For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.
Parallel Translations
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For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.
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For I have no man that is so lyke mynded to me which with so pure affeccion careth for youre matters.
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For I haue no man like minded, who will faithfully care for your matters.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Philippians 2:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Philippians 2:2 make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;
- 1 Samuel 18:3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
- 1 Corinthians 16:10 Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.
- Philippians 2:22 But you know the proof of him, that as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.
- 1 Samuel 18:1 When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
- John 10:13 The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.
- John 12:6 Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box, used to steal what was put into it.
- 2 Timothy 1:5 having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.
- Psalms 55:13 But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend.
- Proverbs 31:29 “Many women do noble things, but you excel them all.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:10-11 Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
- Colossians 4:11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for God’s Kingdom who are of the circumcision, men who have been a comfort to me.
- 1 Timothy 1:2 to Timothy, my true child in faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 20 I have no man like-minded. While some draw…
20 I have no man like-minded. While some draw another meaning from the passage, I interpret it thus: “I have no one equally well-affected for attending to your interests.” For Paul, in my opinion, compares Timothy with others, rather than with himself, and he pronounces this eulogium upon him, with the express design that he may be the more highly esteemed by them for his rare excellence.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 20 For I have no man likeminded, who will…
20 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
Ver. 20. Likeminded] ισοψυχον, an alter ego to me. True friendship transformeth us into the condition of those we love, as Eusebius into his friend Pamphilus the martyr, whence he was called Eusebius Pamphili. Amicitia sit tantum inter binos qui sunt veri, et bonos qui sunt pauci. (Jerome.)
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 For I have no man likeminded; for which purpose…
For I have no man likeminded; for which purpose I have designed Timothy, who joins with me in this Epistle, and is most of the same mind with myself, endued with the same Spirit, faith, and love; finding none of like soul to him with myself, in desiring your prosperity, and so have pitched upon him.
Who will naturally care for your state; who, being cordial to me and you, will, without regard to lucre, ingenuously and sincerely, above all the rest I have here, propagate the kingdom of Christ amongst you, and promote your salvation in watching for your souls, as one that must give an account, that he may do it with joy, Heb 13:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For all seek their own,.... Meaning not every individual,…
For all seek their own,.... Meaning not every individual, but the greatest part; and not merely such as were manifestly false teachers, but such as were with the apostle, as ministers of the word; and we may suppose him to be stripped, by one means or another, of the more valuable preachers of the Gospel, and to be in much such a case as he describes himself to be, in Ti2 4:10. He had none with him, excepting a very few, but such as he speaks of in the preceding chapter, that preached Christ of envy, strife, and contention; and these chiefly sought their own worldly interest and advantage; they sought great things for themselves, and looked every man for his gain from his quarter, Demas like, loving this present world, Ti2 4:10; they sought for dominion and authority over men, and their faith, to lord it over God's heritage, as Diotrephes, who loved to have the preeminence, Jo3 1:9; they sought for popular applause, for honour and glory of men, as the Pharisees of old did; and particularly their own ease and health, and did not choose to undertake such a fatiguing journey as from Rome to Philippi:
not the things which are Jesus Christ; they had no true regard to the Gospel of Christ, to the continuance, establishment, and spread of it in the world, or in any particular place; nor any hearty affection for the ordinances of Christ, and the retaining and preserving of them in their purity and simplicity; nor for the churches of Christ, and their spiritual good and welfare, as the Jews formerly, they cared not if the house of God lay waste, provided they dwelt in their ceiled houses; nor had they any concern for the honour and glory of Christ. But Timothy was a man of a quite different spirit and complexion; and which is another reason of the apostle's sending him to this place and people.
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 I have none - Of those who are now…
I have none - Of those who are now with me.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. For I have no man like-minded] None…
Verse 20. For I have no man like-minded] None of all my fellow helpers in the Gospel have the same zeal and affectionate concern for your prosperity in every respect as he has. He is ισοψυχος. of the same soul; a man after my own heart.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For I have no man like-minded - Margin, “so…
For I have no man like-minded - Margin, “so dear unto me.” The Greek is, ἰσόψυχον isopsuchon - similar in mind, or like-minded. The meaning is, that there was no one with him who would feel so deep an interest in their welfare.
Who will naturally care - The word rendered “naturally” - γνησίως gnēsiōs - means sincerely and the idea is, that he would regard their interests with a sincere tenderness and concern. He might be depended on to enter heartily into their concerns. This arose doubtless from the fact that he had been with them when the church was founded there, and that he felt a deeper interest in what related to the apostle Paul than any other man. Paul regarded Timothy as a son, and Paul’s sending him on such an occasion would evince the feelings of a father who should send a beloved son on an important message.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain His reason for sending Timothy above all others: I…
His reason for sending Timothy above all others: I have none so "like-minded," literally, "like-souled," with myself as is Timothy. Compare Deu 13:6, "Thy friend which is as thine own soul" (Psa 55:14). Paul's second self.
naturally--Greek, "genuinely"; "with sincere solicitude." A case wherein the Spirit of God so changed man's nature, that to be natural was with him to be spiritual: the great point to be aimed at.
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 20. No man likeminded—That is, with the apostle, of…
20. No man likeminded—That is, with the apostle, of the sort that would really feel an anxious, self-sacrificing interest in their affairs. A precious compliment to Timothy, but a sad commentary on the rest. Yet more sad is the reason.
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 20. For] He gives his reason for sending Timothy.
20. For] He gives his reason for sending Timothy.
likeminded] Lit., “equal-souled;” a slight echo, in form, of the verb just above. Timothy’s “soul,” his loving and willing self, was “equal,” level, to St Paul’s, in pure, cordial, interest in the Philippians.—The Greek adjective occurs nowhere else in the N.T., and in the LXX. only Psal. 54:13 (Heb., 55:14), for the Hebrew “after my scale, or standard”: a good parallel. The A.V. margin, “so dear unto me,” is certainly mistaken.
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naturally] R.V. “truly.” But the A.V. well conveys the meaning. The word is literally, genuinely; so that heart corresponds to action.
care] Better, take careful, anxious thought. The verb (merimnân) is traced by recent philologists into connexion with root-words giving the idea of mindfulness, earnestness of thought, not, as according to the once current etymology, division of thought.—It is the same verb as that below, Php_4:6, where see note.—The apparent contradiction of the two passages has a beautiful harmony beneath it. Timothy’s “anxiety” was in fact painstaking thought for others; the “anxiety” forbidden, Php_4:6, is the result of our failure, as each felt burthen comes, to pass it on to the love and care of the Lord.—The verb (or its cognate noun) rendered “care” here occurs in the sense it bears here, 1Co_7:32; 1Co_7:34; 1Co_12:25; 2Co_11:28. In all other places its reference is to anxiety in an unfavourable sense of the word.
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 (20) For I have no man likeminded.—That is, probably,…
(20) For I have no man likeminded.—That is, probably, like-minded with myself. St. Paul calls Timothy his “genuine (or, true) son in the faith” (1Ti_1:2), a son who in spirit and affection was like his father. The word “naturally” in this verse is the same word, and should be translated genuinely, without either counterfeit or duplicity of aim; and the word “care” implies something of the same absorbing anxiety which is expressed on St. Paul’s part in this passage.
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 For I have no man like-minded; literally, of equal…
For I have no man like-minded; literally, of equal soul. (Deu_13:6, "Thy friend, which is as thine own soul "Timotheus," says Bengel, "is a second Paul: where he is, there you should think that I myself am present." Others, not so well, explain the words, "I have no one like Timothy." The expression must, of course, be limited to those present at the moment, and available for the mission: it cannot in-elude St. Luke. Who will naturally care for your state (ostiv); such as will care. Naturally; (gnhsiwv : comp. 1Ti_1:2, where St. Paul calls Timothy "mine own soul in the faith," gnhsion teknon) with a true, genuine affection. Timothy"s love for St. Paul as his spiritual father will inspire him with genuine love for those who were so dear to St. Paul. Care is a strong word, merimnhsei , will be anxious. (comp. Mat_6:31)
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 For I have no man like minded
Php_2:20-21
For I have no man like minded
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The care of a good pastor for his people
I.
Every good minister feels a tender concern for the good of his people. Every good minister is--
1. A good man; and therefore has a spirit of benevolence.
2. Has experienced a saving change, and is therefore anxious for the salvation of others.
3. Has grown in grace himself, and is consequently desirous to promote the spiritual good of others.
II. Why this is true of every good minister. Because--
1. He realizes that God has committed the flock into his hands, and, for a time, suspended their present and future good upon his care and fidelity.
2. Because his people have committed themselves to his pastoral watch and care.
3. Because he freely and solemnly engages to be their spiritual guide and watchman.
4. Because he knows that his interest is inseparably connected with theirs.
5. Because he views their eternal interests as inseparably connected with the eternal interests of Christ. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Missionary agency
I. The men wanted. Those like minded with the apostle, men of earnest, spontaneous, self-denying zeal.
II. The scarcity of them.
1. Manifest.
2. Humiliating.
3. Admonitory.
III. The reason of it.
1. Selfish aims.
2. Want of love to Christ. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Concern for the spiritual wants of men
I. The situation of mankind. From a spiritual point of view this is such as to awaken the unaffected concern of good men.
II. The rarity of those who care for the spiritual state of others.
1. They were rare in Pauls time.
2. They are rare now in proportion to the number who require their efforts, although in a less degree than formerly.
III. The principal causes of this unconcern.
1. An inordinate and criminal self-love.
2. The prevalence of unbelief.
3. Despondency. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Failures
In this and like passages we may trace signs of one of the apostles trials, which we hardly estimate at its real measure. His forced inactivity opened to him a new experience. He had to sit still and see what became of his work, with the sense that the world thought him a defeated man. Judged by our rule such a result would appear to be failure in life; and we should expect the attendant feelings to be those of depression and disappointment. We know that it was not so with St. Paul; but moods of feeling come and go even in the strongest, and we may see signs that he was not unmoved. There is an under tone of deep sadness in this Epistle, full as it is of firm confidence and rejoicing. He was at Rome. What had become of his great Epistle? Do we not read between the lines here that the reality was not all he had hoped for? There was energy, zeal, progress; Christ and His servant were spoken of in the household of Nero: Rome was hearing more than ever of the name of Christ. But there was another side to this. How was the solemn adjuration of Rom_12:1 realized. What fruit had come from his lessons of forbearance and cooperation? What a tale does it tell when there in the midst of that great active Church, there was no man like minded, etc. To a faith like St. Pauls these adverse appearances, though they might bring for him as they passed a cry of distress, wore a very different aspect to what they did to the world. They were but parts of his Masters use of him, and if the moments disloyalty or littleness stung him, the next moment brought back the unfailing joy.
I. The failure of life. The contrast between its opening and its close is what mankind has been accustomed to see from the beginning. Examples of it are familiar to us now.
1. In their coarser forms we have evidence of them in the old cries about the cheats and broken promises of life, in the discontent of the successful, and in the falls from goodness to evil.
2. All our lives have failure in them. Every action is an instance how we have come short.
3. We see the failures of life in the ordinary incidents of our experience; when the good die young; when the bright promise is cut short; when men miss their true calling or ignobly shrink from it; where a life of noble labour is wrecked as a ship sinks within sight of port.
4. But the failures which specially touch us are when a man has aimed high, and has shot wide of his mark or short of it; when care, love, and toil have been lavished on an idea or a cause, and the idea will not stand the test, or the cause dwindles into rivalry or strife; when the successful statesman sees his policy bringing forth fruit which he did not plant or look for; when the reformer sees his work taken out of his hand by disciples of meaner and narrower thoughts; still worse when he becomes their dupe and leaves the evils of the world greater than when he assailed them.
5. So it has been with those heroic institutions which have one after another tried some great effort for Gods glory. The flock of Francis, the royal-hearted bridegroom of the forgotten poverty of Christ sank down too often into idle mendicants; the flock of Dominic became the ministers of the inquisition; the little company who devoted themselves to the service of Jesus swelled into that mighty order which has furnished the bravest of missionaries, but also the most daring and ambitious of political intriguers.
6. What right have we to wonder when the greatest of Gods instruments, His Church, presents in its reality such a contrast to its ideal, when, in spite of all the wonders it has done, it has failed to do all that was expected of it. But what is it but the inevitable incident in the mingled greatness and littleness of human life.
II. Failure means humiliation to ourselves, but we know not what it means in the counsels of God. There is something wiser even than the world, and that is the counsel of Him who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Paul in prison could not refute the worlds accusation of failure nor convince it of the meaning of what he had done, and of what was to follow it. His justification belonged to God his Master, and God kept it in His own hands for this world and the next.
III. How shall we think then about what we call failure.
1. We cannot take it in at all adequately without being led to think, not hopelessly, scornfully, or indifferently, but humbly of this human life in which it is so severe a part of our discipline. And these lowly thoughts are enforced by the contrast between what we do as moral agents, and what we achieve within the range where simple intelligence works, in mathematics, physics, mechanics, etc. Within that range men can predict without mistake, secure perfection in their skill, and move from one stupendous discovery to another; but all is changed when we pass into that other world whose ruling powers are love, duty, pain, and death. Compare what we achieve in mathematical and physical science with our success in the problems of government. Does not this read the Bible lesson of lowly thinking in the rebuke which it gives to ambition and pride.
2. Shall we then sit with folded hands, idle and hopeless because the chances of failure are so formidable, and like the servant in the parable bury our talent. There can be no failure worse than that. God our Master sends us forth not to make our mark but to work. God accomplishes His purposes in many ways; one of them we know, by the highest of all examples, the way that seems irretrievable disaster. The followers of the Cross have no right to look, in their own day, for the recognition of success; and, besides, we are bad judges of success and failure. Only in after years does the work draw itself up to its true grandeur; only then do we lose sight of partial failures and see it at last for what it is.
3. Dont let us be afraid, in a good cause, of the chances of failure. Heaven is for those who have failed on earth, says the mocking proverb: and since Calvary no Christian need be ashamed to accept it. But even here, men have that within them which recognizes the heroic aspect of a noble failure. Even here it is better to have failed than not to have tried; to make the mistakes of the good than never to have struck one blow for Christ because so many have struck to little purpose. If the great and saintly life be incomplete, at least there is the great and saintly life. If the great effort has waxed feeble, at least there has been a new beacon of warning. The world would have missed its highest examples, if men had always waited tilt they could make a covenant with success. (Dean Church.)
The experience of isolation
I. It is a common complaint amongst us that we want sympathy.
1. We are lonely, we say; and if not actually solitary, are solitary in heart. The young are too impatient, too imperious in their demand for sympathy; the old are sometimes too tolerant, at least too fond, of isolation.
2. There is much that is fanciful and morbid in the complaint of the young that they have no one like minded. Why cannot that sister make one of her own household the sharer of her troubles and joys? No, that is too tame and commonplace a friendship: nothing but that which is self-made and self-sought has any charms for one who is as yet trying new sources of happiness instead of drinking thankfully of those which God has opened.
II. St. Paul gives no encouragement to this ungrateful pursuit.
1. True, he was a man to whom life without love would have been a daily torture and death. Nor was his a promiscuous love only. Within the universal brotherhood he had his special preferences and close attachments.
2. But his thirst for human love was not the sentimental, purposeless thing it is with many. His best affections were engaged and fixed unalterably. To me to live is Christ. What he sought in human friendship was not a supreme, nor even subordinate object of affection. He sought sympathy in his work for Christ: the loneliness he bewailed was a loneliness in his care for Christs people. How this says to us, Away with your little, selfish, earth-born murmurings! So long as your troubles are all selfish they cannot be borne too lonelily.
3. And if sympathy like this be denied you, learn like Paul to be content (Php_4:11; Rom_8:31, etc.). (Dean Vaughan.)
Care for souls
Some preachers think only of their sermon; others think only of themselves: the man who wins the soul is the man who aims at it. (Dean Hook.)
Natural care for others
The following account of a piece of heroism on the part of a young Englishwoman, by which she lost her life, has just reached us from the Cape. On September 23 last, Miss Burton, a governess in the family of Mr. Saul Solomon, resident at Capetown, was out with her little pupils, when the youngest, a girl of five, fell into a reservoir of water. Miss Burton endeavoured vainly to rescue her little charge by means of her parasol, and then jumped in after her. The elder children ran home to raise the alarm, but when help was obtained both the governess and child had disappeared, and it was necessary to use drags for the bodies. Great sympathy was expressed throughout the town for the bereaved parents, and also much admiration for the brave girl who lost her life in attempting to save that of the child entrusted to her.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 20. For I have no man like-minded. No one…
20. For I have no man like-minded. No one else is here with me who will so well represent my feelings and views when he visits you.
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.