The Apostle's habit of closing all his letters with kindly messages is,
of course, more than a habit. It is the natural instinct to which all
true hearts have a hundred times yielded. It is remarkable that in this
letter there are no individual greetings, but that instead of such there
is the emphatic greeting to every saint in Christ Jesus. He will not
single out any where all are so near His heart, and He will have no
jealousies to be fed by His selection of more favoured persons. It may
be too, that the omission of individual messages is partly occasioned by
some incipient tendencies to alienation and faction of which we see some
traces in His earnest exhortations to stand fast in one spirit, and to
be of the same mind, having the same love, and being of one accord, as
well as in his exhortation to two Philippian women to be of the same
mind in the Lord. The all-embracing word at parting singularly links the
end of the letter with its beginning, where we find a remarkable
sequence of similar allusions to 'all' the Philippian Christians. He
has them all in His heart; they are all partakers with Him of grace; He
longs after them all.
The designation by which Paul describes the recipients of his greeting
carries in it a summons as well as a promise. They are saints, and they
are so as being 'in Christ.' That name is often used as a clumsy
sarcasm, but it goes to the very root of Christian character. The
central idea contained in it is that of consecration to God, and that
which is often taken to be its whole meaning is but a secondary one, a
result of that consecration. The true basis of all real purity of
conduct lies in devotion of heart and life to God, and for want of
discerning the connection of these two elements the world's ethics fail
in theory and in practice. A 'saint' is not a faultless monster, and the
persistence of failures and inconsistencies, whilst affording only too
sad an occasion for penitence and struggle, afford no occasion for a
man's shrinking from taking to himself the humble claim to be a saint.
Both the elements of consecration to God and of real and progressive,
though never complete perfection of personal character, are realised
only in Christ; in and only in fellowship with Him whose life was
unbroken fellowship with the Father, and whose will was completely
accordant with the Father's, do we rise to the height of belonging to
God. And only in Him who could challenge a world to convict Him of sin
shall we make even a beginning of personal righteousness. If we are in
Christ we should be saints to-day however imperfect our holiness, and
shall be 'as the angels of God' in the day that is coming--nay, rather
as the Lord of the Angels, 'not having spot or blemish or any such
thing.'
The New Testament has other names for believers, each of which expresses
some great truth in regard to them; for example, the earliest name by
which they knew themselves was the simple one of 'brethren,' which spoke
of their common relation to a Father and pledged them to the sweetness
and blessedness of a family. The sarcastic wits of Antioch called them
Christians as seeing nothing in them other than what they had many a
time seen in the adherents of some founder of a school or a party. They
called themselves disciples or believers, revealing by both names their
humble attitude and their Lord's authority, and by the latter disclosing
to seeing eyes the central bond which bound them to Him. But the name of
Saint declares something more than these in that it speaks of their
relation to God, the fulfilment of the Old Testament ideal, and carries
in it a prophecy of personal character.
The sharers in Paul's salutation call for some notice. We do not know
who 'the brethren that are with me' were. We might have supposed from
Paul's pathetic words that he had no man like-minded with him, that the
faithful band whom we find named in the other epistles of the captivity
were dispersed. But though there were none 'like-minded who will care
truly for your state,' there were some recognised as brethren who were
closely associated with him, and who, though they had no such warm
interest in the Philippians as he had, still had a real affection for
them, drawn no doubt from him. Distinct from these was the whole body of
the Roman Christians, from the mention of whom we may gather that his
imprisonment did not prevent his intercourse with them. Again, distinct
from these, though a part of them, were the saints of Cæsar's
household. He had apparently special opportunities for intercourse with
them, and probably his imprisonment brought him through the prætorian
guards into association with them, as Cæsar's household included all the
servants and retainers of Nero.
May we not see in this union of members of the most alien races a
striking illustration of the new bond which the Gospel had woven among
men? There was a Jew standing in the midst between Macedonian Greeks and
proud Roman citizens, including members of that usually most heartless
and arrogant of all classes, the lackeys of a profligate court, and they
are all clasping one another's hands in true brotherly love. Society was
falling to pieces. We know the tragic spectacle that the empire
presented then. Amidst universal decay of all that held men together,
here was a new uniting principle; everywhere else dissolution was at
work; here was again crystallising. A flower was opening its petals
though it grew on a dunghill. What was it that drew slaves and
patricians, the Pharisee of Tarsus, rude Lycaonians, the 'barbarous'
people of Melita, the Areopagite of Athens, the citizens of Rome into
one loving family? How came Lydia and her slave girl, Onesimus and his
master, the prætorian guard and his prisoner, the courtier in Nero's
golden house and the jailer at Philippi into one great fellowship of
love? They were all one in Christ Jesus.
And what lessons the saints in Cæsar's household may teach us! Think of
the abyss of lust and murder there, of the Emperor by turns a buffoon, a
sensualist, and a murderer. A strange place to find saints in that sty
of filth! Let no man say that it is impossible for a pure life to be
lived in any circumstances, or try to bribe his conscience by insisting
on the difficulties of his environment. It may be our duty to stand at
our post however foul may be our surroundings and however uncongenial
our company, and if we are sure that He has set us there, we may be sure
that He is with us there, and that there we can live the life and
witness to His name.