+I. We must be reminded of our sinful condition.+--1. _Our body is
called a body of humiliation, because it, as well as the spirit, is
the seat of sin._ 2. _If we consider the immense labour necessary to
provide for its wants._ 3. _If we consider it as a clog to our
devotion._ 4. _It must be still further humbled by death._
+II. The transformation of this humbled body.+--1. _There can be no
deformity._ 2. _The excessive care necessary for the support of the
body shall exist no more._ 3. _It shall be an assistant and no longer
a hindrance to the operations of the deathless spirit._
+III. The means by which the transformation will be effected.+--The
power of God answers all objections, removes all difficulties.
+Lessons.+--1. _It becomes us to aspire to as much of the glory of
the future state as can be attained._ 2. _This subject affords
encouragement to us on the loss of our friends._ 3. _Ought to fortify
our minds against the fear of death.--Ibid._
_The Glorious Destiny of the Human Body._--If we are in Christ, He
will gather up what is left, He will transfigure it with the
splendour of a new life, He will change our body of humiliation that
it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. Sown in the very
extreme of physical weakness, it will be raised in a strictly
superhuman power; sown a natural body controlled on every side by
physical law, it will be a true body still, but a body that belongs
to the sphere of spirit. Most difficult indeed it is even to the
imagination to understand how this poor body, our companion for so
many years--part of our very selves--is to be first wrenched from us
at death and then restored to us if we will, transfigured by the
majestic glory of the Son of God. Little can we understand this
inaccessibility to disease, the radiant beauty, the superiority to
material obstacles in moving through space, the spirituality, in
short, which awaits without destroying it.
"Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart.
Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne
On lofty steed
Or loftier prow, we dart
O'er wave or field,
Yet breezes laugh to scorn
Our puny speed,
And birds, and clouds in heaven,
And fish like living shafts that pierce the main,
And stars that shoot through freezing air at even.
Who would not follow, might he break his chain?
And thou shalt break it soon.
The grovelling worm
Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free
As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form
And snowy vest. Such grace He won for thee
When from the grave He sprang at dawn of morn,
And led, through bondless air, thy conquering road,
Leaving a glorious track where saints new-born
Might fearless follow to their blest abode."--_H. P. Liddon._
* * * * * * * *
+CHAPTER IV.+
_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._
Ver. 1. +Brethren beloved and longed for . . . beloved.+--By these
caressing titles, which, however, are not words of flattery but of
sincere love, he works his way into their hearts. The "beloved"
repeated at the close of the verse is like the clinging embrace of
affection. +My joy.+--The most delectable joy of St. John was to hear
that his children walked in truth. So St. Paul says of his Philippian
converts, as he had said of their neighbours of the Thessalonian
Church, that they are his joy. +And crown.+--"The word must be
carefully distinguished from 'diadem.' It means a chaplet or wreath,
and the idea it conveys may be either (1) victory, or (2) merriment,
as the wreath was worn equally by the conqueror and by the
holiday-maker" (_Lightfoot_).
Ver. 3. +And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow.+--It is doubtful
whom the apostle addresses. On the whole, however, it seems most
probable that Epaphroditus, the bearer of the epistle, is intended
(so Lightfoot, following Hofmann). Meyer says: "Laying aside
arbitrariness and seeing that the address is surrounded by proper
names, we can only find in the word for 'yokefellow' a proper
name, . . . genuine Syzygus, _i.e._ thou who art in reality and
substantially that which thy name expresses: '_fellow-in-yoke,_
fellow-labourer.'" +Whose names are in the book of life.+--St. Paul
had before said the polity of the Christians was a heavenly one. Here
he says there is a "burgess list" from which no name of a true
citizen is ever by accident omitted--though by any chance he might
have omitted to mention his co-workers in his epistle.
Ver. 4. +Rejoice in the Lord.+--R.V. margin, "Farewell." The word is
neither "farewell" alone, nor "rejoice" alone (_Lightfoot_). That the
A.V. and R.V. texts are justified in so translating seems clear from
the "always" which follows.
Ver. 5. +Let your moderation be known.+--This moderation or
forbearance is the very opposite of the spirit which will "cavil on
the ninth part of a hair" in the way of asserting personal rights.
Ver. 6. +Be careful for nothing.+--R.V. "in nothing be anxious." The
word suggests the idea of a poor distraught mind on which concerns
have fastened themselves, which drag, one in one direction, another
in the opposite. Well says Bengel, "Care and prayer are more opposed
than water and fire." In all things, prayer--in nothing, care. +By
prayer.+--The general idea of an expression of dependence.
+Supplication.+--The specific request--the word hinting too at the
attitude of the petitioner, _e.g._ clasping the feet of the person
from whom the favour is asked. +With thanksgiving.+--The preservative
against any possible defiance which might otherwise find its way into
the tone of the prayer, or on the other hand against a despair which
creeps over those who think God "bears long" and forgets to answer.
Ver. 7. +And the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding.+--If we say the peace of God is so profound that the
human mind cannot comprehend it, no doubt that is an admissible
interpretation of these words; but it seems better far to say, the
peace of God excels all that the mere reason of man can do. The νοῦς,
the highest faculty of man as such, intended to be the guide of life,
oftener brings anxiety than a calm heart. +Shall keep your+
+hearts.+--As a watchman keeps a city. Lightfoot says we have a
verbal paradox, for "to keep" is a warrior's duty; God's peace shall
stand sentry, shall keep guard over your hearts. +And minds.+--R.V.
much better, "and thoughts," for it is not the mind which thinks, but
the products of thinking which the word indicates. The sentry
questions all suspicious characters (cf. Prov. iv. 23, and Matt.
xv. 19).
Ver. 8. +Whatsoever things are true.+--The apostle recognises the
ability of the renewed mind to discern truth under any guise. "Ye
have an unction from the Holy One and know all things" (1 John
ii. 20). +Honest.+--A.V. margin, "venerable." R.V. text,
"honourable." R.V. margin, "reverend." This variety shows the
difficulty of finding an exact equivalent for the word of St. Paul,
in which the sense of gravity and dignity, and of these as inviting
reverence, is combined. +Just.+--Answering to that which is normally
right (_Cremer_). +Pure.+--As there is no impurity like fleshly
impurity, defiling body and spirit, so the word "pure" expresses
freedom from these (_Trench_). It denotes chastity in every part of
life (_Calvin_). +Lovely.+--Christian morality as that which is
ethically beautiful is pre-eminently worthy to be loved. _"Nihil est
amabilius virtute,"_ says Cicero. +Of good report.+--R.V. margin,
"gracious." Lightfoot says _"fair-speaking"_ and so "winning,
attractive." Meyer says, "that which, when named, sounds significant
of happiness, _e.g._ brave, honest, honourable." +If there be any
virtue.+--The New Testament is frugal of the word which is in such
constant use in the heathen moralists. If they sought to make man
self-confident, it seeks to shatter that confidence. The noblest
manliness is godliness. +Think on these things.+--They are things to
be reckoned with by every man sooner or later--occupy the thoughts
with them now.
Ver. 9. +Those things . . . do.+--Here speaks the same man, with a
mind conscious of its own rectitude, who could say, "I have lived in
all good conscience before God unto this day." He had not only
"allured" his Philippian converts "to brighter worlds," but had "led
the way." +The God of peace shall be with you.+--Note the phrase in
connection with "the peace of God shall mount guard" (ver. 7).
Ver. 10. +Hath flourished again.+--R.V. "ye have revived your thought
for me." The active generosity of the Philippians towards St. Paul
had never died, any more than a tree does when it sheds its leaves
and stands bare all through the winter. The winter of their
disability was past, and the return of the sun of prosperity made the
kindly remembrance of the apostle sprout into a generous gift to him.
Ver. 11. +Not that I speak, etc.+--"Do not mistake me; I am not moved
thus by the good of my own need." The apostle does not leave it
possible for one to say with the melancholy Jaques, "When a man
thanks me heartily, methinks I have given him a penny and he renders
me the beggarly thanks." +I have learned . . . to be
content.+--"Self-sufficiency," said Socrates, "is nature's wealth."
St. Paul is only self-sufficient so far as Christ dwells in him and
assures him, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (cf. Heb. xiii. 5).
Ver. 12. +I know how to be abased.+--To be "in reduced
circumstances." +I know how to abound.+--To be in affluence. By this
it does not appear that St. Paul meant, "I have chewed the bitter cud
of penury, and tasted the sweets of prosperity." Many a man has had
to do that--everything lies in how it is done. It is as much beneath
the Christian philosopher to make a wry face at the one, as to clap
the hands in childish glee at the other. +I am instructed,
etc.+--Lit. "I have been initiated." The pass-word is in the
apostle's possession--no novice is he. +To be full and to be
hungry.+--As if we said "to pasture and to pine." It is the
psalmist's "green pastures and still waters. . . . The valley of the
shadow of death" (Ps. xxiii.).
Ver. 13. +I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me.+--A fresh general statement of the self-sufficiency of ver. 11.
"In the grand brevity how marked is the assurance, and at the same
time humility" (_Meyer_).
Ver. 15. +No Church communicated with me.+--The lofty independence of
the apostle had not unbent to any other Church as to this. There are
men from whom one could never receive a gift without sacrifice of
self-respect. St. Paul was not the man to be patronised.
Ver. 18. +An odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well
pleasing to God.+--The last word transfers their deed to another
sphere entirely. "Ye did it unto _Me,_" says Christ (Matt. xxv. 40).
Ver. 19. +My God shall supply all your need.+--Did I say, "I am
filled"? (ver. 18). I can make you no return, but my God will. He
will fulfil every need of yours. +According to His riches in
glory.+--According to the abundant power and glorious omnipotence
whereby as Lord of heaven and earth He can bestow what He will.
Ver. 22. +The saints . . . of Cæsar's household.+--This expression
does not oblige us to think that any relatives of Cæsar had embraced
Christianity. It comprises all who in any way were connected with the
imperial service.
Ver. 23. +Be with you all.+--The oldest MSS. read, "Be with your
spirit."
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1.
_A Plea for Steadfastness_--
+I. After the pattern of those worthy of imitation.+--"So stand fast
in the Lord." Having pointed out the dignity of Christian citizenship
and the exalted conduct befitting those possessing its privileges,
the apostle exhorts them to steadfastness in imitating those who,
through evil and good report and in the midst of opposition and
suffering, had bravely maintained their loyalty to Christ. "_So_
stand fast"--be sincere and earnest in devotion to God, as they were;
be faithful and unflinching, as they were; triumph over the world,
the flesh, and the devil, as they did. "Behold, we count them worthy
who endure;" and the same distinction of character is attainable by
every follower of Christ, attainable by patient continuance in
well-doing. The ideal of a steadfast character is embodied in the
Lord, who was Himself a supreme example of unfaltering obedience and
love. Follow Him; being united to Him by faith, deriving continual
inspiration and strength from His Spirit, stand fast in Him. Riding
up to a regiment that was hard pressed at Waterloo, the Duke of
Wellington cried to the men, "Stand fast, Ninety-fifth! What will
they say in England?" History records how successfully the appeal was
obeyed. Stand fast, Christians! What will they say in the heavenly
city to which you belong, and for whose interests you are fighting?
William of Orange said he learnt a word while crossing the English
Channel which he would never forget. When in a great storm the
captain was all night crying out to the man at the helm, "Steady!
steady! steady!"
+II. Addressed to those who have given evidence of willingness to be
instructed.+--"My joy and crown." The Philippians who had embraced
the Gospel he preached, and whose lives had been changed by its
power, were the joy and crown of the devoted apostle. The crown was
not the diadem of royalty, but the garland of victory. He has in his
mind the famous athletic games of the Greeks, which in the diligent
training and the strenuous effort to gain the laurel coronet, and the
intensity of joy felt by the victors, were a significant illustration
of the Christian life, whether as regards the spiritual progress of
the believer himself, or his work for the salvation of others. He
believed the Lord would place around his brow an imperishable garland
of honour, of which each soul that had been quickened, comforted, and
strengthened by him would be a spray or leaf. In Nero's prison, aged,
worn with trouble, manacled, uncertain of life, he rejoiced in being
a successful minister of Christ--a conqueror wreathed with amaranth.
The emperor in his palace was in heart weary and wretched; the
prisoner was restful and happy, invested with a glory that should
shine on undimmed, when the glitter of Nero's power and grandeur
should vanish as a dream. The satisfaction enjoyed by those who first
led us to Christ and who have helped us in our spiritual struggles,
is another reason for continued steadfastness and fidelity.
+III. Urged with affectionate solicitude.+--"My brethren deeply
beloved and longed for, . . . my dearly beloved." The terms employed
are the outflow of a jubilant spirit, and are full of tender
endearment and loving appreciation. Love delights to exaggerate; yet
there is no exaggeration here. The Philippians were to the apostle
"brethren beloved--dearly beloved"--children of the same spiritual
Father, members of the one family of God, united together in a happy
Christian brotherhood. He recalls the first introduction of the
Gospel into Philippi, the preaching of the Word, the impression made,
the converts won, the formation of the Church, and its growth and
prosperity, amid labours and suffering. Attachments were then formed
that deepened and strengthened with the years. Christian friendships
call forth the finest feelings of the soul, and form a strong bond of
union in the love of a common Saviour. Christ will have no forced
selection of men, no soldiers by compulsion, no timorous slaves, but
children, brethren, friends.
+Lessons.+--1. _Steadfastness is a test of genuine devotedness._
2. _Instability is a loss of advantages often won at great cost._
3. _They who endure will finally conquer._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2, 3.
_Glimpses of Life in the Early Church._
+I. The early planting of the Gospel involved arduous and united
toil.+--"Which laboured with me in the gospel" (ver. 3). Prodigious
as were the labours of Paul, he could never have accomplished the
work he did but for the willing co-operation of others. There is
great art in evoking the sympathy and help of those who can help
forward the work of God. Christian work finds scope for all kinds of
talents and agencies. Pioneer work is rough work and tests all our
powers and resources. The difficulties of the work unite its
propagators in heart and hand. There is little good done without
strenuous labour, though the results of our toil are not always
immediately apparent. Dr. Judson laboured diligently for six years in
Burmah before he baptised a convert. At the end of three years he was
asked what evidence he had of ultimate success. He replied, "As much
as there is a God who will fulfil all His promises." A hundred
churches and thousands of converts already answer his faith.
+II. The names of Gospel pioneers are not forgotten.+--"With Clement
also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book
of life" (ver. 3). Some of these names are recorded in the pages of
history and handed down to our day; the rest, though unknown on
earth, are registered in the imperishable pages of "the book of
life." Clement, though unknown to fame and unidentified with any
other of the same name mentioned in history, is referred to here as
recognising the apostle's cordial recollection of his valuable work.
But the unknown on earth are not forgotten in heaven. The work we do
for God will live for ever. When Columbus was homeward bound after
his brilliant discovery of a new world he was overtaken by a terrible
storm. In his indescribable agony that not only his life and that of
his crew, but his magnificent discovery must all go down and be lost
in the abyss, and that, too, not far from land, he committed to the
deep hurried entries of that discovery sealed up in bottles, in the
hope that some day they might reach land. We need not be unduly
anxious about either our work or our fame; God will take care of both.
+III. From the earliest times women have rendered valuable help in
the propagation of the Gospel.+--"Euodias, Syntyche, . . . women
which laboured with me in the gospel" (vers. 2, 3). In the Temple
worship the Jewish women were fenced off in a court by themselves.
The woman occupied an inferior religious position in Rabbinical
teaching. It was a shock to public feeling to see a rabbi talking to
a female. Even the disciples were surprised that their Master should
be found conversing with a woman on the brink of the Samaritan well.
Jesus Christ broke down this middle wall of partition as He had
broken down the other. Here, again, He made both one. If in Christ
there is no distinction of Jew and Gentile, neither is there of male
or female. Women were His faithful and constant attendants; women
were the favoured witnesses of His resurrection; women were among the
most helpful fellow-workers of the apostles. There was an organised
ministry of women deaconesses and widows in the Apostolic Church.
"What women those Christians have," exclaimed the heathen
rhetorician, on learning about Anthusa, the mother of Chrysostom.
Anthusa at the early age of twenty lost her husband, and
thenceforward devoted herself wholly to the education of her son,
refusing all offers of further marriage. Her intelligence and piety
moulded the boy's character and shaped the destiny of the man, who in
his subsequent eminence never forgot what he owed to maternal
influence. It is no exaggeration to say that we owe those rich
homilies of Chrysostom, of which interpreters of Scripture still make
great use, to the mind and heart of Anthusa.
+IV. We learn the apostolic method of reconciling two eminent women
in serious disagreement.+--1. _He addresses to each an earnest and
pointed exhortation to unity._ "I beseech Euodias, and beseech
Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord" (ver. 2). He
repeats the entreaty to show that he placed the like obligation on
each of them. He does not exhort the one to be reconciled to the
other, for they might have doubted who should take the initiative,
and they might wonder, from the position of their names and
construction of the sentence, to which of them the apostle attached
the more blame. But he exhorts them both, the one and the other, to
think the same thing--not only to come to a mutual understanding, but
to preserve it. The cause of quarrel might be some unworthy question
about priority or privilege, even in the prosecution of the good
work--vainglory leading to strife. It does not seem to have been any
difference in creed or practice (_Eadie_).
2. _He recognises their devoted and impartial labours._--"Those women
which laboured with me in the gospel" (ver. 3). Their work does not
appear to have been done from personal friendship, as is often the
case; they treated all and helped all alike. They were deeply
interested in the spread of the Gospel and the increase of the
Church, and toiled with such self-sacrificing devotion as to elicit
the special commendation of the apostle.
3. _He entreated that help might be rendered them in the adjustment
of their quarrel._--"And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help
those women" (ver. 3). A third party is appealed to, to interpose his
good offices--an evidence that Paul regarded the harmony of these two
women a matter of no small importance. Mediation between two persons
at variance is delicate and difficult work, but if judiciously done
may help to a reconciliation. Women were the first to receive the
Gospel at Philippi, and from the first used their influence and
opportunities in commending it to their sex. The unseemly
misunderstanding between these two women whose labours had been so
blessed made it the more necessary that something should be done to
heal the breach.
+Lessons.+--1. _Pioneer work has special hardships and temptations._
2. _The best of women may quarrel._ 3. _It is the wise policy of the
Christian statesman to compose and strive to prevent discord and
disunion._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._