why the same Apostle says, that “it is more needful to abide with you”?644 For as it was needful for him, so too for this man, who would hereafter depart to God with more exceeding riches, and greater boldness. Hereafter that would take place, even if it did not now, but the winning souls is at an end for those who have once departed thither. In many places too, Paul speaks according to the common habits of his hearers, and not every where in accord- ance with his own heavenly wisdom: for he had to speak to men of the world who still feared death. Then he shows how he esteemed Epaphroditus, and thence he gets for him respect, by saying, that his preservation was so useful to himself, that the mercy which had been shown to Epaphroditus reached him also. Moreover, without this the present life is a good; were it not so, why does Paul rank with punishment untimely deaths? as when he says, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and not a few sleep” (1 Cor. xi. 30.); for the future life is not (merely) better than an evil state, since (then) it were not good, but better than a good state. “Lest I should have,” he says, “sorrow upon sorrow”; sorrow from his death in addition to that which sprung from his sickness. By this he shows how much he prized Epaphroditus. Ver. 28. “I have sent him therefore the more diligently.” What means “more diligently”? It is, without procrastination, without delay, with much speed, having bidden him lay all aside, and to go to you, that he might be freed from heaviness; for we rejoice not on hearing of the health of those we love, so much as when we see them, and chiefly so when this happens contrary to hope, as it was in the case of Epaphroditus. “I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.” How “less sorrowful”? Because if ye rejoice, I too rejoice, and he too joys at a pleasure of such sort, and I shall be “less sorrowful.” He said not sorrow- less, but “less sorrowful,” to show that his soul never was free from sorrow: for he who said, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to stumble, and I burn not?” (2 Cor. xi. 29.), when could such an one be free from sorrow? That is, this despondency I now cast off. Ver. 29. “Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy.” “In the Lord” either means spiritually and with much zeal, or rather “in the Lord” means God willing. Receive him in a manner worthy of saints, as saints should be received with all joy. All this he does for their sakes, not for that of his messengers, for greater gain has the doer than the receiver of a good deed. “And such hold in honor,” that is, receive him in a manner worthy of saints. Ver. 30. “Because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life, to supply that which was lacking in your service towards me.” 644 [So Field, with most documents. The altered text has “for you,” “on your account,” as in Philip. i. 24.—J.A.B.] 400 Philippians 2:19-21