I thank my God whenever I remember you, always in every request of mine on behalf of you all, making my requests with joy, for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;
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Philippians 1:3-5 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God whenever I remember you, always in every request of mine on behalf of you all, making my requests with joy, for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.
Parallel Translations
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I thank my God whenever I remember you,
always in every request of mine on behalf of you all, making my requests with joy,
for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;
-
I thanke my God with all remembraunce of you
all wayes in all my prayers for you and praye with gladnes
because of the fellowshyp which ye have in the gospell from the fyrst daye vnto now:
Show all 3 translations
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I thanke my God, hauing you in perfect memorie,
(Alwayes in all my praiers for all you, praying with gladnesse)
Because of the fellowship which ye haue in the Gospel, from the first day vnto nowe.
Cross-references (38)
- 1 Corinthians 1:4 (v3) I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;
- 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 (v3) We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of…
- Philemon 1:4-5 (v3) I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, hearing of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and…
- 2 Timothy 1:3 (v3) I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day
- Ephesians 1:15-16 (v3) For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints,…
Show all 38 cross-references
- Colossians 1:3-4 (v3) We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the…
- 1 Thessalonians 3:9 (v3) For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God,
- Philippians 4:14-15 (v5) However you did well that you shared in my affliction. You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News,…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:2 (v4) We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers,
- Romans 1:8-9 (v3) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God is my witness,…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:3 (v3) We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love…
- Romans 6:17 (v3) But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you…
- Romans 1:9 (v4) For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
- Philippians 1:7 (v5) It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because both in my bonds and in the…
- Hebrews 3:14 (v5) For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end,
- Philemon 1:17 (v5) If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.
- 2 John 1:4 (v4) I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father.
- 2 Corinthians 8:1 (v5) Moreover, brothers, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the assemblies of Macedonia,
- Philippians 2:2 (v4) make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;
- Acts 16:12-40 (v5) and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this…
- Ephesians 3:6 (v5) that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good…
- Colossians 1:21-23 (v5) You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through…
- 1 John 1:3 (v5) that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father,…
- Acts 2:42 (v5) They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
- Romans 11:17 (v5) But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the…
- Romans 15:26 (v5) For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.
- 1 Corinthians 1:9 (v5) God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
- Ephesians 1:14-23 (v4) who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. For this cause I also, having…
- Philippians 2:12 (v5) So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation…
- 2 Peter 1:1 (v5) Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our…
- 1 John 1:7 (v5) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
- Romans 12:13 (v5) contributing to the needs of the saints; given to hospitality.
- Philippians 1:9-11 (v4) This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are…
- Philippians 3:18 (v4) For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,
- Philippians 4:1 (v4) Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
- Colossians 2:5 (v4) For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 (v4) For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and our…
- Philemon 1:7 (v4) For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3 I give thanks. He begins with thanksgiving on…
3 I give thanks. He begins with thanksgiving on two accounts — first, that he may by this token shew his love to the Philippians; and secondly, that, by commending them as to the past, he may exhort them, also, to perseverance in time to come. He adduces, also, another evidence of his love — the anxiety which he exercised in supplications. It is to be observed, however, that, whenever he makes mention of things that are joyful, he immediately breaks forth into thanksgiving — a practice with which we ought also to be familiar. We must, also, take notice, what things they are for which he gives thanks to God, — the fellowship of the Philippians in the gospel of Christ; for it follows from this, that it ought to be ascribed to the grace of God. When he says, upon every remembrance of you, he means, “As often as I remember you.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v5 Ever since I knew you.
Ever since I knew you.
Because that you also are made partakers of the Gospel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of…
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
Ver. 3. Upon every remembrance] And no wonder; for these were those famous Macedonians, that first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to their faithful ministers by the will of God, 2Co 8:5. {See Trapp on "2Co 8:5"} and compare with Isa 50:10.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–5 As in most of his Epistles, {viz. Rom 1:8;…
As in most of his Epistles, {viz. Rom 1:8; 1Co 1:4; 2Co 1:3; Eph 1:3; Col 1:3; 1Th 1:2; 2Th 1:3; 2Ti 1:3} he begins with thanks to God; and here,
my God, i.e. whose I am, and whom I serve in the gospel of his Son, Act 27:23, with Rom 1:9, whom the Jews and Gentiles do not so acknowledge.
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Upon every remembrance of you; intimating that he ever bore them upon his heart to God with delight.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v3 Observe, 1. The proper character of a gospel minister:…
Observe, 1. The proper character of a gospel minister: he is his people’s constant remembrancer, and the rememberer of his people: I remember you all, says the apostle, I remember you always, and in every prayer. This is a very great part of our ministerial duty, to pray for the people; and not in our public offices only, but in our private addresses also, and this continually, without ceasing; we should never rise off our knees, without bearing our people upon our hearts before the Lord. Did minister and people strive more together in their prayers one for another, there would be less strife and contention between them one with another. Ministers must be their people’s remembrancers; St. Paul here remembered the Philippians, all the Philippians always, and in every prayer.
Observe, 2. St. Paul could and did remember the Philippians with joy: though he was in sadness himself in a prison, yet he could think of them, as a people converted by his ministry, with joy; making request with joy. When the ministers of Christ see any success of their labours in the lives of their people, it is a matter of inexpressible joy to them, how sad soever the case is with them as to their outward circumstances; when they sigh in a prison with respect to their personal sufferings, they can sing and rejoice, if they find their people’s proficiency in knowledge and growth in grace: I thank my God for you, making request with joy.
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Observe, 3. The ground and occasion of this his joy, For your fellowship in the gospel; Php 1:5 that is, for your ready embracing of the gospel at my first preaching of it to you, for the real subjection of some, and the professed subjection of all, to the faith of Christ, whereby you were brought into fellowship with Christ and his church; and also for the continuance of you, in the faith and profession of the gospel, from the first day until now.
Learn hence, That when a people, upon the plain and persuasive preaching of the gospel, do readily receive and obey it, and remain constant in their profession of it, and obedience to it, it is matter of unspeakable thanksgiving and praise to the faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. I thank God for your fellowship in the gospel, from the first day until now, that is, for continuing in the faith, and persevering in your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ, I bless God for this.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v3 The apostle proceeds after the inscription and benediction to…
The apostle proceeds after the inscription and benediction to thanksgiving for the saints at Philippi. He tells them what it was he thanked God for, upon their account. Observe here,
I. Paul remembered them: he bore them much in his thoughts; and though they were out of sight, and he was at a distance from them, yet they were not out of his mind: or, Upon every mention of you - epi pasē tē mneia. As he often thought of them, so he often spoke of them, and delighted to hear them spoken of. The very mention of them was grateful to him: it is a pleasure to hear of the welfare of an absent friend.
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II. He remembered them with joy. At Philippi he was maltreated; there he was scourged and put into the stocks, and for the present saw little of the fruit of his labour; and yet he remembers Philippi with joy. He looked upon his sufferings for Christ as his credit, his comfort, his crown, and was pleased at every mention of the place where he suffered. So far was he from being ashamed of them, or loth to hear of the scene of his sufferings, that he remembered it with joy.
III. He remembered them in prayer: Always in every prayer of mine for you all, Phi 1:4. The best remembrance of our friends is to remember them at the throne of grace. Paul was much in prayer for his friends, for all his friends, for these particularly. It should seem, by this manner of expression, that he mentioned at the throne of grace the several churches he was interested in and concerned for particularly and by name. He had seasons of prayer for the church at Philippi. God gives us leave to be thus free with him, though, for our comfort, he knows whom we mean when we do not name them.
IV. He thanked God upon every joyful remembrance of them. Observe, Thanksgiving must have a part in every prayer; and whatsoever is the matter of our rejoicing ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving. What we have the comfort of, God must have the glory of. He thanked God, as well as made requests with joy. As holy joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise, so thankful praise is the lip and language of holy joy.
V. As in our prayers, so in our thanksgiving, we must eye God as our God: I thank my God. It encourages us in prayer, and enlarges the heart in praise, to see every mercy coming from the hand of God as our God. - I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. We must thank our God for others' graces and comforts, and gifts and usefulness, as we receive the benefit of them, and God receives glory by them. But what is the matter of this thanksgiving? 1. He gives thanks to God for the comfort he had in them: for your fellowship in the gospel, from the first day until now, Phi 1:5. Observe, Gospel fellowship is a good fellowship; and the meanest Christians have fellowship in the gospel with the greatest apostles, for the gospel salvation is a common salvation (Jde 1:3), and they obtain like precious faith with them, Pe2 1:1. Those who sincerely receive and embrace the gospel have fellowship in it from the very first day: a new-born Christian, if he is true-born, is interested in all the promises and privileges of the gospel from the first day of his becoming such. - Until now. Observe, It is a great comfort to ministers when those who begin well hold on and persevere. Some, by their fellowship in the gospel, understand their liberality towards propagating the gospel, and translate koinōnia, not communion, but communication. But, comparing it with Paul's thanksgiving on the account of other churches, it rather seems to be taken more generally for the fellowship which they had, in faith, and hope, and holy love, with all good Christians - a fellowship in gospel promises, ordinances, privileges, and hopes; and this from the first day until now. 2. For the confidence he had concerning them (Phi 1:6): Being confident of this very thing, etc. Observe, The confidence of Christians is the great comfort of Christians, and we may fetch matter of praise from our hopes as well as from our joys; we must give thanks not only for what we have the present possession and evidence of, but for what we have the future prospect of. Paul speaks with much confidence concerning the good estate of others, hoping well concerning them in the judgment of charity, and being confident in the judgment of faith that if they were sincere they would be happy: That he who has begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. A good work among you - En humin, so it may be read: understand it, in the general, of the planting of the church among them. He who hath planted Christianity in the world will preserve it as long as the world stands. Christ will have a church till the mystery of God shall be finished and the mystical body completed. The church is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But it is rather to be applied to particular persons, and then it speaks of the certain accomplishment of the work of grace wherever it is begun. Observe here, (1.) The work of grace is a good work, a blessed work; for it makes us good, and is an earnest of good to us. It makes us like God, and fits us for the enjoyment of God. That may well be called a good work which does us the greatest good. (2.) Wherever this good work is begun it is of God's beginning: He has begun a good work in you. We could not begin it ourselves, for we are by nature dead in trespasses and sins: and what can dead men do towards raising themselves to life; or how can they begin to act till they are enlivened in the same respect in which they are said to be dead? It is God who quickens those who are thus dead, Eph 2:1; Col 2:13. (3.) The work of grace is but begun in this life; it is not finished here; as long as we are in this imperfect state there is something more to be done. (4.) If the same God who begins the good work did not undertake the carrying on and finishing of it, it would lie for ever unfinished. He must perform it who began it. (5.) We may be confident, or well persuaded, that God not only will not forsake, but that he will finish and crown the work of his own hands. For, as for God, his work is perfect. (6.) The work of grace will never be perfected till the day of Jesus Christ, the day of his appearance. When he shall come to judge the world, and finish his mediation, then this work will be complete, and the top-stone will be brought forth with shouting. We have the same expression, Phi 1:10.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Always in every prayer of mine for you all,....…
Always in every prayer of mine for you all,.... The apostle was a praying believer, and a praying minister: notwithstanding all his gifts, and graces, and high attainments, he was not above the work and duty of prayer, and in which he was sensible he stood in need of the assistance and direction of the Spirit of God, As soon as he was converted he prayed, and continued to do so without ceasing, as he himself directs; he was constant and assiduous at the throne of grace, and was concerned for others, as well as himself, for all the churches, and for this church, and all the saints in it,
Making request with joy; for what God had done for them, and continued with them. Requests are to be made known to God with thanksgiving. When we request a favour of him, it becomes us to return thanks for what we have received from him. Thanksgiving is a branch of prayer; as we have always mercies to ask for, we have always mercies to be thankful for.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4–5 With joy - After the epistle to the Ephesians,…
With joy - After the epistle to the Ephesians, wherein love reigns, follows this, wherein there is perpetual mention of joy. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy." And joy peculiarly enlivens prayer. The sum of the whole epistle is, I rejoice. Rejoice ye.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Verse 3. Upon every remembrance] As often as you…
Verse 3. Upon every remembrance] As often as you recur to my mind, so often do I thank God for the great work wrought among you. Some think that the words should be translated, for all your kind remembrance; referring to their kind attention to the apostle, in supplying his wants, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v3 Php 1:3-8. I thank my God upon every remembrance…
Php 1:3-8. I thank my God upon every remembrance — Or mention, as μνεια equally signifies; of you — Whether before the throne of grace, or when conversing with my fellow-Christians. The clause may also be rendered, I thank my God for all your kind remembrance of me, namely, (as he partly at least means,) with respect to the supplies they had sent him. Always in every prayer of mine — He never failed, it seems, to pray for the churches when he prayed for himself; making request — That God would bestow on you an increase of every spiritual blessing; with joy — Joy peculiarly enlivens prayer. As love reigns in the epistle to the Ephesians, so does joy reign in this; the sum of the whole epistle being, I rejoice; rejoice ye. For your fellowship in the gospel — That you have united with us in embracing the gospel, and are joint partakers with us of its blessings; and so have fellowship also with all true Christians; from the first day — Of my preaching it among you; though soon attended with violent persecution, even with the scourging and imprisonment of myself and my fellow- labourer; and that you have persevered in the profession thereof from the time that you first embraced it. Or, the meaning may be, I thank God for your having received the gospel, from the first day of your receiving it until now. Being confident (and the grounds of his confidence are mentioned in the following verse) that he who hath begun a good work in you — Who hath not only done a good work for you, in justifying you, and giving you peace with himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Rom 5:1,) but has wrought a good work in you; in your minds and hearts, by enlightening and quickening, regenerating and renewing you after his image, Tit 3:5: or, in beginning to sanctify you; will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ — Will carry it on till it come to perfection, and, at the second coming of Christ, issue in glory. Even as it is meet — Δικαιον, just, reasonable; for me to think this of you all — To have this good opinion and confidence. Why? He does not say, because of an eternal decree, or because the saints must of necessity persevere; but, because I have you in my heart — I affectionately remember you; inasmuch as both in my bonds — In this my imprisonment; and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel — In what I do and suffer for its defence and confirmation; ye all are partakers of my grace — That is, you have manifested that you possess the same grace that I myself have, in that you have done and suffered the same things which I have done and suffered. Or, as the clause may mean, because you are sharers in the afflictions which God hath vouch-safed me as a grace or favour. In other words, It is just or reasonable for me to think this concerning you all, (namely, that you will continue in the grace of God,) because you have been and are joint partakers with me, both of grace and of the sufferings by which grace is tried and manifested: or, The sufferings you have endured, and the things you have done, have manifested both the reality and the greatness of your grace; and therefore I cannot doubt of your perseverance. For God — To whom I appeal for the truth of what I say; is my record — Bears me witness; how greatly I long after you all — How vehemently I love you, or long after your prosperity, in spiritual things; in the bowels of Jesus Christ — With such a sincere, fervent, and spiritual love as has been wrought in me by Christ, and resembles that love which he bears to his members. In Paul, not Paul lives, but Jesus Christ; therefore he longs for them with the bowels, the tenderness, not of Paul, but of Jesus Christ.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–5 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you…
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you - Margin, “mention.” The Greek word means, “recollection, remembrance.” But this recollection may have been suggested either by his own reflections on what he had seen, or by what he had heard of them by others, or by the favors which they conferred on him reminding him of them. The meaning is, that as often as he thought on them, from whatever cause, he had occasion of thankfulness. He says that he thanked his God, intimating that the conduct of the Philippians was a proof of the favor of God to him; that is, he regarded their piety as one of the tokens of the favor of God to his own soul - for in producing that piety he had been mainly instrumental.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v5 For your fellowship. This word is divers times used…
For your fellowship. This word is divers times used by St. Paul for a contribution of charitable alms, which it may also signify in this place; though others expound it of their being made partakers of the graces of Christ, by the gospel. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v3 Situation and Labors of the Apostle at Rome
SECTION II
Situation and Labors of the Apostle at Rome
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Php_1:3-26
(1) The Apostle’s gratitude and joy before God on account of the church (Php_1:3-11)
After joyful thanksgiving for the fellowship of the church in the gospel (Php_1:3-5), and the expression of his confident hope that God will make it perfect (Php_1:6-8), he offers a fervent prayer for them (Php_1:9-11)
3I thank my God upon every [all] remembrance of you, 4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making [the] request [prayer] with joy, 5For your fellowship in 6[unto] the gospel from the first7 day until now; Being confident of this very thing that he which [who] hath begun [began] a good work in you will perform [complete] it until 7[up to] the day of Jesus Christ;8 Even as it is meet [just] for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel ye all are partakers of my grace [of the grace with me]. 8For God is my record [witness]9 how greatly I long after you all in the bowels 9[heart] of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in [ omit] all judgment [discernment or experience]; 10That ye may approve things that are excellent [ or, prove things that differ]; that ye maybe sincere [pure] and without offence till [unto] the day of Christ; 11Being filled with the fruits [fruit] of righteousness which are [is]10 by [through] Jesus Christ,11 unto the glory and praise of God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Php_1:3. I thank my God (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ μου). Exactly like Rom_1:8; 1Co_1:4; Philippians 4. Comp. Col_1:3.—Upon all [or the whole] remembrance of you.—Ἐπί states the ground or basis (πάσῃ τῇ μνείᾳ) on which the thanksgiving rests. This remembrance of Paul extends through his life; he contemplates it as one, as a whole. Luther well says: “As often as I think of you.” See Winer’s Gram. pp. 110, 392.12 Meyer, urging the force of πᾶς with the article, explains: My remembrance of you is entirely and throughout connected with thanksgiving to God; and Schenkel: So far as he remembers them. These explanations are wrong; for the thanksgiving and the supplication go together. Still less can ὑμῶν be gen. subj., as if Paul were giving thanks for their remembrance of him (Bretschneider). Further, μνεία is not=mention (Winer, Van Hengel), as in μνείαν ποιεῖσθαι (Rom_1:9; Eph_1:16; 1Th_1:2; Philippians 4). Comp. μνείαν ἔχειν (1Th_3:6; 2Ti_1:3).
Php_1:4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all (πάντοτε ἐν πασῃ δεήσει μου ὑπὲρ πάντων ὑμῶν). In Rom_1:8 we have πάντων ὑμῶν; in 1Co_1:4, πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν; and in Eph_1:16, only ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου after οὐ παύομαι. Here, after πάσῃ τῇ μνείᾳ (Php_1:3) we have the idea of totality repeated three times: πάντοτε, πάσῃ, πάντων. Latum erat cor Pauli (Bengel), by his joy in the church.—This clause is to be joined with the following: Making the prayer with joy (μετὰ χαρᾶς τὴν δέησιν ποιούμενος). [The article before δέησιν recalls δεήσει as the prayer in each instance which he offers in their behalf.—H.] Πάντοτε in the preceding clause shows that his thankfulness goes hand in hand with his constant, prayer, and ἐν πάση δεήσει that his prayer for the church, and indeed for all its members, never ceases; while here in μετὰ χαρᾶς we have his frame of mind disclosed to us, and the prayer noted as a fact. It is peculiar to this place. Theophylact: τὸ μετὰ χαρᾶς μεμνῆσθαι σημεῖον τῆς ἐκείνων ἀρετῆς. Bengel: summa epistolæ: gaudeo, gaudete! Nam perpetua gaudii mentio (Php_1:18 ff; Php_2:2; Php_2:19; Php_2:28; Php_3:1; Php_4:1; Php_4:4). Preces imprimis gaudium animat. For δέησις and προσευχή see on Eph_6:18. It is incorrect to join πάντοτε (Wiesinger), or ὑπὲρ πάντων ὑμῶν (Hölemann), with εὐχαριστῶ (Php_1:3). It is wrong also to make the participial clause parenthetical (Heinrichs). [Taking this verse and the preceding one together, we have then three steps in the development of the thought: First, the apostle never remembers the Philippians but with thanks giving; secondly, he remembers them in fact as often as he prays; and, thirdly, this remembrance of them was always a source of joy to himself, as well as a cause of thanks giving to God.—H.]
Php_1:5 brings forward the cause of his thanks.—For your fellowship unto the gospel.—Ἐπί with the dative (preceded by εὐ χαριστεῖν) quite often indicates the object of the thanks giving (1Co_1:4). See Winer’s Gram. p. 393.—Τῇ κοινωνίᾳ ὑμῶν represents the fellowship of the Philippians as already existing, and not now as first to be prayed for, and the object of this fellowship is the gospel (εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον). Κοινωνία is found without the gen. obj. in Gal_2:9 and in 2Co_9:13, where we have also εἰς αὐτούς, analogous to κοινωνεῖς εἰς λόγον (Php_4:15). The article is not repeated before εἰς εὐαγγέλιον, because it appears as one conception, gospel fellowship. The connection of this clause with the participle is incorrect (Calvin, et al.), for we expect here a statement of the ground of his thanksgiving, and τὴν δέησιν has already been defined as ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν. It is wrong also to take κοινωνία actively, as support, contribution (Estius, et al.), as in Num_15:26 (κοινωνίαν τινὰ ποιεῖσθαι), Heb_13:16 (εὐποιί̈ας καὶ κοινωνίας), where the context demands that meaning; to refer it to their fellowship with Paul (Chrysostom, Van Hengel), for μετ’ ἐμοῦ (1Jn_1:3) is wanting; to regard it as=ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν in Php_1:9 (Meyer); to refer it to the fellowship of the Philippians with other Christians (Wiesinger); or to render it: quod evangelii participes facti estis (Grotius, et al.).—From the first day until now, ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡμέρας ἄχρι τοῦ νῦν, marks with emphasis this well-tried fellowship of faith and love as existing from the first preaching of the gospel among them (Act_16:13) until the moment of Paul’s writing the letter. [The church at Philippi had existed now about ten years. Among the proofs of this spirit of fellowship and zeal for the gospel (though not limiting himself to them) Paul no doubt had more or less distinctly in view the supplies which the Philippians had sent to him; first, once and again at Thessalonica, soon after his first departure from them (Php_4:16), and still more recently at Rome, by the hand of Epaphroditus (Php_4:18). Nothing but the want of an opportunity on the part of the Philippians to transmit their gifts, had prevented his receiving still others during the intermediate period (Php_4:10). The recorded instances of their liberality, therefore, might well be mentioned as characteristic of their later history as a church. The article before πρώτης is unnecessary, the ordinal being sufficiently definite by itself. See Winer’s Gram. p. 124.—H.]. It is incorrect to connect from the first day, etc., with εὐχαριστῶ (Bengel), or with πεποιθώς (Meyer). The aim is to characterize the fellowship, but not the thanksgiving or confidence of the apostle.
Php_1:6. The apostle is confident (πεποιθώς) that God will still work for them and in them. This participle marks his confidence as antecedent to the εὐχαριστῶ. Hæc fiducia nervus est gratiarum actionis (Bengel). Αὐτὸ τοῦτο shows that his confidence rests upon God and nothing else (Eph_6:18; Eph_6:22; Col_4:8).—That he who began a good work in you will complete [or finish] it, ὅτι ὁ ἐναρξάμενος ἐν ὑμῖν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐπιτελέσει. Without doubt God is meant (Php_2:13), and ἐν ὑμῖν is in animis vestris (Php_2:13), while the context requires us to think of all the members of the church as addressed (Php_1:4; Php_1:7). Comp. Gal_3:3 : 2Co_8:6 (var. προενήρξατο. To explain it as meaning “among the Philippians” (Hölemann) is against the context. Not only the context, but Paul’s doctrine forbids us to understand “every good one” with ὁ ἐναρξάμενος (Wakefield). By ἔργον ἀγαθόν is meant not “the good work” (Luther), but the κοινωνία ὑμῶν εἰςεὐαγγέλιον (Php_1:5), a work which is not finished at a single blow, but is carried forward through a gradual development from step to step, through many a fluctuation and danger from within and without, to be made complete in eternity. Bengel: Initium est pignus consummationis. Ne homo quidem temere aliquid incipit.—Up to the flay of Jesus Christ, ἄχρις ἡμέρας Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. The day of the Lord’s coming for judgment is meant (Php_1:10; Php_2:16; 2Co_1:14). The nearness of the day is not indicated (Meyer), or the day of each one’s death intended 13 (Estius, et al.).—Even as it is just for me to think this of you all.—Καθώς gives the reason for the subjective confidence in the objective fact (Eph_1:4). Ἐστὶν δίκαιον ἐμοὶ τοῦτο φρονεῖν describes this confidence, which extends to each individual (ὑπὲρ παντῶν ὑμῶν), as a duty and obligation which he owes to his readers (Php_1:4; Php_1:8; Eph_6:1; Col_4:1). To withhold it seems to him a wrong against them (Bengel: justas invenio causas).—Because I have you in my heart—διὰ τὸ ἕχειν με ἐν τῇ καρδία̣ ὑμᾶς. The context demands με as the subject; with this agrees the sing. καρδία̣. See Winer’s Gram., p. 329. It is contrary to the order of the words, as well as to the context, to take ὑμᾶς as subject (Am Ende, Flatt, et al.). He has them in his heart, because he is separated from them. This certainly shows his deep, abiding affection for them. But this again would be only a subjective matter, like his confidence. Hence what follows is to be closely joined with it: He has them in his heart, and loves them as sharers of the grace of God.—Inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace—lit., grace with me; ἔν τε τοῖς δεσμοῖς μου καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀπολογία̣ καὶ βεβαιώσει τοῦ εὐαγγελίου συγκοινωνούς μου τῆς χάριτος πάντας ὑμᾶς ὄντας. The nerve of the argument lies in συγκοινωνούς μου τῆς χάριτος πάντας ὑμᾶς ὄντας; πάντας ὑμᾶς corresponds to ὑπὲρ πάντων ὑμῶν, and they are all characterized as fellow-partakers (συγκοινωνοί) with the Apostle in the grace of God. The pronoun μου depends in sense upon σύν, τῆς χάριτος upon κοινωνούς: they share with Paul in the same grace, which he has received. [For the dependence of the two genitives on συγκοινωνούς (comp. also Php_2:25; Php_2:30), see Winer’s Gram., p. 191—H.] The context (Php_1:6-7), defines it as the grace of God mediated through, the gospel, i.e., salvation and blessedness in eternity. It is thus not suffering for the gospel (5:29, 30), as Meyer thinks, or merely gratiosa evangelii donatio, (Hölemann), or the apostolic office upheld and made more efficient by the liberality of the Philippians (Storr, Am Ende), gratitude—i.e., to them (Rilliet), or gaudii (Vulg.), [which seems to rest on the assumed reading, χαρᾶς.—H.]. The importance of this co-partnership is the greater on account of Paul’s situation at the time. Hence he characterizes the situation under two aspects before he speaks of their personal relation to each other: ἒντετοῖς δεσμοῖς μου and ἐν τῇ ἀπολογίᾳ καὶ βεβαιώσει τοῦ εὐαγγελίου. The first expression refers to his imprisonment, and the second to his work as a prisoner, embracing his labors both in opposition to adversaries, and for the confirmation of Christians (Act_28:23). It is not therefore merely his judicial defence that is meant (Van Hengel), or his general Christian activity alone (Wiesinger), but both together. It is incorrect also to regard the last two substantives as ἕν διὰ δυοῖν (Heinrichs), or to separate to τοῦ εὐαγγελίου from ἀπολογία̣, and to refer this last only to his person (Estius), since neither ἐν, nor the article before βεβαιώσει, is repeated. The explanation which makes the two entirely synonymous (Rheinwald) has as little in its favor as that which makes the one a defence by word, the other a confirmation by act (Erasmus). The most natural connection is with ὑμᾶς συγκοινωνοὺς—ὄντας and not with ἔχειν ἐν τῇ καρδία̣ (Chrysostom, also Meyer). [We prefer with Chrysostom, Neander, De Wette, Meyer, Alford, and others, to connect the words in question with what precedes, and not so closely with what follows. Nothing surely could be more pertinent here as a proof of Paul’s affection for the Philippians (ἔχειν—ἡμᾶς), than to say, that not all his trials and anxieties as a prisoner at Rome, and not all his arduous labors in the church and for the conversion of sinners, could divert his thoughts from them or interrupt or weaken at all his attachment to them. This view of the connection, too, better explains the solemn appeal in μάρτυς—ὁ θεός, which (note the γάρ, Php_1:8) seems too impressive to be referred merely to διά τὸ ἔχειν—ἡμᾶς.—H.] To infer from Php_1:29-30, that the bonds and the defence and confirmation of the gospel were common to Paul and the Philippians, (Schenkel) is not permitted either by δεσμοῖς μου, or by πάντες.
Php_1:8. For God is my witness, μάρτυς γάρ μου ὁ θεός. Comp. Rom_1:9. He would confirm here his declaration that he has them in his heart. [His earnest desire to see the Philippians was both a proof and a consequence of his earnest affection for them.—H.]—How I long after you all.—Ὡς shows the degree, the prep, in ἐπιποθῶ, the direction of the ποθεῖν, Php_2:26; 1Th_3:6; 2Ti_1:4. The object of ἐπιποθῶ is πάντας ὑμᾶς, none being excepted. Observe the energetic repetition of the πάντας.—In the heart of Jesus Christ, ἐν σπλάγχνοις Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, characterizes the ἐπιποθεῖν of Paul. Επλάγχςα, רַחֲמִים, viscera, is the physical designation of the inmost seat of the affections, of the emotional life in the soul (Col_3:12 : οἰκτιρμῶν; Luk_1:78 : ἐλίους); hence ἐν local. Bengel explains it well: In Paulo non Paulus vivit, sed Jesus Christus; quare Paulus non in Pauli, sed Jesu Christi movetur visceribus. Nexus hic est: ego vos tamquam consortes gratiæ in corde meo habeo (2Co_7:3) atque desidero, neque id affectu naturali, sed pietate Jesu Christi, inde persentisco eodem erga vos affectu esse ipsum potius dominum, qui rem a principiis ad suos exitus est deducturus.14 See ἐμοὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῆν Χριστός, in Php_1:21, and comp. ζῇ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός (Gal_2:20). Winer’s Gram. p. 189. It is incorrect to regard ἐν as the rule or norm, (Rilliet), for it is not=κατά; or to explain the genitive as, in animo penitus affecto, ut animus fuit Christi. (Van Hengel). It is incorrect to join the word with ὑμᾶς, and to supply ὄντας (Storr). We are to reject every such weakened explanation as amore vere Christiano (Grotius), or digna Jesu Christi affectione (Castalio).
Php_1:9. And this I pray.—To the prayer of thanksgiving in Php_1:3; Php_1:8, καί adds further, the fact that he prays, and what he prays for, in behalf of the church (τοῦτο προσεύχομαι). The subject or contents of this prayer are first stated with emphasis, and therefore placed in connection with the subject and ground of his thanks; hence not προσεύχομαι τοῦτο. It is not true that καί connects what follows with Php_1:8, and joins still another act, i.e., προσεύχομαι, with μάρτυςμου ὁ θεός, ὡς ἐπιποθῶ. (Rilliet).—That your love may abound yet more and more.—Ἵνα points out the direction, purpose, of the prayer, and so the contents, purport of it. Comp. Eph_1:17; Col_1:9. Ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν ἕτι μᾶλλον καὶμᾶλλον περισσεύῃ, pre-supposes this love to be already existing, and that in no small degree, like ἵνα πληρωθῆτε. Col_1:9. Bengel: Ignis in apostolo nunquam dicit, sufficit. Love of the church is meant, which, as shown by the cause of his joyful thanksgiving (ἐπὶ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ ὑμῶνεἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, Php_1:5), and by the ground of his confidence and longing (συγκοινωνούς μου τῆς χάριτος, Php_1:7), is more exactly defined to be Christian love. It is therefore neither merely love towards one another (Meyer), nor works of love for the cause of the gospel (Schenkel), nor love to the Apostle (Chrysostom, et al.),nor to God and Christ (Calov), although all these are involved. The accumulative, ἔτι μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον, marks the earnestness of the supplication. Comp. πολλῷ μᾶλλον κρεῖσσον, Php_1:23. Περισσεύη indicates an increase of this love of the church above the ordinary measure of its possession. (Comp. 1Th_4:1; 1Th_4:10, περισσενειν μᾶλλον).—How that shall take place is shown by what follows: In knowledge and in every perception, or discernment, ἐν ἐπιγνώσει καὶ πάσῃ αἰσθήσει. The first (see Eph_1:17) is a more perfect knowledge of the truth in contrast with a knowledge which is defective, uncertain, confused; and therefore an intellectual act and intensive. The other (αἴσθησις, here only in the N. T.) is the perception by the mind or senses of what takes place or exists around us; here in its ethical sense as opposed to a weak judgment, to inexperience, inconsiderate conduct, and, having to do with the entire range of man’s acts and relations, is therefore extensive, on which account also πάσῃ (=every form of) is added. [This faculty (αἵσθησις), as Wordsworth remarks, is that delicate tact and instinct which almost intuitively perceives what is right, and almost unconsciously shrinks from what is wrong.—H.] Both of these, the theoretical knowledge and the ethical tact, belong and go together. The prep. εν marks each as the sphere, or element, in which the increase of love is to take place. The progress is also a natural one, from knowledge to knowledge, from experience to experience, each promoting the other. Comp. Col_2:7. It is incorrect to deny here an increase of love, as if that were already complete (Meyer), or to find that the Philippians were not wanting in love, but in knowledge, their zeal being still οὐ κατ’ ἐπίγνὠσιν (Rom_10:2), i.e., blind, undiscriminating, liable to error (Schenkel).
Php_1:10. That ye may prove things that differ.—Εἰς τὸ δοκιμάζειν denotes the immediate end of the περισσεύῃ. It is in practice, the conduct of life that we are to prove τὰ διαφέροντα. As the senses are to be exercised, προς διάκρισιν (Heb_5:14), so here love should increase in knowledge and experience, that we may prove the things in regard to which we are to decide or act. Δοκιμάζειν means to test, distinguish the genuine from the spurious (χρυσίον, 1Pe_1:7), to distinguish between things which are different (τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν, 1Th_2:4; πάντα δὲ δοκιμάζετε, τὸ καλὸν κατέχετε, 1Th_5:21), or between men who differ (1Ti_3:10). The things which experience presents to us are different in degree as well as kind. Non modo præ multis bona, sed in bonis optima. (Bengel). The rendering ut probetis potiora (Vulg., et al.) is incorrect.—The purpose of this increase of love is: That ye may be pure and without offence unto, or against the day of Christ. Ἵνα points out the direction of the prayer for the increase of their love. A firm decision for the good follows a correct judgment respecting what is good and evil. The knowledge and experience brought into activity lead to a certain condition and conduct (η̇͂τε): (εἰλικρινεῖς καὶ ἀπόσκοποι). The first (Grimm, Clavis s. v: ab. εἵχη s. ἕλη, splendor solis, el κρινω, qui ad solis lucem explicatus et examinatus purus deprehenditur,15 ex aliorum conjectura ab εἶλος, εἱ̓λειν, volubile agitatione secretus et purgatus) elsewhere only in 2Pe_3:1, is positive, internal; the second, negative, outward, as referring to persons and relations; hence active, as in 1Co_10:32, while in Act_24:16, it is passive. We are to look here not to the church or the world, not to the present or the past, but to God who ἐπιτελέσει ἀχρις ἡμέρας Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ́ (1Th_5:6); hence εἰς ἡμέραν Χριστοῦ, against, for the day of Christ [not until, A. V.] in which this, character will be made manifest. They should prepare for this as their great aim (see Php_2:16 : Eph_4:30).—Being filled, πεπληρωμένοι. The passive refers to what has been experienced or attained, and the perfect to the continued effects of this experience, and thus the participle characterizes the ἦτε εἰλικρινεῖς καὶ ἀπρόσκοποι.—The fruit of righteousness which is by or through Jesus Christ (καροπον δικαιοσυνης τὸν διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ). The acc., as in Col_1:9, points out that with which they are filled. The sing. καρπόν marks the harmonious unity, as Gal_5:22. Comp. 1Th_5:19; Rom_6:22; Jam_3:18. The gen. δικαιοσύνης indicates the cause, source. The omission of the article makes it a single conception: righteousness-fruit, more strongly descriptive of the character of the fruit: this fruit is itself righteousness in its very nature. Hence we must not think here of justification (Hölemann). But this fruit of righteousness is not produced by the unaided strength of the Christian without the mediation of Jesus. See Eph_4:7-8; Gal_2:20; Gal_3:22. This truth humbles us because it rebukes self-exaltation, but makes us rejoice also because it shows how glorious this fruit is.—Unto the glory and praise of God (εἵς δόξαν καὶ ἔπαινον θεον͂) is an addition to πεπληρωμένοι. Comp. Eph_1:6; Eph_1:12; Eph_1:14. Such fulness is of itself the glory of God, because it shows His excellence, and leads to His praise, because men declare it in every way. [“Herein is my Father glorified,” says Christ, “that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15.).—H.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1.The salvation of individuals is the chief topic of this section, viewed however not theoretically, but practically, in its relation to a living body of Christians. It is a work, a good work, (ἕργον ἀγαθόν), wrought in the individual (Php_1:6 : εν ὑμῖν), in whose inmost personality it is accomplished. Hence in its first province it is a human work.
2. In its nature salvation is righteousness, the fruit of which appears in the life (Php_1:11 : καρπὸν δικαιοσύνης), and love (Php_1:9 : ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν), which is self-sacrificing. Hence it is opposed to self seeking and self-will, and is fellowship with God, Christ, and the brethren. It is, then, in its next effect, a social work.
3.The source of salvation is to be sought in God alone (Php_1:6 : ὁ ἐναρξάμενις) without any merit or worthiness on the part of the subject who needs salvation, and is capable of receiving it, so that he is only the object, the recipient, of the blessing (συγκοιωνοὺς τῆς χάριτος, Php_1:7). Hence in its beginning it is a divine work, which excludes as well the αὐτεξούσιον of the Greek Fathers, especially Clemens and Origen, as it does Pelagianism, denying the transmission of sin (which Socinianism warmed again into life), and Semi-pelagianism (which Arminianism revived), weakening the conviction of this sinfulness in conformity with its idea of universal grace.
4. Nor in its entire progress is this less a work of God who does not draw back where He has put His hand, who, in the realm of creation and of redemption, in all His works in nature, and in the lives and hearts of men, is ever present, not only as a witness (μάρτυς μου ὁ θεός, Php_1:8) but to complete also (ἐπιτελέσει, Php_1:6), what He has begun.
5. The work of salvation is mediated, objectively, through the person of Jesus Christ (Php_1:11), the preaching of the gospel (Php_1:5), and supplication, With regard to the how nothing more definite is here said, because it does not come into question.
6. The subjective mediation is indicated under different aspects, (a) Christ, He who is preached coming near to us in the preaching, and received in us by His word, becomes our life, His heart our heart, His pity our pity, so that we love with Him, with His heart, with His love (Php_1:8 : ἐν σπλάγχνοις Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ); (b) He who does not resist Him, receives His strength and gifts, so that by means of these he works in turn; won for Him, drawn to Him, united with those who are like-minded, he lives, and acts, and walks in love (Php_1:9 : ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν Php_1:5 : ἐπὶ τῇ κοινωνςία̣ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον); (c) Personal activity is not excluded, but called forth (Php_1:9-11), self-exaltation is destroyed, and Synergism has no place here.
7. Love, combined with an active faith, is the central force which penetrates the inmost personality, directs the life, and goes forward step by step towards its perfection. This progress shows itself in a two-fold way: a) Internally, the Christian becomes intellectually more intimate with God and with His thoughts (ἐπίγνωσις). Love thus becomes clearer, deeper, stronger. It increases in knowledge, grows in that and with that. As an ethical effect, also, the love perceives, experiences, feels (πᾶσα αἵσθησις), the power of the kingdom of God with its manifold ordinances, and richly endowed membership. It thus becomes stronger, fuller, riper. It increases in experience, grows in that and with that. Thus Christians come to a surer judgment respecting the things which are about them, and concern them (εἰς τὸ δοκιμάζειν τὰ διαφέροντα) within and without, good and bad. The result is purity (εἰλικρινεῖς). b) Externally, love acts spontaneously, without calculation, with nice moral tact, with tender conscientiousness, giving no offence, (ἀπρόσκοποι). The eye ever directed to the end (εἰς ἡμέραν Χριστοῦ) animates this love thus progressive to the final day (ἅ χρις ἡμέρας Χριστοῦ). Pantheistic necessity, all physical compulsion in the Christian’s progress, are excluded. Our moral responsibility remains entire.
8. Love in two respects is an object of the Apostle’s joy. It actuates all, one as well as another (Php_1:7 a, and 7 b, 8), and redounds to the honor of God (Php_1:11). First, though there is a difference in the strength, purity, breadth, and capacity of this love, from Lydia (Act_16:14-15) and the jailer (ib. 30–34) down to the weakest member, the fellowship between them is not disturbed. Every one looks upon the other with humility, and without envy, and cleaves to him. Secondly, the majesty of love becomes manifest, while gratitude for God’s gifts is shown in word and work.
9. It is instructive to observe how the Apostle demeans himself here. He is thankful for what is given or done to him; God’s act is final; his own doing is as nothing. He rejoices in spite of his imprisonment, since the internal welfare and the salvation of the church are of more importance to him than his own outward suffering. He is full of confidence, for, amid all the dangers to which the members of the church are exposed, from flesh and blood, as well as from the world about them, he has cast his cares upon Him who is greater than he that is in the world, and greater than his own heart. (Comp. 1Jn_3:20; 1Jn_4:4). He prays for them heartily, as well as confidently. Without pride of office, without selfishness, without carnal calculation, without meagre consolation, or satisfaction in comparing them with other churches, as in Galatia and Corinth, he looks with grand humility, with noble joy, with childlike confidence, and paternal care, upon the condition of this particular church.
10. [Neander:—Paul here (Php_1:9-11) gives to love the first place, and ascribes to its quickening presence the knowledge and capacity required for distinguishing the good and the bad, the true and the false; as he himself expresses it, “that your love may more and more abound in all knowledge;” meaning, that therein its effect is seen—that increase of knowledge is the fruit of more abundant love. But as here the theoretical proceeds from the practical, the new direction of the judgment from the new direction of the will, of the moral disposition; so is the theoretical in like manner to react upon the practical, the enlightened judgment upon the conduct. Hence Paul adds, as the object to be thus attained, that they should continue “pure and irreproachable” in their Christian walk, until all shall appear before the Lord; “being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus. Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”—H.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The minister, in view of the past, should have reason to give thanks for the success of the divine word, and in view of the present should rejoice in the growth of love, and in view of the future be consoled as to more immediate danger, and hope for a glorious end. The church should find in him a helper of their joy; ever active, yet without official conceit, a friend, full of sympathy, without selfishness, a hero who lifts praying hands over them, a father who cares earnestly for their future inheritance, Php_1:3-11.
Starke:—God has indeed deserved our thanks. He never ceases to do us good. So also our thanks should have no end. Psa_100:5.—He will be able to pray to God with joy who regards his prayer not merely as a duty, but also as a gospel right, in virtue of which he may come to the throne of grace, and be looked upon graciously.—To begin is well and necessary, but to complete still, better, and more necessary.—The more thou art pressed the more cry out. Remain firm, and be not deterred. Through scorn we come to the crown.—The longer in the Christian life the happier, the better, is the true testimony. He who does not increase, decreases; at least, standing still is not the right way.—Since the chief powers of the soul are understanding and will, the growth must show itself in them both: the one can no more be separated from the other than understanding from the will.
Heubner:—If men do not recognise God as their God, they have no religion at all. It is not a living piety unless they have found God in their inner and outer life.—True love and friendship is ever a religious, mutual remembrance. Remembrance of God is a holy admonition that we live for, with, and in one another. Thus we see how Christianity enlarges the heart. Christian love embraces many; yea, all. (Php_1:4-7.)—Every shepherd must pray daily for his church. Paul had much to do, but he always had time for prayer.—True, inward fellowship of hearts, is a cause for thanksgiving. It is a source of true happiness which nothing can surpass. In our days a repugnance to the closer religious associations often shows itself; for in them religion comes nearer to men, and touches the heart. In like manner too great an equality of many with each other is offensive to some. Among ministers a dread of work is often the cause of this aversion.—There are special days of salvation and grace in our life. These memorable days are not merely birth-days, but rather those in which we have been awakened to a spiritual life.—we have still churchly assemblies, but those really Christian are rare.—For progress in what is good one needs grace as much as at the beginning: it is this which accomplishes all. God’s Spirit leaves nothing half done. He completes His work if man only lets Him rule. It is disgraceful to us, after God has begun the building, to allow it to stop, or to tear it down. God does not destroy His work, we destroy it.—If thou art anxious about thy progress, cling only to God.—Christian love should not make blind, but clear-sighted. Love lifts up the spirit. The truth is always better discerned through love, and the medium of a practical Christianity. When borne up by others, one sees further, more clearly, (Php_1:9.)—Love has a keen, critical character. The Christian has a delicate sensibility, by means of which he finds the right. A Christian’s growth is growth in the spirit of examination, and the more the Christian discriminates, the freer does he become from all blemishes. It is only the pure, clean heart, which makes us blameless before Christ, (Php_1:10.)—Paul gives here a definition of good works: they correspond to the law, spring from the Spirit of Christ, and redound to the honor of God: this last is their highest object, (Php_1:11.) But measured by this rule, many good works so-called lose their value. The Christian should have also not merely single, isolated, good works, but a fullness of them (Php_1:12.)—As the Epistle for the 22d Sunday after Trinity: The intimate connection of the Apostle with his church.
1) Ground: faith and love. 2) Effects: growth, new zeal.—Christian friendship: 1) Its nature; 3) Blessing; 3) Conditions.
Passavant:—Without His grace over us, and His Spirit within us, all in us is vain and impure.
Schleiermacher:—The beginning, though very often the most difficult, is also in many cases the easiest, and not until afterwards do the difficulties which must be overcome, appear. The former exertions then seem, as it were, mere play in comparison with the persistent zeal, which must be shown, if the work is to be brought to an end.—If a man is impelled by the power of genuine love, he is not content with mere experience of life, or with a knowledge of the divine word, by itself, but he seeks to bind both together, so that the one shall ever accompany, support, and promote the other.
Krummacher:—Love for all the saints urges, 1) to thorough self-examination; 2) to joyful emulation; 3) to hearty and humble praise of the free grace of God.—The fellowship of the saints: 1) The duty of thankfulness towards God; 2) Communications from the history of His kingdom; 3) Well-meant counsel: pray and watch.
Ashfeld:—At the end of the church year we observe a thanksgiving festival for the spiritual blessings of the year. 1) We give thanks for the gifts bestowed; 2) We trust God, that He will continue them to us; 3) We pray that we may constantly adorn our faith with richer fruits of righteousness.
Löhe:—1) The Apostle’s joyful thanksgiving for the fellowship of the Philippians in the Gospel; 2) His joyful confidence that the good work which has been begun, will be completed until the day of Christ; 3) His great longing for the Philippians, and for their perfection.
Rautenberg:—The signs of genuine thankfulness for the precious gift of the gospel: 1) Hearts which beat for it; 2) Lips which testify for it; 3) Hands which work for it.
Oettinger:—The greatest joy of the faithful is fellowship in the gospel: 1) Of the perfect joy in pure fellowship; 2) of the incomplete joy in mixed fellowship.
Muenkel:—The good work: 1) Begun through the gospel; 2) Proved in sorrow; 3) Completed in the love that gives no offence.
The priestly heart of the Apostle Paul: 1) A mirror for repentance; 2) A copy for faith; 3) A pattern for sanctification.
Pröhle:—True Christian friendship: 1) The source whence it flows; 2) The signs by which it verifies itself; 3) The blessing which rests upon it.—Most holy thought: God is my witness! 1) A thought of delight; 2) or of fear.—The way to a right understanding of Christian truth is through the heart: 1) It inclines the understanding aright; 2) takes away the bandage which keeps it from discerning divine things in their true form; 3) adds an inward experience to the testimony of the convictions of the understanding.
[Neander:—It is customary with Paul to commence his letters with a recognition of whatever is praiseworthy in the church to which he is writing. In this appears his wisdom as a spiritual guide. The confidence of men is far more easily won, and a hearing secured for whatever one has to say in the way of admonition and rebuke, if it appears that he nowise overlooks or undervalues what is good in them, that he does not willingly find fault, but is ready to acknowledge every real excellence with cordial approbation. Good and bad, moreover, stand frequently in close connection with each other. The good lies at the foundation; but the evil mingles its disturbing influence with the good, and hence it is through the latter that we can best reach and remedy the former. It is in the clear perception of this relation, and in the skilful use of it for the correction of error, that Paul manifests his wisdom (see Php_1:5-7).—H.]
Footnotes:
[7]Php_1:6. [A few of the oldest MSS. insert τῆς before πρώτης. Some copyist may have thought it necessary, but the grammar does not require it. See the Exegetical Remarks.—H.]
[8]Ibid. [Instead of Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (T. R.) some copies invert the order as in Php_1:1 (Lachmann, Ellicott, Tischendorf, Alford). The evidence seems not to be conclusive.—H.]
[9]Php_1:8. [Meyer, Tischendorf and others, reject ἐστίν in μου ἐστίν of the T. R. The omission, on the whole, is very doubtful. See Ellicott’s statement of the testimony.—H.]
[10]Php_1:11. Καρπὸν δικαιοσύνης τόν in א A B (which last, however, omits the article τόν) and many others. The plural καρπῶν—τῶν is not duly attested. [The A. V. therefore requires correction here.—H.]
[11]Ibid. [Whether the order here is Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus, with the present evidence, is uncertain.—H.]
[12][The reference here and elsewhere is to the translation of the seventh edition of Winer’s Grammar of the Idiom of the New Testament, revised and edited by Prof. J. Henry Thayer (Andover, 1869).—H.]
[13][ Alford (in loc.) supposes Paul to assume here “the nearness of the coming of the Lord.” But that view is apparently inconsistent with 2Th_2:2; for the Apostle there declares this opinion (which some had falsely imputed to him) to be unfounded and without sanction in any thing that he had said or written. If at that early period (2 Thess. being the second of all his extant Epistles) Paul did not entertain that definite expectation, much less should we ascribe it to him after the lapse of so many years, during which this visible coming of Christ had been delayed. The reason why Paul refers here to a more distant event, instead of saying that God would strengthen the Philippians and enable them to persevere to life’s end, may be that the day of one’s death coincides so essentially in its moral consequences with the Lord’s final advent, and hence was habitually near (as it should be to us all) to the feelings and consciousness of the first Christians. On this topic see remarks of the writer in his Commentary on the Acts, pp. 80–82 (revised ed.). See also Ellicott’s notes on Php_1:6, in opposition to Alfoer’s view.—H.
[14][‘Did I speak of having yon in my heart? I should rather have said that in the heart of Christ Jesus I long for you.’ A powerful metaphor describing perfect union. The believer has no yearnings apart from his Lord; his pulse beats with the pulse of Christ; his heart throbs with the heart of Christ (Lightfoot).—H.]
[15][The above is the generally received etymology. But Borne derive εὶλικρινεῖς from εἴλη=ἴλη, ‘band‚’ ‘troop‚’ and κρίνω, ‘to separate,’ and hence gregatim, ‘distinct,’ ‘unmixed.’ Hesychius defines: εἰλικρινές τὸ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀμιγὲς ἐτέρου. Lightfoot adopts this derivation. Ellicott prefers the second of the views mentioned in the text (see in loc.).—H.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Translate, "In all my remembrance of you."
Translate, "In all my remembrance of you."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3–5 2. Thanksgiving and prayer in their behalf, Php_1:3-11.
2. Thanksgiving and prayer in their behalf, Php_1:3-11.
3. Remembrance—The apostle’s remembrances of them, taken separately and as an entirety, led him on every occasion of them to devout thanksgiving to God. The ten years of their acquaintance and intercourse had left no disturbing thought or feeling in his soul.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3–11. Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Philippian Saints
3–11. Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Philippian Saints
3. I thank] So Rom_1:8; 1Co_1:4; Eph_1:16; Col_1:3; 1Th_1:2; 1Th_2:13; 2Th_1:3; 2Th_2:13; Phm_1:4. St Paul’s thanksgivings for the two Macedonian Churches, Philippi and Thessalonica, are peculiarly warm and full. See Bp Lightfoot here. Observe the recognition in all these thanksgivings of God as the whole cause of all goodness in the saints.
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my God] So Rom_1:8; 1Co_1:4; 2Co_12:21; below, Php_4:19; Phm_1:4. Cp. also Act_27:23; Gal_2:20; and below, Php_3:8. See too Psa_63:1, and many other O. T. passages.—Profound personal appropriation and realization speaks in the phrase. And we are reminded that the salvation of the Church takes place through the salvation of individuals, and their personal coming to (Joh_6:37) and incorporation into Christ.
upon every remembrance] Lit. and better, in my whole remembrance; as in a habit rather than as in single acts. For such remembrance, and its expressions, cp. Rom_1:9; Eph_1:16; 1Th_1:2; 2Ti_1:3; Phm_1:4.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 (3, 4) I thank my God . . .—These…
(3, 4) I thank my God . . .—These verses more accurately rendered will run thus: I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you at all times, in every prayer of mine for you all, uttering that prayer with joy—i.e., with joyful confidence. The sense, however, is not materially altered. The emphatic earnestness of thanksgiving is seen in the reiteration which runs through the passage, and its absolute universality of scope is no less clearly marked. The closest parallel is again in the Epistles to the Thessalonians (see 1Th_1:2; 2Th_2:3), although in every Epistle, except the Epistle to the Galatians, there is an opening of thanksgiving.
(3-8) In these verses St. Paul strikes that keynote of joy and confidence, which is dominant throughout the whole Epistle, and which is singularly remarkable when we remember that it was written in captivity, in enforced absence from the familiar and well-loved scenes of his apostolic labour, and with the knowledge of faction and jealousy, taking advantage of that absence. The words “joy” and “rejoice” occur no less than thirteen times in this short Epistle; they express what his own feeling is, and what he desires that theirs should be.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–5 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.…
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. All St. Paul"s Epistles, except those to the Galatiaus, 1 Timothy, and Titus, begin with a thanksgiving. In this Epistle the thanksgiving is especially warm and earnest; no cloud of doubt darkened the apostle"s confidence in the Philippians; he pours forth his gratitude to God for their spiritual gifts fervently and without reserve. My God. The pronoun expresses the inner consciousness of personal relations with God; it reminds us of Act_27:23, "God, whose I am, and whom I serve." Upon all my remembrance of you (as R.V) is the more exact rendering. The remembrance (not mention) was continuous; he "had them in his heart," and that unbroken remembrance resulted in unbroken thanksgiving.
Vers. 3-8. St. Paul an example to all Christian ministers.
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I HE REMEMBERS HIS CONVERTS. He was possessed through and through with an ardent love of souls. Like the good Shepherd, he knew his sheep, and cared for them with a sincere, self-sacrificing affection. He worked for them while he could; in prison he does not forget them. His thoughts are not taken up with his own hardships and dangers. The care of all the Churches still occupies his mind. He has his converts in his heart; it is his joy to think on their progress in holiness, to thank God for his grace vouchsafed unto them.
II HE PRAYS FOR THEM.
1. Intercessory prayer was part of his daily work. He had learned of the Lord that men "ought always to pray, and not to faint;" and he "prayed to God always." Thus his time was fully occupied; his mind was active. He was chained to a soldier, he could not visit his converts; but he could think of them, he could pray for them. And he did what he could. He teaches us by his example to make prayers and supplications, and to give thanks for all men.
2. He prays for all, always. We notice the constant repetition of the word "all" in this Epistle. There were dissensions, it seems, among the Philippians. The apostle will not recognize their differences; he loves them all, he prays for all: all are dear to him, all have their place in his prayers.
3. His prayers flow from love. He loves them, he longs for them all, and that in the bowels of Jesus Christ." He loves them as Christ loves them; nay, more than that, he loves them with the love of Christ, with the heart of Christ; for Christ was his life: "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." Hence he could say (would to God that we could say the same!) that he loved with Christ"s love. Mark the intensity of his consciousness of the blessed presence of Christ in all his power and love abiding within him.
III HIS HUMILITY. None labored as St. Paul labored, but he was wholly free from vain-glory.
1. He gives the glory to God. It was God who began the good work in the hearts of the Philippians; God began it; God will complete it. God is everything, the apostle nothing. Yet this confidence in God makes the apostle work all the more i it increases his efforts, it deepens the earnestness of his prayers.
2. He recognizes the fellowship of the Philippians. They had assisted him in the furtherance of the gospel both by their gifts and by their labors. He acknowledges their help; he thanks God for it; he regards them all as partakers of his grace. Grace had been given to him to endure and to labor. The like grace, he says, had been granted to the Philippians; he is thankful
IV HIS SINCERITY. "God is my witness," he says: his love for the Philippians is deep and true; God who sooth the secrets of the heart, knows how he longs after them. Living always in the felt presence of God, he knows, and gladly knows, that no thoughts of his heart are hidden from God.
LESSONS.
1. Pray for the strong love of souls.
2. Pray for a transparent sincerity and truthfulness of heart.
3. Be humble; without humility there can be no real progress in holiness.
4. Give much time to intercessory prayer.
Vers. 3-5. Thanksgiving for their fellowship in the gospel.
I THANKSGIVING IS A NATURAL AND PROPER EXERCISE OF THE BELIEVING HEART, The apostle usually giving in the case of the Philippians.
1. Scripture has psalms of thanksgiving. (Neh_12:8)
2. We have constant reason for thanksgiving. We thank God for temporal mercies; (Exo_15:1, Exo_15:2) for spiritual mercies; (Rom_1:8 1Co_1:4) for deliverance from the body of death; (Rom_7:25) but, above all, for Christ, his unspeakable Gift. (Luk_2:38)
II THE APOSTLE"S THANKSGIVING WAS BASED UPON HIS ENTIRE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS CONVERTS. "Upon my whole remembrance of you." Gratitude is usually fed by memory. They had been often in his remembrance for ten years back. Every fresh token of their affection received in his trials and imprisonments would revive the thought of them.
III THE OCCASIONS OF HIS THANKSGIVING. "Always in every prayer of mire for you all, making request with joy." There is something significant in "the studied cumulation" of the "alls" in the passage. It marks the overflowing heart.
1. The apostle was much in prayer for his converts. He had a large heart, for he prayed for them all, Ministers should bear their people much upon their hearts in prayer to God. They should pray always for their people. The apostle prayed for his converts as often as he remembered them
a. because "the anxiety of all the Churches" was upon him;
b. because he had a deep affection for them;
c. because they were exposed to great dangers at once from errorists and from persecutors.
2. His prayers for the Philippians were always with joy. "Making request with joy." Though he was a prisoner exposed to all the morbid depression caused by isolation, joy mingled with all his prayers. The sum of this Epistle is, Gaudeo; gaudete. Eighteen times does the word occur in its verbal or substantive forms. Joy is a true fruit of the Spirit. (Gal_5:22) The apostle mingled joy with his requests,
a. because the converts at Philippi were very dear to him;
b. because they were so mindful of his necessities;
c. because they abounded in many spiritual graces.
IV THE CAUSE FOR WHICH HE RETURNED THANKS TO GOD. "For your fellowship in aid of the gospel from the first day until now." It was a fellowship of faith and love and service with a view to the furtherance of the gospel. It implied:
1. A cordial and united action.
2. A thoughtful consideration for the apostle"s wants.
3. A continuance in well-doing,
which was at once a proof of the gospel"s power in their hearts, a demonstration of Christian consistency, and a means for sustained success in gospel work. T.C.
Vers. 3-11. The apostle"s intercession and assurance.
Having saluted a well-organized Church with its bishops and deacons, Paul proceeds to express his thanksgivings and his intercessions. From this Church at Philippi alone had he received supplies. By the hand of Epaphroditus they had forwarded their love-tokens to the imprisoned apostle, and he rejoiced in the sympathy this showed with the furtherance of the gospel. Accordingly he proceeds to prayer, and pours out his significant intercessions for these saints. And here let us notice
I HIS INTERCESSION FOR THEIR FELLOWSHIP IN THE FURTHERANCE OF THE GOSPEL. (Vers. 4, 5, Revised Version.) The intercession of the apostle was joyful. Our prayers should be less complaints than jubilations. It must have been delightful for Paul to dwell upon the missionary spirit which the saints at Philippi exhibited, and to intercede for its increase. As the firstfruits of the European mission, they entered most heartily into Paul"s aspirations and did all they could to strengthen his hands. It was a missionary Church which he had established at Philippi. And after all, is not this the prime purpose which should animate every Church? A congregation is nothing if not missionary. It must die of paralysis if it is not seeking to extend the gospel. What we need is to be filled with something like the enthusiasm of the apostles in the propagation of the faith.
II PAUL"S INTERCESSION WAS BACKED UP BY THE ASSURANCE THAT GOD WOULD ENABLE THEM TO PERSEVERE IN THEIR BLESSED POLICY. (Ver. 6) The relation of assurance to intercession is one of great interest as well as importance. A certain and sure hope makes prayer joyful and prevailing. Suppose that Paul had been uncertain about the perseverance of the Philippians in the policy of evangelization, how different must his intercessions have been! But because he was certain of it, he prayed prevailingly. But we must observe the ground of his assurance. The "good work" begun in them is evidently the missionary spirit. For every one that receives the gospel is led instinctively to seek to propagate the gospel. The absence of the missionary spirit is proof positive that the gospel has only been nominally received. Well, the apostle argues that when God begins a work, he means to finish it. Incompleteness is but a promise in any Divine work of subsequent perfection. God"s plans are not so poorly formed as to fail. Until the day of Jesus Christ, therefore, a spiritual work begun in men"s hearts will be carried on. The poetess strikes the true note when she ends her poem on "Incompleteness" with the words"Nor dare to blame God"s gifts for incompleteness; In that want their beauty lies; they roll Towards some infinite depth of love and sweetness, Bearing onwards man"s reluctant soul. (Proctor"s " Legends and Lyrics.")
The perseverance of the saints, therefore, in their large-hearted policy rests upon God"s ability to make them persevere. Left to themselves, they could not stand or persevere an hour; but, helped by God, they continue steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
III THEIR SYMPATHY WITH THE APOSTLE HAD PROVED AND WAS PROVING A MEANS OF GRACE. (Vers. 7, 8) Between Paul and the Philippians there was the most thorough sympathy. They sorrowed over his imprisonment, they sympathized with him in all his struggles and apologies for the gospel. The hearts in Philippi beat in unison with the great heart in Rome. And this secured their spiritual progress. It was a means of grace. Paul"s experience was reproduced in them. Sympathy was the means of sanctification. It is so always. When we learn to "weep with those that weep" and to "rejoice with those that do rejoice," we get a wider experience than is possible with the self-centred and self-contained. Progress in all the elements of spiritual power must result.
IV PAUL PRAYS STILL FURTHER FOR THEIR SYMMETRY OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. (Vers. 9, 10) His desire is that they may grow symmetrically. Love is to abound in knowledge and in judgment; that is to say, it is to be intelligent and discriminating, so that they may test the things that are excellent, and be sincere and without offense till the day of Jesus Christ. The symmetry of Christian character is a most important fact of experience. The graces do not manifest monstrosities. They grow harmoniously. Hence it is the desire of the progressive soul that others may experience a kindred progress, and with duly balanced powers may pass onwards towards the perfection which is to synchronize with the day of Jesus Christ.
V AND SUCH PROGRESS IMPLIES FRUITFULNESS. (Ver. 11) The fruits of righteousness are what God looks for. He plants the trees of righteousness that he may be glorified in their fruitfulness. His garden shall yet be filled with fruitful trees. Every barren cumberer shall yet be rooted out, that its place may be duly filled. R.M.E.
Vers. 3-11. Expression of interest.
I THANKSGIVING.
1. Whom he thanked. "I thank my God." As it was in connection with their matters that he thanked God, he might have said, "I thank your God." As he made common cause with them, he might have said, "I thank our God." As he felt personally indebted to God on their account, what he says is, "I thank my God.
2. Upon what he proceeded in thanksgiving. "Upon all my remembrance of you." This was a gracious word with which, as a wise overseer, to bespeak a hearing from them. It was the highest praise he could have bestowed upon them. His relations with them had been of the happiest nature. Not a shadow had passed over their intercourse. There was nothing in their past history as a Church that he recalled with regretfulness. His whole recollection of them made him thank his God.
3. How he thanked God. "Always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy." His interest in them carried him to the throne of grace. It was his habit to pray for them, as for all the Churches he had founded. He had a means of reaching them through heaven. And whenever he prayed on their behalf (and this was a care which came upon him daily) the remembrance of them called forth his thanksgivings, which gave a tone of joy to his prayers. What was uniformly in his prayers could not but come out in his Epistle. And so it has been remarked by Bengel, "The sum of the Epistle is, I rejoice; rejoice ye.
4. For what particularly he thanked God. For your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now." They were partners with him for a holy end. That end was to further the gospel. They could not accomplish this cud in the same way that Paul did. But they could contribute for his support; and, thus relieving him from the necessity of working with his own hands, they put him in a better position for furthering the gospel They also helped by the prayers they offered up to God on his behalf. They especially helped in what they evinced in their lives of the power of the gospel. That was putting a powerful argument into the mouth of the apostle. In trying to persuade others he could point to what the gospel had done for them. All that help in the gospel they had rendered him from the first day they had heard until then. He had continually been held up by them in the proclamation of the gospel.
II CONFIDENT HOPE.
1. To what directed. "That he which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ." The good work immediately referred to was co-operation with the apostle in furthering the gospel. But the language is general, and may be referred to the work of grace as a whole.
(1) How the work can be said to be good.
(a) It is a work wrought in us. "In you," says the apostle. There is a work to be wrought on external nature. We are to subdue the earth, according to the primeval command; we are to turn it to good uses. But that is really accidental, relative to the work that is to be wrought in us. What is essential is that we, the workers, the subduers of the earth, should be in our normal state. And there can be no doubt that is what will be looked into when we have done with earth and all its works. What with all our working have we wrought in ourselves?
(b) It is a work which consists in giving forms of goodness to our nature. A man of cultivated taste can make the bare ground assume forms of beauty. He can turn it into a garden the surface taken advantage of, the soil highly cultivated, flowers and trees disposed of with reference to season, color, size all so arranged as to be pleasing to the eye. So our nature has to be made to assume Divine forms. It has to be charactered by God its peculiarities preserved, its powers cultivated, all so ordered under his plastic hand as to be a garden in which he can take delight.
(c) It is a work which consists in the emancipation of our nature from evil forms. This earth of ours in its natural state needs much subduing by the iron, directed by the mind of man. Our nature is to be compared to a piece of ground in its natural wildness, which is ill to subdue to usefulness and loveliness. It needs much subduing by the grace of God, that it may be delivered from the evil that is in it, while brought forth into all goodness. Our minds need to be delivered from vanity, and brought into captivity to Christ. Our memories need to be delivered from treacherousness, and made reliable and ready in the service of Christ. Our affections need to be weaned from the world, and set Christ. Our consciences need to be delivered from searedness, and endued with tenderness. Our wills, especially, need to be delivered from weakness, and endued with power. It is throughout a work of liberation, emancipation, the transforming of the waste so that"Flowers of grace in freshness start, Where once the weeds of error grew.
(2) How God can be said to begin the good work in us.
(a) It is to be traced to the Fathers love. Take one who has experienced something of The "good work" in his heart what is its history? If it is traced back and back, its beginnings are to be found in the motions of the Father"s love. It goes further back than even the Divine counsels. For it was the love behind, essentially belonging to him as Father, that made him think of and decree our salvation.
(b) It is to be traced to the work of the Son. This is not going so far back as the Father"s counsels; it is rather the carrying out of these counsels. The work of Christ outside of us is the reason why the good work can go forward in us. The Son of God, coming into our nature and grappling with all the difficulties of our position, obtained for us redemptive virtue. That is the decisive fact to which the good work in us is to be traced back, just as the healing of men"s bodies of old was to be traced back to the miraculous virtue that was in Christ.
(c) It is to be traced to the operations of the Spirit. This is God coming into closest contact with us. Left to ourselves the redemptive work of Christ would have been a dead work. But it was followed up by the Spirit of Christ coming into our heart, producing in us the desire for salvation, holding up before us saving merit, saving truth. And the good work in us is to be traced back to his gracious working. "And every virtue we possess, And every victory won, And every thought of holiness, Are his alone.
(3) Our ground of confidence in God that he will perfect the good work in us. The work is emphatically God"s. "The transformation of apostate man From fool to wise, from earthly to Divine, Is work for him that made him.
(a) We confide in the infinitude of the Fathers love. If we had only our own interest in our salvation to look to, we might be afraid of it dying out. But sooner will light die out of the sun than love die out of the heart of God. And we have that inextinguishable love to rely upon to complete our salvation for us.
(b) We confide in the infinitude of the Savior"s merit. If we had only our own worthiness to think of, we might often enough hide our head in the dust. But fuller than the sea is of water is Christ of merit. And infinitely beyond our need does his merit extend. And to his far-reaching merit can we look for the completion of our salvation.
(c) We confide in the infinitude of the Spirits power. If we had only ourselves to look to, we might well despair, considering the elements of weakness, of fickleness, that are in our hearts. But more penetrating, subduing than fire is the working of the Spirit. And when we are ready to stand aghast at the evil we discover in our hearts, let us look away to the might of the Spirit that can infinitely more than conquer it all.
(4) Our ground of confidence in God especially as having begun the good work.
(a) He is bound by his wisdom. When he began the good work he must have had a distinct end in view. And he must have known all the difficulties in the way beforehand, especially the badness of our hearts. In the knowledge of all difficulties he must have seen his way to the desired end all clear. To begin to build without knowing how to finish is foolishness, with which only man is chargeable. There are no half-finished worlds in God"s universe.
(b) He is bound by his faithfulness. There is the Old Testament promise, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Such a word as this is encouraging: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And the very fact that he has begun a good work in us, apart from any word of promise, may be taken as a pledge that he will see to it being completed. Observe the nexus of our experience. It is when we have experienced something of the good work in us that we can assure ourselves in God that he will complete it. We have, therefore, in the first place, to satisfy ourselves about the reality of our experience. Are there the signs of a good work begun in our hearts? Is there the seeking after God for the blessing? Is there the endeavor to do the Divine will? If we cannot satisfy ourselves, we are not beyond hope while we can sayLove of God, so pure and changeless; Blood of Christ, so rich and free; Grace of God, so strong and boundless, Magnify them all in me Even me.
(5) The time toward which we look for the completion of the work. He says not "day of our death;" for, though it is practically that to each of us, yet that signifies nothing as to the completion of the work. But he says "day of Jesus Christ," because the work is to be completed in connection with the saving power of Christ upon us; and not only so, but, more definitely, in connection with the full manifestation of the saving power of Christ upon us. For, as is said in Colossians, "When Christ who is our Life shall be manifested "as he is not now manifested. he then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.
2. Its justification.
(1) Love resting on participation. "Even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers with me of grace." It was right for him to cherish a confident hope regarding one and all of them, because he felt the warmest love toward them. He uses a strong expression he had them in his heart. "Open my heart," says R. Browning, "and you will see graven on it, "Italy. So on the opened heart of the apostle to this hour in heaven may be seen graven on it, among other names, "Philippi." Grace operated in them as it did in him. In his bonds they helped him by their sympathy with him. In his exertions for the gospel they also helped him. When he stood up in defense of the gospel, before heathen magistrates and unbelieving Jews, he was emboldened by the thought of their unwavering confidence in him. And when he was engaged in confirmation of the gospel by his teaching among those who came under his influence, he was indebted to them for what he could point to in them of the power of the gospel, and especially for their spontaneously contributing to his support. They were thus in a remarkable manner partners with him in grace. And as he hoped for himself, so as confidently did he hope for them, that there would be a completion of the good work begun.
(2) Love going out in longing. "For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus." Love longs for its object. He could call God to witness that he longed eagerly after one and all of them. This was not merely a longing to be present with them, but a longing after communion with them in the Spirit in their increasing approximation to Christ. For he longed after them in sympathy with Christ. He notes a wonderful identity; it was as though Christ were yearning in him. Christ, in Paul, had a yearning after the Philippian community, though it was not conspicuous for its numbers, and had only been ten years in existence. Does he not yearn yet after Christian societies, however humble, and through Christian hearts?
III PETITION.
1. For increase of love, associated with knowledge and discernment. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment." He has already given them credit for love in its manifestations. He here assumes that their love abounded. Still, he wished higher things for them in love. Especially did he wish to see it associated with knowledge and discernment. The former points more to fullness of contents; the Latter more to quickness of perception. The former is used generally; the latter distributively all discernment, i.e. every act of the spiritual sense, or its application to every occasion. We need not wonder that love, in order to be perfected, needs to be brought under the influence of truth. Love is regulated by truth. In proportion to its force it is apt to be erratic. We need sometimes to drag it at the heels of duty. We need to keep it from being placed on unworthy objects. We need to keep it from seeking worthy objects in unworthy ways. Christ needed to rebuke Peter"s love to him, which mistakenly forbade him to die. Love is nourished by truth. With imperfect knowledge our love must be starved. We need to have the field of truth ever opened up before us, that love may be fed. We must see beauty in Christ in order that we may desire him. The apostle then prayed for the Philippians, that they might have an enlarged knowledge and a finer perception, in order that their hearts might be more warmly affected, especially toward him who is the altogether Lovely.
2. Aim in the elements associated with love. "That ye may approve the things that are excellent." Some translate, "That ye may prove the things that differ." But the apostle is a point beyond that. The object of enlarged knowledge and a fine spiritual sense is that love may be combined with the approbation of excellent things, or things that stand out amongst the good. necessary to a rounded character? Is it not necessary in a world And is that not like this, if love would have its virgin purity and due warmth, that we should have a keen eye to detect the spurious, the base, that we should set aside for our highest approbation the things that tower up among the good?
3. Ultimate design.
(1) Inward state "That ye may be sincere and void of offense unto the day of Christ." "Sincere," in its derivation points to honey without any admixture of wax. So are we to have heavenly excellence without any admixture of earthliness. Unmixed in our motives (which is a condition of excellence), we shall not be chargeable with giving others offense, or putting obstacles in their way. Especially in view of the day of Christ does it become us to see that we are clear from the blood of all men.
(2) Outward results. "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Righteousness is the holy habit already presupposed. He refers to it now in connection with its fruits. These Philippians had already exhibited good fruits in what they had done for the furtherance of the gospel. He wished to see the idea of fruitfulness fully realized. Let them be like trees laden with golden fruit, that fruit produced through the inflowing of the virtue of Christ-like sap into the tree, and tending to the glory of God and its due recognition. R.F.
Vers. 3-5. Paul"s gratitude for good men.
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." There are two things noteworthy here at the outset.
1. A minister"s hearty recognition of the moral worth of his people. "I thank my God upon every remembrance." This implies on the writer"s part a very high appreciation of the spiritual excellence of those to whom he wrote. The recognition of worth in others is the indication of a generous nature, an incumbent obligation, and in truth is a rare virtue. So selfish is human nature that the majority of mankind not only ignore the virtues of others, but eagerly mark and magnify their imperfections. It is said that Enoch had this testimony, that "he pleased God," and we, like our Maker, should readily bear testimony to worth wherever it appears.
2. A minister"s lively vigilance over the interests of his people. "Upon every remembrance," and "in every prayer," "for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." He watched over them, not with the eye of curiosity or censorship, anxious to discover and expose their defects, but with the eye of tender love, yearning, as it were, for the sight of moral beauty, and heartily thankful whenever it appeared. There are two things connected with Paul"s gratitude as here disclosed, very remarkable and worthy of imitation.
I It was gratitude to men EXPRESSED IN PRAYER TO ALMIGHTY GOD. It is common to express our gratitude for services to others by florid utterances or kindly offices, but somewhat rare to give it voice in prayer to Almighty God. "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy" or, as it would be better rendered, "I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you at all times in every prayer of mine for you all." Mark:
1. The fervor of the prayer. What intense earnestness breathes through this utterance! the man"s soul seems aglow with devout, philanthropic zeal.
2. The universality of the prayer. "For you all." A similar expression Paul uses in relation to the Thessalonians: (1Th_1:2) "We give thanks to God always for you all." There is not one of you for whom we that is, Paul and Timotheus do not give thanks. Now, what better way is there to show gratitude to men than by interceding for them all with the common Father? There is no way more practicable. We may be too poor or too weak to return their favors, but none are too poor or weak to pray. There is no way more effective. If the all-merciful Father confer on them his favor they will have more than worlds can bestow.
II It was gratitude to men on ACCOUNT OF CONTRIBUTION"S TO THE COMMON GOOD. "For your fellowship in the gospel," or towards the gospel. Dr. Samuel Davidson renders it, "For your fellowship in respect of the gospel." What is meant is, I presume, for your fellow-working or your working with us in the fellowship of the gospel. Some suppose that the special reference is here to the contribution that they made towards his temporal needs as referred to in Php_4:15, "Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no Church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only." But if he refers to this specially, the high probability is that he also refers to their co-operation with him in the general service of the gospel. The apostle felt that, whatever services they rendered him, they were rendered, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the grand cause in which they were mutually interested. As a private disciple it mattered little or nothing to him whether he fared well or ill, died of starvation or martyrdom; but inasmuch as he was entrusted with the gospel he felt the continuation of his existence of some moment to the common good. "Nevertheless," he says, "to abide in the flesh is more needful for you; and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith" (vers. 24, 25). His gratitude, then, was not on account of any favor they had shown to him as an individual saint, for personal comforts, but to him as a public man laboring for the common good. What a lofty gratitude is this: so unselfish, so sublimely generous! When will the time come when men shall be thankful to each other, not merely for personal benefits, but for the services they rendered to the general weal? Every man who helps on the cause of truth, Christly virtue, and human happiness in the world, whether he belongs to our nation, our Church, or not, deserves our gratitude. In truth, the best way for us to serve ourselves as individuals is to serve the race by diffusing that system of moral and remedial truth which alone can crush the demon ills and create the Divine beatitudes of the race. Never can we be sufficiently thankful to Heaven for the mere existence of good men in this world of ours. They are the "salt of the earth," counteracting that corruption in which all impenitent souls find their hell. They are the ozone in the moral atmosphere of life. They are the highest revelation of God on this earth and the highest exemplification of duty. Like stars, they reveal the infinite above us, and throw light upon our path below. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3–4 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you
Php_1:3-11
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you
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Retrospect and forecast
I.
The retrospect.
1. Its subject--fellowship of the gospel.
(1) Their mutual delight in all that the gospel brings. The grace that saved the apostle was that which saved his converts. Having a common faith they had a bond of union.
(2) Their cooperation in all attempts for the furtherance of the gospel.
2. The emotions it awakened.
(1) A grateful recognition of its unbroken character. Never had a single jar arisen between them. This experience was exceptional with Paul as it is with ourselves. In looking over ten years of work we can see more than enough to prevent our review from being one of unmixed pleasure. This is essential to check pride.
(2) Thankfulness to God, the source and sustainer of it. This also is exceptional. We thank God for good and earnest men, but can they thank God for our cooperation?
II. The forecast. It is founded on the same cooperation.
1. The apostles confident hope in regard to their future. Confidence in character is of tardy growth, and is often disappointed. Pauls was based on two grounds.
(1) Their character had not failed when it was severely tested. They had braved the ridicule and persecution of their heathen neighbours for ten years.
(2) God, being who and what He is, would not fail. He would bring the work He had begun to completion; not, however, that men are passive instruments in His hands.
2. The staple of His prayer. It is a prayer for the growth of that which already exists in them; and one which implies their active cooperation in fulfilling the subject of His petitions; that their love may grow in knowledge and perception.
3. The remaining portion of the forecast refers to the fruits of which love, knowledge, and a powerful moral sense are the roots.
(1) There is a quick choice of the best among good things (Php_1:10). Not mental and spiritual epicurianism.
(2) Frankness and transparency, and therefore purity.
(3) Blamelessness, not causing offence to men; so living as to be acceptable to God.
(4) Abundant and uninterrupted fruitfulness. (J. J. Goadby.)
Pleasant memories and bright hopes
The apostles usual practice was to begin with thanksgiving. He delights to recognize good in those to whom he writes, even where there is much to reprove. In melancholy contrast stands the Epistle to the Galatians. In a Christian the natural outflow of gladness is in thanks to our Father in heaven. More distinctively Christian is it when the heart gives thanks for the good of others; but most of all when, as here, for the spiritual good of others.
I. An expression of gratitude for the past history of the Philippian Church (verses 3-5).
1. Its object--My God. The my well illustrates the broadening influence of Christianity; its tendency to slay the selfishness of the human heart. The wise believer knows that the widening of the range of blessing brings no diminution of individual blessing.
2. Its occasion. He had vividly before him the kindness of their youth, the love of their espousals to the Saviour. With this good beginning he knew that their history since had on the whole accorded. How rare in any age such a Church! How sweet to a pastor such a memory.
3. Its form.
(1) When a minister sees Gods blessing plainly resting on his work, his sense of gratitude impels him with peculiar power to prayer. This is the proper and healthful influence of gratitude to God for any gift.
(2) Prayer offered with thankfulness will be distinguished by gladness.
4. Its ground. Every true Church is an association for advancing the gospel.
(1) This fellowship was first and fundamentally with Christ.
(2) In Him they had fellowship in relation to the gospel with each other. The advancement of each others piety and peace and the extension of the gospel was an object of definite pursuit.
(3) This fellowship was with all Christians--with their friend Paul for example.
II. The expression of gratitude for an assured hope in regard to the future.
1. Every work of God is good, particularly His work of saving grace, which makes sinful men good. Paul believed that the same grace would bring the good work to completeness. God does not do things by halves.
2. Having this happy conviction Paul is confident that the good would be carried on until the day of Jesus Christ--the day of the resurrection when body as well as soul will be glorified.
3. But diligence, watchfulness, and prayer, is necessary to make our calling and election sure. The perseverance of the saints is a perseverance in faith and holiness. (R. Johnstone, LL. B.)
The true spirit of prayer
I. Thanksgiving (verse 3).
II. Petition (verse 4).
III. Confident faith (verse 6).
IV. Christian charity (verses 7-8).
V. Intercession (verses 9-10).
VI. Holy purpose.
VII. Praise. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Here are--
I. Pleasant memories. Inspiring gratitude, joy, prayer.
II. Confident hopes. The work is begun; must be continued; completed.
III. Loving fellowship. In bonds; in the defence of the gospel; in the enjoyment of special grace. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Blessed remembrance and joyful prayers
I. The remembrance. No one looked back with deeper solicitude on past labours than Paul. Memory plays an important part in secular, religious, and national life. It influences the present and casts its shadow on the future.
1. Look at the general religious aspect of the subject. The history of the Church is full of imperishable monuments of life and character. This history has created an enthusiasm which has resulted in acts of the highest importance and use. Same histories debase, this elevates; some depress, this strengthens.
2. Look at the particular religious history of this subject. The history of this Church was interwoven with the apostles liveliest interest. He was the founder of it, and it developed virtues which excited his warmest admiration. So there are tender recollections of the work of grace clustering around every particular Church. If we, at any time, are cold or despondent, let us open the chronicles of the Churches of our early days, gather around us the warm hearts which cheered us then, and though dead they will speak to us words of life and encouragement.
II. The prayers. We call prayer the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear. There is that in our life which lends sorrow to prayer. Much of this, however, is wrong--lamentation over pardoned sins, etc. We are under an obligation to approach the throne of grace with joy.
1. We may look at this in its general aspect. It arose from an absence of selfish desires, and absorption in the condition and want of others. Pauls heart was bound up with the interests of the Church. At Philippi there was everything to evoke spiritual joy. Paul, therefore, joyfully prayed for a larger blessing. Let us approach God with praise for the prosperity of the Church, and with prayer for its increase.
2. If we narrow our field of observation every Christian must feel thankful for his new heart. If the glory of creation, the goodness of providence, excites gratitude, much more this the chiefest of Gods works. Let us supplicate its further perfection. (Weekly Pulpit.)
Christian remembrances
I. Inspire gratitude.
II. Provoke prayer.
III. Awaken joy.
IV. Cement fellowship, (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Happy memories
those--
1. That are prompted by the Spirit of God.
2. That recall the past joy of harvest.
3. That cause to abide With us, fruit long since reaped.
4. That link us still in association with distant but kindred spirits.
5. That evoke perennial gratitude to God.
6. That enrich our own moral worth.
They shall be had in everlasting remembrance, whose life on earth gives birth to memories such as these. (G. G. Ballard.)
A cheerful prisoner
At midnight in the Philippian prison Paul and Silas sang praises to God. The same joyous spirit breathes through this Epistle. And yet now he was a prisoner at Rome.
I. The sorrow of his imprisonment is tempered by his thought of God.
1. He recognizes God as his God. He knows that God has led him and redeemed him, and that nothing can separate him from His love (Psa_63:2). As it was with Paul and David, so it may be with us. Whom have I in heaven but Thee.
II. The sorrow of his separation from the Philippians is lightened by thought of their welfare.
1. He remembered them in his thanksgivings.
(1) For their fellowship with each other in the gospel.
(2) He had confidence in its continuance.
2. He remembered them in his supplications.
(1) That their mutual affection, knowledge of truth, and spiritual perceptions might increase.
(2) That they might be preserved pure and without offence to the day of Christ.
(3) That they might be filled with the fruits of righteousness. Conclusion: Looking to God he felt thankful; thinking on what God had wrought by him, and praying for its perfection, he was happy. Here is the secret of ministerial joy. (Family Churchman.)
My God
I. Between God and him there was a reciprocal community of--
1. Being.
2. Love.
3. Sympathy.
4. Effort.
Blessed consummation of life when myself, as the court of final appeal, gives place to my God. Then He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God.
II. The ground of this relationship.
1. He is my Master, my Provider, my Redeemer, my Father, my Friend. Whose I am and whom I serve.
2. Faith gathers up these long-forgotten links, and welds them into a golden chain, whereby the heart is consciously rebound to God. Appropriating faith commands the fulness of Gods heart and the omnipotence of His hand.
III. Its effect. Deeper than any mere channel of its communication, true gratitude has its spring in the immediate and responsive fellowship existing between the soul and God. (G. G. Ballard.)
The introduction to the Epistle
Masters of the art of elocution teach us that the business of the exordium is to gain the goodwill of those to whom we speak. In fact, as hatred, dislike, and indifference close the entrance to mens hearts, it is necessary when we desire to persuade them that first of all we should prepare their minds, and fill them with a prepossession in our favour, so that our arguments may be received into their understandings. To this end the apostle labours in verses 1-12. (J. Daille.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v3 Chapter 2
Chapter 2
THE APOSTLES MIND ABOUT THE PHILIPPIANS.
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Php_1:3-11 (R.V.)
AFTER the salutation, the first thing in the Epistle is a warm utterance of the feelings and the desires which Paul habitually cherishes in relation to his converts at Philippi. This is expressed in Php_1:3-11.
Note the course of thought, in Php_1:3 he declares his thankfulness and in ver. 4 (Php_1:4) his prayerfulness on their behalf; and he puts these two together, without as yet saying why he thanks and what he prays for. He puts them together, because he would mark that with him these are not two separate things; but his prayer is thankful, and his thankfulness is prayerful; and then, having so much to be thankful for, his prayers became, also, joyful. The reason why, he presently explains more particularly. For, Php_1:5, he had to thank God, joyfully, for their fellowship in the gospel in the past; and then, Php_1:6, knowing to what this pointed forward, he could pray joyfully
- that is, with joyful expectation for the future. And thus he prepares theway for telling what special things he was led to pray for; but first he interposes Php_1:7-8, to vindicate, as it were, the right he had to feel so warm and deep an interest in his Philippian friends. The matter of his prayer follows in Php_1:9-11.
First he thanks God for grace bestowed upon the Philippians. As often as he remembered them, as often as he lifted up his heart in prayer to make request for them, he was cheered with the feeling that he could make request joyfully-i.e., he could rejoice over mercies already given. We know that the Apostle, in his letters to the Churches, is found always ready to evince the same spirit; he is prompt to pour out his thanks for anything attained by those Churches, either in gifts or grace. We find it so in his letters to the Churches of Corinth and Ephesus and Colossus and Thessalonica. He does this, always, in a full and hearty way. He evidently counted it both duty and privilege to take note of what God had wrought, and to show that he prized it. Like John, he had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth; and he gave the glory of it to God in thanksgiving. In the case of this Church, however, the ground of thanksgiving was something that bound them to Paul in a peculiar manner, and touched his heart with a glow of tenderer love and gladness. It was, Php_1:5, "their fellowship in the gospel (or rather, unto the gospel) from the first day until now." He means, that from their first acquaintance with the gospel, the Philippian Christians had, with unusual heartiness and sincerity, committed themselves to the cause of the gospel. They had made it their own cause. They had embarked in it as a fellowship to which they gave themselves heart and soul. There might be Churches, more distinguished for gifts than that of Philippi was, where less of this magnanimous spirit appeared. There might be Churches, where men seemed to be occupied with their own advantage by the gospel, their individual and separate advantage, but withheld themselves from the fellowship unto it, - did not readily commit themselves to it and to each other, as embarking wholly and for ever in the common cause. This misconception, this servility of spirit, is but too easy. You may have whole Churches, in which men are full of self-congratulation about attainments they make in the gospel, and gifts they receive by the gospel, and doctrines they buildup about it - but the loving "fellowship unto it" fails. A large measure of a better spirit had been given to the Philippians from the first. They were a part of those Macedonian Churches, who "first gave their own selves" to the Lord and His Apostles, and then also their help and service. It was an inward fellowship before it was an outward one. They first gave their own selves, so that their hearts were mastered by the desire to see the ends of the gospel achieved, and then came service and sacrifice. Trials and losses had befallen them in this course of service; but still they are found caring for the gospel, for their brethren in the gospel, for their father in the gospel, for the cause of the gospel. This fellowship-this readiness to make common cause with the gospel, out and out, had begun at the first day; and after trouble and trial it continued even until now.
The disposition here commended has its importance, very much because it implies so just a conception of the genius of the gospel, and so hearty a consent to it. He whose Christianity leads him to band himself with his fellow-Christians, to get good by their help, and to help them to get good, and along with them to do good as opportunity arises, is a man who believes in the work of the gospel as a vital social force; he believes that Christ is in his members; he believes that there are attainments to be made, victories won, benefits laid hold of and appropriated. He is in sympathy with Christ, for he is attracted by the expectation of great results coming in the line of the gospel; and he is one who looks not merely on his own things, but rejoices to feel that his own hope is bound up with a great hope for many and for the world. Such a man is near the heart of things. He has, in important respects, got the right notion of Christianity, and Christianity has got the right hold of him.
Now if we consider that the Apostle Paul, "the slave of Jesus Christ," was himself a marvellous embodiment of the spirit he is here commending to the Philippians, we shall easily understand with what satisfaction he thought upon this Church, and rejoiced over them, and gave thanks. Was there ever a man who, more than Paul, evinced "the fellowship of the gospel" from the first hour to the last? Was there ever one whose personal self was more swallowed up and lost, in his zeal to be spent for the cause, - doing all things, for the gospels sake that he might have part therein? Did ever man, more than he, welcome sufferings, sacrifices, toils, if they were for Christ, for the gospel? Was man ever possessed more absolutely than he with a sense of the worthiness of the gospel to be proclaimed everywhere, to every man-and with a sense of the right the gospel had to himself, as Jesus Christs man, the man that should be used and expended on nothing else but upholding this cause, and proclaiming this message to all kinds of sinners? The one great object with him was that Christ should be magnified in him, whether by life or by death (Php_1:20). His heart, therefore, grew glad and thankful over a Church that had so much of this same spirit, and, for one thing, showed this by cleaving to him in their hearts through all the vicissitudes of his work, and following him everywhere with their sympathy and their prayers. Some Churches were so much occupied with themselves, and had so little understanding of him, that he was obliged to write to them at large, setting forth the true spirit and manner of his own life and service; he had, as it were, to open their eyes by force to see him as he was. This was not needed here: the Philippians understood him already: they did so, because, in a degree, they had caught the contagion, of his own spirit. They had given themselves, in their measure, in a fellowship unto the gospel, from the first day until now. They had claimed, and they still claimed, to have a share in all that befell the gospel, and in all that befell the Apostle.
Paul ascribed all this to Gods grace in them, and thanked God for it. True, indeed, much activity about the gospel, and much that looks like interest in its progress, may proceed from other causes besides a living fellowship with Jesus, and a true disposition to forsake all for Him. The outward activity may be resorted to as a substitute for the inward life; or it may express the spirit of sectarian selfishness. But when it appears as a consistent interest in the gospel, when it is accompanied by the tokens of frank good will and free self-surrender to the Churchs evangelical life, when it endures through vicissitudes of time, under trial, persecution, and reproach, it must arise, in the main, from a real persuasion of the Divine excellence and power of the gospel and the Saviour. Not without the grace of God does any Church manifest this spirit.
Now to the Apostle who had this cause of gladness in the past, there opened (Php_1:6) a gladdening prospect for the future, which at once deepened his thankfulness and gave expectancy to his prayers. "Being confident of this very thing, that He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." "Being confident of this very thing" is equivalent to "Having no less confidence than this"; for he desires to express that his confidence is emphatic and great.
The confidence so expressed assumes a principle, and makes application of that principle to the Philippian saints.
The principle is that the work of saving grace clearly begun by the Spirit of God shall not be destroyed and come to nothing, but shall be carried on to complete salvation. This principle is not received by all Christians as part of the teaching of Scripture; but without entering now into any large discussion, it may be pointed out that it seems to be recognised, not merely in a few, but in many passages of Holy Writ. Not to recite Old Testament indications, we have our Lords word: {Joh_10:28} "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." And there is hardly an Epistle of our Apostle in which the same principle is not presented to us, stated in express terms, or assumed in stating other doctrines, and applied to the comfort of believers. {1Th_5:23-24; 1Co_1:8; Rom_8:30} The ultimate salvation of those in whom a good work is begun, is, in this view, conceived to be connected with the stability of Gods purposes, the efficacy of the Sons mediation, the permanence and power of the Holy Spirits influence, and the nature of the covenant under which believers are placed. And the perseverance thus provided for is supposed to be made good through the faith, patience, fear, and diligence of those who persevere, and by no means without these. As to the place before us, whatever exceptions and whatever distinctions may be taken on the subject, it must be owned that, gladly recognising Christian character and attainment as a fact, he finds therein a warrant for emphatic confidence about the future, even to the day of Christ.
As to the application of this principle to the Philippians, the method in which the Apostle proceeds is plain. He certainly does not speak as by immediate insight into Divine counsels about the Philippians. He is directed to utter a conclusion at which he had arrived by a process which he explains. From the evidence of the reality of their Christian calling, he drew the conclusion that Christ was at work in them, and the further conclusion that his work would be completed. It may be asked how so confident an application of the principle now in view could be reached on these terms? How could the Apostle be sure enough of the inward state of his Philippian friends, to enable him to reason on it, as here he seems to do? In answer, we grant it to be impossible for any one, without immediate revelation on the point, to reach absolute assurance about the spiritual state of other people. And therefore we are to keep in view, what has already been suggested, that the Apostle, speaking to "saints," really remits to themselves and to their Lord the final question as to the reality of that apparent saintship. But then, we are taught by the Apostles example that where ordinary tokens, and especially where more than ordinary tokens of Christian character appear, we are frankly and gladly to give effect to those signs in our practical judgments. There may be an error no doubt there is, in unbounded charity; but there is error also when we make a grudging estimate of Christian brethren; when, on the ground of some failing, we allow suspicion to obliterate the impressions which their Christian faith and service might fairly have made upon us. We are to cherish the thought that a wonderful future is before those in whom Christ is carrying on His work of grace; and we are to make a loving application of that hope in the case of those whose Christian dispositions have become specially manifest to us in the intercourse of Christian friendship.
However, the Apostle felt that he had a special right to feel thus in reference to the Philippians-more, perhaps, than in regard to others; and instead of going on at once to specify the objects of his prayers for them, he interposes a vindication, as it were, of the right he claimed (Php_1:7): "Even as it is meet for me to be thus minded with respect to all of you, because I have you in my heart, you who are all partakers of my grace, not only in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, but also in my bonds." As if he would say, -There are special ties between us, which justify on my part special tenderness and vigilance of appreciation and approbation, when I think of you. A father has a special right to take note of what is hopeful in his son, and to dwell with satisfaction on his virtues and his promise; and friends who have toiled and suffered together have a special right to cherish, a deep trust in one anothers well-tried fidelity and nobleness. Let strangers, in such cases, set, if they will, a slight value on characters which they hardly know; but let them not dispute the right which love has to scrutinise with delight the nobler qualities of those who are beloved.
The Philippians were sharers of Pauls grace, as sharing his enthusiasm for the successful advocacy and confirmation of the gospel. So they had their share in the grace that was so mighty in him. But besides that, the Apostles heart had been cheered and warmed by the manifestation of their sympathy, their loving thoughtfulness in reference to his bonds. So he joyfully owned them as partakers in spirit in those bonds, and in the grace by which he endured them. They remembered him in his bonds, "as bound with him." Every way their fellowship with him expressed itself as full and true. No jarring element broke in to mar the happy sense of this. He could feel that though far away their hearts beat pulse for pulse with his, partakers not only of his toil but of his bonds. So he "had them in his heart": his heart embraced them with no common warmth and yielded to them no common friendship. And what then? Why, then, "it is meet that I should be thus minded," "should use loves happy right to think very well of you, and should let the evidence of your Christian feeling come home to my heart, warm and glowing." It was meet that Paul should joyfully repute them to be sincere - to be men cleaving to the gospel in a genuine love of it. It was meet that he should thank God in their behalf, seeing these happy attainments of theirs were so truly a concern of his. It was meet he should pray for them with joyful importunity, counting their growth in grace to be a benefit also to himself.
It would be a helpful thing if Christian friends cherished, and if they sometimes expressed, warm hopes and expectations in behalf of one another. Only, let this be the outcome of truly spiritual affection. Paul was persuaded that his feelings arose from no mere human impulse. The grace of God it was which had given the Philippians this place in his heart. God was his record that his longing after them was great, and also that it was in the mercies of Christ. He loved them as a man in Christ, and with Christlike affections. Otherwise, words like these assume a canting character and are undefying. Now at last comes the tenor of his prayer (Php_1:9): "That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye may approve the things that are excellent," and so on.
Let this first be noted, that it is a prayer for growth. All that grace has wrought in the Philippian believers, everything in their state that filled his heart with thankfulness, he regards as the beginning of something better still. For this he longs; and therefore his heart is set on progress. So we find it in all his Epistles. "As ye have received how ye ought to walk and to please God-so abound more." {1Th_4:1} This is a very familiar thought, yet let us spend a sentence or two upon it. The spiritual prosperity of believers should be measured not so much by the point they have reached, but by the fact and measure of the progress they are making. Progress in likeness to Christ, progress in following Him; progress in understanding His mind and learning His lessons; progress ever from the performance and the failures of yesterday to the new discipline of to-day, - this is Pauls Christianity. In this world our condition is such that the business of every believer is to go forward. There is room for it, need of it, call to it, blessedness in it. For any Christian, at any stage of attainment, to presume to stand still is perilous and sinful. A beginner that is pressing forward is a happier and a more helpful Christian than he is who has come to a stand, though the latter may seem to be on the borders of the land of Beulah. The first may have his life marred by much darkness and many mistakes; but the second is for the present practically denying the Christian truth and the Christian call, as these bear on himself. Therefore the Apostle is bent upon progress. And here we have his account of that which suggested itself to him as the best kind of progress for these converts of his.
The life of their souls, as he conceived it, depended on the operation of one great principle, and he prays for the increase of that in strength and efficacy. He desires that their love may abound more and more. He was glad to think they had shown, all along, a loving Christian spirit. He wished it to grow to its proper strength and nobleness.
No one doubts that, according to the Scriptures, love is the practical principle by which the fruits of faith are brought forth. The Christian character peculiarly consists in a Christlike love. The sum of the law from which we fell is, Thou shalt love; and, being redeemed in Christ, we find the end of the commandment to be love, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Redemption itself is a process of love, setting forth from heaven to earth to create and kindle love, and make it triumph in human hearts and lives. Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. No point is so well settled. Nobody doubts it.
Yet, alas! how many of us are truly aware of the great meaning which apostolic words, which Christs words, carry, when this is spoken of? or how shall it be made inwardly and vividly present to us? In the heart of Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, was a great purpose to awaken in human hearts a deep and strong affection, kindred to His own - true, tender, steadfast, all-prevailing, all-transforming. Apostles, catching the fire in their degree, were full of the wonder of it, of the glad surprise and yet the sober reality of it; and they carried about the gospel everywhere, looking to see men thrill into this new life, and become instances of its strength and gladness. And we? Let each man answer for himself. He is a happy man who can answer clearly. What is it to have love for the inspiration of the heart and the life: love submerging the lower cravings, love ennobling and expanding all that is best and highest, love consecrating life into a glad and endless offering? Which of us has that within him which could break into a song, like the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians, rejoicing in the goodness and nobleness of love? "That your love may abound." In our tongue it is but one syllable. So much the easier for our perversity to slide over the meaning as we read. But all our earthly life is too short a space for learning how deep and how pertinent to ourselves this business of love is.
No doubt, the kindness the Philippians had shown to the Apostle, of which he had been speaking, naturally prepares the way for speaking of their love, as the verse before us does. But we are not to take the word as referring only to the love they might bear to other believers, or, in particular, to the Apostle. That is in the Apostles mind; but his reference is wider, namely, to love as a principle which operates universally-which first holds lowly fellowship with the love of God, and then also flows out in Christian affection towards men. The Apostle does not distinguish these, because he will not have us to separate them. The believer has been brought back in love to God, and having his life quickened from that source he loves men. The manward aspect of it is made prominent in the Bible for this reason, that in love towards men the exercise of this affection finds the most various scope, and in this way also it is most practically tested. The Apostle would not grant to any of us that our profession of love to God could be genuine, if love did not exert itself towards men. But neither would he suffer it to be restricted in any other direction. In the present case he gladly owned the love which his Philippian friends bore to himself. But he sees in this the existence of a principle which may signalise its energy in all directions, and is able to bear all kinds of good fruit. Therefore his prayer fixes on this, "that your love may abound."
Now here we must look narrowly into the drift of the prayer. For the Apostle desires that love may abound and work in a certain manner, and if it shall, he assures himself of excellent effects to follow. Perhaps we may best see the reason which guided his prayer, if we begin with the result or achievement he aimed at for his Philippian friends. If we can understand that, we may the better understand the road by which he hoped they might be carried forward to it.
The result aimed at is this (Php_1:10-11): "that ye may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." The last end is the glory and praise of God. This, let us be assured, is no mere phrase with the Apostle. All these things are real and vivid to him. If he were to come among us, knowing us to he professed believers, then, strange as some of us may think it, he would actually expect that a great degree of praise and glory to God should accrue out of our lives. The time he fixes on for the manifestation of this, the time when it should be seen how this has come to pass, is the day of Christ. The great day of revealing shall witness, in particular, the consummate glory of Christs salvation in His redeemed. And he prays that unto that day and at that day they may be sincere, without offence, filled with fruits of righteousness.
First, sincere: that signifies simplicity of purpose, and singleness of heart in following out that purpose. Sincere Christians cherish in their hearts no views, no principles, adverse to the Christian calling. The test of this sincerity is that a man shall be honestly willing to let light shine through him, to evince the true character of his principles and motives. Such a man is on the road to the final, victorious, and eternal sincerity. For the present there may be within him too much of that which hinders him, and mars his life. But if he is set on expelling this and welcomes the light which exposes it, in order that he may expel it, then he has a real, present sincerity, and his course is brightening towards the perfect day.
Second, without offence. This is the character of the man who walks without stumbling. For there are obstacles in the way, and they are often unexpected. Grant a man to be in a measure sincere-the call of the gospel has really won his heart. Yet as he goes, there fall in trials, temptations, difficulties, that seem to come upon him from without, as it were, and he stumbles; he fails to preserve the uprightness of his life, and to keep his eye fixed with due steadiness on the end of his faith. Suddenly, before he is well aware, he is almost down. So he brings confusion into his mind, and guilt upon his conscience; and in his bewilderment he is too likely to make worse stumbles ere long. He who would be a prosperous Christian has not only to watch against duplicity in the heart: he must give diligence also to deal wisely with the various outward influences which strike into our lives, which seem often to do so cruelly and unreasonably, and which wear some false guise that we had not. foreseen. Paul knew this in his own case; and therefore he "studied to keep a conscience void of offence." We may have wisdom enough for our own practice as to this, if we know where to. go for it.
Third, filled with fruits of righteousness-which is the positive result, associated with the absence of guile and the freedom from stumbling. A tree that bears any fruit is alive. But one that is filled with fruit glorifies the gardeners care. "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples." Distinct and manifold acts of faith and patience are the proper testimonies of the soul that is sincere and without offence,
This is the line of things which the Apostle desires to see running its course towards the day of Christ. Now let us ask, In what circumstances is the believer placed for whom Paul desires it?
He is placed in a world that is full of adverse influences, and is apt to stir adverse forces in his own heart. If he allows these influences to have their way-if he yields to the tendencies that operate around him, he will be carried off in a direction quite different from that which Paul contemplates. Instead of sincerity, there will be the tainted, corrupt, divided heart; instead of freedom from offence, there will be many a fall, or even a complete forsaking of the way; instead of fruits of righteousness filling the life, there will be "wild grapes." On the other hand, if, in spite of these influences, the Christian is enabled to hold his course, then the discipline of conflict and trial will prove full of blessing. Here also shall the promise be fulfilled that all things work together for good to them that love God. Strong temptations are not overcome without sorrow and pain; but being overcome, they turn out ministers of good. In this experience sincerity clears and deepens; and the bearing of the Christian acquires a firmness and directness not otherwise attainable; and the fruits of righteousness acquire a flavour which no other climate could have developed so well. This hard road turns out to be the best road towards the day of Christ.
The effect, then, of the circumstances in which the believer is thus placed will be according to the way in which he deals with them. But plainly, to deal rightly with them, implies a constant effort of judging the things within him and without him, the world within and the world without, that he may "approve what is more excellent"-that he may choose the good and refuse the evil. Discerning, distinguishing, as to opinions, influences, feelings, habits, courses of conduct, and so forth, so as to separate right and wrong, spiritual and carnal, true and false, must be the work in hand. There must be the prevailing practical mind to elect and to abide by the proper objects of choice, to cleave to the one and to put away the other.
So we can understand very well, if the Philippians were to be sincere, without offence, filled with fruits of righteousness, that they must, and ever more and more searchingly and successfully, "approve the things that are more excellent." The phrase is also rendered "try the things which differ"; for the expression implies both. It implies such a putting to proof of that which is presented to us, as to make just distinctions and give to each its proper place-silver on the one side, dross on the other. What is the whole life and business of the Philippians, of any Christians, as Christians, but that of following out perpetually a choice, on given principles, among the multitude of objects that claim their regard? The fundamental choice, arrived at in believing, has to be reiterated continually, in a just application of it to a world of varying and sometimes perplexing cases.
When we have all this in view it is easy to understand the scope of the Apostles prayer about the growth and education of their love. Out of love this needed discrimination must come. For
1. No practical discriminations or determinations are of any worth in Gods sight except as they are animated by love, and, indeed, determined by it. If a Christian should choose anything, or reject anything, yet not in love, his choice as to the matter of fact may be right, but for all that the man himself is wrong.
2. Love alone will practically carry through such habitual discrimination, such faithful and patient choice. Love becomes the new instinct which gives life, spring, and promptitude to the process. When this fails, the life of approving the things that are more excellent will fail: the task will be repudiated as a burden that cannot be endured. It may still be professed, but it must inwardly die.
3. Nothing but love can enable us to see and to affirm the true distinctions. Under the influence of that pure love (that arises in the heart which Gods love has won and quickened) the things which differ are truly seen. So, and only so, we shall make distinctions according to the real differences as these appear in Gods sight. Let us consider this a little.
Evidently among the things that differ there are some whose characteristics are so plainly written in conscience or in Scripture, that to determine what should be said of them is matter of no difficulty at all. It is no matter of difficulty to decide that murder and theft are wrong, or that meekness, benevolence, justice are right. A man who has never been awakened to spiritual life, or a Christian whose love has decayed, can make determinations about such things, and can be sure, as he does so, that as to the thing itself he is judging right. Yet in this case there is no just apprehension of the real difference in Gods sight of the things that differ, nor a right mind and heart to choose or to reject so as to be in harmony with Gods judgment.
And if so, then in that large class of cases where there is room for some degree of doubt or diversity, where some mist obscures the view, so that it is not plain at once into what class things should be reckoned-in cases where we are not driven to a decision by a blaze of light from Scripture or conscience-in such cases we need the impulse of the love which cleaves to God, which delights in righteousness, which gives to others, even to the undeserving, the brothers place in the heart. Without this there can be no detection of the real difference, and no assurance of the rectitude of the discrimination we make.
Now it is in such matters that the especial proof and exercise of religious life goes on. Here, for example, Lot failed. The beauty of the fair and prosperous valley so filled his soul with admiration and desire that it chilled and all but killed the affections that should have steadied and raised his mind. Had the love of the eternal and supreme maintained its power, then in that day when God on the one hand and Lot on the other looked down on the plain; they would have seen the same sight and judged it with the same mind. But it was otherwise. So the Lord lifted up His eyes and saw that the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly; and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw only that the plain was well watered everywhere, as the garden of the Lord, as the land of Egypt.
But the love of which the Apostle speaks is the breath of the upper world and of the new life. It cleaves to God, it embraces the things which God loves, it enters into the views which God reveals, -and it takes the right view of men, and of mens interest and welfare. The man that has it, or has known it, is therein aware of what is most material. He has a notion of the conduct that is congruous to loves nature. What love knows, it is the nature of love to practise, for it knows lovingly; and at every step the practice confirms, establishes, and enlarges the knowledge. So the genuine growth of love is a growth in knowledge (Php_1:9)-the word implies the kind of knowledge that goes with intently looking into things: love, as it grows, becomes more quick to see and mark how things really are-when tried by the true standard. Conversing practically with the mind of God in the practice of life, love incorporates that mind and judges in the light of it. This prepares a man to detect the false and counterfeit, and to try the things that differ.
Not only in knowledge shall love grow, but "in all discernment," or perception, as it might be rendered. There may be instances in which with our best wisdom, we find it hard to disentangle clear principles, or state plain grounds which rule the case; yet love, growing and exercised, has its percipiency: it has that accomplished tact, that quick experienced taste, that fine sensibility to what befriends and what opposes truth and right, which will lead to, right distinctions in practice. So you discriminate by the sense of taste things that differ, though you can give no reason to another, but can say only, "I perceive it." In this sense "he that is spiritual judgeth all things."
For all this the aid of the Holy Spirit is held out to us, as we may see in 1 John 2. He makes love to grow, and under that master influence unfolds the needed wisdom also. So comes the wisdom "from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." {Jam_3:17} It is hidden from many wise and prudent, but God has often revealed it unto babes.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3–7. I thank my God. Almost all the Epistles…
3–7. I thank my God. Almost all the Epistles open with thanksgiving. How glorious a faith that which led him always, even in the darkest hour, to see the hand of God present in blessing! Yet in the remembrance of the Philippians there was much to cheer his heart.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v3 Php_1:3. I thank my God.—The keynote of the whole…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Php_1:3. I thank my God.—The keynote of the whole epistle. As the apostle’s strains of praise had been heard by the prisoners in the Philippian gaol, so now from another captivity the Church hears a song of sweet contentment. “My God.” The personal appropriation and the quiet contentment of the apostle both speak in this emphatic phrase.
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Php_1:4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all.—Notice the comprehensive “always,” “every,” “all,” indicating special attachment to the Philippians. With joy.—The sum of the epistle is, “I rejoice.… Rejoice ye.” “He recalls to our minds the runner who at the supreme moment of Grecian history brought to Athens the news of Marathon. Worn, panting, exhausted with the effort to be the herald of deliverance, he sank in death on the threshold of the first house which he reached with the tidings of victory, and sighed forth his gallant soul in one great sob, almost in the very same words as those used by the apostle, ‘Rejoice ye; we rejoice’ ” (Farrar, after Lightfoot).
Php_1:5. “Fellowship here denotes co-operation in the widest sense, their participation with the apostle, whether in sympathy or in suffering, or in active labour, or in any other way. At the same time, their almsgiving was a signal instance of this co-operation, and seems to have been foremost in the apostle’s mind” (Lightfoot). He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it.—“The observation of the ebb and flow of the tide for so many days and months and ages together, as it has been observed by mankind, gives us a full assurance that it will ebb and flow again to-morrow” (Bishop Butler). Another sort of assurance comes in here. It is an offence to every worthy thought of God that He should begin and not be able to finish (Isa_26:12).
Php_1:7. Meet for me to think this.—“To form this opinion.” That the apostle cherished a warm affection for these Philippians would have been, if alone, a very flimsy foundation for hopes so substantial. Was not Judas cherished in a warmer heart than Paul’s? But their sympathy and active co-operation made such an opinion not a pious hope, but a reasonable likelihood. Defence and confirmation.—The “defence” (ἀπολογία) is the clearing away of objections—the preparation of the ground; the “confirmation” is the positive settlement on the ground so prepared. “The two together will thus comprise all modes of preaching and extending the truth” (Lightfoot). Partaken of my grace.—The grace whether of preaching or of suffering for the gospel. See Php_1:29, where “given” requires the addition “as a favour.” “You are privileged … to suffer.”
Php_1:8. God is my record.—As in Rom_1:9. When we feel language too weak to bear our impassioned feeling, it may be well to remember the “Yea, yea” of the Master rather than copy this oath. In the bowels of Jesus Christ.—R.V. “in the tender mercies.” This is quite an Eastern form of expression. Among the Malays a term of endearment is “my liver”; we choose the heart as the seat of the affections. For the figure, cf. Gal_2:20.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Php_1:3-8
Eulogy of Christian Excellence—
I. Prompted by pleasant memories of faithful co-operation in Christian work.—“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, … for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, … inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” (Php_1:3; Php_1:5; Php_1:7). The apostle remembers with joy the way in which the Philippians first received the gospel, the effect it produced upon their lives, the eagerness with which they entered into his plans for its wider propagation, the liberality, though not themselves a rich people, they showed to their needy brethren in other Churches, the affectionate attachment they displayed towards himself, the help they afforded him when in imprisonment, and the many ways in which they cheerfully co-operated with him in the defence and establishment of the truth. They had laboured, suffered, triumphed, and rejoiced together. The apostle’s eulogy of their character was not flattery, but sober and just commendation of tried and sterling excellencies. Our happiest memories—memories that become more vivid as life advances—are of those days in which we laboured most earnestly in the service of God.
II. Springs from a loving appreciation and tender Christian solicitude.—“Even as it is meet for me to think thus of you all, because I have you in my heart.… For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ” (Php_1:7-8). There was something about the Philippians that captivated the heart of the apostle. He loved them because they loved his Master, and because they sought to spread the gospel he preached. Love begets love, and there is no power in uniting hearts like the love of Christ. The love of the apostle was manifested in a yearning desire for their advancement in personal godliness. “All real spiritual love,” says Alford, “is but a portion of Christ’s love which yearns in all who are united to Him.” Christian love is not mere self-indulgence of a pleasant feeling; its unselfishness is evident in seeking to advance the highest spiritual interests of the person loved. It is something more than a refined and noble sentiment. The finest feeling may be very superficial. Some friends were drinking tea one evening at the house of Mr. Mackenzie, the author of The Man of Feeling, and waited for some time for his arrival. At length he came in heated and excited, and exclaimed, “What a glorious evening I have had!” They thought he spoke of the weather, which was singularly beautiful; but he went on to detail the intense enjoyment he had had in witnessing a cock-fight. Mrs. Mackenzie listened some time in silence; then, looking up in his face, she remarked in her gentle voice, “Oh, Harry, Harry, your feeling is all on paper!”
III. Strengthened by the assurance of increasing Christian devotion.—“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Php_1:6). Even man, fickle as he is, does not begin work at random and without purpose; some time or other he hopes to finish it. But God, who begins the work of the new spiritual creation in the soul, is constantly striving to finish it, until it shall be presented perfect at the day of Christ. The apostle had no doubt about the divine working, and he rejoiced in the evidence he had that his converts were increasing in spiritual fervour and devotion. Faithfulness to God strengthens fidelity in every duty of life. On board the flag-ship of a celebrated commander a complaint was made by the captain against a number of the crew for disturbing the ship’s company by frequent noises. The admiral ordered an inquiry to be made. The accusation was that these men were Methodists, and that when their watch was below they were in the constant habit of reading the Bible to each other aloud, of frequently joining in social prayer and singing of psalms and hymns. After the statement had been proved, the admiral asked, “What is the general conduct of these men on deck—orderly or disobedient, cleanly or the contrary?” “Always orderly, obedient, and cleanly,” was the reply “When the watch is called, do they linger, or are they ready?” “Always ready at the first call.” “You have seen these men in battle, sir; do they stand to their guns or shrink?” “They are the most intrepid men in the ship, my lord, and will die at their post.” “Let them alone, then,” was the decisive answer of this magnanimous commander; “if Methodists are such men, I wish that all my crew were Methodists.”
IV. Expressed in thanksgiving and joyous prayer.—“I thank my God … always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy” (Php_1:3-4). Joy is the characteristic feature in this epistle, as love is in that to the Ephesians. Love and joy are the two firstfruits of the Spirit. Joy gives especial animation to prayers. It marked the apostle’s high opinion of them, that there was almost everything in them to give him joy, and almost nothing to give him pain (Fausset). The labour of prayer is sure, if persisted in, to merge into the joy of prayer. Prayer is a blessing to others as well as to ourselves. The father of Sir Philip Sydney enjoined upon his son, when he went to school, never to neglect thoughtful prayer. It was golden advice, and doubtless his faithful obedience to the precept helped to make Philip Sydney the peerless flower of knighthood, and the stainless man that he was—a man for whom, months after his death, every gentleman in England wore mourning.
Lessons.—
1. Christian excellence is a reflection of the character of Christ.
2. Christian excellence is acquired by praying and working.
3. Genuine Christianity is its own best eulogy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Php_1:3. Happy Memories.
I. Those that are prompted by the Spirit of God.
II. Those that recall the past joy of harvest.
III. Those that still link us in association with distant but kindred spirits.
IV. Those that evoke perennial gratitude to God.
V. Those that enrich our own moral worth.—Lay Preacher.
Php_1:4-5. Fellowship in the Gospel.
I. Christian ministers have a claim to maintenance from the people.
II. Fellowship is making another a fellow-partaker of what belongs to us.
III. The apostle Paul while claiming his privilege was cautious in using it.
IV. The voluntary system has advantages, but greater disadvantages.—Archbishop Whately.
Php_1:4. “Making request with joy.” Pure Joy—
I. Springs from divine communications.
II. Succeeds a previous sorrow.
III. Is superior to human surroundings.
IV. Is sustained by answered prayer.—Lay Preacher.
Php_1:5. True Gospel Fellowship.
I. Lives which adorn it.
II. Hearts which beat for it.
III. Lips which testify for it.
IV. Hands which work for it.
V. Gifts which extend it.—Ibid.
Php_1:6. Grounds of Confidence in the Believer’s Salvation.
I. That the Philippians persevered in the midst of great difficulties, opposition, and persecution.
II. That their persevering fellowship in the gospel had been characterised by great purity and consistency of Christian life.
III. That they gave evidences of zeal for the propagation of religion and of liberality in contributing of their worldly substance to this end.
Lessons.—
1. This doctrine affords comfort and hope to struggling Christians.
2. The grounds of assurance forbid presumptuous confidence and stimulate to watchfulness and effort.—Homiletic Monthly.
The Perseverance of the Saints.
I. I shall adduce some of the principal arguments in support of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.—
1. The decree of election.
2. The merit of Christ’s sufferings and death.
3. The intercession of Christ.
4. The promises of God.
5. The constitution of the covenant of grace.
6. The statements of Scripture in regard to the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers.
II. I shall consider some of the most plausible objections which have been urged against this doctrine.—
1. That some of the most eminent saints have fallen into very grievous sins. They did not fall totally and finally.
2. That many who were long regarded as true Christians do in point of fact finally apostatise. They never were true Christians.
3. That there are in Scripture many earnest exhortations to watchfulness, and many awful warnings against apostasy. God works by means and motives.
4. That believers being assured of their ultimate recovery will be encouraged to sin. The perseverance of the saints is perseverance in holiness.
(1) Has a good work begun in you?
(2) If so, remember that while the perseverance of the saints is promised as a privilege, it is also enjoined as a duty.—G. Brooks.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v4 4-6. “Having confidence in this very thing, that he…
ARGUMENT 1
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION AND THE LORD’S THE TWO HEMISPHERES CONSTITUTING THE GLOBE— APOSTOLIC INSPIRATION
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4-6. “Having confidence in this very thing, that he who began a good work in you, will thoroughly perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” As none but the perfect will be ready for the rapture of the Bridehood when the Lord comes, if we are in possession of Christian perfection at that time it will suffice for our admission into the marriage supper of the Lamb. Though we have our entire probation in which to get ready, the slightest postponement is very risky, as we know neither the day nor the hour when our Lord shall descend. Perfect is from facere, to make, and per, complete. Hence, it means made complete. God made us upright; i.e., perfect. Satan poisoned us with sin, thus destroying our perfection, and rendering us imperfect. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. (1Jn 3:8.) The work of the devil is sin. It is conquered in regeneration, and destroyed in sanctification. The word here, epitelesei, is very strong; from teleoo, to complete; and epi, completely. Hence, it means to thoroughly make perfect. The Lord is liable any moment to ride down on a cloud. Are you enjoying the experience of perfect love? The Omnipotent Spirit is this moment ready to make you perfect, and prepare you for the day of the Lord. Submit to him fully, and trust him to do it this moment.
7. Paul recognizes the privilege of all the saints by their perfect consecration and recognition of the Divine will to actually participate the blessings of his persecutionary sufferings.
8. “How I long after you in all the affections of Christ Jesus.” Grace is free for all. As Paul enjoyed the affections of Christ (or, as the word means, the heart of Christ), so can we. His heart was perfectly free from sin, He came to make our hearts like his.
9. “I pray for this, that your Divine love may abound more and more in perfect knowledge and every sense.” The soul has the five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—like the body. A dead man has eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and nerves; yet he neither sees, hears, smells, tastes, nor feels. So the sinner is utterly destitute of spiritual sense, walking blind, deaf, and senseless into hell, till he is quickened into life by the Holy Spirit.
10. “So as to distinguish things which differ.” Animals are provided with instinct to fortify them against destructive poisons; man has no such protection till his spiritual senses are quickened into life by the Holy Spirit. Hence, the sinner, tasting the devil’s filth, whisky, tobacco, and debauchery, walks straight into hell, neither seeing the lurid flames, hearing the groans of the damned, smelling the brimstone, nor feeling the scorching flames. “In order that you may be pure and irreproachable in the day of Christ.”
The word here, which I translate “pure,” simply for the want of a stronger word, is eilikrinees, from eile, a sunbeam, and krino, to judge, from the custom of testing purity by the sunbeam. Hence, the plain meaning: God proposes to make your heart and mine so pure, that when illuminated by the infallible Sun of righteousness the omniscient eye of God will discover no impurity in it. So, spread yourself, preaching Christian purity, and rest assured you will not get the standard above the Bible. God help us to come up to the Bible standard, by which we will be judged! “In the day of Christ;” i.e., when he comes for his Bride. These two grand, salient gospel culminations were constantly moving in panorama before the illuminated spiritual eye of Paul; i.e., perfect purity and the Lord’s return to the earth, the latter the goal of probationary privilege, and the former the qualification for an eternity of holy wedlock with Christ.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v3 The Apostle’s Personal Feeling toward the Philippian Christians.
The Apostle’s Personal Feeling toward the Philippian Christians.
His grateful and confident prayer:
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v. 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
v. 4. always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
v. 5. for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now;
v. 6. being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;
v. 7. even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel ye all are partakers of my grace.
The first thought which Paul voices is one of gratitude and thanksgiving toward God as the sole and whole cause of all goodness in all saints: I thank my God at every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all with joy making request, on account of your communion toward the Gospel from the first day till now. We here receive an insight into Paul’s spiritual life, into his relation to every congregation and every single Christian. Whenever he thinks of the congregation at Philippi, whenever he remembers them, as he does continually, he finds cause for grateful prayer to God. This remembering is a habit with him rather than a single act. He is constrained to voice his gratitude in prayer to God. The situation at Philippi filled his heart with joy, which must needs break forth in prayer. He heartily commended the Christians of Philippi to the great Lord of the Church. Such thanksgiving for rich spiritual blessings ought to be far more prevalent in the various congregations than it is today; the individual Christians should be engaged far oftener in this blessed occupation.
As the specific reason for the joy which he feels the apostle names the communion of the Philippian Christians toward, that is, in, the Gospel from the first day till now. From the first day that Paul had proclaimed to them the message of salvation which had been entrusted to him until the very day when he wrote this letter, the Philippian Christians had been true to the Gospel. By the preaching of Paul the Philippians had entered into communion with the Gospel, their hearts and minds being filled with its blessings; they were firm believers in Jesus Christ, their Savior, and they were actively engaged in spreading the glorious news of the salvation of all men. Many congregations become weary, grow tired, lose the first love. But not so with the Christians at Philippi; they had continued with unabated energy and love for the Gospel, and had not given up any of the benefits which had accrued to them through the Gospel.
For this reason Paul was confident also for the future: Being persuaded of this: That He who began from the start in you a good work will carry it out to the end until the day of Christ Jesus. The apostle has a definite trust, a firm persuasion, based upon faith in the mighty power of God. In his mind there is a combination of thanksgiving, joyful anticipation, and definite trust: That One that began the one good work, the work of regeneration. This is a good work because God has wrought it, not because of any cooperation in man; it is God’s work all alone. This good work, the Philippians’ communion in the Gospel, as established through the work of regeneration, God will complete, carry out to a successful end, until the day of Jesus Christ, until the great revelation of His glory on the last day. Not the believers in their own strength and power are able to be and remain faithful to the end, but it is God who will perform this, since He does not work in vain. As faith is the beginning, middle, and end of conversion, God will keep them in the faith. On the last day this faith, which has been preserved by the gracious power of God, will be rewarded with the free gift of salvation. Note: This statement is full of comforting strength to the Christians, since it shows them that every Christian can and shall be certain of his salvation. This certainty is an essential characteristic of faith. To a Christian it is a monstrous thought that his faith should ever cease, for faith is trust in the Lord’s salvation as applied to the individual.
To suppose that this trust is in the heart of the Christians of Philippi, Paul considers a duty and obligation which he owes to his readers: As it is right for me to think this of you all, on account of my having you in the heart, because as well in my bonds as in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel you all are partakers of my grace. Paul here mentions the sentiment, or feeling, the definite opinion, or conviction, which he holds. He believes and holds with regard to all these his fellow-Christians that God will perform the good work in them to the end. No mere man is able to pick out individual cases of such as profess Christianity and affirm the fact of saving faith, for the condition of the heart is a matter known only to God. But one thing is sure, namely, that all Christians that really are Christians will be kept in the faith by the power of God At the same time it is right and just that we have this feeling with regard to all our fellow-Christians, that they are Christians and will continue Christians, remain faithful until the end. The reason why the apostle has this confident feeling he states when he asserts his love for them, love having this characteristic, that it always thinks well of its neighbor. Furthermore, they are partakers of the same grace as he. They all have received the same blessings of the mercy of God through the vicarious work of Christ. This love is not affected by Paul’s captivity. His defense, his apology and confirmation of the Gospel does not stop because of his bonds; it is rather that his defense before the emperor is a guarantee of the Gospel, a warrant of its value and claims. And it is a matter of satisfaction and comfort to the apostle that even in the darkest moments of his career their love and kindness toward him, the fact that they have remained true to the Gospel as preached by him, are proof enough that they share with him in the grace of God, and that they, with him, will obtain the end of faith, the salvation of their souls.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 I give thanks for your fellowship in the gospel
I give thanks for your fellowship in the gospel
Paul is expressing thanks to God that the Philippians have joined him in teaching people the gospel. He may have been referring to them praying for him and sending money so that he could travel and tell others. AT: "I give thanks to God that you are helping me proclaim the gospel" (See: Metonymy)
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I am confident
"I am sure"
he who began
"God, who began"
translationWords
God
pray
joy
fellowship
good news
day of the Lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–5 1:3-11 Following his usual practice, Paul thanks God for…
1:3-11 Following his usual practice, Paul thanks God for the recipients and prays for them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.