'Only let your conversation be as it becometh the
gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you,
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs,
that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28.
And in nothing terrified by your
adversaries.'--PHIL. i. 27, 28.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that Philippi was the chief city of
that part of Macedonia, and a 'colony.' Now, the connection between a
Roman colony and Rome was a great deal closer than that between an
English colony and England. It was, in fact, a bit of Rome on foreign
soil.
The colonists and their children were Roman citizens. Their names were
enrolled on the lists of Roman tribes. They were governed not by the
provincial authorities, but by their own magistrates, and the law to
which they owed obedience was not that of the locality, but the law of
Rome.
No doubt some of the Philippian Christians possessed these privileges.
They knew what it was to live in a community to which they were less
closely bound than to the great city beyond the sea. They were members
of a mighty polity, though they had never seen its temples nor trod its
streets. They lived in Philippi, but they belonged to Rome. Hence there
is a peculiar significance in the first words of our text. The
rendering, 'conversation,' was inadequate even when it was made. It has
become more so now. The word then meant 'conduct.' It now means little
more than words. But though the phrase may express loosely the Apostle's
general idea, it loses entirely the striking metaphor under which it is
couched. The Revised Version gives the literal rendering in its
margin--'Behave as citizens'--though it adopts in its text a rendering
which disregards the figure in the word, and contents itself with the
less picturesque and vivid phrase--'let your manner of life be worthy.'
But there seems no reason for leaving out the metaphor; it entirely fits
in with the purpose of the Apostle and with the context.
The meaning is, Play the citizen in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Paul
does not, of course, mean, Discharge your civic duties as Christian men,
though some Christian Englishmen need that reminder; but the city of
which these Philippians were citizens was the heavenly Jerusalem, the
metropolis, the mother city of us all. He would kindle in them the
consciousness of belonging to another order of things than that around
them. He would stimulate their loyalty to obedience to the city's laws.
As the outlying colonies of Rome had sometimes entrusted to them the
task of keeping the frontiers and extending the power of the imperial
city, so he stirs them up to aggressive warfare; and as in all their
conflicts the little colony felt that the Empire was at its back, and
therefore looked undaunted on shoals of barbarian foes, so he would have
his friends at Philippi animated by lofty courage, and ever confident of
final victory.
Such seems to be a general outline of these eager exhortations to the
citizens of heaven in this outlying colony of earth. Let us think of
them briefly in order now.