'But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at
length ye have revived your thought for me;
wherein ye did indeed take thought, but ye lacked
opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want:
for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
therein to be content. I know how to be abased,
and I know also how to abound: in everything and
in all things have I learned the secret both to be
filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be
in want. I can do all things in Him that
strengtheneth me. Howbeit ye did well, that ye had
fellowship with my affliction.'--PHIL. iv. 10-14
(R.V.).
It is very difficult to give money without hurting the recipient. It is
as difficult to receive it without embarrassment and sense of
inferiority. Paul here shows us how he could handle a delicate subject
with a feminine fineness of instinct and a noble self-respect joined
with warmest gratitude. He carries the weight of obligation, is profuse
in his thanks, and yet never crosses the thin line which separates the
expression of gratitude from self-abasing exaggeration, nor that other
which distinguishes self-respect in the receiver of benefits from proud
unwillingness to be obliged to anybody. Few words are more difficult to
say rightly than 'Thank you.' Some people speak them reluctantly and
some too fluently: some givers are too exacting in the acknowledgments
they expect, and do not so much give as barter so much help for so much
recognition of superiority.
The Philippians had sent to Paul some money help by Epaphroditus as we
heard before in Chapter II., and this gift he now acknowledges in a
paragraph full of autobiographical interest which may be taken as a very
model of the money relations between teachers and taught in the church.
It is besides an exquisite illustration of the fineness and delicacy of
Paul's nature, and it includes large spiritual lessons.
The stream of the Apostle's thoughts takes three turns here. There is
first the exuberant and delicate expression of his thanks, then, as
fearing that they might misunderstand his joy in their affection as if
it were only selfish gladness that his wants had been met, he gives
utterance to his triumphant and yet humble consciousness of his
Christ-given independence in, and of, all circumstances, and then
feeling in a moment that such words, if they stood alone, might sound
ungrateful, he again returns to thanks, but not for their gift so much
as for the sympathy expressed in it. We may follow these movements of
feeling now.