THE COLLECTION FOR ST PAUL: THE FAREWELL
PHILIPPIANS iv. 10-23
The Philippian alms--His sense of their faithful love--He has received
in full--A passage in the Scriptural manner--The letter closes--"Christ
is preached"--"Together with them"
The work of dictation is nearly done in the Roman lodging. The
manuscript will soon be complete, and then soon rolled up and sealed,
ready for Epaphroditus; he will place it with reverence and care in his
baggage, and see it safe to Philippi.
But one topic has to be handled yet before the end. "Now concerning
the collection!" Epaphroditus, who had brought with him to Rome the
loving alms of the Philippian believers, must carry back no common
thanks to them. All honour shall be done by the Lord's great servant
to those who have done the Lord this service in him; they shall know
how it has rejoiced and warmed his heart; they shall be made very sure
that "inasmuch as they have done it to" their Missionary "they have
done it to" their KING.
We do not know how much the money amounted to. It was not improbably a
substantial sum. Among the contributors might be Lydia, whose means
may well have been comfortable; and the Keeper of the Prison would be
by no means a beggar: what gratitude to St Paul glowed in both those
hearts! But not in theirs only; the rank and file of the mission would
do all that love could do for the man who had manifested JESUS to them.
And when that is the spirit, the liberality will often be surprising.
Not long ago in one of our North American missions a small meeting of
poor Christian Indians apologized for the scantiness of their
collection for _missionary objects_; it was worth only L7; they would
do better the next time!
But small or large, the Philippian gift was precious with the weight of
love. And no doubt it was exceedingly useful practically. It would
secure for the imprisoned missionary many alleviating personal
comforts, and part of it would probably be spent upon the work of
evangelization in Rome and its neighbourhood; for then as now work
inevitably meant expense.
Ver. 10. +But+, to turn now from teaching to thanking--+I rejoice+
(_echaren_: the English present best gives the point of the
"epistolary" aorist) +in the Lord+, in our union of heart and life with
Him, +greatly, that now at length+, after an interval which was no
fault of yours, +you have blossomed, out[1] into+ loving +thought on my
behalf+. +With a view to this+ (_eph o_), this effort to aid me, you
+were, I know+ (_kai_), +taking thought+ (_ephroneite_), even when you
made no sign; +but you were at a loss for opportunity+ for the
transmission; no bearer for your bounty could be spared, or found.
Ver. 11. +Not that I speak thus in the tone of need+ (_kath
usteresin_), as if I had been wondering, and fretting, and suspecting
you of forgetfulness or of parsimony; no, I have been in a happier mood
than that; +for I, for my part+ (_ego_: slightly emphatic), have learnt
(_emathon_: our perfect tense best gives this aorist) +to be, in my
actual circumstances, self-sufficing+ (_autarkes_); "carrying with me
all I have"; independent, not of grace, but of surroundings.
Ver. 12. +I know both+ (_kai_, not _de_) +how to run low,[2] and how
to run over+, as I do now, with your bounty; and both experiences need
a teaching from above if they are to be rightly borne. +In everything
and in all things+, in the details and in the total, I have been let
into the secret, I have been initiated into the "mystery,"[3] +of being
full fed and of being hungry, of+
Ver. 13. +running over and of coming short. For all things I am
strong in Him who makes me able.+[4]
But not even this joyful testimony to the enabling presence of his Lord
must divert his thought from the loving act of the Philippians. He
seems about to dilate on the glorious theme of what he can be and do in
Christ; the wonder of that experience on which he entered at the crisis
detailed in 2 Cor. xii. is surely powerfully upon him; the "My grace is
sufficient for thee"; the sense of even exultation in weakness and
imperfection, "that the power of Christ may overshadow" him. But all
this leaves perfectly undisturbed his delicate sympathy with the dear
Macedonian converts. And so he will assure them that no spiritual
"sufficiency" can blunt the sense of their generous kindness.
Ver. 14. +Yet you did well+, you did a fair, good deed, +when you
joined together+ (_sunkoinonesantes_) +in participating in my
tribulation+, with the partnership of a sympathy which feels the
suffering it relieves. +But you
Ver. 15. +know+, (to add a thought on your previous bounties, which
may as it were correct (_de_) the thought that I needed this last
bounty to assure me of your love,) you know, +Philippians,[5] that in
the beginning of the Gospel+, in the early days of the mission in your
region, +when I left Macedonia+, parting from you on my way south, in
order to quit Macedonia (Roman Northern Greece) for Achaia (Roman
Southern Greece), _via_ Thessalonica and Beroea,[6] +no church
participated with me+, helped me in my labours, +in the matter of
giving and taking+, (they giving and I taking the needed monetary aid,)
+but you alone+. But
Ver. 16. you did so; +because even in Thessalonica+; even when I was
still there, in a place which was but ninety miles away,[7] and in the
same province still; twice over (_kai hapax kai dis_) +you sent+ aid
+to my need+, within the few weeks which I spent at Thessalonica.
Again he will not be misunderstood. This warmly expressed gratitude
may conceivably be mistaken for an indirect petition, "thanks for
favours to come." So with sensitive delicacy he pursues:
Ver. 17. +Not that I am in quest of+ (_epizeto_: almost, "I am hunting
for") +the gift+, the mere sum of money, in and for itself; +but I am
in quest of the interest that is accumulating to your account+;[8] I am
bent upon just such a developement of your generosity as will win from
the heavenly Master more and yet more of that supreme reward, His own
"Well done, good and
Ver. 18. faithful." +But+ (he is still anxious, lest this too should
be mistaken for a personal bid for more) +I have received in full+
(_apecho_); you have amply discharged love's obligations, in the gift
now sent; +and I run over+; the largeness of your bounty makes an
overflow. +I have been filled full, in accepting from Epaphroditus
what+ came +from you; an odour of fragrancy, a sacrifice acceptable,
pleasing to God+, to whom you have really presented what you have sent
to the man who serves Him--this evidence of your sacrifice to Him of
yourselves and your possessions, a burnt offering (Lev. i. 9) of
surrender, a peace offering (Lev. ii. 2, iii. 5) of thanksgiving.[9] I
cannot
Ver. 19. requite you; +but my God shall fill up every need of yours+
(_pasan chreian_, not _p._ten chr._), making up to you in His own
loving providence the gap in your means left by this your bounty, and
enriching you the while in soul, +according to+, on the scale of, +His
wealth, in glory, in Christ Jesus+. Yes, He will draw on no less a
treasury than that of "His glory," His own Nature of almighty Love, as
it is manifested to and for you "in Christ Jesus," in whom "all the
Ver. 20. Fulness dwells."[10] +But now to our God and Father+, to Him
of whom I and you are alike the dear children, +be the glory+, the
praise for this and for all like acts of His children's love, +for ever
and ever+; "to the ages of the ages," the endless cycles of eternal
life, in which shall it be fully seen how He was the Secret of all the
holiness of all His saints. _Amen_.
So the utterance of thanks for a loving and liberal collection closes.
Here is another case of the phenomenon we have seen already--the
beautiful skill with which a local and personal incident is used as the
occasion for a whole revelation of grace and truth. We can easily
imagine a gift like that which came from Philippi acknowledged with a
few cordial words which would adequately express gratitude and
pleasure, but would otherwise terminate wholly in themselves. How
different is this paragraph! Throughout it, side by side, run at once
the most perfect and delicate human courtesy and considerateness, and
suggestions of eternal and spiritual relations, in which "the gift"
touches at every point the heart of the Lord, and the promises of
grace, and the hope of glory. This message of thanks gives us, just in
passing, such oracles of blessing as, "I can do all things in Him that
strengtheneth me," and "My God shall supply all your need." It is on
one side a model of nobility and fineness of human thought and feeling,
on the other an oracle of God. This is just in the manner of
Scripture. "Never book spake like this Book."
Now the close comes. The greetings which those who are one in the Lord
cannot but send to one another in His name, have to be spoken, and then
the scribe's pen will rest.
Ver. 21. +Salute every saint in Christ Jesus+, every holy one of your
circle, holy because in Him; pass the greetings round from my heart to
each member of the Church. And as I write, the Christians now around
me, my personal friends upon the spot, must send their message too;
+there salute you all the brethren who are with me+. And not they
only, but all the believers of the Roman mission, represented around me
in my chamber as I dictate, do the same; and among them one class asks
to join with special warmth; +there+
Ver. 22. +salute you all the saints, but particularly those who belong
to+ (_oi ek_) +the household of the Emperor+ (_kaisaros_); the
Christians gathered from the retainers of the Palace; peculiar in their
circumstances of temptation, and quickened thereby to a special warmth
of faith and love.[11]
Nothing is left now but the final message from the Lord Himself; the
invocation of that "grace" which means in fact no abstract somewhat but
His living Self, present in His people's inmost being, to vivify and to
bless.
Ver. 23. +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.[12]
Amen.+
The voice is silent; the pen is laid aside. In due time the papyrus
roll, inestimable manuscript, is made ready for its journey. And
perhaps as it now lies drying the Missionary and his brethren turn to
further conversation on the beloved Philippian Church, and recall many
a scene in the days that are over, and which are now gliding far into
the past of the crowded years; and they speak again of the brightness
of Philippian Christian life, and the shadows that lie on it here and
there; and then, while the Praetorian sentinel looks on in wonder, or
perhaps joins in as a believer, they pray together for Philippi, and
pour out their praises to the Father and the Son, and anticipate the
day of glory.
It is all over now; it all happened very long ago. But though that
blessed group of our elder brethren "are all gone into the world of
light" these many more than eighteen hundred human years, that Letter
is our contemporary still. "The word of God _liveth_ and _abideth for
ever_" (1 Pet. i. 23); it is never out of date, never touched by the
pathetic glamour of the past, with the suggestion of farewells, and
waxings old, and vanishings away. To us to-day, so near the twentieth
century, the Epistle to the Philippians is immortal, modern, true for
our whole world and time.
And what is its secret, its elixir of undying life? It is the Name of
Jesus Christ. It is that these pages are the message of "the chosen
Vessel" about that Name.
Our studies in the Epistle shall close with that reflexion. The
incidental topics and interests of the document are numerous indeed;
but the main theme is one, and it is Jesus Christ. From first to last,
under every variety of reference, "Christ is preached."
Let me quote from a Sermon preached many years ago, the last of a
series in which I attempted to unfold the Epistle to a Christian
congregation in the beloved Church of Fordington, Dorchester, then my
Father's cure and charge.
"The mere number of mentions of the Saviour's name is remarkable. More
than forty times we have it in this short compass; that is to say, it
occurs, amidst all the variety of subjects, on an average of about once
in every two or three verses. This is indeed perfectly characteristic,
not of this Epistle only but of the whole New Testament. What the
Apostles preached was not a thing but a Person; Christ, Christ Jesus,
Christ Jesus the Lord.
"But let us not look only on this frequency of mention. Let us gather
up something of what these mentions say 'concerning the King.'
"The writer begins with describing himself and his associates as the
servants, the absolute bondmen, _of Jesus Christ_. And truly such
servants witness to the worthiness of their Master.
"He addresses those to whom he writes as saints, as holy ones, _in
Jesus Christ_. Their standing, their character, their all, depends on
Him; on union with Him, on life in Him. Without Him, apart from Him,
they would not be saints at all.
"The writer speaks of his imprisonment at Rome; the subject is full of
Jesus Christ. 'My bonds _in Christ_' is his remarkable description of
captivity. And the result of that captivity was, to his exceeding joy,
just this, amidst a great variety of conditions in detail, including
some exquisite trials to patience and peace: '_Christ_ is being
preached'; 'that _Christ_ may be magnified in my body, whether by life
or death.' He is kept absolutely cheerful and at rest; and the secret
is Jesus Christ.
"He has occasion to speak of his trial, with its delays, and its
suspense between life and death. The whole is full of Jesus Christ.
'To me to live is _Christ_'; He fills, and as it were makes, life for
me. 'And to die is gain'--why? Because 'to depart and to be with
_Christ_ is far, far better.' The dilemma in which he stands (for he
is 'in a strait betwixt the two') is a dilemma between Christ and
Christ, Christ much and Christ more, Christ by faith and Christ by
sight.
"He dwells, in various places, on the life and duties of the
Philippians. His precepts are all this, in effect--Christ applied to
conduct. 'Let your life-walk be as it becometh the Gospel of
_Christ_'; 'Filled with the fruit of righteousness which is through
_Jesus Christ_'; 'It is granted to you not only to believe in _Christ_
but also to suffer for His sake.'
"In particular, he has to press on them the homely duty of practical
self-forgetfulness. He takes them for model and motive to the heaven
of heavens, and shews them 'Christ Jesus' there, as for us men and for
our salvation He prepares to come down, and comes. 'Let this mind be
in you,' as you contemplate the original Glory, the amazing
Incarnation, the atoning Death, of _Christ Jesus_.
"He expresses hopes, intentions, resolutions, as to his own actions.
All is still 'in Jesus Christ.' 'I trust in _the Lord Jesus_ to send
Timotheus,' 'I trust in _the Lord_ to come myself shortly.'
"Does he speak of the believer's joy? 'We rejoice in _Christ Jesus_,'
'Rejoice in _the Lord_ alway, and again I say, Rejoice.' Does he speak
of pardon and of peace? 'I counted all things but loss that I might
win _Christ_, and be found in Him, having the righteousness which is of
God by faith.' Does he speak of knowledge, and of power? 'That I
might know _Christ_, and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death';
'I can do all things in _Christ_ which strengtheneth me.'
"He speaks of a holy immortality, of eternal glory, and of pleasures
for evermore. It is no vague aspiration; it is a sure and certain
hope; and it is altogether in Jesus Christ. 'Our home, our
citizenship, is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour,
the Lord _Jesus Christ_, who shall change the body of our humiliation
into likeness to the body of His glory, according to the working
whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto--Himself.'
"He bids his beloved converts stand fast; it is 'in _the Lord_.' He
bids them be of one mind; it is 'in _the Lord_.' He bids them be
always calm, always self-forgetting; '_the Lord_ is at hand.' He
assures them of an all-sufficient resource for their every need; 'My
God shall supply all, according to His riches, in glory, in _Christ
Jesus_.'
"His last message of blessing brings together their inmost being and
this same wonderful Person; 'The grace of our Lord _Jesus Christ_ be
with your spirit. Amen.' . . .
"What a witness it all is to the glory of our beloved Redeemer; to the
majesty of His Person; to the fulness and perfection of His Work; to
the solidity, the sobriety, the strength, of the faith which is in Him!
There is no inflation or rhetoric in the language of the Epistle about
Him. Glowing with love, it is all clear and calm. Yes, for Christ
Jesus is not a phantom of the fancy; a hope floating on the thick waves
of a wild enthusiasm. He is an anchor, sure and steadfast. Blessed
are they who ride secure on the deep, held fast by Him.
"The Epistle witnesses to Him as to a Treasure worth all our seeking,
at any cost; infinitely precious to our joyful finding; infinitely
deserving of our keeping, of our holding, our 'apprehending,' as He in
His mercy has laid hold of us, and will keep hold of us, even to the
end; 'unto the day of Jesus Christ.' As then, so now;
'He help'd His saints in ancient days
Who trusted in His name;
And we can witness to His praise,
His love is still the same.'
"May the Spirit bring home to our spirit this great witness of the
Epistle; it has its perfect adaptation to each heart, to every life, to
every hour.
"Then hereafter we shall give God thanks yet better for 'Philippians,'
as we too enter, late or soon, into that world where the Apostle, and
Timotheus, and Epaphroditus, and Euodia, and Syntyche, and Clement, and
the saints of Caesar's household, have so long beheld the Lord. In
that land of light we, who have believed, shall rest with them. We
shall know them. In the long leisure of endless life we shall enjoy
their company, amidst the multitudinous congregation of the just made
perfect. There we shall understand how, under the infinite differences
of our earthly conditions, the one Hand led them and led us along the
one way of salvation to the one end of everlasting life. Above all, we
there, with them, shall know JESUS CHRIST, even as we are known. There
we, with them, shall realize how to Him, and to Him alone, from all His
servants, from Hebrew, and Roman, and Philippian, and Englishman, and
African, from ancients and moderns, wise and ignorant, of all kinds and
times, was due the whole praise of their whole salvation.
'Conflicts and trials done
His glory they behold,
Where JESUS and His flock are one,
One Shepherd and one fold.'"
[1] _Anethalete to huper emou phronein_. Literally, "_you shot forth_
(as a branch) _thought in my behalf_." (The English perfect best
represents this aorist.) The phrase is unmistakably pictorial,
poetical. If I read it aright, it is touched with _a smile_ of gentle
pleasantry; the warm heart comes out in a not undesigned quaintness of
expression.
[2] _tapeinousthai_ is used in classical Greek of the falling of a
river in drought. Perhaps such an image is present in the language
here.
[3] _Memuemai_: the verb whose root is that of _mysterion_,
_mysterium_, "mystery." In the Greek world "mysteries" were systems of
religious belief and practice derived, perhaps, from pre-Hellenic
times, and jealously guarded from common knowledge by their votaries.
Admission into their secrets, as into those of Freemasonry now, was
sought by people of all kinds, from Roman consuls and emperors
downwards; with the special hope of freedom from evil in this life and
the next. St Paul's use of this phenomenon to supply language for
Christian experience is beautifully suggestive. The knowledge of the
peace of God is indeed an _open_ secret, open to "whosoever will"
"learn of Him." But it is a secret, a mystery, none the less.
[4] The word _Christo_ should be omitted from the reading, though
perfectly right as a note or explanation.--The _iochus_ is the
forth-putting of the _dunamis_--the _action_ of the _faculty_. He is
ready to act (or to bear) in a power always latent, always present,
through his union with his Lord. The "all things" so met are, of
course, the all things of the will of God, the choice of the Master for
the servant in the way of circumstance and trial; not the all things of
the mere wish or ambition of the servant.
[5] _Philippesioi_: the Greek form represents a Latin _Philippenses_,
by which the residents in the _Roman "colony"_ would call themselves.
So _Corinthiensis_ means not a born Corinthian but a settler at
Corinth.--Greek tends to represent a Latin syllable -_ens_ by -_es_: so
_Klemes_, _Clemens_.
[6] See Acts xvii. 1-15.
[7] On the Egnatian road. He made three stages of the distance;
Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica.
[8] _Ton karpon ton pleonazonta eis logon hymon_. I venture to render
these words as above, as a monetary phrase, relating to principal and
interest. It is true that _karpos_ is not found used in the sense of
interest, for which the regular word is _tokos_. But it would easily
fit into the language of the money-market. And St Chrysostom's comment
here seems to show that he, a Greek, understood it thus: _horas hoti
ekeinois ho karpos tiktetai_ (_tokos_).
[9] For _osme euodias_ see Eph. v. 2. The phrase is common in the
Septuagint to render the Hebrew "savour of rest," the fume of the altar
pictorially represented as smelt by the Deity.
[10] This reference of _doxa_ seems better than that which would
connect it only with the eternal future, the glory of heaven, and make
the sentence mean that He would hereafter requite them there. He would
indeed do so. But the phrase _pleroun pasan chreian_ hardly suggests
that thought here.
[11] "Bishop Lightfoot . . . (_Philippians_, pp. 171-178) has shewn
with great fulness of proof that 'the household of Caesar' was a term
embracing a vast number of persons, not only in Rome but in the
provinces, all of whom were either actual or former slaves of the
Emperor, filling every possible description of office more or less
domestic. The Bishop illustrates his statements from the . . . burial
inscriptions of members of the 'Household' found . . . near Rome. . . .
These inscriptions afford a curiously large number of coincidences
_with the list in Rom. xvi._ . . . Amplias, Urbanus, Apelles,
Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Patrobas, Philologus. . . . Bishop Lightfoot
infers from this whole evidence the great probability that the 'saints'
greeted in Rom. xvi. were, on the whole, the same 'saints' who here
send greeting _from_ Rome. . . . Their associations and functions, not
only in the age of Nero but in the precincts of his court, and probably
(for many of them) within the chambers of his palace, give a noble view
in passing of the power of grace to triumph over circumstances, and to
transfigure life where it seems most impossible" (Note in _The
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges_). See also the writer's
commentary on the Ep. to the Romans (_Expositor's Bible_), pp. 423-425.
[12] Read _meta tou pneumatos huon_, not _m. panton humon_.
THE PRAETORIAN AND THE APOSTLE
ACTS xxviii. 16, 31
"Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept
him. . . . preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ."
(THE SOLDIER loquitur.)
Father, the dawn is near! the shield
Of Luna sinks remote and pale
O'er Tiber and the Martial field;
The breeze awakes; the cressets fail:
This livelong night from set of sun
Here have we talk'd: thy task is done.
But yesterday I smil'd or frown'd
To watch thy audience, soon and late,
With scroll and style embattl'd round
In barbarous accents ply debate;
While this would chide, and that would start
Sudden, as sword-struck in the heart.
I laugh'd aside, or, tir'd, withdrew
From the strange sound in waking dreams
To Umbrian hills--the home I knew--
The cottage by Mevania's streams:
'Twas hush'd at length: the guests were flown,
And thou wast left and I alone.
Thou hast forgiven (I know thee now)
The insults of this heathen tongue;
The taunting questions why and how;
The songs (oh madness!) that I sung:
Thou hast forgiv'n the hateful strain
Of dull defiance and disdain.
Thy gaze, thy silence, they compell'd
My own responsive: aw'd I stood
Before thee; soften'd, search'd, and quell'd;
The evil captive to the good:
Half conscious, half entranc'd, I heard
(While the stars mov'd) thy conquering word.
These ears were dull to Grecian speech,
This heart more dull to aught but sin;
Yet the great Spirit bade thee reach,
Wake, change, exalt, the soul within:
I've heard; I know; thy Lord, ev'n He,
JESUS, hath look'd from heaven on me.
Thou saw'st me shake, and (spite of pride)
Weep on thy hand: so stern thy truth:
I own'd the terrors that abide
Dread sequel to a rebel's youth:
But soon I pour'd a happier shower
To learn thy Saviour's dying power.
Ah, speechless, rapt, I bent, to know
Each wonder of that fateful day
When midst thy zeal's terrific glow
He met thee on the Syrian way:
I saw, I felt, the scene: my soul
Drank the new bliss, the new control.
Father, the dawn is risen! the hour
Is near, too near, when from this hand
Thy chain must fall--from yonder tower
Another guard must take my stand:
The City stirs: I go, to meet
The foe, the world, in camp and street;
A Christian--yes, for ever now
A Christian: so our Leader keep
My faltering heart: to Him I bow,
His, whether now I wake or sleep:
In peace, in battle, His:--the day
Breaks in the east: oh, once more pray!
1869.