_HOW THE PHILIPPIANS SHOULD THINK OF PAUL AT ROME._
Having poured out his feelings about those dear friends and children in
the Lord at Philippi, the Apostle recognises corresponding feelings on
their part towards him. These must naturally be feelings of anxiety to
know how it was with him in body and spirit, and how far he had been
protected and sustained amid the dangers and sorrows of a prisoner's
lot. On this then he is glad to be able to give them good tidings. He
can do so, because he is in the hands of a wonder-working Lord, who
turns the shadow of death into the morning. Hence his history as well as
theirs (ver. 11) is moving towards the glory and praise of God.
The Apostle's affairs had seemed to be full of trial to himself, all the
more that they bore so discouraging an aspect towards the cause to which
he was devoted. He had been for years a prisoner. The work of preaching
to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ had been stopped,
except as the narrow opportunities of a prisoner's life offered scant
outlets for it. He had, no doubt, his own share of experiences tending
to depress and embitter: for in his day philanthropy had not yet done
much to secure good treatment for men situated as he was. Still more
depressing to an eager soul was the discipline of delay: the slow,
monotonous months passing on, consuming the remainder of his life, while
the great harvest he longed to reap lay outside uncared for, with few to
bring it in. Meanwhile even the work done in Christ's name was largely
taking a wrong direction: those who under the Christian name preached
another gospel, and perverted the gospel of Christ, had a freer hand to
do their work. Paul, at least, had no longer the power to cross their
path. Ground on which he might have worked, minds which he might have
approached, seemed to be falling under their perverting influence. All
this seemed adverse--adverse to Paul, and adverse to the cause for which
he lived--fitted therefore to awaken legitimate concern: fitted to raise
the question why God's providence should thus depress the heart and
waste the life of an agent so carefully prepared and so incomparably
efficient.
Most likely these things had tried the faith of Paul himself, and they
might distress and perplex his loving friends at Philippi. It was right
to feel that these providences were trying; but one might be tempted
also to conclude that they were in every sense to be lamented. So much
the better it was, therefore, that the Apostle could testify how here
also all things were working for good, and in particular were turning
out to be for the furtherance of the gospel. This was taking place in
two ways at least.
First, Paul's imprisonment had become the means of bringing to the
knowledge of the gospel many who were not likely ever to hear of it in
any other way; for his bonds had become manifest in Christ in the
Prætorium, and in all other places. The precise meaning of the several
words here used has become matter of discussion; but the general result
is much the same whatever view is taken of the matters debated. The word
translated "palace" in the Authorised Version (Marg. Cæsar's Court) may
perhaps refer to the quarters of the guard, in the immediate
neighbourhood of the palace. Prisoners whose cases were in a special
manner reserved to the Emperor were sometimes confined there. And Paul,
whether actually confined there or not, must have come into contact with
the troops stationed there, for we know he had been delivered to the
captain of the guard (Acts xxviii. 16[1]). Then the "all others" (Marg.
of A.V.) may probably mean the rest of the Emperor's household (comp.
ch. iv. 22), and would naturally be connected with it in the minds of
men, so that a mere indication like this was enough. For, in a military
system such as that of the Empire was, the soldiers and officers of the
guard formed an important part of the household. That household,
however, was an immense affair, including hundreds or even thousands of
persons--mostly freedmen or slaves, performing all sorts of functions.
[1] This, however, is omitted in critical editions.
Paul, then, in charge of the guard, coming in contact with individuals
belonging to the various reliefs which successively had him in custody,
spoken of as one reserved to the judgment of the Emperor himself, became
known throughout the quarters of the guard, and to persons of the
household of every rank and class. In point of fact we know and can
prove from evidence external to the Bible that a few years later than
this (perhaps even earlier than this) there were members of the
household who were Christians. Before the end of the century a branch of
the family which then occupied the imperial throne seems to have joined
the Church, perhaps through the influence of a Christian nurse, who is
commemorated in an inscription still preserved.
But how did his bonds "become manifest in Christ"? The words no doubt
mean that he became known extensively as a man whose bonds, whose
imprisonment, was for his adherence to the name and doctrine of Jesus
Christ. Let us consider how this would come about.
There might, at first, be universal indifference with reference to the
cause of this prisoner's confinement. When his character and statements
led to some curiosity about him, men might find it difficult to
understand what the real nature of this mysterious case could be. For
while the charge, whatever form it took, was not yet a common one, we
may be very sure that the man struck people as profoundly different
from ordinary prisoners. For ordinary prisoners the one thing desirable
was release; and they employed every artifice, and exhausted every form
of influence and intrigue, and were prepared to sacrifice every scruple,
if only they could get free. Here was a man who pleaded for truth; his
own freedom seemed to be quite secondary and subordinate. So at last men
come to an understanding, more or less, of the real cause of his bonds.
They were bonds for Christ. They were the result of his adherence to the
faith of Christ's resurrection, and to the truths which that great event
sealed. They were connected with a testifying for Christ which had
brought him into collision with the authorities of his own nation, which
had set on Jews "everywhere" to "speak against" him (Acts xxviii. 22).
And in his imprisonment he did not lay down his testimony, but preached
with all his heart to every man who would hear him. This state of things
dawned upon men's minds, so far as they thought about him at all; it
became clear; it was "manifest in the Prætorium, and to all the others."
One influence was at work which would at least direct attention to the
case. There were certainly Jews in the household; there were also Jews
in Rome who made it their business, for their worldly interest, to
establish connections in the household; and about this time Jewish
influence rose to the person nearest to Nero himself. There was
therefore a class of persons in the household likely to feel an interest
in the case. And on these most likely the influence of Jewish religious
authorities would be exerted to produce an unfavourable opinion of Paul.
It would be felt desirable that the Jews of the household should think
of Paul as no loyal Jew, as a seditious person, and of his opinions as
not legitimately pertaining to Jewish religion--as a religious belief
and practice which Judaism repudiated and denounced. Thus, while Paul's
case might begin to influence the guard, because members of it were
personally in contact with him, in the rest of the household there was a
class of persons who would feel an interest in discussing his case. One
way or another, some impression as to the peculiar character of it was
acquired.
Now think how much was done when some view of the real nature of Paul's
bonds had been lodged in the minds of these men. Think what an event
that was in the mental history of some of these heathens of the old
world. Paul was, in the first place, a man very unlike the ordinary type
of movers of sedition. It seemed that his offence stood only in
religious opinions or persuasions; and that itself, precisely in Nero's
days, was a little singular to figure as the ground of political
imprisonment. He was persecuted and endangered for his faith, and he
neither denied nor disguised that faith, but spent all possible pains in
proclaiming it. This was new. He had a faith, resting professedly on
recent facts, which he proclaimed as indispensably necessary to be
received by all men. This was new. He seriously told men, any man and
every man, that their welfare must be attained through their being
individually transformed to a type of character of the unworldliest
type; he could press that alike on sordid Jews and gay young officers.
This was new. He was a man who, in place of the ordinary anxieties and
importunities of a prisoner, was ever ready to speak and plead in behalf
of Christ, that singular young Jew who had died thirty years before, but
whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And in all this, however it might strike
one as foolish or odd, there were tokens of an honesty, a sanity, and a
purity that could not be explained away. All this struck men who stood
near the centre of a world falling many ways into moral ruin, as
something strange and new. Paul's own explanation of it was in the one
word "Christ." So his bonds were manifest in Christ.
A few of them might have heard previously of Christianity as a new and a
malignant superstition. But another conception of it reached them
through the bonds of Paul. This imprisoned man was a fact to be
accounted for, and a problem to be solved. In him was an influence not
wholly to be escaped, an instance that needed a new interpretation. Many
of them did not obey the truth, some did; but at least something had
become manifest that could not easily be got rid of again,--the
beginning, in their case, of that leaven which was eventually to
revolutionise the thinking and feeling of the world. Remember also that
most of these were men to whom Paul at liberty, speaking in synagogues
and the like, would have found no access, nor would he have come near
the circles to which their influence extended. But now, being
imprisoned, his bonds became manifest in Christ.
Thus does it often come to pass that what seems adverse, proves to be on
our side. Fruit is not always borne most freely when the visible
opportunities of labouring are most plentiful. Rather the question is,
how the opportunities given are employed, and how far the life of the
labourer bears witness of the presence and power of Christ.
But besides the direct impression on those who were outside, arising
from the fact of Paul's imprisonment, it became the means of stimulating
and reinforcing the labours of other Christians (ver. 14). It is not
hard to see how this might be. From Paul's bonds, and from the manner
and spirit in which they were borne, these brethren received a new
impression as to what should be done and what should be borne in the
service of Christ. They were infected with the contagion of Paul's
heroism. The sources of Paul's consecration and of his comfort became
more real to them; and no discouragement arising from pain or danger
could hold its ground against these forces. So they waxed confident.
While dangers that threaten Christians are still only impending, are
still only looming out of the unknown future, men are apt to tremble at
them, to look with a shrinking eye, to approach with a reluctant step.
Now here in the midst of those Roman Christians was Paul, in whom were
embodied the trouble accepted and the danger defied. At once Christian
hearts became inspired with a more magnanimous and generous spirit.
Wherever dangers and hardships are endured, even apart from
Christianity, we know how prompt the impulse is to rush in, to give
help, and to share burdens. How much more might it be so here.
* * * * *
Not that the impulse to evangelistic earnestness, arising from Paul's
presence in Rome, was all of this kind. It was not so. Some preached out
of goodwill, in full sympathy with the spirit that animated Paul's own
labours and sustained him in his trials. But some preached Christ out of
envy and spite, and supposed to add affliction to his bonds. How are we
to fit this into our notions of the Primitive Church?
The truth is that, ever since the gospel began to be preached, unworthy
motives have combined with worthier in the administration and professed
service of it. Mixture of motive has haunted the work even of those who
strove to keep their motives pure. And men in whom lower motive and
worse motive had a strong influence have struck into the work alongside
of the nobler and purer labourers. So it has pleased God to permit; that
even in this sacred field men might be tried and manifested before the
judgment of the great day; and that it might be the more plain that the
effectual blessing and the true increase come from Himself.
More especially have these influences become apparent in connection
with the divisions of judgment about Christian doctrine and practice,
and with the formation of parties. The personal and the party feelings
have readily allied themselves, in too many men, with a self-regarding
zeal and with envy or spite. And where these feelings exist they come
out in other forms besides their own proper colours and their direct
manifestation. More often they find vent in the way of becoming the
motive power of work that claims to be Christian--of work that ought to
be inspired by a purer aim.
There were, as we all know, in the Church of those days powerful
sections of professed believers, who contested Paul's apostleship,
questioned his teaching, and wholly disliked the effects of his work.
Perhaps by this time the strain of that conflict had become a little
less severe, but it had not wholly passed away. We call these persons
the Judaisers. They were men who looked to Jesus Christ as the Messiah,
who owned the authority of His teaching, and claimed interest in His
promises. But they insisted on linking Christianity to Jewish forms, and
rules, and conditions of law-keeping, which were on various grounds dear
and sacred to them. They apprehended feebly the spirituality and
Divineness of Christ's religion; and what they did apprehend they wished
to enslave, for themselves and others, in a carnal system of rules and
ritual that tended to stifle and to bury the truth. With this there went
a feeling towards Paul of wrath fear, and antipathy. Such men there
were in Rome. Possibly there might even be a Christian congregation in
the city in which this type prevailed. At any rate, they were found
there. Before Paul's coming no very remarkable nor very successful
efforts to spread abroad the gospel in that great community had been
going on. But Paul's arrival made men solicitous and watchful. And when
it was seen that his presence and the enthusiasm that gathered round him
were beginning to give impulse and effect to the speaking of the word,
then this party too bestirred itself. It would not--could not--oppose
the carrying of the message of Christ to men. But it could try to be
first in the field; it could become active, energetic, dexterous, in
laying hold of inquiring and susceptible persons, before the other side
could do so; it could subject Paul to the mortification, _the deserved
mortification_, of failure or defeat, so far as these would be implied
in his seeing the converts going to the side which was not his side.
Evangelistic zeal awoke on these terms, and bestirred itself. And
sheaves that in other circumstances might have lain untended long
enough, were gathered now.
This very same spirit, this poor and questionable zeal for Christ, still
works, and does so plentifully. The activities of Churches, the
alertness of Mission societies and agencies, still partake, in far too
many instances, of this sinister inspiration. We ought to watch against
it in ourselves, that we may overcome the evil and grow into a nobler
temper. As regards others, we may, in special cases, see the working of
such motives clearly enough, as Paul saw them at Rome. But usually we
shall do well, when we can, to impute the work of others to the better
side of their character: and we may do so reasonably; for as Christian
work is far from being all of it so pure and high as we might desire, on
the other hand, the lowly and loving temper of Christ's true followers
is very often present and operative when it is not easy for us to see
it. Let us believe it, because we believe in Him who worketh all in all.
Now the Apostle, looking at this, is glad of it. He is not glad that any
men, professing Christ, give way to evil and unchristian tempers. But he
is glad that Christ is preached. There were cases in which he vehemently
contended with such persons--when they strove to poison and pervert
Christians who had learned the better way. But now he is thinking of the
outside world; and it was good that the making known of Christ should
gather strength, and volume, and extension. And the Apostle knew that
the Lord could bless His own message, imperfectly delivered perhaps, to
bring thirsty souls to Himself, and would not fail in His unsearchable
wisdom to care for those who came, and to lead them in the ways He
thought best. Let Christ be preached. The converts do not belong to the
denominations, but first of all to Christ. Neither is it appointed that
the denominations shall permanently hold those whom they bring in; but
Christ can hold them, and can order their future in ways we cannot
foretell.
It is not true that the preaching of Christ serves no purpose and yields
no fruit, in cases where it is not carried on in the right, or the best
spirit. Indeed, God honours the pure, loving, lowly hearts, which He has
Himself cleansed; they are appropriate agents for His work, and often
receive a special blessing in connection with it. But God is not tied up
to give no success to men acting under wrong motives: at least, if we
are not to say He gives the success to them, yet in connection with them
He is well able to take success to Himself. Through strange channels He
can send blessings to souls, whatever He gives or denies to the unworthy
workmen. But perhaps the success which attends such preachers is not
remarkable nor very long continued. Souls truly gathered in will soon
get beyond their teaching. At any rate, it is a poor business to be
serving Christ upon the devil's principles. It cannot be good for
us--whatever good may sometimes come thereby to others. Let us purge
ourselves from such filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit.
"Christ is preached." How glad the Apostle was to think of it! How he
longed to see more of it, and rejoiced in all of it that he saw! One
wonders how far the thoughts and feelings associated with these words in
Paul's mind, find any echo in ours. Christ is preached. The meaning for
men of that message, as Paul conceived it, grew out of the anguish and
the wonder of those early days at Damascus, and had been growing ever
since. What might Christ be for men?--Christ their righteousness, Christ
their life, Christ their hope; God in Christ, peace in Christ,
inheritance in Christ; a new creature, a new world; joy, victory--above
all, the love of Christ, the love which passes knowledge and fills us
with the fulness of God. Therefore also this was the burning conviction
in Paul's soul--that Christ must be preached; by all means, on all
accounts, Christ must be preached. The unsearchable riches of Christ
must be proclaimed. Certainly, whoever might do or not do, _he_ must do
it. He was to live for nothing else. "I Paul am made a minister of it."
"Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel."
Lastly, as to this, not only does he rejoice that Christ is announced to
men, but he has an assurance that this shall have a happy issue and
influence towards himself also. What is so good for others shall also be
found to contribute an added element of good to his own salvation; so
good and rich is God, who, in working wide results of Divine
beneficence, does not overlook the special case and interest of His own
servant. This work, from which the workmen would shut Paul out, shall
prove to pertain to him in spite of them; and he, as reaper, shall
receive here also his wages, gathering fruit unto life eternal.
For it is characteristic of this Epistle (ii. 17; iv. 10, 18) that the
Apostle reveals to his Philippian friends not only his thoughts
concerning the great objects of the gospel, but also the desires and
hopes he had about his own experience of deliverance and well-being in
connection with the turns and changes of progressive providences. Here,
it is as if he said: "I confess I am covetous, not a little covetous, to
have many children in Christ: I would fain be a link in many a chain of
influences, by which all sorts of persons are reached and blessed in
Christ. And here where I sit confined, and am also the object of envy
and strife that are solicitous to baffle me, I can descry ties forming
between my influence in my prison and results elsewhere with which I
seem to have little to do. I can claim a something of mine, granted me
by my Lord, in the Christianity of those who are kept far from me, and
taught perhaps to doubt and dislike me. If I in my prison experience can
but live Christ, then all sorts of effects and reactions, upon all sorts
of minds, will have something in them that accrues as fruit to
Christ--and something also that accrues as my Lord's loving recognition
of me. Only do you pray--for this is a great and high calling--pray, you
who love me, and let the Lord in answer plentifully give His Spirit; and
then, while I lie here in the imprisonment which my Lord has assigned to
me, and in which He vitalises me, oh how fruitful and successful shall
my life be, what gain and wealth of salvation shall be mine! There shall
be fruit for an Apostle still, coming in ways I cannot follow; and in
it, and with it, the confirmation and deepening of my own eternal life.
It shall turn to my salvation."
So the eager Apostle, caged and cabined, triumphed still in Christ,
assured that there was a way of dealing with his Lord's will,
discouraging as that might seem, in which it would reveal both
enlargement for the Kingdom and the most loving enrichment also for
himself.
This is a commonplace of Christianity. Christians trust in Christ to
cause all to work for good. They know He can impart His most precious
gifts through what seem adverse providences. But it is a memorable
embodiment of this conviction that meets us in the Apostle's confidence,
that when Christ's providence outwardly stops his work, it not the less
pertains to Christ's wisdom to continue and extend his usefulness. The
applications of the same principle to various cases in which Christians
are trained through disappointment are innumerable. But mostly, even
when, in a way, we are open to the lesson, we take it too easily. We
forget that here also it is Christlike life and life in Christ that
proves so fruitful and so happy. We do not apprehend how great a thing
it is--what prayer it asks--what supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
For the Apostle, as we learn from what presently follows, this blessing
came in the line of "earnest expectation and hope." It was not an
exceptional effort of faith which awoke in him so firm a confidence
about his circumstances at Rome, and was rewarded so manifestly. His
whole life was set on the same key. He applied to that Roman experience
the same mode of view which he strove to apply to every experience. This
was his expectation--he was on the outlook for it--and this his hope,
that not only in one great crisis, but all along his pilgrimage, his
life should _eventuate_ one way--should shape into glory to Christ. His
whole life must turn out to be a loving, believing, effectual
manifestation of the greatness and goodness of Christ. This was what
rose before his mind as SUCCESS IN LIFE. His thoughts, his prayers
turned this way. As some men's minds turn spontaneously to money, and
some to family prosperity, and some to fame, and some to various lines
of recreation or of accomplishment, so Paul's turned to this. And in
this world of failure and disappointment, success welcomed him and
gladdened him. His would have been the nobler life even if its
expectation had been disappointed. But this is the life which cannot
fail, because God is in it.
There is a great admonition here for all of us who profess to be
followers of Christ. Our line of service may not be so emphatically
marked out for distinction, for special and exceptional eminence of
doing and suffering, as Paul's was. But for every believer the path of
service opens, however commonplace and undistinguished its scenery may
be. And in some of its stages it takes, for all of us, the peculiar
character, it assumes the distinguishing features which mark it out as
Christian. Here, in Paul, we see the spirit that should inspire
service, should make the strength, the peculiarity, the success of it,
should be the quickening and gladdening influence of its efforts and its
prayers. This ought to be for us also the longing outlook and the hope.
Let us note also, before we pass on, that the Lord's personal kindness
to ourselves is matter of legitimate rejoicing and legitimate desire.
That may be gathered from almost every verse. There have been persons
who conceived that a true Christian is to be so occupied with the
thought of God's glory and will, or so occupied with the weal of others,
as to have no personal desires or interests at all. This is a mistake.
One of the most intimate and special channels in which the glory of God
and the revelation of it are secured, is in the expression of His
goodwill to His child's own heart. This is the privilege of faith, to
cherish the expectation that His glory and our good are to agree well
together. Only, as to the latter, let us leave it to Him how it is to
come to pass; and then it will come divinely and wonderfully. "The Lord
is my shepherd, _I_ shall not want."
_THE CHOICE BETWEEN LIVING AND DYING._
"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if to live in
the flesh,--if this is the fruit of my work, then what I shall
choose I wot not. But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the
desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better: yet
to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake. And having
this confidence, I know that I shall abide, yea, and abide with you
all, for your progress and joy in the faith; that your glorying may
abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you
again."--PHIL. i. 21-26 (R.V.).