of Greek commentators, Origen (On Romans bk. v. 2, p. 553) expounds the passage to mean did not reckon it a great thing for Himself that He was equal to God: and he is followed by Theodore of Mopsuestia and by Theodoret. But the connection between this exposition and Paul’s Greek words is not evident. Chrysostom expounds it to mean that Christ did not look upon His own equality with God as something which He had taken by force, and which since it was acquired by force might be lost by force and must therefore be carefully guarded. Instead of doing this, and conscious that His equality with God was securely His own, Christ emptied Himself, thus laying aside for a time the manifestation of His equality with God. This exposition gives to the word αρπαγμος the sense of αρπαγμα, and thus fails to explain Paul’s substitution of a rare and less suitable word for one common and altogether suitable. And it makes the connection between Philippians 2:6 and Philippians 2:7 so distant as to be unrecognisable, On the other hand, it holds fast the true sense of αρπαζω, viz. to take hold of something not yet in our grasp. A somewhat similar exposition is found in other Greek writers. Others again quote the words of Paul as an example of the condescension of Christ, without expounding their exact meaning.Lightfoot says that his own exposition “is the common and indeed almost universal interpretation of the Greek Fathers, who would have the most lively sense of the requirements of the language,” and gives a long list of quotations. These quotations support him in rejecting the exposition of the Latin Fathers. But not one of them confirms his own exposition. So far as I know it is not supported by any ancient writer. And inasmuch as the writers he quotes evidently understood αρπαγμος in the sense of acquirement or something acquired, and Chrysostom speaks of this as implied in the word, they really contradict the exposition they are quoted to support. On the other hand, I do not know of any ancient writer who holds Meyer’s view. We are therefore left, in the interpretation of this difficult passage, without any help from the early Christian writers. See farther in the Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v. p. 115. Philippians 2:7. Exact opposite of counting His equality with God a means of self-enrichment.Himself: emphatic. A grasping hand frequently empties those on whom it is laid. So did the hand of the Eternal Son: but it was upon Himself that the violent hand was laid. The two participial clauses following specify with increasing clearness the way in which the Son’s self-emptying was manifested. The likeness of men: close coincidence with Romans 8:3, in the likeness of the flesh of sin. It suggests that Christ was not in every respect a man. And this is fully consistent with Paul’s frequent description of Him as Man: e.g. Romans 5:15; Romans 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:21; 1 Corinthians 15:47; 1 Timothy 2:5. Since the human race is older than sin, we may think of the essential attributes of manhood without thought of sin, and, using the word in this correct sense, speak of Christ as truly man. On the other hand, the universality of sin justifies our including it now in our conception of mankind. In this sense, Christ was not man, but in the likeness of men. For in outward form He was exactly similar to the race which inherited Adam’s sin. In all things He was made like to His brethren: Hebrews 2:17. These two modes of viewing our race forbid us to infer from this verse that Christ was not actually man.Being-made: literally having-become: same word in Romans 1:3; Galatians 4:5. By clothing Himself in a humanity like that of other men, the Eternal Son entered a mode of existence new to Him. These words are Paul’s counterpart to John 1:14, The Word became flesh.By entering a mode of existence like that of Adam’s children, the Son took the form of a servant, or slave. For creatures are essentially the property of the Creator, bound to use all creaturely powers to work out His will. This simple exposition forbids us to infer from these words that Christ was ever servant to an earthly master. The Son assumed the obligations of a creature. He who had been recognised by angels as bearing the form of God presented Himself on earth to the eyes of men as one doing the work of another. In connection with His entrance into human life, and with His assumption of a creature’s form, the Son emptied Himself. These words involve the whole mystery of the Incarnation. They therefore demand in their exposition the utmost caution and reverence. The words emptied Himself assert that the Son exerted upon Himself an influence which deprived Him, while on earth, of some fulness which He previously had, and made Him in some sense empty. And this suggests that this self-emptying was the negative condition of His assumption of a servant’s form. It will help us to understand these words if we first note a broad distinction between certain elements which go to make up, so far as we can understand it, the nature of God. Love is the essence of God: 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16. Consequently, to lay aside His love, even for a moment, would be not to empty, but to deny and mutilate Himself. For an empty vessel still retains all its essential parts. Nor could the Son (cp. 2 Timothy 2:13) interrupt the full exercise of His infinite love. Indeed of that love His entire life on earth was a ceaseless outflow. Moreover all the moral attributes of God are involved in His unique attribute of love. To be untrue or unjust would be unloving. Consequently, the essential truth and justice of the Son could not even for a moment become inoperative. These therefore were not in any way laid aside at the Incarnation. On the other hand, the natural attributes of God stand in a different relation to Him. His power is not necessarily, like His love, always in full exercise. It is active only so far and in such manner as His love and wisdom determine. To refrain from its full exercise is therefore not inconsistent with the nature of God. A limitation even of knowledge does not necessarily contradict infinite love. Yet both power and knowledge increase immensely the practical value of love. With this distinction in view we turn to the recorded life of the Incarnate Son. We find Him (Luke 2:52) growing in knowledge, and yet acknowledging at the close of His life (Mark 13:32) that He did not know the day of His return. Yet strangely mingled with this human ignorance we find in Him divine omniscience: John 2:25. The Son was guided (Luke 4:1) by the Holy Spirit; and in the strength of the Spirit (Luke 4:14; Matthew 12:28) were wrought His miracles. This limited knowledge reveals the presence in the God-Man of a human Spirit capable of limitation and increase. And that the indivisible personality of the Eternal Son accepted the limitations of a pure human spirit, and was anointed for work (Acts 10:38) by the power of the Holy Spirit, implies a renunciation for a time and for man’s salvation of the full exercise of His divine powers. See under 2 Corinthians 8:9. To this renunciation indisputably refer the words before us. How He who from all eternity knows all things, and by the word of His power upholds all things, could in any sense accept the limitation of human knowledge and become a medium of the operation of the power of the Holy Spirit, is beyond our thought. It is to us inscrutable, because divine. But it is the mystery of divine love.Notice that although in one sense, as here stated, the Incarnate Son was empty, in another sense even upon earth He was (John 1:14) full of truth and grace. The difference is only verbal. The words of John look upon grace and truth as contents of the Son’s divine personality: the words before us assume that they are part of His nature and therefore remain with Him even when He had emptied Himself.We may therefore reverently believe that, in order to save man, the Eternal Son entered a life subject to human limitations; and that in order to do this, while retaining in full exercise the infinite love which is the essence of God and which could not be even for a moment inoperative, the Son deliberately laid aside, by an influence upon Himself which no creature can exert, the full exercise of His divine powers, thus permitting them to become for a time latent. Guided by infinite wisdom and prompted by infinite love, the Eye Omniscient was for a moment closed, and the power which made the world became latent. The possibility of this self-emptying lies deep in the mystery of the Divine Trinity. But it is the most wonderful outshining conceivable of the infinite splendour of divine love. Every attempt to understand the Great Renunciation must hold fast the real Manhood, the unchangeable Divinity, and the undivided Personality, of the God-Man. Since the exercise of the Son’s divine powers were the utterance of His inner essence, of His equality with God, that which He laid aside was the form of God. But this is not expressly asserted here. On the other hand, we have no hint, and no reason to believe, that He laid down His equality with God. We are merely told that He did not look upon it as a means of seizing for Himself the good things of earth. Philippians 2:8. Further and final descent of the Son, in graphic delineation. Some ancient versions and the Rheims Roman Catholic version punctuate, being made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man: He humbled Himself. But this extension of the last clause of Php 2:7 is rather tautological, and gives to the words He humbled Himself an unaccountable abruptness: whereas the punctuation of the A.V. and R.V. gives to the whole sentence a more harmonious and majestic flow and to each clause due weight. Paul describes first the not yet incarnate Son, then His descent into humanity, then depicts His condition as a man among men, and His further descent, until He reaches its lowest point and hangs dead upon the cross.Fashion (in N.T. only 1 Corinthians 7:31) differs from form as any occasional appearance or visible clothing differs from an expression which corresponds to actual inner reality. The form of God is the appropriate self-manifestation of the Son’s essence, of His equality with God. The fashion as a man was the outward guise of humanity, a visible clothing bearing only a distant relation to the actual nature of the Son. It is practically the same as in the likeness of men, except perhaps that it recalls more conspicuously the outward aspect of Christ as an individual man. In this outward guise, by those who sought Him, the Incarnate Son was found. This last word keeps before us, as does the conspicuous repetition of the word form, the self-presentation of the Son both as God and as man. Humbled Himself: chose for Himself a lowly path. Such was Christ’s every step from the manger to the grave. Becoming obedient: mode of Christ’s self-humiliation. It is related to He humbled Himself as is taking the form of a servant to He emptied Himself. Having laid aside the manifestation of His divine powers and become Man, the Son entered also the path of obedience, the normal moral state of man. He thus manifested in the human form of obedience His essential and absolute devotion to the Father. As far as to death: the extent of Christ’s obedience. [Cp. 2 Timothy 2:9; Hebrews 12:4. In the path of obedience He went on till He reached the grave.Death upon a cross: a graphic detail marking the extreme limit of the downward path which God marked out for His Son on earth, and which He obediently trod. He refused not to die a criminal’s death. This was the lowest step of the lowly path entered when He emptied Himself. Such is the example by which Paul supports his exhortation that his readers seek not their own things, but also the things of others. It is found in the visible human life of the Son of God, of whom therefore Paul speaks as Christ Jesus. The thoughts which manifested themselves in the Incarnate Son he bids us think in ourselves. And, since these thoughts were earlier than the incarnation, he lays open to us the mind of the pre-existent Son. Contemplating His approaching life on earth, He did not look upon His divine powers as a means of grasping the good things which are to so many men objects of highest ambition and desire; but gave up, for the term of His life on earth, the exercise of these powers, thus leaving His divine personality in a sense empty, accepted the distinctive features of service, and became like men. Nor was this all. A further descent begins where the first ended. We go to seek the self-emptied Son, and we find Him clothed in a guise such as men wear. He treads a lowly path marked out for Him by divine command, until it leads Him to death in its most shameful form. As we gaze at Christ dead upon the cross, and remember the splendour from which He came and the earthly possibilities which were within His reach, and remember also that He left that glory and endured that shame of His own free will and in order to save the lost and to make them sharers of His glory, we see in Him an example of unselfishness the most sublime we can conceive. Philippians 2:9-11. The matchless exaltation which followed the matchless self-humiliation of Christ.For which cause also God: the divine recompense for the foregoing. Him: emphatic; the divine Author and divine object of this exaltation placed side by side. Highly exalted: literally exalted-beyond measure. Graciously-given: same word in Philippians 1:29. The name given was a mark of the Father’s favour to the Son.Beyond every name: corresponding to exalted-beyond measure. This name comes up to, and goes beyond, every other. Same thought in Hebrews 1:4. As a definite object of thought, it is the name. Not necessarily the name Jesus, which is merely that by which He was actually known among men; nor any special articulate sound; but the name which belongs to, and denotes, in heaven and earth, the personality of Him that was born at Bethlehem. For this, not an articulate sound, is the one essential point. The exaltation and name of Christ are a gift of the Father, as in Ephesians 1:20-22; Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 15:15; 1 Corinthians 15:27. Philippians 2:10-11. A purpose of God in exalting Christ.In the name of Jesus: so 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 4:14; James 5:14. A name is personality as known and recognised among men, and as distinguished from others. In the recognised personality of Jesus abides the Majesty before which God designs all to bow.Every knee bow: graphic delineation of the act of worship. So Ephesians 3:14; Romans 11:4; Romans 14:11.Those-in-heaven: its angelic in habitants. Same word in Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Corinthians 15:40; 1 Corinthians 15:48-49.Those-on-earth: living men. Same word in Philippians 3:19; 1 Corinthians 15:40; 2 Corinthians 5:1.Those-under-the-earth: the dead, in contrast to the living. So Homer (Iliad bk. ix. 457) speaks of Pluto as “Zeus under the earth.” It is unsafe to infer from this term that Paul thinks of universal worship earlier than the resurrection. His threefold division includes angels and men at the moment of writing: and he divides the latter into those now living and those already dead. Without thought of time, looking only at the persons belonging to these three all-inclusive classes, Paul says that God exalted Christ in order that every one of them should bow to Him. Nor is it safe to infer from every knee that angels and departed human spirits have bodily form. For these words were naturally prompted by Paul’s thoughts about living men: and with these he easily associated angels and the dead. Acknowledge: see under Romans 14:11.Every tongue acknowledge; completes the picture of worship. The words every knee bow, every tongue confess are appropriately taken from Isaiah 45:23 (quoted in Romans 14:11), where God solemnly announces His purpose of salvation for the Gentiles. And inasmuch as that ancient purpose will be fulfilled in homage paid to Christ, and only thus, the submission to God foretold by Isaiah is legitimately stated here in the form of submission to Christ.Jesus Christ is Lord: confessed submission to the rule of Christ; so 1 Corinthians 12:3. For the glory of God the Father: manifestation of the Father’s greatness, evoking His creatures’ admiration, this being here represented as the ultimate purpose for which God exalted Christ. As ever, Paul rises from the Son to the Father. Close coincidence in 1 Corinthians 15:28 : cp. Ephesians 1:12; Ephesians 1:14.We cannot conceive this worship and praise to be other than genuine. Consequently, all men are embraced in the purpose of salvation which raised Christ from the grave to the throne. But this by no means implies that all men will actually be saved. And, as we shall see under Philippians 3:19, Paul did not expect that all men will eventually be saved. The harmony of the two passages is found in the truth that God has made the fulfilment of His own purpose of mercy contingent on man’s submission and faith. Nor can we, from the word those-under-the-earth, infer a probation in Hades, even for those who did not on earth hear the Gospel. For it is quite possible that the fate of these will be determined by their acceptance or rejection of such light as they had on earth. And, if so, their eternal song will be a designed result of Christ’s victory over death. The whole passage is so easily explained by Paul’s teaching elsewhere that we cannot fairly infer from it any further teaching about the position or prospects of the dead.Christianity differs from all other religions in presenting a perfect model of human excellence, suitable alike for all persons in all circumstances, an absolute standard by which every one may and must be measured and judged. To this example appeal is constantly made in the N.T.: 1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 15:3; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:6. This being so, it might be expected that of the human life of Christ we should have a very full record, that we should be told much about Him in whose steps we are bidden to tread. Such is not the case. If from the Gospels we deduct the miracles and teaching of Christ, there remain only scanty memorials of the Saviour. It is well that this is so. Had we more details, we should imitate these, forgetting perhaps the deep underlying principles of the sacred life. As it is, we are directed chiefly, as in the passage before us, to those elements in Christ apparently furthest above reach of imitation, to His incarnation and His death for our sins. The reason is evident. In these supreme events shone forth in its intensest lustre the inmost heart of the Eternal Son. Consequently, Paul bids us, not to do as Christ did, but to have the mind that was in Him. Notice specially, in the example of Christ here set before us, two elements, unsparing self-abnegation for the good of others and unreserved obedience to God. These led the Son from heaven to earth, and from earth to the grave; and from the cross and the grave, in a ruined world, to the splendours of the eternal throne and the ceaseless songs of wondering angels and of a ransomed human race. In that path it is ours to tread. Philippians 2:12-13. Philippians 2:12 is an exhortation based on the foregoing; Philippians 2:13 is a reason for it. The one main exhortation is prefaced by several preparatory clauses.So then etc.: a designed moral consequence of the foregoing. Beloved-ones: Philippians 4:1 twice: a mark of the tenderness of this epistle. Cp. Romans 12:19; 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 7:1. Obeyed: viz. the apostolic authority of Paul. For only thus can we account for the mention of his presence and absence. Such authority he claims over his children in the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 4:14-15; 1 Corinthians 4:21; 1 Corinthians 5:3. He does so in confidence that his commands are the will of God. This mention of obedience recalls the example of Christ in Philippians 2:8, and the authority (1 Thessalonians 2:6) with which Paul might command.They had always obeyed: close agreement with Philippians 1:5, from the first day until now. This recognition of previous obedience softens somewhat Paul’s silent assumption of authority. He only bids them continue to act according as they had always done. They were not to act as though their action were prompted by Paul’s presence. [The word ως is omitted in the Vatican MS. and some good versions. But its omission is so easily accounted for that we may with some confidence retain it. It gives the readers’ subjective view, in Paul’s wish, of their own conduct.]Now much more: the absence of the teacher’s help making their own care more needful. With fear and trembling: with anxious care as in a matter serious and difficult: a Pauline phrase; see 1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5. It suggests the real peril to which Christians are exposed, and especially the great peril of selfishness.Salvation: as in Philippians 1:19 : deliverance from the perils which surround the Christian life. That it is their own salvation is good reason why they should work it out with anxious care, and with even greater care in Paul’s absence than when his watchful eye is on them.Work-out: literally be working out: same word in Romans 5:3; 2 Corinthians 4:17; 20 times in the Epistles of Paul, 3 times in the rest of the N.T. it is akin to the word in Philippians 2:13. It denotes effective effort, and implies that deliverance day by day is a result of persistent work: cp. Ephesians 6:13. While using all means to strengthen our spiritual life, we are bringing about our present and final deliverance. So sailors have often toiled to save their ship from the rocks and themselves from a watery grave.Philippians 2:13. Encouragement to work out our own salvation. Paul assumes that there is One who works in us, speaks of Him as a definite object of thought, and calls Him God. [To this last word he gives great prominence by bringing it to the beginning of the sentence.] Works: 1 Corinthians 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Romans 7:5; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:2, instructive parallels; 17 times with Paul, 3 times in the rest of the N.T. Like the kindred word in Philippians 2:12, it is a note of Pauline authorship. The cognate substantive is used in Philippians 3:21. It is the in-working activity of God. In you: within your personality, body or spirit: cp. Ephesians 2:2; Colossians 1:29; also Ephesians 1:20. Even to will, the inward determination to act, is a result of God working in us.And to work: the inward effort to accomplish the formed purpose. Both the purpose and the energy with which we work it out are here said to be an inward work of God. His good-pleasure: that which seems good in the sight of God, as in Matthew 11:26, suggesting possibly that it is for the good of others. Same word as good-will in Philippians 1:15; where however the context makes the idea of benefit to others much more conspicuous than here.On-behalf-of His good-pleasure: in order to accomplish a purpose pleasing to God. Cp. Ephesians 1:5; Ephesians 1:9.This verse by no means implies that these divine influences are irresistible. And indisputably they are resisted. For God’s good pleasure is (1 Timothy 2:4) that all men be saved; whereas not all men are saved. Even to an impenitent man Paul says (Romans 2:4), God is leading thee to repentance; although evidently the divine influences were completely thwarted. Yet in all cases these influences are real and of infinite worth. For without them there would be no good in man. But their actual effect depends upon our surrender to them.We have here a plain statement of prevenient grace, a divine influence in man preceding and producing whatever in him is good, from the earliest desire for salvation to final victory over the last temptation. Philippians 2:12-13 present two opposite and yet completely harmonious sides of the Christian life. The latter is the source and ground and motive of the former. All good in man, from the first good desire, is an outworking of a divine purpose and power. Through the Gospel, and the written and unwritten Law, God is ever exerting an influence leading men to repentance and salvation. He does this in order to gratify His own desire to save and bless. The actual result depends upon man’s self-surrender to these influences. Other influences would lead him in an opposite direction. Man’s only choice is to which of these influences he will yield. On this depends his fate. Consequently, if he rises, he rises entirely by the power of God: if he sinks, it is because he refuses influences which would raise him.These divine influences ever prompt, and are designed to evoke, human effort. Consequently man’s earnest effort is a condition of salvation. But both this effort and its good results are the outworking of the purpose and power of God. A knowledge that our own purposes are from God, and that our efforts are armed with His power, and that our victory will gratify Him, are strong encouragement to put forth all our powers. The exhortation in Philippians 2:12 is to Christian perseverance; and thus takes up and completes that in Philippians 1:27-30. In Philippians 2:27. Christian harmony was mentioned casually as a condition of victory, and in Philippians 2:1-2 it was made matter of direct exhortation. In Philippians 2:3-4 we were warned against selfishness, the great enemy of Christian harmony. And in Philippians 2:5-11 this warning and its implied exhortation were supported by the unique example of Christ’s self-humiliation for the good of others and His exaltation by God. This supreme example Paul brings, in Philippians 2:12-13, to bear upon his readers. But instead of bidding them to imitate Christ, or rather to cherish a disposition like His, which would be merely a repetition of Php 2:5, he bids them, by obedience, work out their own salvation. He thus implies that the only way of safety is the path of self-humiliation and obedience trodden by Christ: a lesson we all need to learn. Underneath an apparently abrupt transition we find, as so often with Paul, an important lesson. A similar train of thought occurs in 1 Corinthians 9:22-27, where Paul says that his own salvation depends upon his efforts to save others. Since the Eternal Son, instead of using His divine powers to obtain for Himself the good things of earth for which so many strive, allowed them to remain latent, and trod the path of self-humiliation and obedience, a path which led Him to infinite glory, thus marking it out as the way of safety, walk ye along the same path, remembering the spiritual perils which surround you, and therefore walk as carefully in my absence as in my presence. Do this remembering that in our own moral efforts God is working out His own good pleasure. Philippians 2:14-16. After exhortations to courage, unity, unselfishness like that of Christ, and the implied warning that upon obedience depends personal salvation, Paul adds an exhortation touching the manner in which he would have these exhortations obeyed.All things; covers and goes beyond the matters already mentioned. Murmurings: 1 Corinthians 10:10 : talk expressing dissatisfaction, especially clandestine talk as grumbling often is. It is most easily understood here of dissatisfaction with the rough lot referred to above, such dissatisfaction being really murmuring against Him who has allotted our earthly position and surroundings.Doubtings or reasonings: ideas closely allied, that about which we reason being naturally open to doubt while the reasoning continues. Same word in Romans 1:21; Romans 14:1; 1 Corinthians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:8; James 2:4; Luke 9:46-47. Dissatisfaction with our lot arises necessarily from want of faith in Him who with infinite wisdom and love has chosen for us our path and who will soon cover us with the splendour of heaven and fill us with eternal joy. Hence all murmurings are an outward expression of inward doubtings. And both these are utterly unworthy of children of God. Therefore, whatever duties and burdens life lays upon them, Paul bids his readers do all things without murmurings and doubtings.Philippians 2:15-16. Aim of the foregoing exhortation: then a statement about the readers’ relation to the world: and lastly a further aim touching Paul and his work.That ye may-become etc.: a designed result of laying aside murmurings and doubtings.Blameless: men with whose outward aspect none can find fault. Pure or mixtureless: men in whose inward disposition there is no foreign element. Thus blameless and pure correspond respectively to without murmurings and without doubtings.Children of God: Romans 8:16; Romans 8:21; Romans 9:8 : a point of connection between Paul and John, John 1:12; John 11:52; 1 John 3:1-2; 1 John 3:10; 1 John 5:2. A similar phrase in Romans 8:14; Romans 8:19; Romans 9:26; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 12:5; Luke 20:36; Luke 6:35; Matthew 5:45. These words here, without any special occasion, reveal the deep root of this thought in the writer’s mind, and are thus a mark of authorship. They note a close relation to God.Spotless: Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 5:27; Colossians 1:22; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19; Jude 1:24; Revelation 14:5 : without blemish, or anything to cause reproach. Notice three negatives, blameless, mixtureless, spotless, emphasising absence of all evil inward or outward. That this absence of evil is represented as a result to be attained by avoiding murmurings and doubtings, suggests that these defects are the last to cling to the Christian; that he who avoids them will escape all evil. And rightly so. For absence of doubt is perfect faith: and absence of murmuring reveals profound inward peace. These words reveal also Paul’s high appreciation of the present moral character of his readers. Generation: see under Ephesians 3:5. Crooked: opposite to straight, as in Luke 3:5. Crooked generation: Acts 2:40.Perverse: twisted in different directions, especially of misshapen or mutilated limbs. So Matthew 17:17; Luke 9:41 : generation unbelieving and perverted. Instead of being upright, they were crooked in character and conduct: instead of being a normal growth, they were deformed cripples. Among such men and in conspicuous contrast to them, Paul desired his readers to be without blemish, thus revealing their divine lineage: children of God, spotless in the midst etc. Since the stress evidently rests on the words spotless in the midst etc., describing what sort of children of God the Philippians were to be, we cannot infer from these last words that Paul looked upon them as not yet children of God. Consequently, this verse in no way contradicts Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:6.Among whom etc.; keeps up the contrast between Christians and those around them. Are seen: same word in Matthew 6:5; Matthew 6:16; Matthew 6:18 also rendered appear in Matthew 1:20; Matthew 2:7; Matthew 2:13; Matthew 2:19. It is akin to the Greek word for light, and denotes in its simplest form to give light: e.g. John 1:5; John 5:35. Similarly, the form here used is found in Matthew 24:27; Revelation 18:23. But in a wider sense it is constantly used for the visible manifestation of an object, whether by its own light or by light cast upon it. The participle is the Greek original of our word phenomenon. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/beet/ SECTION 6. — ABOUT TIMOTHY. CH. 2:19-24. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, in order that I also may be of good cheer; knowing your affairs. For I have no one of equal soul who in a genuine way will be anxious about your affairs. For they all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. But the proof of him ye know, that, as a son serves a father, with me he has done service in furtherance of the Gospel. Him then I hope to send, whenever I see the issue of my affairs, forthwith. But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will shortly come. After general exhortations to the Christians at Philippi, Paul comes now to speak about two of his fellow-workers, each closely related to them; about Timothy in § 6, and in § 7 about Epaphroditus. Philippians 2:19. But I hope: Paul’s actual and cheerful expectation, in contrast to the possibility (Philippians 2:17) that his death is near. For the words, that I also may know, suggest a hope that he will live till Timothy’s return. Probably also the fuller hope expressed in Philippians 2:24 was already present to Paul’s thought and moulding his words. And apparently the mission of Timothy was dependent (see Philippians 2:23) on Paul’s liberation.Hope in the Lord Jesus: who is able to rescue him from impending death, and whose purpose, as Paul thinks, is so to do. Also: in addition to the benefit to the Philippians from Timothy’s visit. This purpose reveals Paul’s deep interest in his readers. News about them will be encouragement to him. Close coincidence in 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 1:3.Philippians 2:20-22. Reason for Paul’s wish to send Timothy, and him specially.Of-equal-soul: see under the word soul in Philippians 1:27. Paul has no one in whom care for the Philippians kindles the same emotions as in Timothy. If he had wished to say that Timothy’s care was equal to his own, he would need to have indicated this by writing no one else. The comparison is between others and Timothy, not between Timothy and Paul. In-a-genuine-way: as a real, born son naturally cares for his father’s interests: a cognate word in Philippians 4:3; 2 Corinthians 8:8; 1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4.Be-anxious-about: forethought so intense as to become painful. Same word in Philippians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 7:32-34; 1 Corinthians 12:25; Matthew 6:25; Matthew 6:27-28; Matthew 6:31; Matthew 6:34; Matthew 10:19; Luke 10:41. The contradiction with Philippians 4:6 is only apparent. There is a care for the future which implies doubt, and is therefore utterly unworthy of the Christian: and there is a forethought which may be, and often is, painful, and yet a genuine outflow of intelligent Christian love. A cognate word, and a close coincidence, are found in 2 Corinthians 11:28. The sad statement in Philippians 2:20, Philippians 2:21 justifies by a universal description of the men around Paul whom he might conceivably send to Philippi.Their own things: same words in same sense as in Philippians 2:4 : a marked contrast to your affairs.The things of Jesus Christ: the interests of His kingdom, which include the highest well-being of the Philippian Christians. The reason here given implies that self-seeking unfits a man to be a reliable witness of the spiritual life of others. And correctly so. For all selfishness dims spiritual vision, and thus veils to us spiritual things good or bad. Therefore selfish men cannot bring to Paul a trustworthy report. To this description of the men surrounding Paul, there is no exception: they all seek etc. A remarkable parallel to 1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; 1 Corinthians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 6:5. As at Corinth, so at Rome, the men referred to were doubtless real though very imperfect Christians. The different language of Col 4:10-14 suggests that the men there mentioned were not with Paul when he wrote this Epistle: and this would account for the absence of any greetings to the Philippians from Christians at Rome: an important coincidence. Of men such as those here described, Paul would not wish to speak. Philippians 2:22. Description of Timothy, in contrast to the men just referred to.The proof of him: the attestation of his real worth: close parallel in 2 Corinthians 2:9. Ye know: a coincidence with Acts 16:3; Acts 17:14 where we learn that Timothy was with Paul at the founding of the Church at Philippi; and with Acts 20:4 which says that Timothy accompanied Paul on a journey through Macedonia, in which province Philippi was.A child: close coincidence with 1 Corinthians 4:17, where Paul when sending Timothy to Corinth speaks of him as his beloved and trustworthy child.Father: coincidence with 1 Corinthians 4:15, where Paul claims to be the father of the Corinthian Christians.With me he has done service, or has served: a slight change of metaphor. While saying that Timothy has served Paul as a son serves his father, Paul remembers that, from another point of view, Timothy and himself are alike children and servants of another Master. He therefore now speaks of Timothy as joining with himself in serving One whom it is needless to name. In furtherance of the Gospel: for its spread and triumph: same words in same sense in Philippians 1:5; more fully in Philippians 2:12, for the progress of the Gospel. This was the aim of the service in which, as the Philippians knew, Timothy joined with Paul.Philippians 2:23-24. Resumption, from Philippians 2:19, of Paul’s purpose to send Timothy, after a digression about his fitness, unique among others unfit, for this mission; followed (Philippians 2:24) by a hope of himself coming.Him then etc.: more fully, this man then on the one hand I hope to send… on the other hand I trust in the Lord that myself etc.: a double hope cherished by Paul. Hope to send: resuming Philippians 2:19.My affairs: same phrase as your affairs in Philippians 2:19; and practically identical with the matters touching me in Philippians 1:12. It must refer to some great crisis which would determine Paul’s conduct. And this is most easily explained as the issue of the trial before Nero, for which Paul was waiting during his imprisonment at Rome. These words are thus a coincidence with Acts 28:30.Forthwith: as soon as Paul’s case is decided, he will send Timothy. That he was unwilling to send away his beloved son in the Gospel before the decision, we can well understand. Trust in the Lord: as in Philippians 1:14. Paul’s hope of coming to Philippi has its root in the Master whom he serves. A fuller exposition of this hope and of its ground is given in Philippians 1:25-26.REVIEW. After expressing his joy about his readers, a joy which even the possibility of death does not dim, Paul now turns, in hope of prolonged life, to practical matters. He has something to say about two of his helpers. Timothy he hopes soon to send in order that he may bring back news about the Church at Philippi. On such an errand Timothy is the only one he can send: for Paul’s other associates are incapacitated, by their selfishness, for correct spiritual vision and a correct estimate of the spiritual state of others. But Timothy, as a genuine son, shares even Paul’s anxieties for the Churches; and has proved this, as the Philippians know, by service rendered to Paul, and to God in fellowship with Paul. The sending of Timothy is however for the present hindered by Paul’s uncertainty about the issue of his trial. When this is dispelled, he will at once send Timothy. But he cherishes a purpose resting on his Master’s power and purpose that he will himself shortly come. In this section we again meet Timothy, whom Paul has associated with himself as joint author of the Epistle, and whom we have already met in 1 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 16:10; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:19. And the features of the man are the same. As before he is Paul’s child in the faith; and is in sympathy with him so complete that he is both the eye and the lips of the Apostle, his trusted delegate to a distant Church. Again he is joint author of an apostolic letter. Yet the notice of him here is no repetition.For Timothy’s fitness to bring Paul spiritual intelligence affords valuable insight into his character and into all Christian character. The casual description of Paul’s associates is no small proof of the historic truthfulness of his Epistles. SECTION 7. — ABOUT . CH. 2:25-30. A necessary thing, however, I counted it, to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, but your apostle and minister of my need: inasmuch as he was longing for you all, and distressed because ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, near to death. Yet God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, lest I should come to have sorrow upon sorrow. The more eagerly therefore I have sent him, that seeing him ye may again rejoice, and I be less sorrowful. Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold in honour such men. Because by reason of the work of Christ he drew near even to death, having hazarded his life in order to supply the lack of your service for me. From the hoped-for mission of Timothy in the near future, Paul now passes to that of Epaphroditus, who was evidently the bearer of this letter. Philippians 2:25. Necessary, however: although Paul hopes himself soon to come. The ground of this necessity is stated in Philippians 2:26.: only here and Philippians 4:18, yet evidently a tried and valued associate of Paul. We have here five details about him; three giving his relation to Paul, a fourth his relation to the readers, and the fifth a relation both to the readers and to Paul.Brother: so 2 Corinthians 2:13, Titus my brother.Fellow-worker: as in Romans 16:3; Romans 16:9; Philippians 4:3.Fellow-soldier: for Paul’s work is also conflict. It suggests peril in which Epaphroditus bravely stood by Paul. But this does not necessarily imply an earlier association with Paul: for they might have been associated at Rome. If so, this title is a courteous recognition of his courage in discharging his commission. Similarly, the word fellow-worker may have been prompted by work done recently at Rome. Paul remembers that Epaphroditus is united to himself as a child of the same divine Father, as a companion in the same great work and in conflict against the same enemies. My, your: in Greek, consecutive words, placing in conspicuous contrast the relation of Epaphroditus to the Philippians and his relation to Paul. Apostle: as in 2 Corinthians 8:23; see under Romans 1:1 : one sent on special business. What Paul’s need was, we learn from Philippians 4:14-18, viz. his poverty in prison at Rome and the resulting hardship, a need removed by the contribution brought by Epaphroditus.Minster: a cognate word in Philippians 2:17; Philippians 2:30; the same word in Romans 13:6; Romans 15:16. Both Paul in fostering the faith of the Philippian Christians and Epaphroditus in bringing to Paul their contribution were performing a sacred and public service, as sacred as the high-priest’s ministrations at the altar. Same thought in Philippians 4:18. Epaphroditus was thus a minister of the Philippian Christians: for he was carrying out their instructions and conveying to Paul their gift. He was also a minister of Paul’s need: for, by discharging the mission entrusted to him by the Church, he removed that need. See under Philippians 4:18.Philippians 2:26. Ground of the necessity to send Epaphroditus.Longing-for you all; keeps before us, as do the same words in Philippians 1:8, the universal excellence of the Christians at Philippi.Distressed: literally homeless; a vivid description of a mind in trouble. Epaphroditus earnestly wished to return to the brethren at Philippi in order that their anxiety might be dispelled by seeing him in good health, How they heard of his sickness, and how he knew that they had heard, we do not know. But communication between Rome and the Roman colony of Philippi along the splendid Egnatian road, would be, if not regular, yet frequent. Notice a genuine trait of excellence. Many are glad for others to know of their sickness or trouble, especially if caused by service done for them. But this good man was sorry that, through their hearing of it, his own trouble had caused trouble to others. Philippians 2:27. Paul’s comment on the sickness and recovery of Epaphroditus.Indeed he was sick; adds conspicuously to the report heard by the Philippians an attestation that the report was true. Near to death: literally, as neighbour side by side of death.God had mercy on him: suggests man’s helplessness in sickness and God’s complete control of sickness and recovery. Sorrow upon sorrow: a note of sadness, evoked by memory of the illness of Epaphroditus and of the sorrow and apprehension thus caused to Paul, amid the prevailing joy of this Epistle. Cp. 2 Corinthians 6:10. It implies other sorrow besides that occasioned by the illness of Epaphroditus.Mercy also upon me; reveals Paul’s felt helplessness under the new sorrow then looming before him. In this helplessness he recognises the restoration of his friend as God’s compassion towards himself. Thus one act was, in different ways, kindness to two men equally helpless. Paul’s gratitude also teaches that they who share the sorrows of others have in others’ joy a special joy of their own. Philippians 2:28. Restatement of the bearing of Epaphroditus’ sickness upon his mission by Paul to Philippi.More-eagerly therefore: parallel to I counted it necessary in Philippians 2:25. The comparative suggests that the illness and recovery of Epaphroditus did but increase Paul’s eagerness to send him. That in Philippians 2:29 Paul bids his readers welcome Epaphroditus, suggests that he was the bearer of this epistle. Same use of the word I-have-sent in Colossians 4:8; Ephesians 6:22; Acts 23:30. The above reasons for sending him to Philippi suggest that his going there was not matter of course, as one goes back home after discharging a mission, that he may have had other reasons for his journey to Rome, and that possibly he was not a resident at Philippi. But we learn from Philippians 2:30 how eagerly he entered into the Philippians’ purpose to help Paul.Again rejoice: their usual joy being overshadowed by hearing of Epaphroditus’ illness, a shadow only to be removed by knowing that he is well. Less-sorrowful: another note of sadness: cp. Philippians 2:27. Even the removal of Paul’s sorrow about Epaphroditus would leave him only less sad. This indicates other and abiding sources of sorrow.Philippians 2:29-30. Recommendation of Epaphroditus.Receive in the Lord: same words in Romans 16:2. Their reception of him must be an outflow of their union with the One Master of him and them.Every joy: as in Romans 15:13; James 1:2. No sort of joy was to be lacking in their reception of Epaphroditus.Such men: this not being a solitary case but one of a class of which all deserve like honour. The work of Christ: cp. 1 Corinthians 15:58. What the work was, we learn from the latter part of the verse. Epaphroditus’ discharge of his mission was both a sacrifice (Philippians 4:18) to God and work done for Christ.Even to death: same words as in Philippians 2:8. Epaphroditus trod in the steps of Christ, even to the edge of the grave.Hazarded his life: literally gambled with his life, (Ellicott,) making very prominent the apparent recklessness of his conduct and the great risk he ran. The lack of your service for me. The public and sacred service (Philippians 2:25) rendered to Paul fell short in one point, viz. the personal presence of the Philippian Christians who would gladly have themselves ministered to his comfort. This one deficiency Epaphroditus endeavoured, even at the risk of life, to supply. Same thought and words in 1 Corinthians 16:17. He thus did the work of Christ. [Notice two genitives dependent on the word lack. The service was deficient: hence lack of service. It lacked the personal presence of the Christians at Philippi: the lack of you.] The word death links together Philippians 2:27 and Philippians 2:30 as referring to the same deadly peril. We infer therefore that the sickness which brought Epaphroditus near to death was occasioned by his mission to Rome. He deliberately exposed his life in order to discharge this mission, and thus actually fell into serious illness. This may have been through exposure on the journey or through contagion at Rome. All details are unknown. We have here a beautiful episode in the story of Paul. The Philippian Christians heard of his imprisonment at Rome, and wished to send him help. But for a time they had no means of doing so. At last Epaphroditus, a Christian whom they well loved, happens to be going to Rome. A contribution is made, and is sent by Epaphroditus. Either on the journey or at Rome, in consequence of exposure needful to bring the money to Paul, and cheerfully endured, the messenger became dangerously ill. And Paul felt deeply that courageous care for him had brought a brother to the gates of death. Epaphroditus recovered. He joined Paul, apparently, not only in peril but in Christian work. But tidings of his illness reached Philippi. This, Epaphroditus knew; and knew that the tidings would fill his brethren with sorrow. He was therefore eager to return, to allay their fears by showing himself well in their midst. This eagerness to return Paul appreciated, and resolved to use his return as an opportunity of sending to his beloved friends at Philippi the letter before us. The joyful reception of Epaphroditus at Philippi, with this precious letter from the imprisoned Apostle, is veiled from our view in the unwritten past. SECTION 8. — AGAINST BAD MEN; AND PAUL’S EXAMPLE. CH. 3:1-16. As to the rest, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, and for you is safe. Keep eyes on the dogs: keep eyes on the bad workers: keep eyes on the concision. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and exult in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in flesh; although I might have confidence even in flesh. If any other thinks to have confidence in flesh, I yet more: circumcised the eighth day, of the race of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew from Hebrews; touching the Law a Pharisee; touching zeal, persecuting the Church, touching righteousness, viz. that in the Law, become blameless. But things which were gain to me, these for the sake of Christ I have counted loss. Yes indeed, and I count all to be loss for the sake of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered loss of all things: and I count them refuse that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which comes from law, but that which comes through faith of Christ, the righteousness from God on the condition of faith, in order to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the partnership of His sufferings, being day by day conformed to His death, if in any way I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained or am already made perfect: but I press on if I may also lay hold of that for which I have also been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, not yet do I reckon myself to have laid hold: one thing, however, I reckon, forgetting the things behind and stretching forward to the things before I press on towards the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So many then as are perfect, let us be of this mind. And if in anything ye are otherwise minded, also this will God reveal to you. Only whereto we have attained, let us walk by the same. Philippians 3:1 a. An exhortation covering all that Paul has left unsaid: as to the rest. Same words in Philippians 4:8; Hebrews 10:13.Rejoice in: as in Philippians 1:18; Philippians 4:10; Colossians 1:24. The Master, Christ, is the surrounding, pervading, life-giving element in which Paul bids his readers rejoice. This joy is an outflow of that with which Christ Himself is full: and it becomes ours by inward spiritual contact with Him as servants doing His work. in proportion to our loyalty to Him is our joy in the Lord.Philippians 3:1 b. Abrupt introduction of a new topic. For the short foregoing exhortation to rejoice in the Lord could not conceivably be irksome to Paul, i.e. something to which he would go with reluctance, nor specially safe for his readers. We must therefore suppose that from some cause unknown to us, possibly interruption, a new topic was unexpectedly introduced into the Epistle when apparently approaching its close. And the three times repeated warning which at once follows in Philippians 3:2 and which might easily be distasteful to the writer suggests irresistibly that to it refers the word safe. If so, to this warning refer also the words to write the same things. This implies that on this subject Paul has already written to the Philippian Christians. But in this Epistle there is as yet no warning against any one. Even the reference to Paul’s opponents at Rome is not put in the form of a warning to the Christians at Philippi. He has said nothing of which these words can be called a repetition. Indeed this would be true even if they referred to the foregoing exhortation: for he has not before urged his readers even to rejoice in the Lord. The only approach to this is Philippians 2:18. Nor is it likely that the repetition refers to earlier oral teaching. For this would make the word write emphatic: whereas the Greek emphasis is on the same things. The absence of other explanation suggests that the repetition refers to some warning in an earlier letter to the Philippians now lost. Against this suggestion there is no objection. For it is hardly possible that all the letters which Paul wrote are preserved to us. There is clear mention in 1 Corinthians 5:9 (see note) of a lost letter to the Corinthians. Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, says that Paul when absent wrote letters to you. But this is not a conclusive proof: for the plural form letters is often used for a single written communication, e.g. 1 Maccabees x. 3, 7; xii. 5, 19; and this may have been Polycarp’s meaning. That Paul refers here to an earlier and lost letter, is the easiest explanation of his words. In such letter he may have warned the Christians at Philippi against Jewish enemies. And certainly his own experience in many places justified the warning: see Acts 13:45; Acts 14:2; Acts 14:5; Acts 14:19; Acts 17:5; Acts 17:13. To this danger he refers in 1 Thessalonians 2:15; Romans 15:31. And he remembers it while writing this Epistle. To mention it again, is not, he tells us, a duty from which he recoils: and to do so may guard his readers from real danger.Philippians 3:2. Keep-eyes-on: pay attention to. Same word in Colossians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 1:26; 1 Corinthians 10:18, etc. It denotes the simple act of looking, ocular or mental.Dogs: a term of contempt, frequent with Gentiles and Jews. To the latter, dogs, feeding as they do in Eastern cities on all sorts of refuse, were an incarnation of degraded ceremonial impurity. So Matthew 15:26; Revelation 22:15; cp. Matthew 7:6 : also Isaiah 56:10-11. This common term expressing Jewish contempt for Gentiles, Paul here applies to Jews, (see below,) indicating that the men referred to were outside and beneath the Covenant of God.Workmen: same word in 2 Corinthians 11:13; ‘guileful workmen,’ 2 Timothy 2:15; Matthew 9:37-38; Matthew 10:10; Matthew 20:1-2; Luke 13:27 etc. They were active and laborious: but their aims and methods were bad.The concision: a contemptuous modification of the word rendered circumcision. Its cognate verb describes in 1 Kings 18:28 the self-mutilations of the prophets of Baal: similarly Leviticus 21:5. It thus places the circumcision of these Jews beside the mutilations of the heathen. A close parallel in Galatians 5:12. The article before each substantive indicates a definite class of men. The essential harmony, amid total difference, of the terms used suggests that they present only different aspects of the same men. And this is confirmed by the order of the words, which passes from the general to the specific. This warning receives great emphasis from the repetition of the verb, beware. Three times, under three different aspects, Paul warns his readers of the same danger. The compactness of these words suggests that possibly they are an exact repetition of words already written by Paul. Certainly they embody a warning already given. The word concision proves that Philippians 3:2 refers to Jews. Upon these Paul flings back the term of contempt so freely cast by them at Gentiles as men outside the Covenant of God and as compared with themselves no better than unclean animals. He admits their laborious effort, but calls it bad. And the bodily rite in which they trust, he places on a level with heathen mutilation. That they were not members of the Church at Philippi, we infer with certainty from the universal commendation in Philippians 1:3-5. Yet the earnestness of the warning assures us that the danger was real and near. Paul’s parody of the word circumcision suggests that he refers roughly and generally to the Jewish race as a whole, or rather to the mass of it which rejected Christ. But his warning would include any Jews like those at Corinth (see my Corinthians p. 477) who under guise of a false profession had crept into the Church (cp. Galatians 2:4) in order to overturn it. Indeed the strong words in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 against men of this class is an important coincidence with this verse. But, inasmuch as in Philippians 3:5-6 we have no reference to professed Christians like that in 2 Corinthians 11:23, probably Paul refers here chiefly to non-Christian Jews. The anti-Christian Jews, Paul justly calls the concision: for every outward form of religion destitute of inward devotion is practically the same as heathen ritual. While boasting of the ancient and divine rite, they were really trampling under foot the purpose for which it was given. The rite so desecrated could not be called circumcision, but required a meaner name. Philippians 3:3. A contrast, justifying the term concision.We: emphatic. To Paul and his readers belongs the title circumcision. Consequently, the only term left for the men here referred to is that just given them. The circumcision: the circumcised persons, as in Ephesians 2:11; Romans 3:30; Romans 4:9; Romans 15:8; Galatians 2:9.Who worship etc.; describes the real circumcision. Worship: same word in Romans 1:9; Romans 1:25; 2 Timothy 1:3 etc. It is used only of service rendered to God; frequently of the service of the temple, as in Hebrews 13:10. Consequently it is needless to mention here the object of worship. Notice that circumcision involves worship: for Israel was set apart to be a worshipping people.By the Spirit of God: who prompts and guides this worship. [Cp. Romans 8:13-14.And exult in Christ Jesus: cp. Romans 5:11. See under Romans 2:17. Like all the circumcised, Paul and his readers are accustomed to boast: but the encompassing element of their boasting is the living personality of Christ. And have no confidence etc.: third point in the description of the true circumcision. Confidence is implied in exult: for all exultation rests on some foundation, and therefore involves trust in some object personal or impersonal. These men based their hopes on something in their own bodies. For to them circumcision, not being accompanied by a spiritual change, was a mere outward rite. Paul describes the Christian life as a service of God, prompted and guided by the Spirit of God; as a joyous confidence resting in Christ as its element; and negatively as not resting on anything belonging merely to outward bodily life. Since many of Paul’s readers were Gentiles, and yet all are evidently included in this description, the circumcision here referred to must be spiritual only; as in Romans 2:29; Colossians 2:11. The ancient rite was a mark of the covenant with God. But all who have the characteristics here given are included in the New Covenant, and are therefore, but in greater degree, in the position formerly occupied by the circumcision. And, if so, nothing but the contemptuous term used by Paul remains to those who trust for the favour of God to the outward rite.Philippians 3:4-6. A boast which Paul has, but refuses to use. By showing us a confidence he might cherish, Paul adds force to no confidence in the flesh. As himself the chief object of Jewish hostility to Christianity, Paul passes easily from the general statement in Philippians 3:3, we are etc., to the details in Philippians 3:4-6 which refer to himself only. The emphatic word I recalls Paul’s unique position as compared both with enemies and friends.Although etc.: literally although myself having confidence even in flesh: contrasted statement subordinate to the foregoing. Paul has a confidence: for his condition is one in which he might trust. And the confidence in which he might indulge reaches down even to the flesh.If any one etc.: an independent statement of the foregoing. Thinks or thinks-well; denotes approval of a course of action or thought, as in Matthew 3:9; Luke 1:3 : if to any one it seems good to trust in the flesh.I more: I have more to trust in than he. Similar language in 2 Corinthians 11:21. Paul thinks fit to play for a moment the part of his opponents that he may show how much better he can play it than they. Then follow in detail the grounds on which he might rest a confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:5-6. Circumcised the eighth day: and therefore not a proselyte. Notice the accurate observance of the letter of the Law.From the race of Israel: and therefore not a son of a proselyte, or an Edomite. Tribe of Benjamin: nearer specification of his relation to the sacred race. Paul knows his own tribe. Moreover Benjamin not only gave to Israel its first king, whose name Paul bore, but was faithful to the House of David when the ten tribes revolted. Hebrew: 2 Corinthians 11:22. In Acts 6:1 it denotes a Hebrew-speaking Jew in contrast to the Hellenists who spoke Greek, thus marking a distinction within the Jewish nation. And elsewhere in the N.T. it has reference to language. Probably so here. Although born at Tarsus, Paul clung to the ancient language and customs of his nation. He did so by parental training: for his parents also were Hebrews. A close coincidence with Acts 23:6, where Paul calls himself a son of Pharisees. For, more than other Jews, Pharisees clung to everything which distinguished Israel from the rest of mankind.After noting, in ascending scale, four points of honour in his pedigree, as Jews boasted, Paul now gives three points bearing upon his personal character and conduct. The similar phrases touching law, touching zeal, touching righteousness, mark the transition. Pharisee: important coincidence with Acts 23:6; Acts 26:5.Touching law: looked at from the point of view of the general principle embodied in the law given at Sinai, and in the Books of Moses. This principle, viz. that the favour of God is to be obtained by obedience to authoritative prescriptions of conduct, found in the Pharisees its strictest exponents and adherents. And Paul was a Pharisee. If, again, we take zeal as our standard of measurement, we find proof of his earnest advocacy of Judaism in that he was persecuting the Church. Important coincidence with Galatians 1:13-14 : cp. 1 Timothy 1:13.Righteousness: the condition of a man who enjoys the judge’s approval: see under Romans 1:17. In order to distinguish his meaning here from Righteousness through Faith, Paul adds the specifying words, that in law. He is speaking of such righteousness as may be found in obedience to prescriptions of conduct. From this point of view, Paul had become blameless, i.e. he had reached a position in which no fault could be found with him. He had done all that could be done to obtain the favour of God by obedience to law.Of the seven points of boasting, the first four pertain evidently to bodily descent and thus abundantly justify Paul’s declaration that he has a confidence even in the flesh. These points are supplemented by three others not bearing so directly on the same. But the continued series suggests a continued train of thought. And doubtless Paul felt that the obedience to law by which he sought formerly the favour of God was only outward and bodily, and that even the zeal which prompted his persecution of the Church had its ultimate source in motives pertaining to the present bodily life. Notice that each point in the series was one which Paul’s opponents would admit to be a valid ground of boasting. An interesting coincidence with Philippians 3:4-6 is found in 2 Corinthians 11:21-27. But there Paul is speaking to Jews who were also (2 Corinthians 11:23) professed ministers of Christ. Here, without any reference to Christianity, he speaks simply of Jews. This suggests that the men against whom Paul here warns his readers were, at least for the more part, not Christians even in name.Philippians 3:7. Paul’s solemn renunciation of his own Jewish boasting, in emphatic contrast to the foregoing, and followed in Philippians 3:8 by a still wider renunciation. It is an exposition of no confidence in flesh in Philippians 3:3, after the contrast in Philippians 3:4 and its exposition. in detail in Philippians 3:5-6.Things-which: literally what sort of things, noting a whole class, to which belong the above details. Gains to me: each item being, from Paul’s then point of view, an enrichment to him. I-have-counted: a calculation made and completed in the past, and the abiding estimate now remaining. For the sake of Christ, or because of Christ: expounded in Philippians 3:8.Loss: either the gains themselves written off as lost; or the things formerly looked upon as making him richer now looked upon as making him poorer, i.e. as doing him harm. The former exposition is all that the words demand, and all that is implied in the word suffered-loss in Philippians 3:8. We therefore cannot give to the word loss the second and fuller sense. The whole class of various things which Paul once looked upon as gains, he has now written of as one loss.Philippians 3:8. Yes, indeed: an abrupt breaking off, making the reassertion more forceful.I count: the reckoning represented in Philippians 3:7 as already made, now represented as going on day by day.All-things: wider than what sort of things in Philippians 3:7.My Lord: in harmony with my God in Philippians 1:3 and Romans 1:8. Paul has come to know Christ Jesus as his own Master; and has found this knowledge to surpass all other good. Indeed it has revealed to him the worthlessness of all merely earthly gains. And, influenced by this superior knowledge, he now reckons to be loss all things he once prized.For whose sake etc.: an emphatic and categorical statement of the loss involved in Paul’s reckoning. The things mentioned above were once wealth to him: they are now worthless. Consequently, where before he was rich, he is now poor. Moreover, the things thus lost were those he most prized. Therefore, in losing them he suffered the loss of all things. This loss was occasioned by the person and work of Christ, for whose sake it was cheerfully endured. Notice the emphatic repetitions: I have counted, I count, I count; loss, loss, suffered-loss; for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ, for whose sake. [More definite than παντα is ταπαντα, including all forms of material good.] In proportion as we know Christ-does earthly wealth cease to be an enrichment to us. We look upon it only as an instrument of serving Christ. Therefore, like Paul we may say that because of Christ we have lost all things. Of this complete, inward, subjective loss, all objective loss for Christ’s sake is a partial and easy realisation in outward form, easy in proportion to our knowledge of Christ. And I count them refuse: added as an explanatory parallel to I have suffered, keeping before us Paul’s subjective estimate of the change which has taken place in him. Refuse: anything thrown away, either excrement rejected by the body, or the leavings of a feast incapable of giving further nourishment or pleasure. Such does Paul reckon the Jewish prerogatives in which once he boasted. And this reckoning has been to him practically the loss of all things.Philippians 3:9-11. Purpose of the reckoning described in Philippians 3:7-8, i.e. the greater gain for which Paul cheerfully submitted to the loss of all things. It is therefore practically an exposition of for the sake of Christ, and for the sake of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ.Gain Christ: make Him my own and thus obtain infinite enrichment. For all that Christ has and is belongs to His servants: and having Him they have all they need. The word gain is a marked contrast to the things which to Paul were once gain but which he now counts to be loss. Be found in Him: second item in Paul’s purpose. He desires so to gain Christ that He will be to him the home and bulwark of his soul and the pervading element of his spiritual life. The word found suggests a recognition by others of Paul’s inward union with Christ. In the searching scrutiny which will make known whatever is now hidden, Paul will be found safe in Christ. Righteousness: as in Romans 1:17; see note.A righteousness of my own: very close coincidence with Romans 10:3. As Paul never forgot, an unchanging law of the Kingdom of God makes spiritual blessing conditional on agreement with a divinely erected standard. Consequently, to be in Christ, implies righteousness. The only question is the kind of righteousness and the source from which it is derived. The righteousness through which Paul hopes to gain Christ is not a righteousness of his own, i.e. an agreement with a divine standard resulting from his own effort and which therefore he can claim as my own. Such would be the righteousness which the Jews were ever, though vainly, seeking to derive from the Law by careful observance of its prescriptions. From law: as in Galatians 3:21; a close parallel. [The absence of the Greek article suggests the abstract principle Do this and live, a principle which received historical and literary embodiment in the Law of Moses.] Cp. Philippians 3:6; Galatians 3:11; Galatians 3:18; Galatians 3:23; Galatians 4:4-5; Galatians 4:21; Galatians 5:4; Galatians 5:18; Galatians 5:23; Galatians 6:13. It is practically the same as from works of law in Galatians 2:16 three times. Through faith of Christ: belief of the words of Christ, as in Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16.From God: source of this righteousness. By proclaiming that He receives into His favour all who believe the Gospel, God gives righteousness to all who believe. And this righteousness received from God is in absolute contrast to all righteousness of their own, i.e. derived from their own obedience, for which the Jews were ever striving. Same contrast in Romans 10:3.On-the-condition-of faith: literally on faith: same words in Acts 3:16. They represent faith as the condition on which, whereas just above it is the channel through which, righteousness comes forth from God.The unexpected occurrence here of the word righteousness in this peculiar sense, the emphatic repetition of the word faith, and the coincidence in phraseology and thought with Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:21, are very clear indications of Pauline authorship. Philippians 3:10. The slight change of phrase, in order to know Him, indicates that this is not a third item of Paul’s aim in addition to those in Philippians 3:9, but is rather a further purpose to be attained by gaining Christ and being found in Him. To know Him: as though Paul’s present knowledge were so defective as to be unworthy of the name. This fuller knowledge of Christ is yearned for also in Ephesians 1:17; Ephesians 3:19; Ephesians 4:13. It is obtained only by (Philippians 3:9) gaining Him for our own and by abiding in Him. These words expound for the sake of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ in Philippians 3:8; as that I may gain Christ in Philippians 3:8 expounds for the sake of Christ in Philippians 3:7.And the power etc.; expounds what is involved in to know Christ.The power of His resurrection: the power of God which raised Christ from the dead, For His resurrection is emphatically a manifestation of divine power: and in this manifested power lay its practical worth: cp. 2 Corinthians 13:4; Romans 1:4. From Philippians 3:11 we learn that the ultimate goal of Paul’s desire is to attain to the resurrection from the dead. To experience that resurrection is to know the power which raised Christ. For the one resurrection is a result of the other. Had not Christ risen, there had been no faith in Him, no Gospel, no Christianity, and therefore no resurrection to eternal life. Moreover, our present spiritual life is a victory over sin gained for us and in us by the power of God which raised Christ. It will be consummated in a bodily resurrection like His. That power in its full manifestation, Paul desires to know. A very close and important parallel is found in Ephesians 1:19-20. The intimate connection between the resurrection of Christ, the believer’s present victory over sin and moral elevation, and His final victory over the grave, a connection ever present to Paul’s thought, at once suggests the above exposition, and makes needless any other. Fellowship of His sufferings: partnership with Christ in His sufferings: cp. 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:16. They who for Christ’s sake, and in order to save men, endure hardship, are sharing His sufferings for the world’s salvation. For their sufferings, like His, are caused by man’s sin, are endured in loyalty to God and love to mankind, and are working out God’s purpose of mercy. Close coincidence in Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 1:5. This companionship of suffering, Paul desires to know. And wisely. For we know Christ only so far as we share His loyalty to God and love to men. And if we share these, the circumstances of life will often lead us to endure hardship in order to save those whom Christ has taught us to love. Of such partnership with Christ, the annals of the Church are full. Happy they on whom rests most heavily this yoke of Christ. The resurrection is placed before the sufferings of Christ because Paul’s thought went out first to the glory which should follow. He then remembered that to this goal there is only one path and in view of the goal desires to tread that path. Being-conformed etc.: way in which this knowledge of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings is to be obtained, a path Paul is already treading. Every step towards a martyr’s grave was making him more like Christ who died on the cross. This clause gives definiteness to the foregoing one, and shows that Paul has in view both the death of Christ and the deadly peril which overshadows him while he writes. Philippians 3:11. The ultimate goal of Paul’s desire.The resurrection or resurrection-out-of: a strong term, used in the N.T. only here. From the dead: more definite than resurrection of the dead, and found only in Luke 20:35; Acts 4:2; 1 Peter 1:3. It suggests removal from among the dead, and is used only of Christ and His servants. Although the lost (John 5:29) will rise, resurrection will not separate them from the dead. Paul desired to attain to the uprising forth from the midst of the dead, the resurrection of life. This will be the Christian’s final triumph over his last foe: 1 Corinthians 15:26. And it implies victory over all enemies who now bar his path. For whatever tends to overturn his faith tends to rob him of his glorious consummation. A close parallel in Luke 20:35. This phrase peculiar to the blessed dead, by no means asserts or implies that they will rise before the unsaved. And Christ asserts that the two resurrections; of life and of judgment, will take place in the same hour.If in any way: as in Romans 1:10; Romans 11:14; Acts 27:12; noting a purpose which Paul desires to achieve in any way, and therefore at any cost. It suggests difficulty, and earnest desire prepared to encounter any difficulty.REVIEW OF Philippians 3:7-11. Paul has declared that, in contrast to the Jews, he has no confidence in the flesh; and has shown the significance of this assertion by specifying several matters pertaining to bodily life in which conceivably he might have confidence. He now tells us that he has renounced, and continues to renounce, all these matters of boasting; and describes the greater gain which has allured him to this renunciation. Things once prized as gains, he has written off as loss; and this because of Christ and because of the greater gain of knowing Him. This renunciation has been to him the loss of all things; so valuable to him once were the gains he has renounced. They are to him now only the refuse which we haste to cast away. Paul desires to make Christ his own, thus gaining real enrichment; and to have Him for his home and refuge. To this end he needs the approval of the great Judge, which he can obtain not by anything in himself but only by the divinely-given righteousness promised to those who believe. He desires to win Christ and to be found in Him, in order thus to know Him, and especially to know by experience the mighty power which raised Christ from the dead. The only way to this experience of the power which wrought in Christ is by partnership in the sufferings which reached their culmination in the cross. And these Paul is eager to share. His ultimate aim is to attain the glory of those who in the Great Day will rise from and cast off the dust of death and thus enter into immortal life. In these verses Paul contemplates the great change which had turned the entire current of his life. It was no new and loftier view of morality or even a more enthusiastic love for his fellows; but a new aim in life, and this aim a new relation to Christ and a deeper knowledge of Him, the ultimate aim being a share in the resurrection of the just. Philippians 3:12-14. The chief feature of the spiritual life described in Philippians 3:7-11 is the aim, manifold and yet one, therein so emphatically and repeatedly set forth. In Philippians 3:12-14 this aim is placed in still clearer light, thus receiving even greater prominence as an all-controlling element of Paul’s inner life.Philippians 3:12. Not that: as in 2 Corinthians 1:24. It guards from misinterpretation the foregoing assertion, by saying that this lofty aim does not imply actual attainment.Obtained: literally received or taken. The object received is not mentioned, attention being for the moment limited to the act of reception. But the word press-on suggests that Paul has already in view the prize mentioned in Philippians 3:14. This prize can be no other than the full blessedness of the Kingdom of Christ. And, for this, Paul must wait till the resurrection from the dead.Notice the accurate use of the Greek tenses. The aorist, I-have-obtained, denotes the mere act of reception: the perfect, am-made-perfect denotes its abiding result. The denial not already attained covers Paul’s past life to the moment of writing. He has not yet received the prize he has in view. Lightfoot’s exposition, not as though by my conversion I did at once attain, puts into the Greek aorist a meaning quite foreign to it and belonging only to the English preterite: see The Expositor, 1st series, vol. xi. p. 375. Already… already: emphatic denial of present attainment. A close parallel in 1 Corinthians 4:8.Made-perfect: same word from the lips of Paul in Acts 20:24; Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 11:40; Hebrews 12:23, etc. A cognate adjective, rendered perfect, in Philippians 3:15, and 1 Corinthians 2:6 where see note. These words denote a development which has reached its goal. Consequently, the exact sense in each case will vary according to the goal the writer has for the moment in view. They suggest here that the prize Paul seeks is to be obtained by personal maturity. Since it is given in the Great Day (cp. 2 Timothy 4:8) Paul probably means here that it is not yet so secure to him as to be no longer an object of earnest effort.I-press-on: literally pursue, i.e. follow quickly with a view to take hold of. Same word in Romans 9:30-31; Romans 12:13-14.Lay-hold: stronger form of the word rendered obtain. The words may be compared as take and take-hold.Of that for which: or with equal grammatical correctness inasmuch as. The former rendering would assert that Christ has taken hold of Paul with a definite aim, and that Paul presses forward in order to achieve that aim, i.e. to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of him. The second exposition would leave unmentioned, as in Philippians 3:12 a, the object Paul desires to grasp, stating only that Christ has laid hold of him and giving this as a reason for his own earnest effort. Between these renderings (R.V. text and R.V. margin) we cannot decide. And the practical difference is slight. Paul knows that Christ has laid His hand on him. This must be with a definite purpose, a purpose to be attained by Paul’s own effort. To accomplish this purpose is the object of his strenuous endeavour. Philippians 3:13-14. An affectionate repetition and development of Php 3:12.Reckon: a favourite word of Paul: close parallel in 2 Corinthians 11:5. I… myself: each word emphatic, a vivid description of self-estimation. Cp. John 5:30-31.Not-yet: connected grammatically with reckon. But in Paul’s thought reckon to have laid hold forms one idea. He has not yet reached the point at which he can soberly calculate that he has achieved the aim of life. One thing, however, I do: the last two words being supplied from the sentence following which describes what Paul is doing. Forgetting etc.: as a racer thinks not of the ground already passed, but only of that still before him. The things behind: the earlier stages of his Christian course. For the Jewish delusions in Philippians 3:5-6 were no part of his marked-out path.Stretching forward to etc.: like a racer with hands reaching out eagerly towards the goal: a graphic delineation. The things behind… the things before: a conspicuous contrast which cannot be reproduced in English. I-press-on; takes up the same word in Philippians 3:12.The goal: the end of the course already in view and directing and quickening the racer’s rapid steps. The prize: in N.T. only here and in 1 Corinthians 9:24 : same word in Ep. of Clement ch. v.; see my Corinthians p. 521. The context shows that Paul refers to the garland given to successful athletes at the Greek festivals. See my Corinthians p. 157. While forgetting the ground already trodden and pressing eagerly towards the goal, the racer was really pressing on towards the garland he hoped to win.The… calling of God: as in Romans 11:29; see under Romans 8:28. It is the Gospel looked upon as a voice of God summoning men to Himself. High calling: belonging to a realm infinitely above everything on earth: cp. Hebrews 3:1. The Gospel has its source in heaven, and calls men up to the place whence it comes. Of this divine and heavenly summons, given to all who hear the Gospel, the voice on the way to Damascus was a particular case. It bids us contend for a prize. Hence the prize of the high calling. Paul remembers that God has called him to contend for a glorious prize, and that to enable him to win it Christ has laid His hand upon him. He therefore presses forward with the goal in view, to grasp the prize. In Christ Jesus; asserts either that the high calling was given in connection with Christ, or that Paul’s eager effort for the prize had Christ for its encompassing and pervading and animating element. The latter exposition, giving as it does to these concluding words a much richer significance, is probably correct. A similar ambiguity in 2 Corinthians 12:10. Paul’s chief thought in Philippians 3:7-11 about his spiritual life was a purpose to win and to know Christ, that thus be may obtain a place in the resurrection of the just. In Philippians 3:12-14, this purpose is made more definite by a repeated and emphatic assertion that Paul has not yet attained the object he so earnestly desires; and is then developed into actual and intense effort. This effort is clothed in Paul’s favourite metaphor of the Athletic Festivals of Greece. He is a racer pressing forward along the course, forgetting the ground already trodden and eagerly straining every nerve to reach the goal and thus obtain the prize.This metaphor presents an invaluable picture, and an essential condition, of healthy Christian life; viz. incessant and strenuous effort and sustained progress. The goal is the resurrection of the just. We can reach it only by pursuing now the path marked out for us by God. Consequently, every moral victory is a step towards the prize which will be given in that Day. Philippians 3:15-16. Practical application of the foregoing. That Paul here implicitly claims perfection, after disclaiming it in Philippians 3:12, proves that the word was not to him a technical term for one definite stage of the Christian life. The context shows that the perfection denied in Philippians 3:12 was such as would make needless further effort and progress. That assumed here is doubtless the Christian maturity mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 5:14, and there contrasted with spiritual infancy. It implies a firm grasp of the Gospel and a full surrender of our heart and life to its transforming power. Possibly Paul has here in view some who claimed to be perfect or full-grown. Instead of denying their claim, he shows the obligation it involves. They who call themselves men in Christ are bound to contend as athletes for the great prize. Similar thought and expression in 1 Corinthians 8:1.Of this mind: viz. pressing on towards the prize. Since Paul, whom all would admit to be a mature Christian, disclaimed absolute perfection and was striving with all his might for something he had not yet attained, he bids his readers, so many as suppose themselves to be mature Christians, to make the same self-estimate and the same resolute effort. In anything otherwise minded: some detail not in harmony with the mind of Paul. That it is only a mere detail, is implied in the absence of censure and in the hope immediately expressed. ‘If in any matter you do not share my self-estimate and earnest effort, even this error God will dissipate by heavenly light.’Reveal: as in 1 Corinthians 2:10; Galatians 1:16; see under Romans 1:17. It denotes always the Hand of God lifting a veil and thus imparting to men by light from heaven actual knowledge, ordinary or extraordinary. Paul bids his readers imitate his own self-estimate and earnest effort, and expresses an assured hope that if they do so, and if in any detail they fall below the example just set before them, even this error will be removed by God.Philippians 3:16. Concluding exhortation, in the form of a limitation to the foregoing. ‘Let us count as nothing our present attainments and press forward: only in so doing let us pursue the direction in which we have attained our present position.’ A similar thought underlies the argument in Galatians 3:3, where Paul exposes the folly of turning aside from the path in which his readers have obtained spiritual life. That argument and this exhortation assume, not that the readers are infallible, but that they have made indisputable progress. Of this, their own moral sense was to them an infallible witness. They know that they have come out of darkness into light. Paul expresses his own determination, and encourages his readers, to go forward; and warns that their progress be in the direction which their past experience has proved to be right. So will all real progress mental and spiritual be along the lines of whatever progress we have already made. But we must be sure that our progress is real. Of this, neither Paul nor his readers had any doubt. Walk: same word in Romans 4:12; Galatians 5:25; Galatians 6:16; Acts 21:24; describing, as here, a spiritual path.Such are Paul’s safe words to his readers. Around them are enemies, unworthy of the name of men, yet busy, and boasting in the Covenant of God. Their professed loyalty to that Covenant is unreal. Its true sons are Paul and his readers, Jews and Gentiles. For the worship of the true Israelites is prompted by the Spirit of God: and their boast is in Christ and not in anything pertaining to mere bodily life. Yet in whatever the Jews boast, Paul might boast still more. For, whatever they claim, he has. But to him all such trust, and indeed all reliance upon earthly good, have vanished at the magic name of Christ. Paul’s one aim now is to win Christ as his spiritual home and refuge, that thus he may know Him; and by knowing Him obtain a place in the resurrection of the just. Yet this lofty aim does not imply attainment. Paul has not reached the goal on which his eye is fixed. But day by day he is pressing forward. And his strenuous effort after spiritual progress he holds before his readers as a pattern for all who claim to be men in Christ. If in any detail, of thought or action, they cannot as yet embrace this all-controlling purpose, Paul confidently hopes that new light from heaven will enable them to do so. But whatever else they do, their effort and progress must be along the path which already has led them from sin to God. SECTION 9. — WORLDLY-MINDED CHURCH- MEMBERS, WITH WHOM IS THE ’S HOPE. CH. 3:17-4:1. Be joint-imitators of me, brethren, and mark those who thus walk, according as ye have us for an example. For many walk of whom I often said to you, and now say even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory is in their shame, who mind the earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of His glare, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject to Himself all things. So then, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, in this way stand in the Lord, beloved ones. Exhortation to imitate Paul, Philippians 3:17 : opposite conduct of some church-members, Philippians 3:18-19 : with which is contrasted the Christian’s hope, Philippians 3:20-21 : concluding exhortation to steadfastness, Philippians 3:1.Philippians 3:17. Joint-imitators of me, become ye: join with others in imitating Paul. The chief word here differs only one syllable from that in 1 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 11:1, where Paul speaks of himself as an example. [So always when a genitive follows the word imitators: cp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14. This is simpler than the exposition join with me in imitating Christ: for there is no reference in the context to the example of Christ; whereas in Philippians 3:17 b Paul speaks expressly of himself and others as patterns to the Philippians.Mark: to look with a purpose, especially with a view to avoid, imitate, or obtain. Compare and contrast the same word in Romans 16:17. Same word as look-at in Philippians 2:4, and 2 Corinthians 4:18. The word walk takes up the similar, though not the same word in Philippians 3:16.Who walk thus: viz. imitating Paul. According as ye have etc.: a fact with which the above exhortations are in agreement. [This exposition gives to καθως its full force as introducing a harmony. Had it introduced merely an exposition of ουτως, ως would probably have been used, as in Ephesians 5:28; Ephesians 5:33.Us: in contrast to me, including Paul and those who walk as he does. Such persons are an enrichment to the Philippian Christians: ye have a pattern. Same word and sense in 1 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:9, where as here many men are one pattern; and in 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:7 : same word in slightly different sense in Romans 5:14; Romans 6:17; 1 Corinthians 10:6.While exhorting his readers in Philippians 3:15-16 Paul placed himself among their number: let us be of this mind… we have attained. Conscious that he is himself doing what he exhorts, he now bids them to imitate him; and in so saying remembers that others are setting the same example. Upon these disciples who follow the steps of their teacher, Paul advises his readers to fix their attention, making use of the pattern they possess. He thus teaches the value of study of Christian character. Notice that the example of Paul did not supersede the need and value of the example of others who imitate him. For a less example under our immediate observation is sometimes more effective than a greater one at a distance. And various good men present varieties of excellence suitable for imitation in various positions of life. Philippians 3:18. Reason for the foregoing exhortation; viz. that many pursue an opposite path. These were apparently church-members. For the hostility and sensuality and worldliness of pagans was so familiar to Paul that it would hardly move him to tears. The neutral word walk (see under 1 Corinthians 3:3) simply places beside the walk of those who imitate Paul the outward life of these unworthy men. The path in which they walk is left to be inferred from what follows. Many and often: notes of importance. I have often said: probably when present at Philippi, where Paul must have been twice and possibly oftener, during his third missionary journey. It may also have included written warnings. The singular number, I said, suggests special warnings from Paul himself. Even weeping; reveals the terrible position of the men referred to and the damage they were doing. The enemies of the cross; implies that the death of Christ holds a unique place as a chief means of the advancement of His Kingdom. And this can be explained only by Paul’s teaching in Romans 3:24-26 that our salvation comes, by the grace of God, through the death of Christ making the justification of believers consistent with the justice of God. To resist the cross of Christ, is to resist the tremendous earnestness of God meeting a tremendous need of man, and the infinite love, there manifested. We wait to know more about the men guilty of sin so great. Philippians 3:19. Further description of the enemies of the cross. Whose end: as in 2 Corinthians 11:15, where see note. Destruction: utter ruin: see note under Romans 2:24, and especially The Expositor, 4th series, vol. i. p. 24. That ruin is here said to be the end of these men, implies clearly that Paul believed in the possibility of final ruin. For if all men will at last be saved, destruction cannot be their end. In that case the end of all men would be eternal life. The plain words before us prove that such universal salvation was altogether alien to the thought of Paul. For the universal purpose of salvation, see under Philippians 2:11. Whose… whose: stately repetition. The belly: not their belly. The seat of appetite for food is looked upon in the abstract as one definite idea; and is thus in some sense personified; so 1 Corinthians 6:13. This gives great force to the terrible charge whose God is the belly. A similar, though slightly different thought in Romans 16:18. The appetite for food and the desire for pleasant food, with all the self-indulgence of which this appetite is a representative, are the supreme power which these men obey. The lower element of their nature controls the whole of it. The absence of the word whose before glory in their shame joins these words to the foregoing as together forming a second item in the description. Glory: that which evokes admiration: see under Romans 1:21. That which evokes from their fellows admiration of them, and to which they look for admiration, is found in that which is their disgrace and ought to cover them with shame. To them, their degradation is their ornament.The earthly things: good or ill, these looked upon as a complex yet definite idea: hence the plural, and the definite article. Who mind: as in Philippians 3:15; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:5; Romans 8:5, etc.: a word frequent in this Epistle. The things of earth, i.e. material good and ill, are the objects of their mental activity. Exact contrast in Colossians 3:1; mind the things above.About these enemies of the cross, Paul’s first thought is the ruin which awaits them. He then mentions the most conspicuous feature of their character, viz. that desires common to animals are the supreme object of their worship, the lower thus ruling the higher. Closely connected with this terrible inversion, we find that that which gains for them admiration with their fellows is really their disgrace. All this Paul traces to its ultimate source, viz. concentration of their thought on things pertaining to the material world. This preference of the lower for the higher is inevitably degrading. Hence comes the supremacy of bodily appetites, and the distorted vision which mistakes a disgrace for an ornament. The result is ruin. Since Christ died in order to raise us above the dominion of the perishing world in which our bodies live, they who surrender their mental powers to contemplation of earthly things and their nature to the control of its lowest elements, by so doing declare war against the cross of Christ.This fearful description of men who must have been church-members is in sad agreement with 2 Corinthians 12:21. It is thus a note of genuineness. But we have no hint that these were members of the Church at Philippi. And this is contradicted by Philippians 1:4 and the general tone of the Epistle. Nor do we know whether or not they were at Rome, where Paul was writing.Philippians 3:20. This verse supports the condemnation implied in the last words of Php 3:19 by pointing to the city in heaven whose rights of citizenship are despised by those who fix their thoughts on earthly things.City or commonwealth: the city looked upon as the home of municipal life and rights. Same word in 2 Macc. xii. 7: ‘root up the whole city of the men of Joppa, so that the municipality of Joppa shall cease to be.’ Practically the sense would be the same if we gave to the word the meaning citizenship or rights-of-citizens, which it sometimes has. For where the city is there are the citizen rights. Our city: viz. of Paul and those who imitate him; as in Philippians 3:17, us a pattern. Cp. Clement of Alex. Miscellanies bk. iv. 26: “For the Stoics say that heaven is properly a city, but the things on earth no longer cities; said to be such, but not so actually… the Elysian plains are the municipalities of just men.” Is, or better exists, in heaven, in complete contrast to the earthly things of Php 3:19. Our commonwealth is in heaven: same thought in 2 Corinthians 5:1; Galatians 4:26, where see notes. It is in heaven because there Christ is, in whom dwells the power which in the new earth and heaven will create the glorified home of His servants now on earth.Whence: out of heaven, from within the veil which now hides from our view the unseen world. We wait for: a strong word used in the same connection in Romans 8:19; Romans 8:23; Romans 8:25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; Hebrews 9:28 : cp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10.Also we wait etc.: in addition to already having a city in heaven. Saviour: Ephesians 5:23. Also 2 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:4; Titus 2:13; Titus 3:6; Acts 13:23 in a sermon by Paul, referring to Christ; 1 Timothy 1:1; 1 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:10; Titus 1:3; Titus 2:10; Titus 3:4, referring to God. Our home in which we have municipal rights exists in heaven: and we are eagerly waiting for One from heaven who will rescue us from the perils and hardships around.Philippians 3:21. The deliverance which the expected Saviour will work, and the standard with which it will correspond.Fashion-anew: give to it an altered shape and guise. Same word in 1 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. This use of a word denoting only a change of shape suggests the continuity of the present and future bodies. Cp. Romans 8:12, raise your mortal bodies. And this continuity must be, in a way inconceivable to us, real. But it does not imply, any more than does the continuity of our bodies on earth, identity of material atoms. Niagara remains the same while every drop of water is ever changing. It is rather a continued relation to the human spirit of its material clothing. A description of the change is given in 1 Corinthians 15:35-53. Our body, not bodies: as in Romans 6:12; see note under Romans 1:21. The body of, i.e. standing in relation to, our humiliation. On earth the servants of Christ are exposed to weakness, sickness, reproach, hardship, and peril. This their lowly estate, so inconsistent with their real rank, is determined by the constitution of their material clothing, which is therefore the body of their humiliation. But when Christ comes out of the unseen world He will refashion it. The body of Christ is the visible, material, human manifestation of His divine splendour: the body of His glory.Conformed: sharing the form of: akin to the word form in Philippians 2:6. It is stronger than the word rendered fashion-anew, denoting such change of the mode of self-presentation as implies a share of the inward constitution of the body of Christ. When Christ appears, the changed bodies of His servants will become so like His body, which belongs to His essential splendour, as to share its mode of presenting itself to those who beheld it. According to the working etc.: a measure with which will correspond the coming change. This phrase is a marked feature of this group of Epistles: Colossians 1:29; Ephesians 1:19; Ephesians 3:7; Ephesians 4:16; cp. Colossians 2:12; Philippians 2:13.Working: literally inworking or activity, an inward putting forth of power. It is the Greek original of our word energy. Literally rendered, Paul’s words are according to the energy, or the inworking, of His being able, i.e. of His ability, to subject to Himself etc.All things: all the various objects in the universe, persons and things, these looked upon as a definite object of thought. To subject to Himself all things: 1 Corinthians 15:27-28. It suggests that not yet do all things bow to Christ. But Christ has the abiding power to bend to His will all the component parts of the universe. The conformation of our bodies to His body will correspond with the activity of this abiding power. And this power confirms greatly our faith that He will remove from our bodies those mortal elements hostile to us and insubordinate to Him. These words also suggest that the victory to be gained in our bodies is part of a greater victory which will embrace and rescue all things. Thus, as ever, Paul rises from the particular to the general, from the partial to the universal. Christ’s ability to subject all things to Himself does not contradict the sad indication in Philippians 3:19 that some will be finally lost. For the putting forth of His power is determined by His infinite wisdom, which passes our thought.Notice here a clear proof of the divinity of Christ. The resurrection will be His work, a work in harmony with His infinite power. Philippians 4:1. So-then: as in Philippians 2:12. It introduces a desired practical result of § 9, and completes the exhortation begun in Philippians 3:19.My brethren: recalling Philippians 3:17.Longed for: natural result of being loved. Notice the warm affection of this double description, an affection prompted both by the unique excellence of the Philippians and by their love for Paul. My joy: understood only by those who have children in the faith. Paul’s converts at Philippi were its living embodiment. And crown: as in 1 Corinthians 9:25 : the garland given to successful athletes. Close parallel in a letter to another Macedonian Church: 1 Thessalonians 2:19. These converts of Paul were themselves to be his joyous reward. For they were a divinely-given result, and therefore a reward, of his labours. Moreover, since only in the light of the Great Day shall we see the full result of our labours on earth and be able to estimate the worth of a soul saved or lost, Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 of the crown as given at the coming of Christ.In-this-way stand: as do Paul and those whom in Philippians 2:17 he held up as a pattern.Stand: as in Romans 5:2, etc.; maintain your spiritual position in spite of burdens which would press you down and of enemies who would put you to flight.In the Lord: 1 Thessalonians 3:8 : the personality of the Master whom they serve being the only firm standing ground of the Christian life.Beloved: intensifying this loving appeal. In § 8, after a warning against Jewish opponents, Paul pointed to his own religious life, and especially to his eagerness for progress, as a pattern for his readers. In § 9, he bids them observe and follow the men who imitate this pattern. This exhortation he justifies by pointing to sensual men who while bearing the name of Christ yet live for the present world. In contrast to these he describes the hope of a glorious resurrection cherished by himself and others, a hope prompted and measured by the omnipotence of Christ. In this hope and this example Paul bids his much-loved readers stand. This appeal to the expectation of a bodily resurrection, in an exhortation to walk worthy of Christ, reveals the moral and spiritual power of the Christian’s hope of future glory. This hope takes hold of eternity, and thus saves us from drifting with the current around. SECTION 9. — WORLDLY-MINDED CHURCH- MEMBERS, WITH WHOM IS THE ’S HOPE. CH. 3:17-4:1. Be joint-imitators of me, brethren, and mark those who thus walk, according as ye have us for an example. For many walk of whom I often said to you, and now say even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory is in their shame, who mind the earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of His glare, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject to Himself all things. So then, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, in this way stand in the Lord, beloved ones. Exhortation to imitate Paul, Philippians 3:17 : opposite conduct of some church-members, Philippians 3:18-19 : with which is contrasted the Christian’s hope, Philippians 3:20-21 : concluding exhortation to steadfastness, Philippians 3:1.Philippians 3:17. Joint-imitators of me, become ye: join with others in imitating Paul. The chief word here differs only one syllable from that in 1 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 11:1, where Paul speaks of himself as an example. [So always when a genitive follows the word imitators: cp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14. This is simpler than the exposition join with me in imitating Christ: for there is no reference in the context to the example of Christ; whereas in Philippians 3:17 b Paul speaks expressly of himself and others as patterns to the Philippians.Mark: to look with a purpose, especially with a view to avoid, imitate, or obtain. Compare and contrast the same word in Romans 16:17. Same word as look-at in Philippians 2:4, and 2 Corinthians 4:18. The word walk takes up the similar, though not the same word in Philippians 3:16.Who walk thus: viz. imitating Paul. According as ye have etc.: a fact with which the above exhortations are in agreement. [This exposition gives to καθως its full force as introducing a harmony. Had it introduced merely an exposition of ουτως, ως would probably have been used, as in Ephesians 5:28; Ephesians 5:33.Us: in contrast to me, including Paul and those who walk as he does. Such persons are an enrichment to the Philippian Christians: ye have a pattern. Same word and sense in 1 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:9, where as here many men are one pattern; and in 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:7 : same word in slightly different sense in Romans 5:14; Romans 6:17; 1 Corinthians 10:6.While exhorting his readers in Philippians 3:15-16 Paul placed himself among their number: let us be of this mind… we have attained. Conscious that he is himself doing what he exhorts, he now bids them to imitate him; and in so saying remembers that others are setting the same example. Upon these disciples who follow the steps of their teacher, Paul advises his readers to fix their attention, making use of the pattern they possess. He thus teaches the value of study of Christian character. Notice that the example of Paul did not supersede the need and value of the example of others who imitate him. For a less example under our immediate observation is sometimes more effective than a greater one at a distance. And various good men present varieties of excellence suitable for imitation in various positions of life. Philippians 3:18. Reason for the foregoing exhortation; viz. that many pursue an opposite path. These were apparently church-members. For the hostility and sensuality and worldliness of pagans was so familiar to Paul that it would hardly move him to tears. The neutral word walk (see under 1 Corinthians 3:3) simply places beside the walk of those who imitate Paul the outward life of these unworthy men. The path in which they walk is left to be inferred from what follows. Many and often: notes of importance. I have often said: probably when present at Philippi, where Paul must have been twice and possibly oftener, during his third missionary journey. It may also have included written warnings. The singular number, I said, suggests special warnings from Paul himself. Even weeping; reveals the terrible position of the men referred to and the damage they were doing. The enemies of the cross; implies that the death of Christ holds a unique place as a chief means of the advancement of His Kingdom. And this can be explained only by Paul’s teaching in Romans 3:24-26 that our salvation comes, by the grace of God, through the death of Christ making the justification of believers consistent with the justice of God. To resist the cross of Christ, is to resist the tremendous earnestness of God meeting a tremendous need of man, and the infinite love, there manifested. We wait to know more about the men guilty of sin so great. Philippians 3:19. Further description of the enemies of the cross. Whose end: as in 2 Corinthians 11:15, where see note. Destruction: utter ruin: see note under Romans 2:24, and especially The Expositor, 4th series, vol. i. p. 24. That ruin is here said to be the end of these men, implies clearly that Paul believed in the possibility of final ruin. For if all men will at last be saved, destruction cannot be their end. In that case the end of all men would be eternal life. The plain words before us prove that such universal salvation was altogether alien to the thought of Paul. For the universal purpose of salvation, see under Philippians 2:11. Whose… whose: stately repetition. The belly: not their belly. The seat of appetite for food is looked upon in the abstract as one definite idea; and is thus in some sense personified; so 1 Corinthians 6:13. This gives great force to the terrible charge whose God is the belly. A similar, though slightly different thought in Romans 16:18. The appetite for food and the desire for pleasant food, with all the self-indulgence of which this appetite is a representative, are the supreme power which these men obey. The lower element of their nature controls the whole of it. The absence of the word whose before glory in their shame joins these words to the foregoing as together forming a second item in the description. Glory: that which evokes admiration: see under Romans 1:21. That which evokes from their fellows admiration of them, and to which they look for admiration, is found in that which is their disgrace and ought to cover them with shame. To them, their degradation is their ornament.The earthly things: good or ill, these looked upon as a complex yet definite idea: hence the plural, and the definite article. Who mind: as in Philippians 3:15; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:5; Romans 8:5, etc.: a word frequent in this Epistle. The things of earth, i.e. material good and ill, are the objects of their mental activity. Exact contrast in Colossians 3:1; mind the things above.About these enemies of the cross, Paul’s first thought is the ruin which awaits them. He then mentions the most conspicuous feature of their character, viz. that desires common to animals are the supreme object of their worship, the lower thus ruling the higher. Closely connected with this terrible inversion, we find that that which gains for them admiration with their fellows is really their disgrace. All this Paul traces to its ultimate source, viz. concentration of their thought on things pertaining to the material world. This preference of the lower for the higher is inevitably degrading. Hence comes the supremacy of bodily appetites, and the distorted vision which mistakes a disgrace for an ornament. The result is ruin. Since Christ died in order to raise us above the dominion of the perishing world in which our bodies live, they who surrender their mental powers to contemplation of earthly things and their nature to the control of its lowest elements, by so doing declare war against the cross of Christ.This fearful description of men who must have been church-members is in sad agreement with 2 Corinthians 12:21. It is thus a note of genuineness. But we have no hint that these were members of the Church at Philippi. And this is contradicted by Philippians 1:4 and the general tone of the Epistle. Nor do we know whether or not they were at Rome, where Paul was writing.Philippians 3:20. This verse supports the condemnation implied in the last words of Php 3:19 by pointing to the city in heaven whose rights of citizenship are despised by those who fix their thoughts on earthly things.City or commonwealth: the city looked upon as the home of municipal life and rights. Same word in 2 Macc. xii. 7: ‘root up the whole city of the men of Joppa, so that the municipality of Joppa shall cease to be.’ Practically the sense would be the same if we gave to the word the meaning citizenship or rights-of-citizens, which it sometimes has. For where the city is there are the citizen rights. Our city: viz. of Paul and those who imitate him; as in Philippians 3:17, us a pattern. Cp. Clement of Alex. Miscellanies bk. iv. 26: “For the Stoics say that heaven is properly a city, but the things on earth no longer cities; said to be such, but not so actually… the Elysian plains are the municipalities of just men.” Is, or better exists, in heaven, in complete contrast to the earthly things of Php 3:19. Our commonwealth is in heaven: same thought in 2 Corinthians 5:1; Galatians 4:26, where see notes. It is in heaven because there Christ is, in whom dwells the power which in the new earth and heaven will create the glorified home of His servants now on earth.Whence: out of heaven, from within the veil which now hides from our view the unseen world. We wait for: a strong word used in the same connection in Romans 8:19; Romans 8:23; Romans 8:25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; Hebrews 9:28 : cp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10.Also we wait etc.: in addition to already having a city in heaven. Saviour: Ephesians 5:23. Also 2 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:4; Titus 2:13; Titus 3:6; Acts 13:23 in a sermon by Paul, referring to Christ; 1 Timothy 1:1; 1 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:10; Titus 1:3; Titus 2:10; Titus 3:4, referring to God. Our home in which we have municipal rights exists in heaven: and we are eagerly waiting for One from heaven who will rescue us from the perils and hardships around.Philippians 3:21. The deliverance which the expected Saviour will work, and the standard with which it will correspond.Fashion-anew: give to it an altered shape and guise. Same word in 1 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. This use of a word denoting only a change of shape suggests the continuity of the present and future bodies. Cp. Romans 8:12, raise your mortal bodies. And this continuity must be, in a way inconceivable to us, real. But it does not imply, any more than does the continuity of our bodies on earth, identity of material atoms. Niagara remains the same while every drop of water is ever changing. It is rather a continued relation to the human spirit of its material clothing. A description of the change is given in 1 Corinthians 15:35-53. Our body, not bodies: as in Romans 6:12; see note under Romans 1:21. The body of, i.e. standing in relation to, our humiliation. On earth the servants of Christ are exposed to weakness, sickness, reproach, hardship, and peril. This their lowly estate, so inconsistent with their real rank, is determined by the constitution of their material clothing, which is therefore the body of their humiliation. But when Christ comes out of the unseen world He will refashion it. The body of Christ is the visible, material, human manifestation of His divine splendour: the body of His glory.Conformed: sharing the form of: akin to the word form in Philippians 2:6. It is stronger than the word rendered fashion-anew, denoting such change of the mode of self-presentation as implies a share of the inward constitution of the body of Christ. When Christ appears, the changed bodies of His servants will become so like His body, which belongs to His essential splendour, as to share its mode of presenting itself to those who beheld it. According to the working etc.: a measure with which will correspond the coming change. This phrase is a marked feature of this group of Epistles: Colossians 1:29; Ephesians 1:19; Ephesians 3:7; Ephesians 4:16; cp. Colossians 2:12; Philippians 2:13.Working: literally inworking or activity, an inward putting forth of power. It is the Greek original of our word energy. Literally rendered, Paul’s words are according to the energy, or the inworking, of His being able, i.e. of His ability, to subject to Himself etc.All things: all the various objects in the universe, persons and things, these looked upon as a definite object of thought. To subject to Himself all things: 1 Corinthians 15:27-28. It suggests that not yet do all things bow to Christ. But Christ has the abiding power to bend to His will all the component parts of the universe. The conformation of our bodies to His body will correspond with the activity of this abiding power. And this power confirms greatly our faith that He will remove from our bodies those mortal elements hostile to us and insubordinate to Him. These words also suggest that the victory to be gained in our bodies is part of a greater victory which will embrace and rescue all things. Thus, as ever, Paul rises from the particular to the general, from the partial to the universal. Christ’s ability to subject all things to Himself does not contradict the sad indication in Philippians 3:19 that some will be finally lost. For the putting forth of His power is determined by His infinite wisdom, which passes our thought.Notice here a clear proof of the divinity of Christ. The resurrection will be His work, a work in harmony with His infinite power. Philippians 4:1. So-then: as in Philippians 2:12. It introduces a desired practical result of § 9, and completes the exhortation begun in Philippians 3:19.My brethren: recalling Philippians 3:17.Longed for: natural result of being loved. Notice the warm affection of this double description, an affection prompted both by the unique excellence of the Philippians and by their love for Paul. My joy: understood only by those who have children in the faith. Paul’s converts at Philippi were its living embodiment. And crown: as in 1 Corinthians 9:25 : the garland given to successful athletes. Close parallel in a letter to another Macedonian Church: 1 Thessalonians 2:19. These converts of Paul were themselves to be his joyous reward. For they were a divinely-given result, and therefore a reward, of his labours. Moreover, since only in the light of the Great Day shall we see the full result of our labours on earth and be able to estimate the worth of a soul saved or lost, Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 of the crown as given at the coming of Christ.In-this-way stand: as do Paul and those whom in Philippians 2:17 he held up as a pattern.Stand: as in Romans 5:2, etc.; maintain your spiritual position in spite of burdens which would press you down and of enemies who would put you to flight.In the Lord: 1 Thessalonians 3:8 : the personality of the Master whom they serve being the only firm standing ground of the Christian life.Beloved: intensifying this loving appeal. In § 8, after a warning against Jewish opponents, Paul pointed to his own religious life, and especially to his eagerness for progress, as a pattern for his readers. In § 9, he bids them observe and follow the men who imitate this pattern. This exhortation he justifies by pointing to sensual men who while bearing the name of Christ yet live for the present world. In contrast to these he describes the hope of a glorious resurrection cherished by himself and others, a hope prompted and measured by the omnipotence of Christ. In this hope and this example Paul bids his much-loved readers stand. This appeal to the expectation of a bodily resurrection, in an exhortation to walk worthy of Christ, reveals the moral and spiritual power of the Christian’s hope of future glory. This hope takes hold of eternity, and thus saves us from drifting with the current around. SECTION 10. — ABOUT EUODIA AND . CH. 4:2, 3. Euodia I exhort, and Syntyche l exhort, to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, I request thee also, true yoke fellow, assist them; women who in the Gospel joined with me in my struggle, with Clement also and the rest of my fellow-workers whose names are in the Book of Life. A new matter abruptly introduced. Enodia, Syntyche: names of women, both found on inscriptions. Grammatically they might also perhaps be names of men. But no such men’s names are found elsewhere: and women are expressly referred to in Philippians 4:3, where the reference must be to these two persons. This mention by name suggests that they held a prominent place in the Church, and that the conduct which evoked this appeal was serious and notorious. Whether, like Phœbe (Romans 16:1) they were deaconesses, we do not know. They recall to us Lydia and the women who used to meet for prayer at Philippi when Paul first went there: Acts 16:13-14. The exact repetition of the appeal suggests that it was needed by both women, and equally. The same mind: as in Philippians 2:2. It implies that they were conspicuously of different mind, i.e. that they had openly quarrelled.In the Lord: the encompassing element of the hoped-for reconciliation. It is to be no mere human agreement, but a concord flowing from contact with the one Master. Philippians 4:3. Yoke-fellow: e.g. oxen under one yoke; often used in Greek for a wife and for persons in any way joined together.True, or genuine: as in 1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; cognate word in Philippians 2:20 : one who is actually what his name describes. Either the man referred to here was indicated orally by Paul to Epaphroditus, or there was some one at Philippi who would be at once recognised as intended by this term. In other words, this phrase needs a key which has not come down to us. The yoke-fellow may be Epaphroditus himself whom in Philippians 2:25 Paul calls his fellow-worker and fellow-soldier and who occupied a unique position as messenger from Philippi and bearer of this letter. If so, these words pay honour to him as one worthy to be called a sharer of the Apostle’s toil. But this reference, not being itself evident, would need to be explained to Epaphroditus. It has also been suggested as early as the time of Chrysostom that yoke-fellow is a proper name, and that Paul added the word true to assert that the man was worthy of his name. [Notice its emphatic position before the substantive qualified.] This suggestion is supported by the proper names around, Euodia, Syntyche, Clement. If such a name existed in the Philippian Church, the reference would be caught at once: and the epithet true would be understood. The name, which we may write Synzygus, is not found elsewhere. But many Greek proper names occur only once: and we cannot suppose that all are preserved. A suggestion of Ellicott, that Paul refers to the chief of the bishops at Philippi, is most unlikely. For we have no hint, except possibly at Jerusalem, of any one raised so completely above his fellow-presbyters as to be accosted by Paul with this title. The only explanations, therefore, are the two noted above, the one implying a private indication of Paul’s meaning, the other implying the existence at Philippi of a man bearing a name not found elsewhere. Neither of these explanations is unlikely. But, between them, our data do not enable us to decide. Assist them: join with them in grappling with the difficulty caused by their quarrel: same word in Luke 5:7. The pronoun them is feminine, referring evidently to the two ladies mentioned above. Paul wishes this true partner in his own toil to render help towards their reconciliation.Women who etc.: a description of the past services of these ladies, in support of this request for help. [αιτινες introduces a class of persons to which these women belong, this involving a reason for helping them.]Joined-with me in my struggle: literally, joined with me in an athletic contest: same word in Philippians 1:27. Paul’s gratitude remembers the severity of the struggle in which they came to his aid. This gave them a claim to help from his friends.In the Gospel: 1 Thessalonians 3:2; Romans 1:9 : cp. fellowship for the Gospel in Philippians 1:5. They joined with Paul in his efforts to spread the Gospel, efforts severe like those of athletes. The hardship involved in evangelical effort at Philippi, we learn from 1 Thessalonians 2:2. And not only with Paul but also with another whom he mentions by name, Clement, did these ladies co-operate. Nay more. So eagerly did they join in every good work that they associated themselves with Paul’s other fellow-workers: cp. Philippians 2:25. This proves that their co-operation was not, as is often the case, prompted by personal friendship. They were ready to assist all sorts of Christian workers. Yet these excellent ladies had quarrelled. Possibly, as so often in all ages, their eagerness in Christian work led them in different and opposite directions, and thus caused collision. And now, along with the record of their excellence, this blemish stands against them on the imperishable page of Holy Scripture.That Clement is mentioned by name, implies that in some special way these ladies were associated with him. Probably his name recalled some incident giving them a further claim to help. That Paul speaks here of help in the Gospel, suggests that Clement was a preacher of the Gospel. All else is unknown. Origen in his Comm. on John vol. vi. 36 identifies this Clement with the author of the extant Epistle of Clement: see my Corinthians App. i. But the commonness of the name and the total absence of connecting links forbids the inference. The Book of Life: as in Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:27; cp. Luke 10:20. In Exodus 32:32-33 we have a book of God, a register of His servants: similarly Psalms 69:28 Book of Life or living ones… written with the righteous. Possibly the N.T. use of the word may have been immediately derived from Daniel 12:1, where we have a register of those who will rise to eternal life. While mentioning only one of his fellow-workers, Paul remembers that other names unmentioned by him are securely recorded among the heirs of salvation.These verses give an interesting glimpse into early church life. We have the struggle involved in preaching the Gospel, Paul’s various helpers in this work, and the two ladies who rendered assistance to him and to his brave comrades. Then steps in human imperfection. The ladies quarrel: and their quarrel comes to the ears of the prisoner at Rome. It is so serious as to demand mention in his letter to the Church. But the mention is only a recognition of their excellence, an exhortation to unity, and a request for help in the work of reconciliation. SECTION 11. — SUNDRY . CH. 4:4-9. Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I will say, rejoice. Let your equity be known to all men. The Lord is near. In nothing be anxious; but in everything, by prayer and by supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all thought, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus. As to the rest, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things honourable, whatever things righteous, whatever things pure, whatever things lovely, whatever things of good report, if there be any excellence and if any praise, take account of these things; what things also ye have learnt and accepted, and heard and seen in me, these things do. And the God of peace will be with you. A series of exhortations, without grammatical links: cp. Romans 12:9-18. Philippians 4:4. Rejoice in the Lord: as in Philippians 3:1. It takes up, after the interposed matters of §§ 8-10, the thread then suddenly dropped.Always: the new feature in this verse. Constancy is a distinguishing mark, and a measure, of Christian joy. To rejoice in the Lord always, is to rejoice when all earthly joy is withdrawn; and when the light of earth shines most brightly, even then to find our highest joy in the Master’s smile. A noble example in Habakkuk 3:17-18. All other joy is subject to change. But they whose joy is an outflow of union with a Master in heaven walk in the light of a sun which never sets. And their joy is a safeguard against the perils both of earthly joy and earthly sorrow.Again I will say: emphatic repetition, revealing the importance, in Paul’s view, of Christian joy. Of such joy, he is himself, as every page of this Epistle testifies, an illustrious example. Philippians 4:5. Equity: a disposition which does not press to the full the claims of absolute justice; but, tempering these claims by a generous reasonableness, is satisfied sometimes with less than is due. It is discussed at length in bk. v. 10 of the Nic. Ethics of Aristotle, who explains it as being akin to justice but better than justice. It is eminently a Christian virtue: and the disposition which presses our claims to the full extent allowed by justice is eminently non-Christian. Paul bids us so to act that all men may see and know our generous reasonableness. Therefore we must treat all men with equity. The lord is near: at His second coming. For the Day of Christ was ever in Paul’s thought: Philippians 1:6; Philippians 1:10; Philippians 2:16. And he has just referred to His expected return. Probably had Paul known that long ages would elapse before the return of Christ, he would not have used these words. But it is unsafe to infer from them that he confidently expected to survive His coming. The greatness and the certainty of that event, for which we to-day like Paul centuries ago wait eagerly as the consummation of all our hopes, occupied his entire field of view; and obscured completely the secondary question of time. If Christ be coming, to bring in by His presence the eternal day, then to our thought in all ages the Lord is near.The nearness of the coming of Christ is a strong dissuasive from the grasping spirit which made needful the foregoing exhortation. They who look for His appearing will not demand, from dying men around them, the last farthing they owe. Cp. 1 Corinthians 7:29; James 5:7.Philippians 4:6. Anxious: not the forethought which enables us to guard against coming troubles, but the useless and painful care which merely brings the sorrows of to-morrow to spoil the pleasures of to-day. See under Philippians 2:20.In nothing: absolute prohibition of all anxiety of every kind. Same prohibition from the lips of Christ in Matthew 6:25-34. See under 1 Corinthians 7:32. This anxiety arises from the common delusion that our happiness and well-being depend upon the possession of material good. It injures our body; and, by filling the mind with earthly care, blocks out the elevating influence of heavenly things; and exposes us to the terrible temptation of seeking in forbidden paths relief from present distress. This peremptory command, so difficult to obey, assures us that all anxiety is needless. But in everything: exact positive counterpart of the foregoing negative exhortation. It is virtually Paul’s remedy for anxiety. Prayer and supplication: same words together in Ephesians 6:18; 1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Timothy 5:5; Psalms 6:10; Daniel 9:21; Daniel 9:23. The word prayer is used only in reference to God, and denotes every kind of verbal approach to God.Supplication, or petition: earnest request for some special good, whether from God or from man. See Philippians 1:4 Paul bids us go in every difficulty to God in prayer and beg from Him the help we need.With thanksgiving: same connection in Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 1 Timothy 2:1. Thanks should be an element in our every approach to God, and be associated with every petition. Thus will memory of benefits and answers to prayer already received aid our prayers by stimulating a confident hope of good things to come.Requests: things asked for. Same word, and the cognate verb twice, in 1 John 5:15.Made-known to God: i.e. we must put our wants into words, as though He needed to have them made known to Him. Thus God puts Himself by our side as our friend that we may have the relief of pouring into His ears our tale of sorrow. By so doing, we grasp the consolatory truth that God knows our need. Notice Paul’s remedy for anxiety. In every difficulty we must tell our case to God. We must put it in the form of request for help. This request must be mingled with thanks for the innumerable mercies already received. In the light of these mercies, of God’s promise to answer prayer, and of His loving sympathy, anxiety cannot live. Philippians 4:7. And the peace of God will guard etc.: blessed result which will follow the use of this remedy. It is not a prayer but a prophecy.Peace: inward rest arising from absence of disturbing causes within or around us, a happy consciousness of absolute safety. So Romans 1:7; where see note.Peace of God: not with God as in Romans 5:1. Rather compare John 14:27, My peace I give to you. The words of God distinguish this peace from all other by pointing to its divine source and nature. Cp. righteousness of God in contrast to their own righteousness in Romans 10:3. It is the profound calm of omnipotence which fills the breast of God and which nothing can disturb, which He gives to, and by His presence and power works in, His servants. It shuts out all anxiety, which is always a result of felt helplessness. As the Giver of this peace, He is called in Philippians 4:9 the God of peace.All thought: literally all mind: same word in Romans 1:28; Romans 7:23; Romans 7:25. It is the mental faculty which looks through outward appearances to the underlying realities. This peace, because divine, goes further than man’s mind can follow or comprehend. It passes the thought not only of those around but of those to whom it is given, who wonder at their own peace in the midst of sorrow or peril and acknowledge it to be a gift and work of God. Same thought and a cognate word in Ephesians 3:20, beyond all things which we ask or think. It is true that whatever comes from God surpasses human thought. But the peace of God is here expressly said to do so because it is found, not only in heaven where we expect it, but amid the anxieties and unrest of earth. And the unexpected contrast between storms around and peace within evokes surprise. Shall guard: shall keep with military power; either from injury, as here and 1 Peter 1:5, or from escape as in Galatians 3:23; 2 Corinthians 11:32. Since anxiety exposes us to spiritual peril, the peace of God, by excluding anxiety, guards from peril. Breathed into us by infinite power, it is itself almighty: and, filling our hearts, it will guard us on every side from all evil. Just so the Roman garrisons in frontier towns guarded them from attacks of enemies, and enabled the inhabitants to carry on in peace their daily work. Our hearts: those inmost chambers whence come thoughts and actions. See under Romans 1:21.Thoughts: the products of mental activity. Same word in 2 Corinthians 11:3, The peace of God will guard the hearts of His people so that sin shall not invade them, and their thoughts so that doubt and fear shall not trouble them. In Christ Jesus: His divine personality being a bulwark sheltering them from evil. This implies that the peace of God is definitely a Christian grace. Thus Paul guarantees the effect of the remedy he proposes. He bids us take to God in prayer, with gratitude for past mercies whatever now causes anxiety. And he assures us that if we do so we shall have, instead of anxiety, a peace which is God’s work and gift; and that this peace will be itself a protection guarding our hearts from the entrance of evil and guarding our thoughts from taking a wrong direction. This divine safety is ours in Christ Himself the home and refuge and bulwark of our spiritual life. Philippians 4:8-9. Concluding exhortations to meditation in Philippians 4:8, to action in Philippians 4:9 a: followed in Philippians 4:9 b by a promise.As to the rest: same words and sense in Philippians 3:1, introducing words which cover all that Paul has left unsaid.So many things as; suggests number and variety in each of the following classes. Notice the stately six-fold repetition. True: words, acts, and disposition corresponding with reality, especially with the eternal realities, with which our thought and conduct must ever be in harmony, as opposed both to falsehood and to error. It includes, but is much wider than, truthfulness. Cp. Ephesians 4:21; Ephesians 5:9; 1 John 1:6. Honourable: deserving and gaining respect. It suggests the dignity which pertains to conduct worthy of Christ. Only, in N.T., here and 1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:4; 1 Timothy 3:8; 1 Timothy 3:11; Titus 2:2; Titus 2:7.Righteous: agreeing with the authoritative standard of human conduct; as in Philippians 1:7; Ephesians 6:1.Pure: unstained by evil of any kind, as in 2 Corinthians 6:6; 2 Corinthians 7:11; 1 Peter 3:2; 1 John 3:3.Lovely: only here in N.T. Sirach iv. 7; xx. 13. It denotes the attractive sweetness of Christian excellence. Of-good-report: cognate word in 2 Corinthians 6:8 : whatever sounds well when spoken of.If any etc.: an hypothesis which every one admits to be true, and which if true supports this exhortation. If there be such qualities, as undoubtedly there are, their existence makes them worthy of attention. Excellence, or virtue: common in classic Greek for excellence of any kind, moral, mental, bodily, or merely material; this looked upon as giving worth to its subject. In N.T., only 1 Peter 2:7; 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Peter 1:5. Possibly the reason of its rarity is that the N.T. writers look upon human excellence, not as inhering in man and giving him worth, but as wrought in him by the indwelling Spirit of God.Praise: outward verbal recognition of excellence, which is inward and essential. It corresponds with of-good-report. Excellence covers the five preceding details. If there be any intrinsic human excellence, and if it have among men any recognition of its worth.Take-account-of: reckon them up, so as to estimate and appreciate their worth: same favourite word in Philippians 3:13. Paul bids his readers calculate the worth of various kinds of moral excellence. And, feeling how many and various are its elements, he goes into detail and bids them contemplate actions, words, and dispositions which correspond with reality; and which therefore claim and gain respect; those which agree with the eternal standard of right; and are unstained by pollution; those which possess the charm of moral beauty; and which when mentioned secure for themselves name and fame among men.Philippians 4:8 is Paul’s commendation of the science of Ethics. Only by careful meditation can we distinguish and appreciate moral worth. This is the real value of Christian biography. It sets before us in a variety of forms the various elements of Christian excellence. And this value is not destroyed, although the worth of a particular memoir is lessened, by occasional overstatement. Even if the portrait be overdrawn, it sets before us a model worthy of imitation.Philippians 4:9. To the exhortation to ponder the foregoing virtues, Paul now adds an exhortation to practise them; and supports this last by his readers’ previous acceptance of his moral teaching and by his own example. Not only are these virtues worthy of being taken account of but the Philippian Christians have also already learnt them and have accepted them as good.Learnt: intellectual apprehension. Accepted: moral approval, as in 1 Corinthians 15:1, etc. Probably these virtues were learnt from the lips of Paul. But it was not needful to say this. From whomsoever learnt, they had been understood and approved.Heard: not to be joined to the foregoing, to which it would add nothing, but to the words following. ‘Not only have ye learnt and accepted these virtues but ye have also heard and seen them exemplified in me,’ viz. in Paul’s verbal intercourse with them and in the life he had lived before their eyes. Happy they who can speak thus to their pupils. Such can with authority say do these things. Thus by the lessons already learnt and approved, Paul urges his readers to practise the virtues he has just bidden them to ponder. To the above exhortation, as in Philippians 4:7, Paul adds a promise: and God shall etc. Where God is, there is peace, viz. the peace of God. He is therefore the God of peace. So Romans 15:33; 1 Corinthians 14:33. With you: as in Romans 15:33. The Giver of peace will ever be with those who keep His commands. Paul cannot conclude his letter without again and more emphatically bidding his readers to rejoice. And in their joy he bids them, in view of the near approach of the Great Judge, to treat all men not merely with strict justice but with reasonable fairness, He bids them dismiss all anxiety; and, in order so to do, to take to God all causes of anxiety, mingling their prayers with thanks for past mercies, All that now remains is covered by two exhortations and a promise. Paul bids his readers ponder the various forms of moral excellence, But in so saying he remembers that they have already learnt and approved the virtues he bids them ponder. And he reminds them that they have seen these excellences exemplified in himself. He exhorts them to practise what they have learnt and seen; and assures them that in so doing the Author of peace will Himself be their companion. SECTION 12. — . CH. 4:10-23. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length ye have revived your thought on my behalf; for which also ye were taking thought, but ye were without opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want. For I leave learnt in whatever circumstances I am to be content. I both know how to be abased and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I have been initiated into the mystery both to be filled with food and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want. For all things I have strength in Him who gives me power. Nevertheless ye did well that ye had fellowship with me in my affliction. Moreover, yourselves also know, Philippians, that in the beginning of the Gospel when I went out from Macedonia no church had fellowship with me for the matter of giving and receiving except ye only. Because even in Thessalonica both once and twice ye sent for my need. Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit which is increasing for your account. But I have got all things, and I abound; I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you, an odour of a sweet perfume, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours, according to His wealth, in glory, in Christ Jesus. To God, our Father, be the glory for the ages of the ages. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. There greet you the brethren with me. There greet you all the saints, especially they of Cæsar’s household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. This section contains the specific occasion of the Epistle, viz. the gift brought to Paul at Rome from Philippi by Epaphroditus, added almost as a postscript to the far more important matters mentioned above. Philippians 4:10. I rejoice, literally rejoiced: when the gift arrived from Philippi. Paul himself does what in Philippians 4:4 he bid his readers do, This keeps up the tone of joy which runs through the Epistle: so Philippians 1:4; Philippians 1:18; Philippians 1:25; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:17-18; Philippians 2:28-29; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:1; Philippians 4:4; Philippians 4:10.In the Lord: as in Philippians 3:1. The joy occasioned by the gift from Philippi was no mere human emotion, but was distinctly Christian, i.e. prompted by union with the Master. Greatly: calling marked attention to a cause of special joy; cp. Matthew 2:10.Now at length; suggests delay. But not reproach: for the delay is at once and satisfactorily explained. Revived, or burst forth-again: as a branch puts forth new shoots. So did the Philippians produce, by this gift to Paul, a new development of spiritual life. Thought or thinking: same word as in Philippians 1:7; Philippians 2:2 : mental activity for the good of Paul. This was the specific matter of the new development: touching your thought on my behalf.For which: viz. the well-being of Paul, represented as the mental basis or aim of their thought. Not only had their Christian life burst forth now into a new practical development of care for Paul, but even before this their minds were at work in the same direction: ye were also taking thought.Ye-were-without-opportunity: apparently, without means to send a contribution. The opportunity was afterwards found in the journey of Epaphroditus, whether it was undertaken expressly to carry the gift or for some other purpose. In the former case, the circumstances which made the journey possible were the opportunity; in the latter, the journey itself. Possibly poverty may have been the hindrance; and better circumstances the subsequent opportunity. But an approaching journey of Epaphroditus to Rome for other reasons is the easiest explanation. Thus Paul mentions the delay, and apologises for it. The new shoot reveals continuous life, latent before, but now assuming visible form. The gift was somewhat late. But its lateness was caused not by want of loving care but by lack of means to carry thought into action. At last the means had been found: and the consequent outburst of pent-up love had filled Paul with joy. This delay implies that, when the relief from Philippi arrived, Paul had been a long time in want, For the news had reached Philippi, and after some delay a gift had been sent to Rome. It is difficult to suppose that this time of want includes the two years (Acts 24:27) at Cæsarea. And, if not, Paul must have been many months at Rome when he wrote this Epistle. This is therefore an indication of its date. See Introd. v.Philippians 4:11. Not that: introducing, as in Philippians 3:12, a safeguard against misinterpretation.By way of want: as though his words were prompted by deep need. The expression of joy in Philippians 4:10 might seem to be the voice of a starving man whose distress had been unexpectedly relieved. That this is the explanation of his glowing words, Paul denies.For I have etc.: proof of this denial. Content: or literally self-sufficient. The cognate substantive occurs in 2 Corinthians 9:8; 1 Timothy 6:6 : a simpler word, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, where we have the same thought in another form. The syllable self- states not the source, but the inwardness, of this sufficiency, in contrast to external possessions. Its divine source is stated in Philippians 4:13. Aristotle, Nicom. Ethics bk. i. 7, defines the self-sufficient to be that which even by itself alone makes life worthy of choice and needing nothing. This definition we may accept. That is self-sufficient which has in itself whatever is needful for its highest well-being, and is therefore independent of everything external to itself. Christian contentment is not a narrowing down of our desires to our poor possessions, but a consciousness of infinite wealth in Christ, in whose hands are all things already working for His servants moment by moment their highest good. He who has this consciousness is independent of his environment. His sufficiency is in himself. In whatever circumstances I am: including the dungeon in which Paul wrote these words, and in which before the arrival of Epaphroditus he had been in actual want. Paul’s contentment was not natural but acquired. I-have-learnt; suggests gradual acquirement by the toilsome effort of the learner. But the task has been accomplished. I: very emphatic. In this school each must learn personally and for himself. Philippians 4:12-13. Exposition in detail of Paul’s self-sufficiency. Having learnt, he says I know. The lesson learnt, he then unfolds. To-be-abased: same word in 2 Corinthians 11:7, where it is the exact opposite of being exalted; so Luke 14:11. It includes every kind of going down, whether into poverty, or dishonour, or prison, or sickness, or the grave. This downward path Paul knows how to tread so as not to slip, so to descend that every step down be spiritual elevation. This knowledge many have not. Consequently adversity produces in them gloom and repining and fear and resentment and rebellion, thus doing them serious spiritual harm. E.g. many have lost their confidence in God and their spiritual life through commercial disaster. But the real cause of this ruin is not adversity which is powerless to injure those who understand its source and purpose, but want of knowledge. He who has found in Christ the full supply of all his need can take these perilous steps with safety.I-know-also; adds to the foregoing, with stately repetition, its necessary complement. To-abound: to have more than we need. It is a counterpart, not to abase, which would require as counterpart exalted, but to the special kind of abasement which Paul had been enduring, viz. poverty. Many who passed unscathed through adversity are ruined by prosperity. For they are satisfied with material good. This ruin is caused by their not knowing how to rise in wealth, fame, power, and yet remain lowly in heart. But Paul had learnt even this difficult lesson. Consequently, he was beyond reach of injury from either the ups or downs of life. He was independent of the uncertainties of the world around; and therefore self-sufficient.Philippians 4:12 b is a fuller exposition of Php 4:12 a; as is Philippians 4:12 a of Php 4:11 b.In everything and in all things: things around looked at individually and collectively. In whatever position I am, and in whatever combination of circumstances.Initiated-into-the-mystery: cognate to the Greek original of our word mystery. See note under 1 Corinthians 3:4. The use of this word here sheds light upon the cognate word already found in 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 4:1; Romans 16:25, by suggesting that Paul refers, not to a mere secret, but definitely to teaching known only, like the Eleusinian mysteries, to the initiated. It thus embodies a development of Paul’s earlier teaching. Paul is telling us how he came to know how to be abased etc. He had been led into the secret chamber of God and had there learnt that which is known only by those whose eyes and ears God opens. Notice the gradation: I have learnt, I know, I have been initiated into the mystery.Both… and, both… and; suggests the completeness and the unity of the secret Paul has learnt. To-be filled-with-food: i.e. satisfied. Same word in Matthew 15:33; Matthew 15:37 etc. It suggests that in prison Paul had been in want of food. Hungry: exact opposite of the foregoing. This contrast is a specific case under the more general contrast in Philippians 4:12 a. It is followed by a restatement of the more general contrast.To-abound: to have more than we need. To fall-short or to-be-in-want: to have less than we need. Same word in same sense in 2 Corinthians 11:9 etc, Philippians 4:13. Triumphant summing up of the practical result of what Paul has learnt. He knows: therefore he is strong.All-things: very emphatic: it includes abasement, hunger, abundance. Strength: spiritual muscle and force, In the Christian struggle Paul was like a man in robust bodily health and strength. For all things within the horizon of duty and desire, he has unlimited strength. In Him who gives me power: Christ, in whom Paul lives and acts, and whose power (2 Corinthians 12:9) rests upon him, He is to Paul not merely the bulwark protecting him on every side by its own strength, but an all-pervading and life-giving personal element breathing into him His own omnipotence. From this inward union with Christ is derived the strength which fits Paul for all things he has to do. The strong man helps the weak by bearing his burden for him. Christ helps us by breathing into us a strength which makes our burdens light. The word Christ, (A.V.) appears in the margin of the Sinai and Clermont MSS. and in nearly all the later Greek copies. This suggests the origin of a large class of various readings, viz, that they were explanatory glosses, afterwards incorporated into the text. This great assertion must not be diluted. Whatever lies within the horizon of duty and necessity and desire, Paul can do. To him as to God there is no question of can or cannot. In Christ Paul is morally omnipotent, But, just as God’s inability to lie (Hebrews 6:18) does not in the least degree limit His infinite power, (for lying is contrary to the divine nature and therefore outside the horizon of divine action,) so Paul is strong only for that which Christ would have Him do. All else is outside Christ, the sphere of his strength. But within the limits of the personality of Christ lay Paul’s whole action, thought, and life. Consequently, this limit was no limit to him. And he felt himself endowed with infinite strength. To him therefore the burdens of life were light; and its toil was easy.These words embody an important secret into which Paul had been initiated, and which enabled him to sink or to rise without spiritual injury. He knows how to be abased because he knows that underneath him are the Everlasting Arms: he can therefore go down into the depth without fear and without damage. He can rise without danger: for he knows that God who raises him will guard His servant from the perils of exaltation. He is therefore safe. Neither height nor depth can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Notice the four steps in this great climax. Paul has learnt: therefore he knows: he has learnt the secret: consequently he can do all things. Philippians 4:14. Nevertheless etc.: a corrective on another side to the corrective introduced in Philippians 4:11. Although it would be an error to suppose that Paul’s joy was prompted by his deep need, he by no means valued lightly the gift which supplied that need. He says that his readers did nobly.My affliction: Paul’s hardship at Rome, which was relieved by the contribution from Philippi. This involved monetary loss, and therefore some degree of hardship, to the Christians there. They cheerfully submitted to this hardship, and thus became partners (see under Philippians 1:4; Philippians 3:10) with Paul in his affliction. In so doing they did well.Philippians 4:15-16. Additional facts, known to the readers and casting light upon the fact just mentioned.Also yourselves know: as well as Paul. He thus supports the foregoing statement, not by new information, but by an appeal to knowledge shared by himself and his readers. Philippians; gives definiteness to this appeal by naming the persons appealed to. In the beginning of the Gospel: thrust prominently forward, contrasting conspicuously with the gift just acknowledged the liberality of days long past. These words are explained at once by those following. They take us back to the time when Paul first preached in Europe; and remind the Philippians that their present action was only continuance in a path entered at the beginning of their Christian course. We find the same words in the Ep. of Clement, ch. 47 (see my Corinthians p. 528) referring to the time when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. When I went out from Macedonia; grammatically may refer to an event contemporary with, or following, Paul’s departure from Macedonia. [See Winer’s Grammar § 40, 5a.] From Acts 17:15 we learn that some Macedonian Christians, apparently from Berœa, went with Paul out of Macedonia to Athens. The words before us imply that then or soon afterwards the Philippian Christians sent money to Paul. Whether this was the gift mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:9, we do not know. If, hearing that Paul had gone to Corinth, they sent to him there a deputation with a gift, this would explain both Philippians 4:15 and 2 Corinthians 11:9. For it would be a gift in the beginning of the Gospel after Paul had left Macedonia. Or, less probably, the gift from Philippi may have reached Paul as he was leaving Berœa for Athens. In any case, the contribution here mentioned is an important coincidence with 2 Corinthians 11:9 : for this passage proves that Paul did not refuse gifts from friends at a distance.Had-fellowship: simpler form of the word in Philippians 4:14. They became partners with Paul.For an account of giving and receiving: purpose of this partnership; similarly Philippians 1:5, fellowship for the Gospel. They entered into partnership with Paul in order to have with him dealings about giving and receiving, i.e. about transferring money from one to the other. Paul leaves his readers to remember that the giving was on their part, and the receiving on his; merely saying that both sides of the transaction were present to their mind and purpose. This explains abundantly the words here used, without involving the idea of spiritual recompense as in Romans 15:27. Except ye alone: an example splendid in its solitariness. Not only did their spiritual life at once take this form: but the example thus set was at first not even imitated by others. Philippians 4:16. Because even etc.: a definite fact confirming the foregoing negative statement.Even in Thessalonica: in addition to, and earlier than, what they did when Paul went forth from Macedonia. A close coincidence with Acts 17:1, which tells us that Thessalonica was the first city at which Paul lingered after leaving Philippi. During the few weeks (Acts 17:2) spent there, the Philippian Christians sent twice to supply his need: a wonderful proof of the influence upon them of his preaching. Truly their liberality dated from the beginning of the Gospel.Once and twice; lingers over the repetition of this kindness. This second contribution in so short a time is very significant. Others would have thought that one gift was all that could be expected from them. But even a second present did not exhaust the liberality of the Philippian Christians. For, apparently, they sent to him another shortly afterwards to Corinth. My need: as in Philippians 2:25, Paul’s poverty (cp. 2 Corinthians 11:8) owing probably to his inability to maintain himself (2 Thessalonians 3:8) while preaching at Corinth.Philippians 4:17. Not that; introduces a corrective to Philippians 4:15-16, as do the same words in Philippians 4:11 a similar corrective to Philippians 4:10. Each corrective supplements the other. Paul’s joy about the gift from Philippi (Philippians 4:10) was not prompted by his deep need. And his appreciation of it (Philippians 4:15-16) was prompted, not by eagerness for money, but by eagerness for his readers’ spiritual profit.The gift: whatever from time to time, as circumstances determine, their liberality might prompt; this looked upon as a definite object of thought. I seek for the gift: an abiding state of mind which Paul disavows. But I seek for: stately repetition. Fruit: as in Romans 1:13 : the reward of the Philippians’ liberality; this looked upon as its organic outworking according to the laws of the Christian life, Day by day, as one act of liberality follows another, this reward is increasing.For your account; recalls the same words in Philippians 4:15, for account of giving and receiving. While the Philippian Christians entered into partnership with Paul in order to have dealings with him in a matter of giving and receiving, a harvest of reward was growing which was reckoned to their credit. These last words, and Paul’s constant reference of reward and punishment to the Great Day, indicate that to this he refers here: so Philippians 1:6; Philippians 1:10.Philippians 4:18. An added statement containing another reason why Paul does not desire a gift; viz. that his wants are completely supplied.I have all: or better, I have to the full all things.And abound: not only supply but overflow. I-am-filled full: of all material good. Notice the climax: I have all, l abound, I am filled full.Having received etc.: means by which his needs have been fully supplied. This clear assertion that Epaphroditus had brought to Paul a gift from Philippi explains Philippians 2:25; Philippians 2:30.An odour etc.: a comment on the gift from Philippi, revealing its real significance. Odour of perfume: Ephesians 5:2; Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 1:9; Leviticus 1:13; Leviticus 1:17, etc.: a frequent O.T. phrase picturing the acceptableness of sacrifice to God.Sacrifice: as in Romans 12:1.Acceptable, well-pleasing: a climax. Same words in Acts 10:35; Romans 12:1-2; Romans 14:18; 2 Corinthians 5:9. Since all these phrases are frequently followed by the word to-God, it probably refers to all of them. To God a fragrant perfume goes up and a sacrifice is offered which is acceptable and well-pleasing to Him. Apparently the gift from Philippi was only kindness to a prisoner in poverty at Rome. But whatever is done to the servant is done for the Master: and whatever is done for Christ brings abundant recompense. This gift is therefore a seed producing already a harvest of blessing for its generous donors; and a sacrifice laid on the altar of God. The sacrifice is fragrant tn the mind of God: it is a gift He will receive and be pleased with. Philippians 4:19. Philippians 4:18 has brought the gift from Philippi into the presence of God. This reminds Paul of the recompense which will follow it.My God: as in Philippians 1:3. The recompense will follow because the prisoner at Rome stands in a personal relation to God.Supply, or fill: same words as filled-full in Philippians 4:18, which it recalls.Will-supply: a definite promise, as in Philippians 4:7; Philippians 4:9.Every need: of body and spirit; every necessity and every yearning of their whole nature. Need of yours: corresponding to my need in Philippians 4:16.His riches: a favourite conception of Paul; Romans 2:4; Romans 9:23; Romans 11:33; Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 1:18; Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 3:8; Ephesians 3:16. It is here a picture of God’s ability to supply our need, as a rich man can remove the present want of the poor man: cp. Ephesians 3:20.According to His riches: measure of the promised supply. This will not only come out of the wealth of God but will correspond with its infinite abundance. Consequently, every need will be supplied. In glory: locality or surrounding element of this supply. Same words in similar sense in 2 Corinthians 3:7-9; 2 Corinthians 3:11. It is the splendour which will surround the final reward and triumph as in Colossians 3:4; Colossians 1:27; Romans 5:2; Romans 2:7; Romans 2:10. Amid the brightness of the great day, every need and every yearning will be gratified.In Christ: in virtue of our inward union with Him. The abundant supply will be in glory, as its visible clothing evoking admiration; and in Christ, as its encompassing, all-pervading source and element. Cp. same words at end of Php 4:7.This great promise makes even the half-conscious yearnings of our nature to be themselves a prophecy of future blessing. For their complete satisfaction in the glory of heaven is pledged by the wealth of God. Philippians 4:20. Outburst of praise evoked by the promise in Philippians 4:19; and marking the close of the topic introduced in Philippians 4:10. To God, our Father: literally God and our Father; i.e. God who is also our Father. See note under Galatians 1:5. As ever, Paul’s song of praise is directed to the Father. In these words he acquiesces in the eternal recognition of the grandeur of God manifested in His mercy to men. This recognition he seals by a final Amen.Philippians 4:10-20 preserve for us one of the most beautiful incidents in the story of Paul or of the early Church. From them we learn that his imprisonment at Rome was aggravated by poverty, that he was not only in prison but in want. All this reached the ears and moved the hearts of the Christians at Philippi. But either from straitened circumstances or more probably from lack of a messenger they were for a time unable to render the help they were eager to give. At length an opportunity occurred. Epaphroditus offered to take their contribution to Rome. On the way he fell dangerously ill. Indeed he risked his life in order to discharge his mission of mercy. But the gift from Philippi arrived safely at Rome, and supplied at once and fully the prisoner’s need. Paul was filled with joy. But his was not the joy of a starving man suddenly relieved. His happiness was not dependent on the kindness of far-off friends. For he had learnt the secret of the Christian’s poverty and suffering. To him the presence and smile of God were an all-sufficient supply of every need and a source of infinite strength. The prisoner’s joy is distinctively Christian. He knows that this gift is seed from which already an abundant harvest is growing up for the donor’s enrichment. Being prompted by loyalty to Christ, it is a sacrifice laid upon the altar of God, an acceptable sacrifice filling His courts with pleasant perfume. And it will be repaid, as will everything done for God, by a full supply of every need in the splendour of heaven. Paul remembers that this was not the first gift from Philippi. Very soon after he founded the Church there the brethren sent him money while preaching the Gospel in the city of Thessalonica; and that not once but twice. And apparently shortly afterwards they again sent him money to Corinth. Consequently, their action now is but continuance in a path entered at the commencement of their Christian course. It is only another outflow of that spirit of brotherhood which, as Paul said in Philippians 1:5, they had manifested from the beginning. In monetary help they set the first example; an example which others were somewhat slow to follow. Nay more. We learn from 2 Corinthians 8:1 that in the great collection for the poor Christians at Jerusalem the Churches of Macedonia were very conspicuous. Our thoughts go at once to the acknowledged liberality of the Church at Philippi, the earliest of the Macedonian Churches founded by Paul. And we cannot doubt that they who set the first example in Macedonia of Christian giving were equally prominent in the contribution for Jerusalem. Indeed the liberality of Macedonia must have been in great part an imitation of the example set by the Church at Philippi. If so, then as so often since, men who were eager to contribute money for the need of a beloved teacher were also ready to do so for unknown, but suffering, Christians in a far-off land. Thus 2 Corinthians 8:1 is an important coincidence with Philippians 4:16.It is worthy of note that the Church marked by this constancy of liberality, not only presented nothing needing from Paul even a word of rebuke, but affords the noblest of the many pictures of early Christian Churches reflected in his Epistles. In the apostolic age the Church at Philippi stands supreme in its spotless beauty. And to the generosity of that Church we owe this letter, written to acknowledge it, and all the untold blessings it has conveyed to thousands of the servants of Christ. Little thought the faithful ones at Philippi that the gift they so readily sent to relieve the Apostle’s distress would enrich the Church of Christ in all ages with a priceless treasure. Never was there a more wonderful proof that they who do good do better than they think. Philippians 4:21-22. Salutation. To the Church collectively is committed a greeting for every member of it: greet ye every saint. We may expound either every saint in Christ Jesus, noting their relation to Christ as in Philippians 1:1; or greet in Christ Jesus every saint, noting a definitely Christian greeting. Since the word saint is already sufficiently definite, this latter exposition which would give spiritual emphasis to the greeting is somewhat the more likely. So 1 Corinthians 16:19, and probably Romans 16:22. Why, writing to a Church so much beloved, in which there must have been so many persons well known to him, Paul does not add greetings to individuals, we do not know. Possibly, where all (Philippians 1:4; but compare Romans 1:8 and contrast Romans 16:3-15) were so good, Paul was unwilling to give special prominence to any; or preferred to give them less prominence by sending personal greeting orally by Epaphroditus. The brethren with me: those more closely associated with Paul in prison, and thus distinguished from all the saints, i.e. the church members at Rome. Same words in similar, though perhaps slightly different, sense in Galatians 1:2. These companions are called brethren, although(Philippians 2:20) they do not fully share the Apostle’s spirit.Cæsar’s household, or house: either the emperor’s palace, or its inmates of all kinds from his relatives and state officials down to the humblest slaves. Between these meanings the difference is very slight. So Diogenes Lærtius (Lives of Philosophers bk. v. 4, 3) says that Demetrius was of Conon’s house. Paul’s words assert that even in the home of Nero, perhaps the most corrupt spot on earth, were Christians. The servants of the palace were very numerous and various; and even the lowest of them would naturally, among others of the same class, be proud of his position. Possibly this special salutation was occasioned by the closer contact of the members of the imperial household with the prisoner of the Prætorian Guard. Philippians 4:23. Paul’s farewell, almost word for word as in Galatians 6:18. REVIEW OF THE EPISTLE. The prisoner at Rome, over whose head hangs the sword of a capricious tyrant and whose imprisonment had been aggravated by poverty, writes to the Christians at Philippi to acknowledge a gift which has completely supplied his need. To beloved brethren, Paul has no need to assert his official position, and simply places himself beside Timothy as a servant of Christ. But the officers of the Church have, for reasons unknown to us but probably creditable to them, the unique honour of definite mention in the opening salutation. After the salutation, Paul’s first thought is thanks to God for the universal excellence of the Christians at Philippi, which makes prayer for them a delight and encourages a just and loving confidence of their final salvation. These thanks are followed by prayer for their growth in knowledge and in usefulness. The anxiety of the Philippian Christians calls for news about the imprisoned Apostle, about his circumstances and his feelings. His apparent misfortunes have, by inspiring confidence in the Christians at Rome helped forward the preaching of the Gospel. This gives Paul abiding joy. And this joy is not destroyed by the fact that some preach Christ out of ill-will to the Apostle. Their hostility pains him the less because he knows that it is working for him spiritual good, and is therefore helping his eternal salvation. This reference to Paul’s inner thought becomes a reflection on the page on which he writes of his utter uncertainty of life and death, and of the profound and equal calm with which he views each side of this tremendous alternative. From himself Paul now turns again to his readers. One thing only he begs from them, that they play their part as citizens of the Kingdom of God in a way worthy of Christ. This will require from them persevering courage and united effort in face of their enemies. On unity the Apostle lays special emphasis; and warns against the subtle forms of selfishness so fatal to it. As a supreme example of unselfishness, he points to the incarnation and death, and subsequent exaltation, of the Son of God. He also warns his readers that upon their conduct depends their salvation, and begs them so to act as to be lights in a dark world and an eternal joy to himself. To him, every sacrifice for them is an abiding joy. Paul then commends Timothy, his proved and faithful son in the Gospel, whom he hopes soon to send; and Epaphroditus who at the risk of his life had discharged the mission entrusted to him and had thus rendered to the Apostle eminent service. He bids the Philippian Christians receive back with due honour their faithful messenger. With this commendation Paul was closing his letter. But, for his readers’ safety, he adds a warning, viz. against Jewish opponents and Jewish self-confidence. In such confidence Paul might himself indulge: but his knowledge of Christ has made it impossible. He has no present attainments in which to rest; but is eagerly pressing forward to a goal still beyond him. He bids all who claim to be men in Christ to imitate his example. A sadder warning follows. Some church-members, by their worldly and sensual spirit, prove themselves to be enemies of Christ. This unworthy Spirit Paul rebukes by pointing to the expected Saviour and the complete change which His coming will bring. Next follows a word of kindly expostulation with two excellent ladies whose quarrel was the more serious because of their Christian activity. Then come charming words of spiritual exhortation and of wise counsel. Lastly, Paul speaks at some length about the gift which prompted this letter. The gift filled him with joy; not because of the poverty it relieved-for Paul has learnt a secret which makes him superior to the burdens of life-but because of the harvest of blessing which already it is producing for his readers, and because it is an acceptable sacrifice to God, who will supply in the glory of heaven the givers’ every need. A few words of general greeting close the Epistle. In the pages of the Epistle to the Philippians we see reflected the most attractive picture in the New Testament of Christian life and a Christian Church. Scarcely a word of reproof disturbs the joyous outflow of Paul’s warm affection. And this affection finds equal response in the abiding and loving care of the Philippian Christians for Paul. Among the Apostolic Churches they hold indisputably the place of honour. And to thousands of men and women tossed about by the uncertainties and anxieties of life, this letter, written in a dungeon at Rome under the shadow of the gallows yet everywhere vocal with exuberant joy, has been the light of life. As our gladdened eyes turn from that far-shining light to rest for a moment on the broad and silent pastures where once was the busy Roman colony of Philippi, we see fulfilled in ancient prophecy: THE GRASS , THE FLOWER FADETH; BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOR EVER.