,transcriber's notes3 ,in the original book1 each odd-numbered page 7except for the first page of a chapter7 had its own header4 ,in this e-book1 each chapter's headers have been collected into an introductory paragraph at the start of the chapter4 ,the original book contained many ,greek words4 ,they have been and have been indicated with surrounding underscores4 ,italicised words in the original have also been indicated with underscores1 but such words are always ,english4 ,bold-face text in the original book has been enclosed between plus 77 signs in this ebook4 ,footnotes have been renumbered consecutively and moved to the end of their host chapter4 ,,philippian ,,studies ,lessons in ,faith and ,love from ,st4 ,paul's ,epistle to the ,philippians by ,h4 ,c4 ,g4 ,,moule1 ,d4,d4 ,principal of ,ridley ,hall and ,formerly ,fellow of ,trinity ,college ,cambridge ,let us pray to ,god1 that we may speak1 think1 believe1 live1 and depart hence1 according to the wholesome doctrine and verities of ,his ,word4 ,,the ,,homilies1 i1 #a4 ,third ,edition ,london ,hodder and ,stoughton #bg1 ,paternoster ,row #aijj ,,by ,,the ,,same ,,author4 ,,the ,,epistle ,,to ,,the ,,romans4 ,,colossian ,,studies4 ,,ephesian ,,studies4 ,,to ,,my ,,younger ,,brethren ,,on ,,pastoral ,,life ,,and ,,work4 ,,outlines ,,of ,,christian ,,doctrine4 7,in the ,theological ,educator ,series47 ,,veni ,,creator3 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,the ,,holy ,,spirit ,,of ,,promise4 ,third ,edition4 ,,life ,,in ,,christ ,,and ,,for ,,christ4 ,,need ,,and ,,fulness4 ,,patience ,,and ,,comfort4 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,christian ,,sanctity4 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,union ,,with ,,christ4 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,the ,,spiritual ,,life4 ,,secret ,,prayer4 ,,at ,,the ,,holy ,,communion4 ,thoughts for ,preparation and ,communion4 ,,the ,,pledge ,,of ,,his ,,love4 ,thoughts on the ,lord's ,supper4 ,,the ,,new ,,birth4 ,a ,brief ,enquiry and ,statement4 ,,the ,,cleansing ,,blood4 ,a ,study of #a ,john i4 #g4 ,,justifying ,,righteousness4 ,,the ,,christian ,,and ,,the ,,world4 ,,the ,,net ,,and ,,the ,,deliverance4 ,a ,,morning ,,act ,,of ,,faith4 ,,the ,,christian',s ,,own ,,calendar ,,of ,,personal ,,and ,,family ,,events4 ,with an ,introduction by ,rev4 ,h4 ,c4 ,g4 ,,moule4 ,,prayers ,,for ,,the ,,home4 ,,the ,,christian',s ,,victory ,,over ,,sin4 ,,grace ,,and ,,godliness4 ,chapters on ,ephesians4 ,,christ ,,is ,,all4 ,sermons4 ,,commentaries ,,on ,,the ,,romans2 ,,ephesians2 ,,philippians2 ,,colossians in the ,cambridge ,bible for ,schools and ,colleges2 and on the ,,philippians in the ,cambridge ,greek ,testament4 ,also on the ,,romans in the ,expositor's ,bible4 ,,between ,,my ,,lord ,,and ,,me4 ,a ,card containing ,morning and ,evening ,acts of ,faith and ,devotion4 ,,charles ,,simeon4 7,in ,english ,leaders of ,religion47 ,,bishop ,,ridley ,,on ,,the ,,lord',s ,,supper4 ,a ,reprint from the ,original ,edition1 with ,life of ,ridley1 ,notes1 ,appendices1 etc41 and ,illustrations4 ,,in ,,the ,,house ,,of ,,the ,,pilgrimage4 ,hymns and ,sacred ,songs4 ,,to ,,the ,,rev4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,schneider1 ,m4,a41 ,,vice-,,principal ,,of ,,ridley ,,hall1 ,,cambridge1 ,,this ,,book ,,is ,,inscribed ,,im ,,token ,,of ,,warm ,,friendship ,,and ,,with ,a ,,grateful ,,sense ,,of ,,the ,,benefit ,,of ,,his ,,invaluable ,,co-,,operation ,thou the ,way art1 ,thou the ,prize ,that beyond the journey lies2 ,thou the ,truth art1 ,thou the ,guide1 ,gone before1 yet at our side2 ,everlasting life below ,it is truly ,thee to know3 ,such to ,thy ,saints wast ,thou of yore2 ,unchangeable ,thou art1 and shall be evermore4 ,,monsell4 ,,preface ,the plan and purpose of the following pages will be soon evident to the reader4 ,the whole aim is towards edification4 ,what is said in the way of historical introduction1 what is done in the course of the chapters in the way of rendering and grammatical explanation1 all has this aim in view4 ,the ,epistle is handled throughout with the firm belief that it is an ,oracle of ,god1 while that ,oracle is conveyed through the mind and heart of one of the greatest of the sons of men2 and the ,expositor's aim accordingly is always1 and above all things1 to expound4 ,to put it otherwise1 his highest ambition is to call attention to the sacred text1 and let it speak4 ,may the ,lord of the ,apostle1 of the ,philippians1 of ourselves1 only grant that ,his mercy may rest upon this poor contribution to the exegesis of ,his inexhaustible ,word4 ,may it be permitted to throw a quiet light upon some of the treasures of this apostolic casket1 to the help1 in any measures1 of the disciples of our day4 ,then will the ,expositor indeed give thanks to the ,master at whose feet he lays his work4 ,,ridley ,,hall1 ,,cambridge4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,intimacy ,,of ,,human ,,hearts ,,in ,,christ 7,,phil4 i4 #a-aa47 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,apostle',s ,,position ,,and ,,circumstances 7,,phil4 i4 #ab-bj47 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,christian',s ,,peace ,,and ,,the ,,christian',s ,,consistency 7,,phil4 i4 #ba-cj47 ,,chapter ,v ,,unity ,,in ,,self-,,forgetfulness3 ,,the ,,example ,,of ,,the ,,lord 7,,phil4 ii4 #a-aa47 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,lord',s ,,power ,,in ,,the ,,disciple',s ,,life 7,,phil4 ii4 #ab-ah47 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,timotheus ,,and ,,epaphroditus 7,,phil4 ii4 #ai-cj47 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,joy ,,in ,,the ,,lord ,,and ,,its ,,preserving ,,influence ,,that ,i ,,may ,,know ,,him 7,,phil4 iii4 #a-aa47 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,christian ,,standing ,,and ,,christian ,,progress4 7,,phil4 iii4 #ab-af47 ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,blessed ,,hope ,,and ,,its ,,power 7,,phil4 iii4 #ag-ba47 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,purity ,,and ,,peace ,,in ,,the ,,present ,,lord 7,,phil4 iv4 #a-i47 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,the ,,collection ,,for ,,st ,,paul3 ,,the ,,farewell 7,,phil4 iv4 #aj-bc47 ,holy ,scripture is the ,letter of ,god ,almighty to ,his creatures2 learn ,god's heart in ,god's ,words4 ,,gregory ,,the ,,great1 ,epist41 iv4 #ca4 ,,introductory ,o ,gracious ,,god and most mercifull ,father1 which hast vouchsafed us the rich and precious iewell of thy holy worde1 assist us with thy ,spirit1 that it may be written in our hearts to our euerlasting comfort1 to reforme us1 to renew us according to thine owne image1 to build us up1 and edifie us into the perfect building of thy ,christ1 sanctifying and increasing in us all heauenly vertues4 ,graunt this ,o heauenly ,father1 for ,iesus ,christes sake4 ,amen4 ,from the ,,geneva ,,bible1 #aeeg4 ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,characteristics of the ,epistle--,the ,bible is ever young--,littera ,scripta ,manet--,this ,same ,jesus--,philippi--,how the mission church had grown--,where was the ,epistle written8--,when was the ,epistle written8--,the word endureth ,the ,epistle of ,st ,paul to the ,philippians is1 to careful and loving ,bible-students1 one of the fairest and dearest regions of the ,book of ,god4 ,it is true that the ,christian who genuinely believes that every ,scripture is ,god-inspired 7#b ,tim4 iii4 #af71 and who realizes that the ,divine ,library is nevertheless1 and from a higher point of view1 ,one ,book all through1 will be always on the guard against a mistaken favouritism in his ,scripture studies4 ,he will strive to make himself in some sense familiar with the whole ,book1 as a whole1 and to recognize in all its parts the true ,author's hand and purpose4 ,yet it is inevitable that in this supreme ,book1 as in other books1 though all parts are co-operant to an end1 all parts are not equally important for the deepest needs of the reader4 ,the reader therefore will have to be more familiar with some parts than with others4 ,acquaintance with the whole will indeed deepen insight into the part4 ,but it will not supersede our study1 loving and special1 of the part which1 in a degree and manner peculiar to itself1 is able to make us wise unto salvation1 through faith which is in ,christ ,jesus4 ,the present simple ,studies in the ,philippian ,epistle will accordingly be pursued with the desire to remember as we go the whole scriptural revelation of ,god and salvation4 ,but we shall also approach the ,epistle as a peculiarly precious ,scripture in itself1 containing in its few short pages a rare fulness of messages and teachings1 meeting the inmost wants of the heart and the life4 ,amongst the ,epistles of ,st ,paul ,philippians shines out with singular light and beauty4 ,in such a comparison we scarcely need consider the great ,epistles to ,rome and ,corinth2 their large scale and wide variety of topics set them apart4 ,nor need we consider ,hebrews1 with its difficult problem of authorship4 ,looking at the other ,epistles1 each with its own divine and also deeply human characteristics1 we find ,philippians more peaceful than ,galatians1 more personal and affectionate than ,ephesians1 less anxiously controversial than ,colossians1 more deliberate and symmetrical than ,thessalonians1 and of course larger in its applications than the personal messages to ,timothy1 ,titus1 and ,philemon4 ,meanwhile it is as comprehensive almost as it is brief4 ,it presents more than one important passage of doctrine1 some of these passages being revelations of the first order4 ,it is full of pregnant precepts for ,christian character and conduct1 whether seen in the individual or in the community4 ,it discloses in a way of the utmost interest and significance the circumstances and experiences of the writer1 and also1 in a measure1 of the readers4 ,and the whole is suffused with a singularly sweet light of joy and peace in believing4 ,it is written by one who was1 as he wrote1 at once resting and moving in the peace of ,god which passes understanding1 and in the love of ,christ which passes knowledge2 and what is felt in his soul comes out inevitably on his page4 ,the letter1 written in a prison1 and addressed to a mission-church always exposed to insult and assault1 yet seems in a wonderful way to call us apart1 to rest awhile4 ,a glory gilds the sacred page1 the glory of the presence of the ,lord in all ,his majesty of ,godhead and nearness of ,manhood2 in ,his finished work1 and living power1 and wonderful coming again4 ,a peculiar sort of joy1 which is impossible without at least the experience1 if not the presence1 of sorrow1 rests and shines over the whole4 ,it is the joy of the heart which has found at length the secret of the ,lord1 ,his hiding-place from the tyranny of circumstances and time2 the way how always to be of good cheer1 naturally yet also supernaturally1 not by a hard-won indifference to life1 but by living1 amidst everything external1 hidden with ,christ in ,god4 ,let us approach the beloved pages once again4 ,they can never wear out2 there will always prove to be more to follow4 ,perhaps we have loved and pondered them for long years ourselves4 ,perhaps we have heard them expounded by voices silent now1 in days that never come again1 in chambers or in churches which we seem still to see1 but which in fact have passed from us very far away4 ,the heart is full and the eyes are wet as we look back4 ,but the melancholy of the past has no permanent place in ,bible-study4 ,the ,book is divine1 immortal1 and ever young4 ,he who was in it for our fathers is in it for us4 ,and since ,he is in it1 as ,he is in no other literature in the world1 7because no other literature is ,his ,word ,written17 therefore it springs up to us ever new2 it is always contemporary with every generation of believers4 ,even so1 come1 ,lord ,jesus1 and let us meet ,thee in ,thy ,scripture now again4 ,a very simple ,introduction will suffice for our present purposes4 ,these chapters make no pretension to be1 in the technical sense1 critical4 ,i say next to nothing1 for example1 about the ,authenticity and ,genuineness of the ,epistle4 ,let me only remind the reader that from the early dawn of the literature of the ,church we have unmistakable testimonies to its existence as an apostolic ,scripture4 ,ignatius and ,polycarp1 quite early in the second century1 shew us that they have read it4 ,a little later1 in the ,epistle of the ,churches of ,lyons and ,vienne 7,a4,d4 #agg71a it is quoted4 ,clement of ,alexandria1 and ,irenaeus1 and ,tertullian1 all in the second century1 use it as the sword of the ,spirit to assert truth and confute error4 ,so it floats down into the broad stream of the patristic literature at large4 ,not till the rise of an ultra-sceptical criticism in quite modern times was ,philippians ever seriously questioned as the work1 in its integrity1 of ,st ,paul4 ,and ,baur's objections1 all due to an a priori theory1 not to an impartial literary enquiry1 have been repudiated even by critics even less orthodox than himself3 ,renan1 for example4 ,it is quite as certain1 in a literary sense1 that in ,philippians we have the very words and heart of ,st ,paul as that we have ,addison in the papers signed ,c4 in the ,spectator1 or ,erasmus in the correspondence with ,colet4 ,and what a thought of strength and joy this is to the believer of our latter day6 ,littera scripta manet4 ,how impressive is the permanence of every written reflexion of the mind1 and of the life6 ,who has not felt it1 even in the reading of a private letter to himself1 written years and years ago8 ,we have ,st ,paul speaking to us in this indelible page as really as if we were seated with him in his own hired house1 and were listening as he dictates to the friend beside him4 ,and as we recollect this1 we reflect that all he is saying1 all he has thus left written1 is just so much testimony to the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 contemporary1 direct1 inspired4 ,when the words we are about to read were written1 scarcely thirty years had passed away since the ,son of ,man died outside the gate of ,jerusalem1 and rose again4 ,perhaps my reader cannot look back over thirty years1 perhaps not over twenty1 with conscious memory4 ,but ,i can2 and beyond the thirty ,i can see a long vista of the still earlier past4 ,thirty years ago#b2--;at that time the great conflict between ,austria and ,prussia was preparing1 the issue of which was so long a step towards the unification of ,germany4 ,i was then a master in a public school4 ,the discussions of the impending war in our common-room1 and the men who joined in them1 are very present still to my mind2 certainly not the faintest haze of mythical change or disproportion has had time to gather over those scenes in the interval4 ,with some differences1 no doubt1 the world of this day is yet essentially the same as the world of that day2 ,i certainly still1 in my whole personal consciousness1 am the man of that day1 only somewhat developed in experience4 ,well1 what the date of the battle of ,sadowa 7,koeniggratz7 is to me1 such was the date of the ,crucifixion to ,st ,paul1 when he wrote from ,rome to his dear converts at ,philippi4 ,and ,i venture to say that1 while ,st ,paul's tone about the ,lord of ,calvary is of course immeasurably different in the highest respects from what mine might be had ,i to speak of the makers of ,european history of #ahff1 it is in one respect just the same4 ,it is as completely free from the tone of legend unreality1 uncertainty4 ,with the same entire consciousness of matter of fact with which ,i might write of the statesmen or generals of my early manhood1 he writes of ,one who1 in his early manhood1 overcame death by death1 and shewed ,himself alive after ,his passion by many infallible proofs4 ,only1 there is this wonderful difference2 that for ,st ,paul the ,jesus ,christ of recent history is absolutely ,one with the ,jesus ,christ of his present spiritual experience4 ,the ,man of the ,cross is also1 for him1 the ,lord who is exalted to the throne of heaven1 and is also so related to the writer that ,paul is in ,christ ,jesus1 with a proximity and union which enters into everything4 ,in ,him are included the very actions of the disciple's mind and the experiences of his heart4 ,he is the ,lord who lives in the inmost being of ,his servant1 and who yet is also expected to return from the heavens1 to transfigure the servant's very body into glory4 ,the ,christ of history1 the ,christ of the soul--it was this same ,jesus then2 it is this same ,jesus now4 ,can length of years on ,god ,himself exact1 ,or make that fiction which was once a fact8 ,fix'd in the rolling flood of endless years ,the pillar of the eternal plan appears2 ,the raging storm and dashing wave defies1 ,built by that ,architect who built the skies4 #c ,for me and for my reader may the two aspects of this same ,jesus1 the historical and the spiritual1 ever combine in one mighty harmony of certainty2 faith's resting-place to the end1 the rock of our heart1 and our portion for ever2 at once our peace and our power1 in life and in death1 and through the eternal day also1 in which we shall need ,him still in the experiences of heaven4 ,what shall we say of the place to which the ,epistle was sent1 and of that from which it was written2 and of the writer1 the bearer1 the readers2 and of the occasion and the time8 ,philippi now1 so travellers tell us1 is a scene of beautiful and silent ruin4 ,near the head of the fair ,archipelago1 amidst scenery of exquisite beauty1 near the range of ,pangaeus1 now ,pirnari1 on the banks of the quiet ,gangas1 lie the relics of the once busy city1 visited only by the herdsman and the explorer4 ,by it or through it ran a great road from ,west to ,east1 called by the ,romans the ,egnatian ,way4 ,the double battle of ,philippi1 ,b4,c4 #db1 when the ,oligarchy fell finally before the rising ,empire1 made the plain famous4 ,augustus planted a colonia in the town4 ,it thus became a miniature ,rome1 as every colony was4 ,it had its pair of petty consuls 7duumviri2 the strategoi of ,acts xvi4 #bj7 and their lictors 7,a4,v4 serjeants1 rhabdouchoi74 ,and it faithfully reproduced ,roman pride in the spirit of its military settlers4 ,it had its ,jewish element1 as almost every place then had2 but the ,jews must have been few and despised2 their place of worship was but a prayer-house 7proseuche71 outside the walls1 on the river's bank 7,acts xvi4 #ac74 ,we need not recount in detail the history of the first evangelization 7,a4,d4 #eb7 of the difficult place4 ,we recollect sufficiently the address to the pious ,jewesses and proselyte-women in the prayer-house2 the conversion and baptism of ,lydia2 the rescue of the poor girl possessed with the spirit of ,pytho2 the tumult1 and the trial before the duumvirs2 the scourge1 the inner prison1 the hymn at midnight1 the earthquake1 and the salvation of the jailor's life and soul2 the message sent through the lictors in the morning1 then the respectful approach of the magistrates themselves1 and the retirement of the ,missionaries to another city1 along the ,egnatian road4 ,it is enough now to remember1 what the very existence of the ,epistle reveals to us1 the growth and life of the little mission-church planted amidst such storms1 and in a climate1 so to speak1 full of possible tempests at any hour4 ,in the ,epistle1 we arrive at a date some nine years later than the first visit of ,st ,paul4 ,twice during that period1 and perhaps only twice1 we find him at ,philippi again2 late in ,a4,d4 #eg 7,acts xx4 #a7 and early 7it was the sweet spring1 the ,passover time7 in ,a4,d4 #eh2 this last may have been a visit arranged on purpose 7in ,lightfoot's words3 ,philippians1 p4 #fj7 that he might keep the ,paschal feast with his beloved converts4 ,no doubt1 besides these personal visits1 ,philippi was kept in contact with its ,missionary between ,a4,d4 #eb and ,a4,d4 #fa by messages and by the occasional visits of the ,apostle's faithful helpers4 ,but on the whole the ,church would seem in a very large degree to have been left to its own charge4 ,and what do we find as the issue when we come to the ,epistle8 ,a community large enough to need a staff of ,christian ministers1 bishops and deacons1 overseers and working-helpers 7episkopoi kai diakonoi72 full of love and good works2 affectionately mindful of ,st ,paul in the way of practical assistance2 and apparently shewing1 as their almost only visible defect or danger1 a tendency to separate somewhat into sections or cliques--a trouble which in itself indicates a considerable society4 ,if we may 7as we may1 looking at the ordinary facts of human nature7 at all estimate the calibre of ,philippian ,christianity by the tone in which the ,apostle addresses the ,philippians1 we gather that on the whole it was a high tone1 at once decided and tender1 affectionate and mature4 ,the converts were capable of responding to a deep doctrinal teaching1 and also to the simplest appeals of love4 ,such was the triumph of the mysterious ,gospel over place1 and circumstance1 and character2 the lily flowered at its fairest among the thorns2 grace shone and triumphed in the immediate presence of its adversaries4 ,but the evil we indicated just above was present in the otherwise happy scene4 ,when ,epaphroditus crossed the mountains and the sea to carry a generous gift of money to ,st ,paul1 risking his life 7ii4 #bg7 somehow by dangerous sickness in the effort1 he had to carry also news of differences and heart-burnings1 which could not but cloud the ,apostle's loving joy4 ,the envoy found it needful to speak also of the emissaries of error who at ,philippi1 as everywhere1 were troubling the faith and hope of the believers2 turning the grace of ,god into lasciviousness2 professing a lofty spirituality1 and worshipping their appetites all the while4 ,and side by side with them1 apparently1 might be found ,pharisaic disputants of an older type 7iii4 #c1 #ah1 etc474 ,such was the report with which ,epaphroditus found his way from ,macedonia to ,rome4 ,where1 in ,rome1 did he find ,st ,paul1 and at what stage of his ,roman residence8 ,our answer must begin with affirming the conviction that it was to ,rome1 not elsewhere1 that ,epaphroditus went4 ,the reader is aware that the ,epistle itself names no place of origin2 it only alludes to a scene of imprisonment4 ,and this does not of itself decide the locality2 for at ,caesarea ,stratonis1 in ,palestine1 as well as at ,rome1 ,st ,paul spent two years in captivity 7,acts xxiv4 #bg74 ,some modern critics have favoured the date from ,caesarea accordingly4 ,they have noticed e4g4 the verbal coincidence between ,herod's praetorium 7,a4,v4 judgment-hall7 of ,acts xxiii4 #ce1 and the praetorium 7,a4,v4 palace7 of ,phil4 i4 #ac4 ,but ,lightfoot#d seems to me right in his decisive rejection of this theory and unshaken adherence to the date from ,rome4 ,he remarks that the oldest ,church tradition is all for ,rome2 that the ,epistle itself evidently refers to its place of origin as to a place of first-rate importance and extent1 in which any advance of the ,gospel was a memorable and pregnant event2 and that the allusion to ,caesar's household 7though it is not so quite decisive as it might at first sight appear to be7 cannot without much straining of language and facts be made to apply to ,caesarea4 ,if now the ,epistle was written from ,rome1 during the two whole years of ,acts xxviii4 #cj1 at what point in that period may we think that the writing fell8 ,here again is a problem over which much thought and labour has been spent4 ,a majority of opinions no doubt is in favour of a date towards the end of the imprisonment1 so that ,philippians would follow after ,colossians and ,ephesians4 ,it is held that 7#a7 the tone of the ,epistle betokens the approach of a closing crisis for ,st ,paul2 and that 7#b7 it seems to indicate an already developed ,christian mission work at ,rome1 as if ,st ,paul had worked there some while2 and that 7#c7 ,epaphroditus' visit cannot be adjusted with any probability if we do not allow a good time for previous communications between ,rome and ,philippi4 ,but here again ,lightfoot's view commends itself to my mind decisively4 ,he holds that ,philippians was the first of the ,epistles of the ,captivity1 and was written perhaps within the first few months of the two whole years4 ,two of his reasons seem adequate of themselves to make this likely4 ,the first is1 that ,st ,paul's allusion to the profound impression made on the ,roman ,christians by his bonds in ,christ 7i4 #ac1 #ad7 goes well with the hypothesis of his recent arrival as a prisoner for ,christ's sake1 but not with that of his having been long present on the scene4 ,the other is that the great doctrinal passage 7iii4 #d-i71 where he repudiates his own righteousness and commits himself to the righteousness which is of ,god by faith1 is evidently akin to the group of ,epistles to which ,romans belongs2 and that it seems more likely that the divine ,inspirer1 in ,his order of revelation1 led ,his servant so to write while the occasion for the writing of ,romans was still comparatively recent1 than long after1 when the different 7though kindred7 sides of saving truth dealt with in ,ephesians and ,colossians had become prominent in his teaching4 ,with reason1 ,i think1 ,lightfoot cannot attach any weight to the argument from ,epaphroditus' visit1 which may well have been planned at ,philippi before ,st ,paul actually reached ,rome1 and planned thus early on purpose1 so as to reach him promptly there with the collected gifts of love4 ,nor are the allusions to a probable impending crisis in the trial before the ,emperor important for the date2 for quite early in the imprisonment it may well have seemed likely that the case would be soon decided4 ,as for the comparatively advanced state of ,roman ,christianity1 the ,epistle to the ,romans is evidence enough that a vigorous and extensive mission-church1 however it was founded1 existed at ,rome some years before ,st ,paul arrived4 ,i will venture then to take it for granted that it was some time in ,a4,d4 #fa1 or at latest early in ,a4,d4 #fb1 that ,epaphroditus came1 with his collection and his reports1 and struggled through his illness1 and then prepared to return to ,macedonia1 carrying this precious ,letter with him4 ,we seem to see the scene as he converses day by day with ,st ,paul1 and as at length he takes his leave1 in charge of this ,message of faith and love4 ,we see a large chamber in one of those huge piles of building1 storey over storey1 of which imperial ,rome was full4 ,the window looks perhaps north-westward1 up the stream of the ,tiber1 towards the distant hills of which ,soracte is the most prominent4 ,the sentinel1 perhaps himself a convert to the ,lord1 sits motionless at a little distance1 chained to the ,apostle4 ,the saints pray1 converse1 and embrace2 and then ,epaphroditus descends to set out for ,ostia1 or for ,puteoli1 on his way home to ,philippi4 ,the grass withereth1 the flower fadeth1 but the ,word of the ,lord endureth for ever4 ,the graves of the blessed ones who worked for the heavenly ,master then are more than eighteen centuries old now4 ,but the ,letter to ,philippi is to-day as new as ever4 ,it is addressed to us1 that we too may believe1 unto life everlasting1 on that same ,jesus4 #a ,preserved by ,eusebius1 ,hist4 ,eccl41 ii4 #b ,written early in #ahif4 #c ,cowper1 ,conversation4 #d ,philippians 7ed4 i471 p4 #cj1 note4 ,man1 like the grass of morning1 ,droops ere the evening hour2 ,his goodliness and beauty ,fade as a fading flower2 ,but who may shake the pillars ,of ,god's unchanging ,word8 ,amen1 ,himself hath spoken2 ,amen1--thus saith the ,lord4 ,,bishop ,e4 ,h4 ,,bickersteth4 ,,the ,,intimacy ,,of ,,human ,,hearts ,,in ,,christ ,i learned without booke almost all ,paules ,epistles1 yea and ,i weene all the ,canonical6 ,epistles1 save only the ,apocalyps4 ,of which study1 although in time a great part did depart from me1 yet the sweete smell thereof ,i trust ,i shall cary with me into heaven4 ,,bishop ,,ridley1 #aeee4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,intimacy ,,of ,,human ,,hearts ,,in ,,christ ,,philippians i4 #a-aa ,the ,apostle and his converts one--,the possible isolation of hearts--,union with and in ,christ--,christ and the personality--,christ the secret of intimacy--,is the secret ours8--,reserve in ,christian intercourse ,let us begin our verbal study of the ,letter which ,epaphroditus carried to ,philippi4 ,we attempt first a translation of its first main section1 interspersed with an explanatory paraphrase4 ,this will be followed by a brief meditation upon one of the main ,lessons in ,faith and ,love suggested by the section4 ,ver4 #a4 ,paul and ,timotheus1 bondservants of ,christ ,jesus1 to all the holy ones in union with ,christ ,jesus who are living at ,philippi1 ,overseers1 ,workers1 and all4#a ,ver4 #b4 ,grace to you1 and peace--all the free favour of acceptance and of divine presence1 and all the repose which it brings1 within you and around you--from ,god our ,father and the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 ,vers4 #c1 #d4 ,i give thanks to my ,god 7,he is mine1 as ,i am ,his7 over my whole memory of you2 always in each request of mine on behalf of you all forming and expressing 7poioumenos#b7 that 7ten7 request with joy2 ,ver4 #e4 on account of your participation with me in regard of the ,gospel1 your active co-operation with me1 by prayer1 by work1 by gifts1 in the ,gospel work1 ,ver4 #f4 from the first day up to this present4 ,for 7the thought of your long consistency suggests the assertion7 ,i am quite sure of just this1 that ,he who inaugurated 7enarkamenos3 the word has solemn1 ceremonial connexions7 in you the#c good work will perfect it1 will evermore put ,his finishing touches to it 7epitelesei71 up to ,christ ,jesus' ,day1 the ,day of ,his promised ,return1 and of our glorification with ,him4 ,but this is by the way2 ,i return to my joy and my ,ver4 #g4 thanksgivings over you3 ,even as it is just that ,i1 ,i above all men 7emoi1 emphatic1 not moi71 should feel 7phronein7 like this over you all1 on behalf of you all1#d because of my having you in my heart1 as those who1 alike in my imprisonment 7desmois7 and in the vindication and establishment of the ,gospel1 the defence of it against its enemies1 the developement of its truths and its power in the believing1 are copartners1 all of you1 of my grace2 my grace1 the grace granted me1 the glorious privilege of suffering and of doing as a ,missionary of ,christ4 ,your loving1 working sympathy has inextricably united you and me1 alike in my prison and in my apostolate4 ,ver4 #h4 ,yes1 ,i feel this in my inmost being4 ,for ,god is my witness1 how ,i yearn1 as with a homesick affection 7epipothia71 for you all1 in the heart 7splagchna7 of ,christ ,jesus2 for to ,his members ,his heart is as it were theirs2 our emotions are1 by the ,spirit1 in contact with ,his4 ,ver4 #i4 ,and what are those requests which ,i make for you with joy8 ,this is my prayer1 that your love1 in the fullest ,christian sense1 but above all in the sense of your love to one another1 may abound yet more and more in the attendant and protective blessing of spiritual knowledge 7epignosis7 and all needed ,ver4 #aj4 discernment2 so that1 amidst life's many temptations to compromises of conviction or inconsistency of spirit1 you may test the things that differ 7ta diapherona71 sifting truth and holiness from their counterfeits2 in order to be singlehearted 7eilikrineis#e7 and without a stumbling-block1 such as error and inconsistency so easily lay in our further path1 against1 in view of1 ,christ's ,day2 so that when that ,day dawns you may be found to be not servants whose time has been half lost for their ,lord's work and will1 but ,ver4 #aa4 rather those who have been filled with the fruit 7karpon1 not karpon7 of righteousness--the result1 in witness and service1 of your reconciliation and renewal1#f fruit which is borne through ,jesus ,christ1 the ,procurer and the ,secret of your fruit-bearing life1 to ,god's praise and glory1 the true goal and end of all our blessings and of all our labours4 ,so the ,letter opens2 with greeting1 with benediction1 and then with an outpouring1 of sympathies full at once of the warmest and tenderest humanity and of the inmost secrets of divine truth and life4 ,it is a preamble beautifully characteristic not only of ,st ,paul but of the ,gospel4 ,it illustrates from many sides the happy fact that there is nothing which so effectually opens human hearts to one another as the love of ,christ4 ,we are all sadly familiar with the possibilities of isolation between heart and heart4 ,poets have written with eloquent melancholy of our personalities as islands which lie indeed near together1 but in an unfathomable ocean1 over whose channels no boat has ever passed4 ,schools of pessimistic thought have positively affirmed that never really has one ego found its way into another through the hermetic seal of individuality2 all that we seem to know of others is but the action of our own mind within itself1 occasioned by a blind collision with a something not itself1 which we can strike upon but can never really know4 ,such lucubrations are artificial1 not natural2 a distortion of mysterious facts1 not an exposition of them2 the result of an arbitrary selection from the data of our consciousness1 and then the treatment of the selection as if it were the whole4 ,quite apart from the ,gospel1 the facts of human intercourse are full of evidence to wonderful and beautiful possibilities of insight and intercourse between human spirit and spirit4 ,but if we want to read the best possible negative to the gloomy dream of impenetrable isolation1 we must come to the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,we must make experiment of what it is1 in ,him1 to know and love others who are in ,him too4 ,then indeed we shall find that we can1 in the common possession of a living ,lord who dwells in our hearts by faith1 see as it were from heart into heart1 in the warm light of ,his presence4 ,we shall find how wonderful is the friendship with one another to which the friends of ,jesus are called1 and for which they are enabled in ,him4 ,,in ,,him3 those words are the key to this deep1 tender1 healthful union1 and as it were fusion1 of souls4 ,we have the truth which they convey prominent already in the ,philippian ,letter4 ,it is addressed 7ver4 #a7 to the holy ones in ,christ ,jesus4 ,that is to say1 it comes to men and women who1 taken on their profession1 assumed to be in fact what they were denoted to be in baptism1 were separated from self and sin to ,god by their union in covenant and life with their ,redeemer4 ,it regards them as personalities so truly annexed by ,jesus ,christ1 in the miracle of converting grace1 so articulated spiritually into ,him1 that no language short of this wonderful in ,him will worthily express their relation to ,him4 ,later 7ver4 #aa71 they are regarded as so united to ,him that the fruit of righteousness which they are to bear in rich abundance is to be borne only through ,him2 ,he1 the ,vine1 is the one possible secret by which they1 the branches1 can possibly be productive of the sweet cluster of the fruit of the ,spirit4 ,and between those two places comes a sentence 7ver4 #h7 where1 just in passing1 in a mere allusion to his own experience1 the ,apostle takes for granted this profound continuity with ,christ in a peculiarly impressive way3 ,i long after you all in the heart of ,jesus ,christ4 ,as we have seen above1 he regards himself 7not as an ,apostle but simply as a believer7 as so joined unto the ,lord that1 if ,i may dare so to expand the phrase1 the heart of ,jesus ,christ is the true organ and vehicle of his own regenerate emotions4 ,the whole ,scripture1 and particularly the whole ,pauline ,scripture1 assures us what this does not mean4 ,it does not mean the least suspension or distortion of the humanity or of the personality of ,paul4 ,it means no absorption of his ego1 and nothing whatever un-natural in either the nature or the exercise of his affections4 ,his homesick longing to see the dear ,philippian people again is quite as simple1 natural1 personal1 as any longing he ever felt in his boyhood for his home at ,tarsus when he was absent from it4 ,yes1 but this personality1 working so freely and truly in its every faculty1 is now1 by the ,holy ,ghost1 so put into spiritual contact with the will and heart of ,jesus ,christ1 who now dwells in it by faith1 that the whole action moves1 so to speak1 in the sphere1 in the atmosphere1 of ,,him4 ,the love which passes so freely through and out of the believer to his brethren would not be what it is if the believer were not in ,christ4 ,he is still all himself2 nay1 he is more than ever himself1 being in the ,lord2 for indeed that blessed union has a genial and developing power upon its happy subject4 ,but such is that power that it deeply qualifies the mental and spiritual action of the being who enters into it2 never violates but always qualifies4 ,the fact1 the experience1 of course transcends our analysis4 ,but it is not beyond our faith1 nor beyond our reception and inward verification4 ,thy love1 ,thy joy1 ,thy peace1 ,continuously impart ,unto my heart2 ,fresh springs that never cease1 ,but still increase4 #g ,our immediate purpose meanwhile is not to discuss the believer's union with his ,lord1 but to remark on this one precious result of it1 the opening of his inmost sympathies to the sharers of the same blessing4 ,we see that result displayed in all its brightness in this first paragraph of the ,epistle2 and we shall see it to the end4 ,in the particular case of ,st ,paul and the ,philippians it was indeed a remarkable phenomenon4 ,here on the one side was a man who1 not very many years before1 had been the devotee of the ,pharisaic creed1 a creed which tended powerfully not to expand but to annihilate every sympathy which could touch the ,gentiles4 ,here on the other side were people whose life and thought had been moulded in the proud political and national ideas of a ,roman colonia2 no kindly atmosphere for the growth of affections which should be at once intense and comprehensive4 ,but these two unlikely parties are now one1 in the strongest and most beautiful union of thought and heart4 ,if we may use again a word ventured just above1 they are mutually 7not confused but7 fused together4 ,their whole beings have come into living touch1 not on the surface merely but most of all in their depths4 ,an interchange of idea1 of sympathy1 of purpose has become possible between them in which1 while self-respect is only deepened and secured1 reserve is melted away in the common possession of the life and love of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the ,apostle writes to his friends as one whose whole soul is open to them1 is at their command4 ,his memory and reflexion are full of them4 ,he not only prays and gives thanks for them but delights in telling them that he is doing so4 ,he says without difficulty exactly what he is sure of about them1 and exactly what things he is asking for them as yet more developed blessings4 ,above all1 the name of ,him who is everything to himself and to them flows from his heart with a holy freedom which is impossible except where the parties in religious intercourse are indeed one in ,him4 ,seven times in these eleven short verses ,christ ,jesus is explicitly named2 as the writer's ,possessor2 as the ,philippian saints' ,life and ,head2 as the ,giver to them1 with ,his ,father1 of grace and peace2 as the ,lord of the longed-for ,day1 that dear goal of hope2 as the mighty ,sphere of regenerate family-love2 as the ,cause and ,condition of the ,christian's fruitfulness for ,god4 ,his presence1 as it were1 moves in the whole message1 in the whole intercourse of which the message is the expression4 ,writer and readers perfectly understand each other1 for they both know ,christ1 and are found in ,him4 ,the same divine ,cause tends always to similar effects4 ,unhappily it does not always act without obstruction--obstruction which need not be4 ,there are no doubt obstructions to its action which are inherent in our mortality2 things which have to do really with physical temperament1 or again with external circumstances which we may be helpless to modify4 ,but the ,cause1 in itself1 tends always to the effects visible in this noble passage of ,christian affection4 ,the possession and knowledge of ,jesus ,christ1 in spirit and in truth1 tends always1 by an eternal law1 to warm and open as well as to purify the human heart2 to anchor it indeed immoveably to ,god1 but also to suffuse it with a gracious sympathy towards man1 and first and most of all towards man who is also1 in ,christ1 cognizant of the free-masonry of faith4 ,let this be our first main ,lesson in ,faith and ,love in our ,philippian studies4 ,the section which we have traversed is full of points of interest and importance otherwise2 but this aspect of it is so truly dominant that we may rightly take it for the true message of the whole4 ,let us welcome it home4 ,let us question ourselves1 in presence of it1 and before our ,lord1 first about our personal possession of the ,cause1 and then about our personal manifestation of the effects4 ,let us put to our own hearts some very old-fashioned interrogations3 ,am ,i indeed in ,jesus ,christ8 ,is ,he to me indeed ,possessor1 ,lord1 ,giver of grace and peace8 ,is my life so lived and my work so done in contact with ,him that through ,him1 and not merely through myself1 my fruit is found8 ,is ,his promised ,day the goal and longing of my heart1 as ,i submit myself to ,him that ,he may perfect ,his work in me by the way1 and watch over myself that ,i may meet ,him single-hearted and without offence at the end8 ,is ,he the pervading and supreme ,interest of my life8 ,is ,he the inward ,power which colours my thought and gives direction and quality to my affections8 ,no answer which a heart fully wakeful to ,god can give to such deliberate inward questionings can possibly be an easy or light-hearted answer4 ,the gladdest and most thankful utterance of such a heart will carry along with it always the prayer1 ,search me1 ,o ,god1 and try my heart2 ,enter not into judgment with ,thy servant4 ,yet we are assuredly meant1 if we are in ,christ1 so to know the fact as to rejoice in it1 and to be strong in it2 we are invited1 without a doubt1 so to know ,him as to know we know ,him1 and to find in ,him all our salvation1 and all our desire4 ,let us not rest till1 in great humility but with perfect simplicity1 we so see ,him as to leave behind our doubts about our part and lot in ,him1 and1 believing1 to rejoice4 ,and then let us covet the developement of those results of possession of ,christ1 of union with ,christ1 which we have specially studied in the opening section of our ,epistle4 ,let us welcome the ,lord in to the springs of thought and will1 with the conscious aim that ,he should so warm and enrich them with ,his presence that they shall overflow for blessing around us1 in the life of ,christian love4 ,i do not mean for a moment that we should set ourselves to construct a spiritual mannerism of speech or of habit4 ,the matter is one not of manufacture but of culture2 it is a call to nourish and cherish the gift of ,god which is in us1 and to give to it the humble co-operation of our definite wish and will that it may be manifested in the ways commended in ,his ,word4 ,it is a call to desire and intend to adorn the doctrine of ,god our ,saviour1 in the outcoming of ,his presence in us in our tone1 temper1 and converse1 towards those around us1 and especially where we know that a common faith and common love do subsist4 ,if ,i mistake not1 there is far too little of this at present1 even in true ,christian circles4 ,a certain dread of phraseology1 of pietism1 of what is foolishly called goody-goody1 has long been abroad2 a grievously exaggerated dread2 a mere parody of rightful jealousy for sincerity in religion4 ,under the baneful spell of this dread it is only too common for really earnest ,christians to keep each other's company1 and even to take part in united religious work1 and to be constantly together as worshippers1 aye1 perhaps as ministers of the ,word and ,ordinances of ,christ1 and yet never1 or hardly ever1 to exchange a word about ,,him1 heart to heart2 still less to speak often one to another1 and share fully together their treasures of experience of what ,he is and what ,he has done for them4 ,the very dialect of the ,christian life has greatly lost in holy depth and tenderness1 so it seems to me1 since a former generation in which this over-drawn fear 7it is a mere fashion7 of phraseology was less prevalent4 ,it ought not so to be4 ,let us each for himself come closer to our eternal ,,friend1 converse more fully with ,him1 consider ,,him much more than many of us do4 ,and then we too shall discover that our mouth is opened1 our heart enlarged1 for holy converse with our fellow-servants1 in that wonderful interchange of souls which is possible in the heart of ,jesus ,christ4 ,oh days of heaven1 and nights of equal praise1 ,serene and peaceful as those heavenly days1 ,when souls1 drawn upwards in communion sweet1 ,enjoy the stillness of some close retreat2 ,discourse1 as if releas'd and safe at home1 ,of dangers past and wonders yet to come1 ,and spread the sacred treasures of the breast ,upon the lap of covenanted rest4 #h #a ,sun episcopois kai diakonois4 ,i render the words as literally as possible1 not to discredit the distinctive functions of the ,christian ministry1 but to remind the reader of the natural origin of the titles by which ,christian ministers are designated4 ,and it is important here to remember that our word bishop1 while derived from episkopos1 cannot properly translate it as it is used in the ,new ,testament4 ,for episkopos is not used there as the special title of a superintendent pastor set over other pastors4 ,such superintendents1 however the office originated1 are found in the ,new ,testament1 and early in the second century are called distinctively episkopoi3 but the term so used is later1 on any theory1 than the origin of the office4 ,but ,i do not purpose in these devotional chapters to discuss at length such a question as that raised here4 ,the reader should by all means consult ,bishop ,lightfoot's ,excursus in his ,commentary on this ,epistle1 ,the ,christian ,ministry4 ,the views advanced in that essay were1 as ,i personally know1 held by the writer to the last4 #b ,the middle suggests a certain fulness of action4 #c ,i think the definite article should be supplied in ,english2 the reference is to the work of works4 #d ,i give both the possible renderings of huper4 ,both would certainly be in place1 as he thought of them and prayed and gave thanks for them4 #e ,the derivation is doubtful1 but the idea of the word in usage is clearness1 freedom from complication4 #f ,with some hesitation ,i assign to dikaiosune here the meaning of the righteousness of justification1 as in iii4 #i4 #g ,f4 ,r4 ,havergal4 #h ,cowper1 ,conversation4 ,,the ,,apostle',s ,,position ,,and ,,circumstances ,yield to the ,lord1 with simple heart1 ,all that thou hast and all thou art1 ,renounce all strength but strength divine1 ,and peace shall be for ever thine4 ,,mme ,,de ,,la ,,mothe ,,guyon1 translated by ,,cowper4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,apostle',s ,,position ,,and ,,circumstances ,,philippians i4 #ab-bj ,disloyal brethren--,interest of the paragraph--,the victory of patience--,the ,praetorian sentinel--,separatism1 and how it was met--,st ,paul's secret--,his earnest expectation--,christ magnified--,in my body ,st ,paul has spoken his affectionate greeting to the ,philippians1 and has opened to them the warm depths of his friendship with them in the ,lord4 ,what he feels towards them in the heart of ,christ ,jesus1 what he prays for them in regard of the growth and fruit of their new life1 all has been expressed4 ,it is time now to meet their loving anxieties with some account of his own position1 and the circumstances of the mission in the ,city4 ,through this passage let us follow him now2 we shall find that the quiet picture1 full of strong human interest in its details1 is suffused all over with the glory of the presence and the peace of ,christ4 ,ver4 #ab4 ,now ,i wish you to know1 brethren1 that my position and circumstances 7ta kat eme1 the things related to me7 have come out1 have resulted1 rather for the progress of the ,gospel message and enter- ,ver4 #ac4 prise1 than otherwise2 so that my bonds1 my imprisonment1 with its custodia militaris1 are become unmistakable 7phanerous7 as being in ,christ2 as due to no social or political crime1 but to the name and cause of the ,messiah of ,israel1 the ,saviour of the world4 ,this is the case in the whole ,praetorium1#a in all ranks of the ,imperial ,guard1 and among other people in general 7tois loipois pasi#b74 ,and ,ver4 #ad4 another result is#c that the majority 7tous plaionas7 of the brethren in the ,lord1 the converts of the ,roman mission1 feeling a new confidence in connexion with my bonds1#d animated by the fact of my imprisonment1 realizing afresh the glory of the cause which makes me happy to suffer1 venture more abundantly1 more frequently1 more openly1 fearlessly to speak the ,word1 the message of ,christ1 of the ,cross1 of ,truth1 of ,life4 ,there is a drawback in this ,ver4 #ae4 welcome phenomenon3 some indeed actually 7kai7 for envy and strife1 while others as truly 7kai7 for goodwill1 are proclaiming the ,christ4 ,the latter#e ,ver4 #af4 are at work thus from motives of love1 love to the ,lord and to me ,his captive ,messenger1 knowing that on purpose for the vindication 7apologian7 of the ,gospel ,i am posted 7keimai1 as a soldier1 fixed by his captain's order7 here4 ,the former from ,ver4 #ag4 motives of faction1 partizanship 7eritheia7 in a self-interested propaganda of their own opinions1 are announcing the ,christ1 not purely1 thinking and meaning to raise up 7egeirein1 so read7 tribulation for me in my bonds2 as so easily they can do1 by detaching from me many converts who would otherwise gather round me1 and generally by the mortifying thought of their freedom and activity in contrast to my enforced isolation4 ,shall ,i give way to the trial1 and lose patience and peace8 ,must ,i8 ,need ,ver4 #ah4 ,i8 ,nay2 what matters it 7ti gar78 ,is not the fiery arrow quenched in ,christ for me8 ,is it not thus nothing to me8 ,yes--yet not nothing1 after all2 for it brings a gain2 it spreads the ,gospel so much further2 so that to my ,what matters it8 ,i may add1 ,only1 in every way1 fair or foul1 ,christ is being announced2 and in this ,i rejoice1 aye1 and rejoice ,i shall2 the future can only bring me fresh reasons for a joy which lies wholly in the triumphs of my ,lord1 and can only bring fresh blessings to ,ver4 #ai4 me ,his vassal4 ,for ,i know that ,i shall find 7moi7 this experience result in salvation1 in the access of saving grace to my soul1 through your supplication for me1 which will be quickened by your knowledge of my trials1 and through a resulting full supply 7epichoregia3 the word suggests a supply which is ample7 of the ,spirit of ,jesus ,christ2 a developed presence in me of the ,holy ,ghost1 coming from the exalted ,saviour1 and revealing ,him1 and applying ,him4 ,such blessing will be exactly ,ver4 #bj4 according to my eager expectation 7apokaradokia7 and hope1 that in no respect shall ,i be disappointed 7aiochunthesomai3 with the shame of a miscalculation71 but that in all outspokenness 7parresia7 of testimony1 whether in word or deed1 as always1 so also now1 ,christ shall be magnified in my body1 whether by means of life or by means of death4 ,the passage is full of various points of interest4 ,it is interesting1 as we saw in our first chapter1 in regard of the historical criticism of the ,epistle4 ,it gives a strong suggestion 7,i follow ,lightfoot in the remark7 in favour of dating the ,epistle early in the two years of ,acts xxviii4 ,for it implies that the fact of the ,apostle's imprisonment was a powerful stimulant to the zeal of the ,roman ,christians2 and this is much more likely to have been the case when the imprisonment was still a new fact to them1 than later4 ,st ,paul's arrival and first settlement1 in the character 7totally new in ,rome1 so far as we know7 of a prisoner of ,jesus ,christ1 would of itself give a quickening shock1 so to speak1 to the believing community1 which had suffered1 so we gather1 from a certain decadence of zeal4 ,but when he had been some time amongst them1 and the conditions of the hired house had become usual and familiar in their thoughts1 it would be otherwise2 whatever else about ,st ,paul might rekindle their ardour1 the mere fact of his imprisoned state would hardly do so4 ,the passage is further interesting as it indicates one particular direction of the ,apostle's influence upon the pagans around him4 ,it was felt1 primarily1 in all the ,praetorium1 that is to say1 in the large circle of the ,imperial ,life-guards4#f ,we gather here1 with reasonable certainty1 that from the ,life-guards were supplied1 one by one1 the soldiers that kept him 7,acts xxviii4 #af72 mounting guard over him in turn1 and fastened to him by the long chain which clasped at one end the wrist of the prisoner1 at the other that of the sentinel4 ,it needs only a passing effort of imagination to understand something of the exquisite trial to every sensibility which such a custody must have involved1 even where the conditions were favourable4 ,let the guardian be ever so considerate and civil1 it would be a terrible ordeal to be literally never alone1 night or day2 and too often1 doubtless1 the guardian would be not at all complaisant4 ,to many a man1 certainly to any man of the refined mental and moral nature of ,st ,paul1 this slow fire of indescribable annoyance would be far worse to endure than a great and sudden infliction of pain1 even to death4 ,it is a noble triumph of grace when such a test is well borne1 and turned by patience into an occasion for ,god4 ,when ,nicholas ,ridley1 for a long year and a half 7#aeed-e7 was committed at ,oxford to the vexatious domestic custody of the mayor and his bigoted wife1 ,edmund and ,margaret ,irish1 it must have been nothing less than a slow torture to one whose fine nature had been used for years to the conditions of civil and ecclesiastical dignity and of a large circle of admirable friends4 ,and it was a spiritual victory1 second only to that of his glorious martyrdom 7,oct4 #af1 #aeee71 when the close of that dreary time found the once obdurate and vexatious ,mrs ,irish won by ,ridley's life to admiration and attachment1 and also1 as it would seem1 to scriptural convictions4#g ,but it was a still nobler result from a still more persistent and penetrating trial when ,st ,paul so lived and so witnessed in the presence of this succession of ,roman soldiers that the whole ,guard was pervaded with a knowledge of his true character and position1 evidently in the sense of interest and of respect4 ,it must have been a course of unbroken consistency of conduct as well as of openness of witness4 ,had he only sometimes1 only rarely1 only once or twice1 failed in patience1 in kindness1 in the quiet dignity of the ,gospel1 the whole succession of his keepers would have felt the effect1 as the story passed from one to another4 ,as a fact1 the keeping power of ,christ was always with him1 and always used by him1 and the men went out one after another to say that here was a prisoner such as never was before4 ,here was no conspirator or criminal2 his bonds were evidently 7ver4 #ac7 due only to his devotion to a ,god whom he would not renounce1 and whose presence with him and power over him were visibly shewn in the divine peace and love of his hourly life4 ,we can please ourselves if we will by imagining many a scene for the exercise of that influence4 ,sometimes the ,saint would be left much alone with the ,praetorian4 ,sometimes a long stream of visitors would flow in1 and for a whole day perhaps the two would scarcely exchange a word2 the ,guardsman would only watch and listen1 if he cared to do so4 ,sometimes it would be a case where ignorant and ribald blasphemies would have to be met in the power of the peace of ,god4 ,sometimes a really wistful heart would at once betray its presence under the ,roman cuirass4 ,perhaps the man would attack the ,apostle with ridicule1 or with enquiries1 after some long day of religious debate1 such as that recorded in ,acts xxviii41 and the silent night would see ,st ,paul labouring on to win this soul also4 ,these ears were dull to ,grecian speech2 ,this heart more dull to aught but sin2 ,yet the great ,spirit bade thee reach1 ,wake1 change1 exalt1 the soul within3 ,i've heard2 ,i know2 thy ,lord1 ev'n ,he1 ,,jesus1 hath look'd from heaven on me4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a ,christian1 yes--for ever now ,a ,christian3 so our ,leader keep ,my faltering heart3 to ,him ,i bow1 ,his1 whether now ,i wake or sleep3 ,in peace1 in battle4 ,his3--the day ,breaks in the east3 oh1 once more pray6 #h ,the passage before us is interesting again because of the light it throws on the very early rise of a separatist movement in the ,roman mission-church1 and on the principles on which ,st ,paul met it4 ,extremely painful and perplexing the phenomenon was1 though by no means new in its nature to ,st ,paul1 as we well know4 ,it was a trouble altogether from within1 not from without4 ,the men who preached ,christ of envy and strife bore evidently the ,christian name as openly as their sincerer brethren4 ,they were baptized members of the community of the ,gospel4 ,and their evangelization was such that ,st ,paul was able to say1 ,christ is preached2 though this does not mean1 assuredly1 that there were no doubtful elements mingled in the preaching4 ,now for them1 as for all the ,roman ,christians1 he had every reason to regard himself as the ,lord's appointed centre of labour and of order4 ,there he was1 the divinely commissioned ,apostle of ,christ1 at once the ,teacher and the ,leader of the ,gentile ,churches2 only a few short years before he had written to these very people1 in his inspired and commissioned character1 the greatest of the ,epistles4 ,yet now behold a separation1 a schism4 ,that such the movement was we cannot doubt4 ,these brethren1 he tells us1 carried on their missionary efforts in a way precisely intended to raise up trouble for him in his prison4 ,the least that they would do with that object would be not only to teach much that he would disapprove of1 but to intercept intercourse between their converts and him2 to ignore him altogether as the central representative of the ,church at ,rome2 to arrange for assemblies1 to administer ,baptisms1 to practise the ,breaking of ,bread1 wholly apart from the order and cohesion which he would sanction1 and which he had the fullest right to enjoin4 ,all this was a great evil1 a sin1 carrying consequences which might affect the ,christian cause far and wide4 ,is it not true that no deliberate schism has ever taken place in the ,church where there has not been grievous sin in the matter--on one side1 or1 on the other1 or on both8 ,yet how does the ,apostle meet this distressing problem8 ,with all the large tolerance and self-forgetting patience which come to the wise man who walks close to ,god in ,christ4 ,no great leader1 surely1 ever prized more the benefits of order and cohesion than did ,st ,paul4 ,and where a fundamental error was in view1 as for example that about ,justification in ,galatia1 no one could meet it more energetically1 and with a stronger sense of authority1 than he did4 ,but he discerned things that differ4 ,and when1 as here1 he saw around him men1 however misguided1 who were aiding in the announcement of the ,name and salvation of ,christ1 he thought more of the evangelization than of the breach of coherence1 which yet most surely he deplored4 ,he speaks with perfect candour of the unsound spiritual state of the separatists1 their envy1 strife1 and partizanship4 ,but he has no anathema for their methods4 ,he is apparently quite unconscious of the thought that because he is the one ,apostle in ,rome grace can be conveyed only through him2 that his authority and commission are necessary to authenticate teaching and to make ordinances effectual4 ,he would far rather have order1 and he knows that he is its lawful centre4 ,but the announcement of ,christ is a thing even more momentous than order4 ,he cannot stay to speak of that great but inferior benefit1 while he rejoices1 aye1 and is going to rejoice1 in the diffusion of the ,name and salvation of the ,lord4 ,it is an instructive lesson4 ,would that in all the after ages the ,church had more watchfully followed this noble precedent6 ,the result would have been1 so ,i venture to hold1 a far truer and stronger cohesion1 in the long run1 than we see1 alas1 around us now4 ,what was the secret of this happy harmony of the love of order and the capacity for tolerance in the mind of ,st ,paul8 ,it was a secret as deep but also as simple as possible2 it was the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,really and literally1 ,jesus ,christ was the one ruling consideration for ,st ,paul2 not himself1 his claims1 position1 influence1 feelings2 not even the ,church4 ,to him the ,church was inestimably precious1 but the ,lord was more4 ,and all his thoughts about work1 authority1 order1 and the like1 were accordingly conditioned and governed by the thought1 ,what will best promote the glory of the ,lord who loved us and gave ,himself for us8 ,if even a separatist propaganda will extend the knowledge of ,,him1 ,his servant can rejoice1 not in the separatism1 not in the unhappy spirit which prompted it1 but in the extension of the reign of ,jesus ,christ in the human hearts which need ,him4 ,surely1 even in our own day1 with its immemorial complications of the question of exterior order1 it will tend more than anything else to straighten the crooked places and level the rough places1 if we look1 from every side1 on the glory of the blessed ,name as our supreme and ruling interest4 ,this view of the supremacy of the ,saviour in the thoughts of ,st ,paul about the ,church leads us to a view1 as we close1 of that supremacy in all his thoughts about his own life4 ,our paragraph ends with the words which anticipate a great blessing1 a new developement of salvation1 in the writer's soul1 in answer to the believing prayers of the ,philippians2 and then comes the thought that this result will carry out his dearest personal ambition--that ,christ may be magnified in my body1 whether by life or by death4 ,let us take up those final words for a simple study1 before ,god4 ,according to my eager expectation1 my apokaradokia1 my waiting and watching1 with outstretched head1 for some keenly wished-for arrival1 or attainment4 ,such is this man's thought and feeling with regard to the magnification of ,christ through his life and death4 ,it is his hope1 it is his absorbing expectation4 ,it is to him the thing with which he wakes up in the morning1 and over which he lingers as he prepares to sleep at night4 ,it is the animating inner interest which gives its zest to life4 ,what art is to the ambitious and successful painter1 what literature is to the man who loves it for its own sake and whose books have begun to take the world1 what athletic toil and triumph is to the youth in his splendid prime1 what the fact of extending and wealth-winning enterprise is to the man conscious of mercantile capacity--all this1 only very much more1 is the magnification of ,christ in his body to the prisoner who sits1 never alone1 in the ,roman lodging4 ,it is this which effectually forbids him ever to find the days dull4 ,its light falls upon everything2 comforts1 trials1 days of toil1 hours of comparative repose1 prospects of life1 prospects of death4 ,it quickens and concentrates all his faculties1 as a great and animating interest always tends to do2 it is always present to his mind as light and heat1 to his will as rest and power4 ,it secures for him the quiet of a great disengagement and liberty from selfish motives2 it continually drives him on1 with a force which does not exhaust him 7for it is from above7 in the ambition and enterprise which is for ,christ2 giving him at once an impulse toward great and arduous labours1 and a patience and loving tact which continually adjusts itself to the smallest occasions of love and service4 ,reader1 this is admirable in ,st ,paul4 ,but after all1 the ultimate secret of the noble phenomenon resides not in ,st ,paul but in ,jesus ,christ4 ,it pleased ,god to reveal ,his ,son in me 7,gal4 i4 #ae1 #af74 ,the man had seen his ,saviour with his whole soul4 ,and because of--not the man who saw but--the ,saviour who was seen1 behold1 the life is lifted off the pivot of self-will and transferred to that of the glory of ,god in the face of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the same revealing grace can lift us also4 ,we are not ,st ,pauls2 but the ,jesus ,christ of ,st ,paul is absolutely the same1 in ,himself1 for us4 ,we will1 in ,his name1 place ourselves in the way of ,his working1 that ,he may so shew us ,his fair countenance that we may not be able not to live1 quite really1 for ,him as the enthralling ,interest of life4 ,let us look at the words again3 ,that ,christ may be magnified1 may be made great4 ,in what respect8 ,not in ,himself2 for ,he is already all in all2 filling all things2 higher than the heavens4 ,such is ,he that no man knoweth the ,son but the ,father2 the mind of ,deity is alone adequate to comprehend ,his glory4 ,but ,he may be magnified--relatively to those who see ,him1 or may see ,him4 ,to eyes which find in ,christ only a distant and obscure ,object1 however sacred1 ,he may be made to occupy the whole field of the soul with ,his love and glory4 ,as when the telescope is directed upon the heavens1 and some cloudy spot becomes1 magnified1 a mighty planet perhaps1 or perhaps a universe of starry suns2 so it is when through a believer's life ,christ is magnified to eyes which watch that life and see the reality of the power within4 ,ah1 have we not known such lives ourselves8 ,has not the ,lord been made very near to us1 and very luminous1 in the face of father1 mother1 brother1 sister1 friend1 or pastor8 ,have we not seen ,him shining large and near us in their holy activities1 and in their blessed sufferings1 shedding ,his glory through all they were and all they did8 ,he has been magnified to us by saints in high places1 whose dignity and fame have been to them only so much occasion for the exercise of their ruling passion--the glory of ,christ4 ,and ,he has been magnified to us also by saints in comfortless cottages1 imprisoned upon sick-beds in gloomy attics1 but finding in everything an occasion to experience and to manifest the power of their ,lord4 ,may ,he make it always our ambition to be thus ,his magnifiers4 ,but may ,he keep it a really pure ambition4 ,for even this can be distorted into the misery of self-seeking2 an ambition not that ,christ may be magnified1 but that ,his magnifier may be thought some great one in the spiritual life4 ,in my body4 ,because through the body1 and only through it1 practically1 can we tell on others for the ,lord4 ,do we speak to them8 ,do we write to them8 ,do we make home comfortable and happy for them8 ,do we meet the glad with joyful smiles and wipe the weeping eyes8 ,do we travel to those who want us8 ,do we nurse them8 ,do we think for them8 ,all has its motives in the regenerate spirit1 but all has its effect through the body4 ,without brain1 eyes1 ears1 lips1 hands1 feet--how could we serve1 how could we shine8 ,our life would have no articulation to others1 nor our death4 ,i beseech you therefore1 brethren1 by the mercies of ,god1 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice4 ,so be it1 for writer and for reader4 ,then blessed will be our life1 as day by day brings ceaseless occasions for the pursuit of our dear ambition--that ,christ may be magnified4 -------- 999999 ,en holo to praitorio 7ver4 #ac74--,the word praitorion occurs in e4g4 ,matt4 xxvii4 #bg4 ,acts xxiii4 #ce1 in the sense of the residence of a great official1 regarded as praetor1 or commander4 ,the ,a4,v4 here evidently reasons from such passages1 and takes the word to mean the residence at ,rome of the supreme praetor1 the ,emperor2 the ,palatium1 the vast range of buildings on the ,mons ,palatinus which has since given a name to all palaces4 ,bishop ,lightfoot however has made it clear 7a7 that such a use at ,rome1 by ,romans1 of the word ,praetorium was probably not known2 7b7 that the word ,praetorium was a familiar word for the great body of the ,imperial ,life-guards2 and that it would probably be often so used by the 7praetorian7 soldiers who kept him4 ,on the whole it seems clear that1 at ,rome1 the word would denote a body1 not a place4 ,it never appears as a name for the great camp of the ,praetorians1 outside ,rome at the east4 #a ,see note at the end of this chapter4 #b ,the ,a4,v4 rendering in all other places is obviously due to the belief that praitorion signified a place1 not a body of men4 #c ,i thus convey the force of hoste1 across the break we have made in the original sentence4 #d ,literally perhaps1 relying on my bonds1 as a new ground for their assurance of the goodness of the cause4--,it is possible to render here1 the brethren1 having in the ,lord confidence1 are1 in view of my bonds1 much more bold1 etc4 ,but the rhythm of the ,greek is in favour of our rendering 7which is essentially that of ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v474 #e ,i adopt here the order of the ,greek clauses which is best attested4 #f ,see note at the end of this chapter4 #g ,i venture to refer to my book1 ,bishop ,ridley on the ,lord's ,supper 7,seeley71 pp4 #ed1 #ee1 #gb4 #h ,see the close of the volume4 ,,the ,,christian',s ,,peace ,,and ,,the ,,christian',s ,,consistency ,o ,god1 from whom all holy desires1 all good counsels1 and all just works do proceed2 ,give unto ,thy servants that peace which the world cannot give2 that both our hearts may be set to obey ,thy commandments1 and also that by ,thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness2 through the merits of ,jesus ,christ our ,saviour4 ,amen4 ,the ,second ,collect at ,evening ,prayer4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,christian',s ,,peace ,,and ,,the ,,christian',s ,,consistency ,,philippians i4 #ba-cj ,he will be spared to them--,spiritual wealth of the paragraph--,adolphe ,monod's exposition--,charles ,simeon's testimony--,the equilibrium and its secret--,the intermediate bliss--,he longs for their full consistency--,the gift of suffering ,ver4 #ba4 ,for to me1 to live is ,christ2 the consciousness and experiences of living1 in the body1 are so full of ,christ1 my supreme ,interest1 that ,,christ sums them all up2 and to die1 the act of dying1#a is gain1 for it will usher me in from an existence of blessing to an existence of more blessing still4 ,but ,ver4 #bb4 if living on1 in the flesh1 be my lot2 if the present suspense issues in my being acquitted at the ,roman tribunal1 this will prove to me 7touto moi7 fruit of work2 it will just mean so much more work for the ,lord1 and so much more fruit2 ,i shall welcome it not as being the best thing in itself1 as if ,i chose mortal life for its own sake1 but because of its ceaseless opportunities for my ,lord4 ,and which alternative ,i shall choose1 ,i do not know1 ,i do not recognize 7gnorizo1 as one who seeks to be sure of the face of ,ver4 #bc4 a friend amidst other faces74 ,nay 7de71 ,i am held in suspense on both sides2#b my personal desire being#c in the direction of departing1 striking my tent1 weighing my anchor 7analysai71#d and being with ,christ 7for this is what departing means for us ,christians1 on its other side72 for it is far1 far better1 by far more preferable1 pollo mallon kreisson--aye even than a life in the flesh which is ,christ6 ,but ,ver4 #bd4 then the abiding by 7epimenein7 the flesh1 the brave1 faithful1 holding fast to the conditions of earthly trial1 is more necessary1 more obligatory1 more of the nature of duty as against pleasure1 on account of you1 and your further need of me in the ,lord4 ,and feeling ,ver4 #be4 confident of this1 ,i know that ,i shall remain--aye and shall remain side by side 7parameno7 with you all1 as your comrade1 your helper1 in order to your progress and joy in your faith2#e so as to promote your growth in the exercise of loyal reliance on your ,lord1 and in the deep joy which is the natural issue of such ,ver4 #bf4 reliance2 so that your exultation may be overflowing in ,christ ,jesus1 in your living union with ,him1 in me 7en emoi71 in whom you see a living example of your ,lord's love1 shewn to you by means of my ,ver4 #bg4 coming back to you again4 ,only1 whether ,i am thus actually restored to you or not1 order your life#f in a way worthy of the ,gospel of ,christ 7above all1 worthy of the unifying1 harmonizing power of the ,gospel72 so that whether coming and seeing you1 or remaining absent1 ,i may hear#g about your circumstances1 your condition1 that you are standing firm in ,one ,spirit1#h in the power of the ,one ,strengthener1 and1 with one soul1 one life and love1 the resultant of the ,one ,spirit's work in you all1 wrestling side by side1 with enemies and obstacles1 for #ithe faith of the ,gospel1 for the maintenance and victory of that reliance which embraces ,ver4 #bh4 the truth of ,christ2 and refusing to be 7me7 scared out of that attitude in anything by your 7ton7 opponents1 the unconverted world around you4 ,such 7hetis7 calm united courage is to them an evidence1 a sure token1 an omen1 of the perdition which awaits the obstinate foes of holiness1 but to you of the salvation which awaits ,christ's faithful witnesses4 ,and this1 this condition of conflict and courage1 is from ,god2 no mere blind result of accidents1 but ,his purpose4 ,ver4 #bi4 ,yes1 because to you there has been granted#aj as an actual boon--for the sake of ,christ not only the believing on ,him but also the suffering for ,his sake2#aa a sacred privilege when it is involved by ,ver4 #cj4 loyalty to such a ,master6 ,so you will be experiencing#ab 7echontes7 the same conflict in kind 7oion7 7as you wrestle side by side for your ,lord against evil7 as that which you saw in me1 in my case1 when ,i was with you in those first days 7,acts xvi471 and which you now hear of in me1 as ,i meet it in my prison at ,rome4 ,the translation of our present section is completed4 ,it has presented rather more material than usual for grammatical remark and explanation2 constructions have proved to be complex1 contracted1 or otherwise slightly anomalous2 and points of order and emphasis have claimed attention4 ,but ,i trust that this handling of the texture has only brought more vividly into sight the holy richness and brightness of the design4 ,sentence by sentence1 we have been reading a message of the first order of spiritual importance1 as ,st ,paul has spoken from his own experience of the ,christian's wonderful happiness in life and death1 and then1 in his appeal to the ,philippians1 of the ,christian's path of love and duty4 ,let us listen anew to each part of that precious message4 i4 ,the ,christian's ,happiness in ,life and ,death4 ,in ,adolphe ,monod's volume of death-bed addresses1 his ,adieux a ses ,amis et a l',eglise1 one admirable chapter1 the second1 is devoted to the passage before us1 ,phil4 i4 #ba-bf4 ,from the borderland of eternity the great ,french ,christian looks backward and forward with ,st ,paul's letter in his hand1 and comments there upon this divine possibility of ,happiness in ,life and in ,death4 ,the ,apostle1 he says1 is asking here which is most worth while for him1 to live or to die4 ,often has that question presented itself to us1 and perhaps we1 like the ,apostle1 have answered that 'we are in a strait4' ,but ,i fear we may have used the words in a sense far different from ,st ,paul's4 ,when we have wished for death1 we meant to say1 ',i know not which alternative ,i ought most to dread1 the afflictions of life1 from which death would release me1 or the terrors of death1 from which life protects me4' ,in other words1 life and death look to us like two evils of which we know not which is the less4 ,as for the ,apostle1 they look to him like two immense blessings1 of which he knows not which is the better4 ,personally1 he prefers death1 in order to be with ,christ4 ,as regards the ,church and the world1 he prefers life1 in order to serve ,jesus ,christ1 to extend ,his kingdom1 and to win souls for ,him4 ,what an admirable view of life and of death6--admirable1 because it is all governed 7dominiee71 all sanctified1 by love1 and is akin to the ,lord ,jesus ,christ's own view of life and death4 ,let us set ourselves to enter into this feeling 7sentiment74 ,life is good2 death is good4 ,death is good1 because it releases us from the miseries of this life1 but above all because1 even were life full for us of all the joys which earth can give1 death bids us enter into a joy and a glory of which we can form no idea4 ,we are then to consider death as a thing desirable in itself4 ,let us not shun what serves to remind us of it4 ,let all the illnesses1 all the sudden deaths1 all that passes round us1 remind us that for each one of us death may come at any moment4 ,but then life also is good1 because in life we can serve1 glorify1 imitate1 ,jesus ,christ4 ,life is not worth the trouble of living for any other object4 ,all the strength we possess1 all the breath1 the life1 the faculties1 all is to be consecrated1 devoted1 sanctified1 crucified1 for the service of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,this crucified life is the happy life1 even amidst earth's bitterest pains2 it is the life in which we can both taste for ourselves and diffuse around us the most precious blessings4 ,let us love life1 let us feel the value of life--but to fill it with ,jesus ,christ4 ,in order to such a state of feeling1 the ,holy ,spirit alone can transform us into new men4 ,but observe2 it is not only that our spirit must be sustained1 consoled1 fortified2 the ,spirit of ,god must come to dwell in us4 ,we often set ourselves to work on ourselves1 to set our spirit in order2 this is well1 but it is not enough4 ,we want more4 ,jesus ,christ ,himself must dwell in our hearts by the ,holy ,spirit4 ,my friends1 let us reflect upon the character of the promises of the ,gospel1 and we shall see how far we are from possessing and enjoying them4 ,may ,god open the heavens above our heads2 revealing all to us1 filling us with all wisdom1 granting us to see that even here below we may attain to perfect joy1 while looking forward to possess hereafter the plenitude of bliss and of victory4 ,may ,he teach us how to gather up the blessings which the heavens love to pour upon the earth which opens to receive them4 ,and so may ,he teach us to know that if earth is able to bear us down and trouble us1 it is unable to quench the virtues of heaven1 to annul the promises of ,god1 or to throw a veil1 be it even the lightest cloud1 over the love with which ,god has loved us in ,jesus ,christ4#ac ,he being dead yet speaketh4 ,on his bed of prolonged and inexpressible sufferings ,monod1 called comparatively early to leave a life and ministry of singular fruitfulness and rich in interests1 found in ,jesus the inexhaustible secret of this blessed equilibrium of ,st ,paul4 ,and what a cloud of witnesses have borne their testimony to that same open secret1 as the most solid while most supernatural of realities6 ,as ,i write1 the memory comes up before me of a beloved friend and kinsman1 my contemporary at ,cambridge1 called unexpectedly to die in his twenty-second year4 ,life to him was full of the strongest interests and most attractive hopes1 alike in nature and in grace4 ,he had no quarrel with life2 it had poured out before him a rich store of social and mental blessings1 and a large wealth of surrounding love1 and the ,lord ,jesus1 taking early and decisive possession of the young man's heart1 had only augmented and glorified1 not rebuked or stunted1 every interest4 ,but a slight fever1 caught in the ,swiss hotel1 was medically mismanaged1 and when perfect skill was summoned in1 it was too late4 ,his mother came to her son on his sofa to tell him that he was not only1 as he knew1 very poorly2 he was about to die4 ,in a moment1 without a change of colour1 without a tremor1 without a pause1 smiling a radiant smile1 he looked up and answered1 ,well1 to depart and to be with ,christ is far better6 ,so the young ,christian passed away1 exchanging life which was sweet for death which1 because of the life it would reveal1 was sweeter4 ,and the veterans of the ,king say just the same4 ,if ever a man enjoyed life1 with a vigorous and conscious joy1 it was ,simeon of ,cambridge4 ,and till the age of exactly seventy-seven he was permitted to live with a powerful life indeed2 a life full of affections1 interests1 enterprises1 achievements1 and all full of ,christ4 ,yet in that energetic and intensely human soul the desire was to depart and to be with ,christ4 ,it was no dreamy reverie2 but it was supernatural4 ,it stimulated him to unwearied work2 but it was breathed into him from eternity4 ,i cannot but run with all my might1 he wrote in the midst of his youthful old age1 for ,i am close to the goal4 ,it is indeed a phenomenon peculiar to the ,gospel1 this view of life and death4 ,it is far more than resignation4 ,it is different even from the holy indifference of the mystic saints4 ,for it is full of warmth1 and sympathy1 and all the affections of the heart1 in both directions4 ,the man who is the happy possessor of this secret does not on the one hand go about saying to himself that all around him is maya1 is a dream1 a phantasm of the desert sands counterfeiting the waters and the woods of ,eden4 ,he is as much alive in human life as the worldling is1 and more4 ,he cordially loves his dear ones2 he is the open-hearted friend1 the helpful neighbour1 the loving and loyal citizen and subject1 the attentive and intelligent worker in his daily path of duty4 ,time with its contents is full of reality and value to him4 ,he does not hold that the earth is ,god-forsaken4 ,with his ,lord 7,ps4 civ471 he rejoices in the works of that ,lord's hands2 and1 with the heavenly ,wisdom 7,prov4 viii471 his delights are with the sons of men4 ,but on the other hand1 he does not banish from his thoughts as if it were unpractical the dear prospect of another world4 ,he is not foolish enough to talk of other-worldliness1 as if it were a selfish thing to lay up treasure in heaven1 and so to have his heart there also4 ,for him the present could not possibly be what it is in its interests1 affections1 and purposes1 if it were not for the revealed certainties of an everlasting future in the presence of the ,king4 ,he faints not1 in the path of genuine temporal toil and duty1 because he looks at the things which are not seen4 ,but now1 what is the secret of the equilibrium8 ,we saw in our last chapter what was the secret of the unruffled peace with which ,st ,paul could meet the exquisite trials occasioned by the separatist party at ,rome4 ,it was the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,and the secret of the far more than peace with which here he meets the alternative of life and death is precisely the same2 it is the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,he has no philosophy of happiness2 he has something infinitely better2 he has the ,lord4 ,what gives life its zest and charm for him8 ,it is1 that life is ,christ4 ,what makes death an object of positive personal desire for him1 matched1 let us remember1 against a life with which he is so deeply contented8 ,it is1 that to depart is to be with ,christ1 which is far1 far better4 ,on either side of the veil1 ,jesus ,christ is all things to him4 ,so both sides are divinely good2 only1 the conditions of the other side are such that the longed-for companionship of his ,,master will be more perfectly realized there4 ,we might linger long over this golden passage4 ,it would give us matter for more than one chapter to unfold adequately1 for example1 its clear witness to the conscious and immediate blessedness in death of the servants of ,god4 ,we may ponder long what it implies in this direction when we remember that its far1 far better means better not than our present life at its worst but than our present life at its holiest and best2 for1 as we have observed already1 it is far1 far better than a life here which is ,christ4 ,whatever mysteries attend the thought of the ,intermediate ,state1 and however distinctly we remember that the disembodied spirit must1 as such1 be circumstanced less perfectly than the spirit lodged again in the body1 the body of glory1 yet this at least we gather here2 the believer's happy spirit1 departing from this tabernacle1 finds itself not in the void1 not in the dark1 not under penal or disciplinary pain1 but in a state far1 far better than its very best yet4 ,it is1 in a sense so much better in degree as to be new in kind1 with ,christ4 ,yes1 think of all things at the best2 in one rich thought unite ,all purest joys of sense and soul1 all present love and light2 ,yet bind this truth upon thy brow and clasp it to thy heart1 ,and then nor grief nor gladness here shall claim too great a part-- ,all radiance of this lower sky is to that glory dim2 ,far better to depart it is1 for we shall be ,,with ,,him4 #ad ii4 ,but even on this theme ,i must not linger now4 ,not only because the time would fail me1 but because we have to remember that the main incidence of the ,apostle's thought here is not upon the blessedness of death but upon the joy of duty1 the fruit of labour1 in continued life4 ,he looks in through the gate1 not to sigh because he may not enter yet1 but to run with all his might1 in the path of unselfish service1 because he is close to the goal--the goal of being with ,christ1 to whom he will belong for ever1 and whom he will serve for ever1 day and night in ,his temple4 ,he knows that he shall remain1 and that1 side by side with his dear converts at ,philippi4 ,and his meat is to do the will of ,him that sent him1 and to finish ,his work4 ,the remainder of our chosen portion is altogether to this purpose4 ,he has said enough about himself now1 having just indicated how much ,christ can be to him for peace and power in the great alternative4 ,now his thoughts are wholly at ,philippi1 and he spends himself on entreating them to live indeed1 to live wholly for ,christ2 and to do so in two main respects1 in self-forgetting unity1 and in the recognition of the joy and glory of suffering4 ,only let them order their life in a way worthy of the ,gospel of ,christ4 ,only2 as if this were the one possible topic for him now4 ,this will content him2 nothing else will4 ,he desires one thing of the ,lord--the practical holiness of his beloved converts2 and he cannot possibly do otherwise1 coming as he has just come from the secret of the presence1 felt in his own experience4 ,will they be watchful and prayerful8 ,will they renounce the life of self-will1 and entirely live for their ,lord's holy credit and glory8 ,will they particularly surrender a certain temptation to jealousies and divisions8 ,will they recollect that ,christ has so committed ,himself to them to manifest to the world that it is the only thing in life1 after all1 in the last resort1 to be practically true to ,him8 ,then the ,missionary will be happy2 his joy will be fulfilled4 ,what pastor1 what evangelist1 what worker of any true sort for ,god in the souls of others1 does not know something of the meaning of that only of the ,apostle's8 ,then he passes1 by a transition easy indeed in the case of the ,philippian saints1 to the subject of suffering4 ,in that difficult scene1 the ,roman colonia1 to be perfectly consistent1 must mean1 in one measure or another1 to suffer2 it must mean to encounter adversaries1 such open adversaries1 probably1 as those who had dragged ,paul and ,silas to the judgment seat and the dungeon1 ten years before4 ,how were they to meet that experience1 or anything resembling it8 ,not merely with resignation1 nor even with resolution1 but with a recognition of the joy1 nay of the gift1 of suffering for ,his sake4 ,circumstances infinitely vary1 and so therefore do sufferings4 ,the ,master assigns their kinds and degrees1 not arbitrarily indeed but sovereignly2 and it is ,his manifest will that not all equally faithful ,christians should equally encounter open violence1 or even open shame1 for ,his sake4 ,but it is ,his will also1 definitely revealed1 that suffering in some sort1 for ,his name's sake1 should normally enter into the lot of all that will live godly in ,christ ,jesus4 ,even in the ,church there is the world4 ,and the world does not like the allegiance to ,christ which quite refuses1 however modestly and meekly1 to worship its golden image4 ,to the end1 pain must be met with in the doing here on earth of the beloved will of ,god4 ,but this very pain is a gift from the treasures of heaven4 ,not in itself2 pain is never in itself a good2 the perfect bliss will not include it2 there shall be no more pain4 ,but in its relations and its effects it is a gift indeed4 ,for to the disciple who meets it in the path of witness and of service for his ,master amongst his fellows1 it opens up1 as nothing else can do1 the fellowship of the faithful1 and the heart of ,,jesus4 #a ,observe the aorist infinitive1 to apothanein1 of the crisis1 dying1 contrasted with the present infinitive1 to zen1 of the process1 living4--,it may be noticed that the renderings of ,luther1 ,christus ist mein ,leben1 and ,tindale1 ,christ is to me lyfe1 are untenable1 though expressing as a fact a deep and precious truth4 ,the ,apostle is obviously dealing with the characteristics1 not the source1 of living4 #b ,sunechomai3 literally1 ,i am confined1 restricted from the two 7sides72 as if to say1 ,i am hindered as to my choice1 whichever side you view me from4 #c ,literally1 having the desire2 not a desire1 which misses the point of the words4 ,he means that his epithymia lies in one direction1 his conviction of call and duty in the other4 ,the desire1 the element of personal longing in him1 is for departing4 #d ,the ,vulgate renders here1 cupio dissolvi1 as if analysai meant1 so to speak1 to analyse myself into my elements1 to separate my soul from my body4 ,but the usage of the verb1 in the ,greek of the ,apocrypha1 is for the sense given in our ,versions1 and above2 to break up1 in the sense of setting out4 #e ,literally1 your progress and joy of the faith4 ,the ,greek suggests the connexion of both progress and joy with faith4 ,and ,st ,paul's general use of the word pistis favours its reference here not to the objective creed but to the subjective reliance of the holder of the creed4 #f ,politeuesthe3 literally1 live your citizen-life4 ,but in its usage the verb drops all explicit reference to the polites1 and means little more than live2 in the sense however not of mere existence1 or even of experience1 but of a course of principle and order4 ,see ,acts xxiii4 #a1 the only other ,n4,t4 passage where it occurs2 and #b ,macc4 vi4 #a1 xi4 #be4 #g ,the words suggest to us that the ,apostle might have written1 more fully and exactly1 hina ido1 ean eltho1 kai hina akouso1 ean apo4 ,but it is best to retain in translation the somewhat lax grammatical form of the ,greek4 #h ,the parallels1 #a ,cor4 xii4 #ac1 ,eph4 ii4 #ah1 strongly favour the reference of pneuma here to the ,holy ,spirit of ,god4 #i ,it is of course possible to translate synathlountes te piotei1 wrestling side by side with the faith1 as if the faith was the ,comrade of the believers4 ,but the context is not favourable to this2 the emphasis seems to lie throughout on the believers' fellowship with one another4 #aj ,echaristhe3 the ,english perfect best represents here the ,greek aorist4 #aa ,the ,greek may be explained as if the ,apostle had meant to write1 echaristhn to uper ,christou paschein1 and then freely inserted the antecedent fact of to pioieuein4 #ab ,echontes3 the nominative participle takes us back grammatically to the construction previous to the sentences beginning hetis eotin k4t4a42 which sentences may be treated as a parenthesis4 ,i have attempted to convey this in a paraphrase4 #ac ,adieux1 ed4 #aheg1 pp4 #aj-ab4 #ad ,from the writer's volume of verse1 ,in the ,house of the ,pilgrimage4 ,lord1 we expect to suffer here1 ,nor would we dare repine2 ,but give us still to find ,thee near1 ,and own us still for ,thine4 ,let us enjoy1 and highly prize1 ,these tokens of ,thy love1 ,till ,thou shalt bid our spirits rise ,to worship ,thee above4 ,,newton4 ,,unity ,,in ,,self-,,forgetfulness3 ,,the ,,example ,,of ,,the ,,lord ,our glorious ,leader claims our praise ,for ,his own pattern giv'n2 ,while the long cloud of witnesses ,shew the same path to heav'n4 ,,watts4 ,,chapter ,v ,,unity ,,in ,,self-,,forgetfulness3 ,,the ,,example ,,of ,,the ,,lord ,,philippians ii4 #a-aa ,dissensions incident to activity--,arguments for heart-union--,no plunderer's prize--,the name--,the tone of the great passage--,what the ,kenosis cannot be--,it guarantees the infallibility--,doctrine and life--,only thou ,in the section which we studied last we found the ,apostle coming to the weak point of the ,christian life of the ,philippians4 ,on the whole1 he was full of thankful and happy thoughts about them4 ,theirs was no lukewarm religion2 it abounded in practical benevolence1 animated by love to ,christ1 and it was evidently ready for joyful witness to the ,lord1 in face of opposition and even of persecution4 ,but there was a tendency towards dissension and internal separation in the ,mission ,church2 a tendency which all through the ,epistle betrays its presence by the stress which the ,apostle everywhere lays upon holy unity1 the unity of love1 the unity whose secret lies in the individual's forgetfulness of self4 ,such dangers are always present in the ,christian ,church1 for everywhere and always saints are still sinners4 ,and it is a sad but undeniable fact of ,christian history that the spirit of difference1 dissension1 antagonism1 within the ranks of the believing1 is not least likely to be operative where there is a generally diffused life and vigour in the community4 ,a state of spiritual chill or lukewarmness may even favour a certain exterior tranquillity2 for where the energies of conviction are absent there will be little energy for discussion and resistance in matters not merely secular4 ,but where ,christian life and thought1 and the expression of it1 are in power1 there1 unless the ,church is particularly watchful1 the enemy has his occasion to put in the seeds of the tares amidst the golden grain4 ,the ,gospel itself has animated the disciples' affections1 and also their intellects2 and if the ,gospel is not diligently used as guide as well as stimulus1 there will assuredly be collisions4 ,almost every great crisis of life and blessing in the ,church has shewn examples of this4 ,it was thus in the period of the ,reformation1 the moment the law of love was forgotten by the powerful minds which were so wonderfully energized as well as liberated by the rediscovery of eternal truths long forgotten4 ,it was thus again in the course of the ,evangelical ,revival in the last century1 when holy men1 whose whole natures had been warmed and vivified by a new insight for themselves into the fulness of ,christ1 were betrayed into discussions on the mysteries of grace carried on in the spirit rather of self than of love4 ,we that are in this tabernacle do groan1 being burthened4 ,the words are true of the believing individual2 they are true also of the believing ,church4 ,that which is perfect is not yet come4 ,in the inscrutable but holy progress of the plan of ,god in redemption towards its radiant goal1 it is permitted that temptation should connect itself with our very blessings1 both in the person and in the community4 ,and our one antidote is to watch and pray1 looking unto ,jesus1 and looking away from ourselves4 ,it was thus in measure at ,philippi4 ,and ,st ,paul cannot rest about it4 ,he plies them with every loving argument for the unity of love1 ranging from the plea of attachment to himself up to the supreme plea of the mind that was in ,christ ,jesus when ,he came down from heaven4 ,he has begun to address them thus already4 ,and in the wonderful passage now before us he is to develope his appeal to the utmost1 in the ,lord's name4 ,ver4 #a4 ,if therefore1 in connexion with this theme of holy oneness of love and life1 there is such a thing as comfort1 encouragement 7paraklesis71 in ,christ1 drawn from our common union with the ,lord1 if there is such a thing as love's consolation1 the tender cheer which love can give to a beloved one by meeting his inmost wish1 if there is such a thing as ,spirit-sharing1#a if there are such things as hearts 7splagchna1 viscera7 and compassions1 feelings of human tenderness and attachment1 through which ,i may appeal to you simply as a friend1 and a friend in trouble1 ,ver4 #b4 calling for your pity2 make full my joy1 drop this last ingredient into the cup of my thankful happiness for you1 and bring the wine to the brim1 by being#b of the same mind 7phronma1 feeling1 attitude of mind71 feeling 7echontes7 the same love1 the same on all sides1 soul and soul together 7sympsychoi7 in a ,ver4 #c4 mind which is unity itself4#c ,nothing 7muden1 implying of course prohibition7 in the way of 7kata7 personal or party spirit2#d rather 7alla71 as regards your 7tu7 humblemindedness1 your view of yourselves learnt at the feet of your ,saviour1 reckon#e each other superior to yourselves2 as assuredly you will do1 with a logic true to the soul1 when each sees himself1 the personality he knows best1 in the light of eternal holiness ,ver4 #d4 and love4 ,not to your own interests look 7skopountes71 each circle of you1 but each circle#f to those ,ver4 #e4 of others also4 ,have this mind 7phroneite7 in you1 this moral attitude in each soul1 which was1 and is1#g also in ,christ ,jesus1 7in that eternal ,messiah whom ,i name already with ,his human ,name1 ,,jesus2 for in the will of ,his ,father1 and in the unity of ,his own ,person1 it was as it were ,his ,name already ,ver4 #f4 from everlasting17 who in ,god's manifested ,being#h subsisting1#i seeming divine1 because ,he was divine1 in the full sense of ,deity1 in that eternal world1 reckoned it no plunderer's prize#aj to be on an equality with ,god2#aa no1 ,he viewed ,his possession of the fulness of the ,eternal ,nature as securely and inalienably ,his own1 and so ,he dealt with it for our sakes with a sublime and restful remembrance of others2 far from thinking of it as for ,himself alone1 as one who claimed it unlawfully would have done1 ,ver4 #g4 ,he rather 7alla7 made ,himself void by ,his own act1#ab void of the manifestation and exercise of ,deity as it was ,his on the throne1#ac taking#ad ,bond-servant's 7doulou7 manifested being 7morphe71 that is to say1 the veritable ,human ,nature which1 as a creaturely nature1 is essentially bound to the service of the ,creator1 the bondservice of the ,father2 coming to be1 becoming1 genomenos1 in men's similitude1 so truly human as not only to be but to seem ,man1 accepting all the conditions involved in a truly human exterior1 ,ver4 #h4 pleased as ,man with men to appear4 ,and then1 further1 being found1 as ,he offered ,himself to view1 in respect of guise 7scheati71 in respect of outward shape1 and habit1 and address1 as ,man1 ,he went further1 ,he stooped yet lower1 even from ,humanity to ,death2 ,he humbled ,himself1 in becoming obedient1#ae obedient to ,him whose ,bondservant ,he now was as ,man1 to the length#af of death1 aye 7de71 death of ,cross1 that death of unimaginable pain and of utmost shame1 the death which to the ,jew was the symbol of the curse of ,god upon the victim1 and to the ,roman was a horror of degradation which should be far not only from the bodies but from the imaginations of citizens of ,rome4#ag ,so ,he came1 and so ,he suffered1 because ,he ,ver4 #i4 looked to the interests of others4 ,wherefore also ,god1 ,his ,god 7ho theos71 supremely exalted ,him1 in ,his ,resurrection and ,ascension1 and conferred upon ,him1 as a gift of infinite love and approval 7echarisato71 the ,name which is above every name2 ,,the ,,name1 unique and glorious2 the ,name ,supreme1 the ,i ,,am2 to be ,his ,name now1 not only as ,he is from eternity1 the everlasting ,son of the ,father1 but as ,he became also in time1 the suffering and risen ,saviour of sinners4#ah ,in ,his whole character and work ,he is invested now with the transcendent glory and greatness of divine dignity2 every thought of the suffering ,manhood is steeped in the fact that ,he who1 looking on the things of others1 came down to bear it1 is now enthroned where only the ,absolute and ,eternal ,king ,ver4 #aj4 can sit2 so that in the ,name of ,jesus1#ai in presence of the revealed majesty of ,him who bears1 as ,man1 the human personal ,name1 ,jesus1 every knee should bow1 as the prophet 7,isa4 xlv4 #bc7 foretells1 of things celestial1 and terrestrial1 and subterranean1 of all created existence1 in its heights and depths2 spirits1 men1 and every other creature2 all bowing1 each in their way1 to the imperium of the exalted ,jesus1 ,ver4 #aa4 ,,jehovah-,,jesus2 and that every tongue should confess1 with the confessing of adoring1 praising1 worship 7exomologesetai71 that ,jesus ,christ is nothing less than ,lord1 in the supreme and ultimate sense of that mighty word1 to ,god the ,father's glory4 ,for the worship given to ,his ,own ,son 7,rom4 viii4 #cb71 whose ,nature is one with ,his1 whose glories flow eternally from ,him1 is praise given to ,him4#bj ,so closes one of the most conspicuous and magnificent of the dogmatic utterances of the ,new ,testament4 ,let us consider it for a few moments from that point of view alone4 ,we have here a chain of assertions about our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 made within some thirty years of ,his death at ,jerusalem2 made in the open day of public ,christian intercourse1 and made 7every reader must feel this7 not in the least in the manner of controversy1 of assertion against difficulties and denials1 but in the tone of a settled1 common1 and most living certainty4 ,these assertions give us on the one hand the fullest possible assurance that ,he is ,man1 ,man in nature1 in circumstances and experience1 and particularly in the sphere of relation to ,god the ,father4 ,but they also assure us1 in precisely the same tone1 and in a way which is equally vital to the argument in hand1 that ,he is as genuinely ,divine as ,he is genuinely ,human4 ,did ,he come to be in ,bondservant's ,form8 ,and does the word ,form1 morphe1 there1 unless the glowing argument is to run as cold as ice1 mean1 as it ought to mean1 reality in manifestation1 fact in sight1 a ,manhood perfectly real1 carrying with it a veritable creaturely #ih obligation 7douleia7 to ,god8 ,but ,he was also1 antecedently1 in ,god's ,form4 ,and there too therefore we are to understand1 unless the wonderful words are to be robbed of all their living power1 that ,he who came to be ,man1 and to seem ,man1 in an antecedent state of ,his blessed ,being was ,god1 and seemed ,god4 ,and ,his becoming to be one with us in that mysterious but genuine ,bondservice was the free and conscious choice of ,his eternal ,will1 ,his eternal ,love1 in the glory of the ,throne4 ,when ,he came on earth abased ,he was no ,victim of a secret and irresistible destiny1 such as that which in the ,stoic's theology swept the ,gods of ,olympus to their hour of change and extinction as surely as it swept men to ultimate annihilation4 ,he made ,himself void1 with all the foresight and with all the freewill which can be exercised upon the ,throne where the ,son is in the ,form of the ,eternal ,nature4 ,such is the ,christology of the passage in its aspect towards ,deity4 ,then in regard of our beloved ,lord's ,manhood1 its implications assure us that the perfect genuineness of that ,manhood1 which could not be expressed in a term more profound and complete than this same morphe doulou1 ,form of ,bondservant1 leaves us yet perfectly sure that ,he who chose to be ,bondservant is to us only all the more1 even in ,his ,manhood1 ,,lord4 ,was it not ,his own prescient choice to be true ,man8 ,and was it not ,his choice with a prescient and infallible regard to the things of others1 to us men and our salvation8 ,then we may be sure that1 whatever is meant by the made ,himself void1 heauton ekenosen1 which describes ,his ,incarnation here1 one thing it could never possibly mean---a ,kenosis which could hurt or distort ,his absolute fitness to guide and bless us whom ,he came to save4 ,that awful and benignant ,exinanition placed ,him indeed on the creaturely level in regard of the reality of human experience of growth1 and human capacity for suffering4 ,but never for one moment did it1 could it1 make ,him other than the absolute and infallible ,master and ,guide of ,his redeemed4 ,we are beset at the present day1 on many sides1 with speculations about the ,kenosis of the ,lord which in some cases anyhow have it for their manifest goal to justify the thought that ,he condescended to be fallible2 that ,he made ,himself void of such knowledge as should protect ,him from mistaken statements about1 for example1 the history1 quality1 and authority of the ,old ,testament ,scriptures4 ,i have said once and again elsewhere#ba that such an application of the made ,himself void1 heauton ekenosen1 of this passage 7from which alone we get the word ,kenosis for the ,incarnation7 is essentially beside the mark4 ,the ,kenosis here is a very definite thing1 as we see when we read the ,greek4 ,it is just this--the taking of ,bondservant's ,form4 ,it is--the becoming the absolute ,human ,bondservant of the ,father4 ,and the ,absolute ,bondservant must exercise a perfect ,bond-service4 ,and this will mean1 amidst all else that it may mean1 a perfect conveyance of the ,supreme ,master's mind in the delivery of ,his message4 ,he whom ,god hath sent1 speaketh the words of ,god4 ,the ,kenosis itself 7as ,st ,paul meant it7 is nothing less than the guarantee of the ,infallibility4 ,it says neither yes nor no to the question1 ,was our ,redeemer1 as ,man1 in the days of ,his flesh1 omniscient8 ,it says a profound and decisive yes to the question1 ,is our ,redeemer1 as ,man1 in the days of ,his flesh1 to be absolutely trusted as the ,truth in every syllable of assertion which ,he was actually pleased to make8 ,he whom ,god hath sent1 speaketh the words of ,god4 ,the dogmatic treasures of this wonderful passage are by no means exhausted1 even when we have drawn from it what it can say to us about the glory of the ,lord ,christ ,jesus4 ,but it is not possible to follow the research further1 here and now2 this imperfect indication of the main teachings about ,him must be enough4 ,but now1 in closing1 let us remember for our blessing how this passage of didactic splendour comes in4 ,it is no lecture in the abstract4 ,as we have seen1 it is not in the least a controversial assertion4 ,it is simply part of an argument to the heart4 ,st ,paul is not here1 as elsewhere in his ,epistles1 combating an error of faith2 he is pleading for a life of love4 ,he has full in view the temptations which threatened to mar the happy harmony of ,christian fellowship at ,philippi4 ,his longing is that they should be of one accord1 of one mind2 and that in order to that blessed end they should each forget himself and remember others4 ,he appeals to them by many motives2 by their common share in ,christ1 and in the ,spirit1 and by the simple plea of their affection for himself4 ,but then--there is one plea more2 it is the mind that was in ,christ ,jesus1 when for us men and for our salvation ,he came down from heaven1 and was made ,man1 and suffered for us4 ,here was at once model and motive for the ,philippian saints2 for ,euodia1 and ,syntyche1 and every individual1 and every group4 ,nothing short of the mind of the ,head must be the mind of the member2 and then the glory of the ,head 7so it is implied7 shall be shed hereafter upon the member too3 ,i will grant to him to sit with ,me in ,my throne1 even as ,i also overcame1 and am set down with ,my ,father in ,his throne4 ,what a comment is this upon that fallacy of religious thought which would dismiss ,christian doctrine to the region of theorists and dreamers1 in favour of ,christian life6 ,christian doctrine1 rightly so called1 is simply the articulate statement1 according to the ,scriptures1 of eternal and vital facts1 that we may live by them4 ,the passage before us is charged to the brim with the doctrine of the ,person and the ,natures of ,christ4 ,and why8 ,it is in order that the ,christian1 tempted to a self-asserting life1 may look upon the things of others1 for the reason that this supreme ,fact1 his ,saviour1 is in fact thus and thus1 and did in fact think and act thus and thus for ,his people4 ,without the facts1 which are the doctrine1 we might have had abundant rhetoric in ,st ,paul's appeal for unselfishness and harmony2 but where would have been the mighty lever for the affections and the will8 ,oh reason of reasons1 argument of arguments--the ,,lord ,,jesus ,,christ6 ,nothing in ,christianity lies really outside ,him4 ,his ,person and ,his ,work embody all its dogmatic teaching4 ,his ,example1 ,his ,love which passeth knowledge1 is the sum and life of all its morality4 ,well has it been said that the whole ,gospel message is conveyed to us sinners in those three words1 ,looking unto ,jesus4 ,is it pardon we need1 is it acceptance1 free as the love of ,god1 holy as ,his law8 ,we find it1 we possess it1 looking unto ,jesus crucified4 ,is it power we need1 victory and triumph over sin1 capacity and willingness to witness and to suffer in a world which loves ,him not at all8 ,we find it1 we possess it1 it possesses us1 as we look unto ,jesus risen and reigning1 for us on the ,throne1 with us in the soul4 ,is it rule and model that we want1 not written on the stones of ,horeb only1 but on the fleshy tables of the heart8 ,we find it1 we receive it1 we yield ourselves up to it1 as we look unto ,jesus in ,his path of love1 from the ,throne to the ,cross1 from the ,cross to the ,throne1 till the ,spirit inscribes that law upon our inmost wills4 ,be ever more and more to us1 ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 in all ,thy answer1 to our boundless needs4 ,let us sink to no second cause4 ,let us come to ,thee4 ,let us yield to ,thee4 ,let us follow ,thee4 ,present ,thyself evermore to us as literally our all in all4 ,and so through a blessed fellowship in ,thy wonderful humiliation we shall partake for ever hereafter in the exaltations of ,thy glory1 which is the glory of immortal love4 #a ,koinunia pneumatos3 participation in the ,spirit2 sharing and sharing alike in the grace and power of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,i venture to render pneumatos as if it were tou ,pneumatos1 having regard to the great parallel passage1 #b ,cor4 xiii4 #ad1 he koinonia tou hagiou ,pneumatos4 ,with a word so great and conspicuous as pneuma it is impossible to decide by the mere absence of the article that the reference is not to the 7personal7 ,spirit4 ,kurios1 ,theos1 ,christos1 are continually given without the article where the reference is definite2 because they are words whose greatness tends of itself to define the reference1 unless context withstands4 ,pneuma in the ,n4 ,t4 is to some extent a parallel case with these4 #b ,ina 4 4 4 phronute3 my ,english is obviously a mere paraphrase here4 ,more exactly we may render1 make full my joy1 so as to be1 etc42 words which come to much the same effect1 but are less true to our common idioms4 #c ,to en phronountes3 a difficult phrase to render quite adequately4 ,we may paraphrase it either as above1 or1 possessed with the idea1 or sentiment1 of unity4 ,but the paraphrase above seems most satisfactory in view of the similar phrase just before1 to auto phronete4 ,this phrase seems to echo that1 only in a stronger and less usual form4 ,the thought thus will be not so much of unity as the object of thought or feeling as of unity as 7so to speak7 the substance or spirit of it4 #d ,kata eritheian3 my long paraphrase attempts to give the suggestion that the eritheia might be either purely individual self-assertion or the animus of a clique4 #e ,hegoumenoi3 the participle practically does the work of an imperative4 ,see ,rom4 xii4 for a striking chain of examples of this powerful and intelligible idiom4 #f ,hekastoi1 not hekastos1 should probably be read in the first clause here1 and certainly in the second4 ,by ,greek idiom1 the plural gives the thought of a collective unity under each4 #g ,the ,greek gives no verb4 ,i have written was1 and is1 in the paraphrase1 because the limitation of the reference of our blessed ,lord's phronema to the pre-incarnate past is not expressed in the ,greek4 #h ,en morphe3 morphe is imperfectly represented by our common use of the word form1 which stands often even in contrast to reality4 ,morphe is reality in manifestation4 #i ,uparchon3 ,r4,v4 margin1 originally being4 ,the word lends itself to such a reference1 but not so invariably as to allow us to press it here4 #aj ,arpagmon3 the word is extremely rare1 found here only in the ,greek ,scriptures1 and once only in secular ,greek4 ,strictly1 by form 7-mon71 it should mean1 a process of plunder rather than an object of plunder 7-ma74 ,but parallel cases forbid us to press this4 ,the ,a4,v4 rendering here suggests the thought that our ,lord thought it no usurpation to be equal with ,god1 and yet made ,himself void1 etc4 ,but surely the thought is rather1 and so made ,himself void4 ,so sure was ,his claim that1 so to speak1 with a sublime un-anxiety1 while with an infinite sacrifice1 ,he made ,himself void4 #aa ,isa ,theo3 the neuter plural calls attention rather to the ,characteristics than to the ,personality4--,through this whole passage we cannot too distinctly remember that it occurs in the ,scriptures1 and in the writings of one who was trained in the strictest school of ,pharisaic ,monotheism4 ,st ,paul was not the man to use such terms of his ,saviour and ,master had he not seen in ,him nothing less than the very ,fellow of ,,jehovah 7,zech4 xiii4 #g74 #ab ,eauton ekeose3 ,heauton is slightly emphatic by position2 ,i attempt to convey this by the words by ,his own act4 #ac ,see further below1 pp4 #ih1 etc4 ,transcriber's note3 page #ih is indicated in this text with #ih4 #ad ,labon3 the aorist participle1 in ,greek idiom1 unites itself closely in thought with the aorist verb ekenose just previous4 ,the resulting idea is not ,he made ,himself void1 and then took1 but ,he made ,himself void by taking4 ,the ,exinanition was1 in fact1 just this--the taking the form of the doulos3 neither less nor more4 #ae ,note again the aorist verb and aorist participle3 etapeinose 4 4 4 genomenos4 #af ,the ,greek1 mechri thanatou1 makes it plain that the ,lord did not obey death but obeyed the ,father so utterly as even to die4 #ag ,cicero1 pro ,rabirio1 c4 #e4 #ah ,bishop ,lightfoot has well vindicated this reference of the onoma here4 ,i venture to refer the reader also to my commentary on ,philippians1 in ,the ,cambridge ,bible for ,schools and ,colleges4 #ai ,not the ,name ,jesus1 but the ,name of1 belonging to1 ,jesus4 ,the grammar admits either rendering1 but the context1 if ,i explain it aright1 is decisive4 ,the ,name is still the ,supreme ,name1 ,,jehovah1 as just above4--,in the ,name should be explained1 in view of the context1 not of worship through but worship yielded to the ,name4 ,see ,lightfoot for examples of this usage4 #bj ,chrysostom brings this great truth nobly out in his homiletic comments here 7,hom4 vii4 on ,philippians1 ch4 #d73 ,a mighty proof it is of the ,father's power1 and goodness1 and wisdom1 that ,he hath begotten such a ,son1 a ,son nowise inferior in goodness and wisdom 4 4 4 like ,him in all things1 ,fatherhood alone excepted4 ,nothing but the orthodox ,creed1 with its harmonious truths of the proper ,godhead and proper ,filiation of the ,lord ,christ1 can possibly satisfy the whole of the apostolic language about ,his infinite glory on the one hand and ,his relation to the ,father on the other4 #ba ,in my ,veni ,creator and ,to my ,younger ,brethren1 and more recently in a ,university ,sermon quoted at the close of a little book published ,easter1 #ahif1 by ,seeley3 ,prayers and ,promises4 ,make my life a bright outshining ,of ,thy life1 that all may see ,thine own resurrection power ,mightily shewn forth in me2 ,ever let my heart become ,yet more consciously ,thy home4 ,,miss ,j4 ,s4 ,,pigott4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,power ,,in ,,the ,,disciple',s ,,life ,o ,jesus ,christ1 grow ,thou in me1 ,and all things else recede2 ,my heart be daily nearer ,thee1 ,from sin be daily freed4 ,more of ,thy glory let me see1 ,thou ,holy1 ,wise1 and ,true2 ,i would ,thy living image be ,in joy and sorrow too4 ,h4 ,b4 ,,smith1 from the ,german of ,c4 ,,lavater4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,lord',s ,,power ,,in ,,the ,,disciple',s ,,life ,,philippians ii4 #ab-ah ,your own salvation--,stars in the midnight sky--,truth and holiness--,the atonement and the indwelling--,mystery and need of the indwelling--,indifference in ,god--,spiritual power shewn in love--,aggression and witness--,the witnesses and the martyr ,we have just followed the ,apostle as he has followed the ,saviour of sinners from the ,throne to the ,cross1 and from the ,cross to the ,throne4 ,and we have remembered the moral motive of that wonderful paragraph of spiritual revelation4 ,it was written not to occupy the mind merely1 or to elevate it1 but to bring the believer's heart into a delightful subjection to ,him who pleased not ,himself1 till the ,lord should be reflected in the self-forgetting life of ,his follower4 ,in the passage now opening before us we find ,st ,paul's thought still working in continuity with this argument4 ,he has still in his heart the risks of friction at ,philippi1 and the need of meeting them in the power of the ,lord's example4 ,this will come out particularly in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses1 where he deprecates murmurings and disputings1 and pleads for a life of pure1 sweet light and love4 ,but the line of appeal1 though continuous1 is now somewhat altered in its direction4 ,the divine greatness of the love of the ,incarnation has1 during his treatment of it1 filled him with an intense and profound recollection of the greatness of the ,christian's connexion with his ,god1 and of the sacred awfulness of his responsibility1 and of the fulness of his resources4 ,so the appeal now is not merely to be like-minded1 and to be watchful for unity4 ,he asks them now to use fully for a life of holiness the mighty fact of their possession of an ,indwelling ,god in ,christ4 ,the details of precept are as it were absorbed for the time into the glorious power and principle--only to reappear the more largely and lastingly in the resulting life4 ,ver4 #ab4 ,so1 my beloved ones1 7he often introduces his most practical appeals with this term of affection3 see for example #a ,cor4 x4 #ad1 xv4 #eh2 #b ,cor4 vii4 #a17 just as you always obeyed#a me1 obey me now4 ,not 7me1 the imperative negative7 as in my presence only1 influenced by that immediate contact and intercourse1 but now much more in my absence1 7much more1 as my absence throws you more directly on your resources in the ,lord17 work out1 develope1 your own salvation1 your own spiritual safety1 health1 and joy1 with fear and trembling2 not with the tortures of misgiving1 not driven by a shrinking dread of your gracious ,god1 but drawn by a tender reverence and solemn watchfulness1 lest you should grieve the eternal ,love4 ,yes1 work out your own salvation2 do not depend upon me2 take your own souls in hand1 in a faith and love which look1 without the least earthly intermediation1 straight to ,,god and to ,him alone4#b ,for indeed ,he is near to you2 far nearer than ever a ,paul could be2 a very present help1 for ,ver4 #ac4 your safety1 and for your holiness4 ,for ,god it is who is effecting 7energos7 in you1 in your very being1 in the first springs of thought and will1 both your 7to7 willing and your effecting1 your carrying out the willing1 for ,his 7tes7 good pleasure's sake2 in order to the accomplishment through you of all ,his holy purposes4 ,here1 in this wonderful immanence1 this divine indwelling1 and in its living1 operative power1 you will find reason enough alike for the fear and trembling of deepest reverence1 and for the calm resourceful confidence of those who can1 if need be1 walk alone1 as regards dependence upon even an apostolic friend beside them4 ,live then as those who carry about with them the very life and power of ,god in ,christ4 ,and what will that life be8 ,a life of spiritual ostentation8 ,nay1 the beautiful and ,ver4 #ad4 gentle opposite to it4 ,do all things without1 apart from 7choris71 in a definite isolation from1 murmurings and disputes1 thoughts and utterances of discontent and self-assertion towards one another1 grudgings of others' claims1 and contentions for your ,ver4 #ae4 own2 so that you may become 7genesthe71 what in full realization you scarcely yet are1 unblamable and simple 7akeraioi1 unadulterated71 single-hearted1 because self-forgetting2 ,god's children 7tekna71 shewing what they are by the unmistakable family-likeness of holy love2 blameless as such1 true to your character2 in the midst of a race 7geneas7 crooked and distorted1 the members of a world whose will always crosses the will of ,god who is ,love2 among whom you are appearing1 like stars which come out in the gloom1 as luminaries 7phosteres71 light-bearers1 kindled by the ,lord of ,light1 in the world2 in which you dwell2 not of it1 but in it1 walking up and down before the sons of men 7,ps4 xxxi4 #ai71 that they may see1 and seek1 ,ver4 #af4 your blessed ,secret2 holding out 7epechontes#c71 as those who offer a boon for acceptance1 the word of life1 the ,gospel1 with its secret of eternal life in ,christ2 at once telling and commending ,his message2 to afford me1 even me 7emoi71 exultation1 in view of 7eis7 ,christ's ,day1 in anticipation of what ,i shall feel then2 because not in vain did ,i run1 nor in vain did ,i toil4#d ,but let me not speak of toil as if ,i sighed over a hard lot1 or wished to suffer less on your behalf4 ,ver4 #ag4 ,nay1 even if ,i am being poured out as a drink-offering 7spendomai7 on the sacrifice and ritual 7leitourgia7 of your faith--on you1 so to speak1 as you in faith offer yourselves a living sacrifice to ,god#e--;,i rejoice1 and ,i congratulate 7sugchairo7 you all1 on your faith and holiness1 for which it was well worth my while to die as your helper and example4 ,and in ,ver4 #ah4 the same way 7to de auto7 do you too rejoice1 and congratulate me1#f as true partners with me in the martyr-spirit and its joys4 ,here let us pause in our paraphrasing version1 and sit down as it were to gather up and weigh some of the treasures we have found4 i4 ,we have had before us1 in the whole passage1 that ever-recurring lesson1 ,holiness in the ,truth1 as ,truth--the ,truth as it is in ,jesus--is the living secret of ,holiness4 ,we have still in our ears the celestial music1 infinitely sweet and full1 of the great paragraph of the ,incarnation1 the journey of the ,lord of ,love from glory to glory by the way of the awful ,cross4 ,may we not now give ourselves awhile wholly to reverie1 and feast upon the divine poetry at our leisure8 ,not so2 the immediate sequel is--that we are to be holy4 ,we are to act in the light and wonder of so vast an act of love1 in the wealth and resource of so great salvation4 ,we are to set spiritually to work4 ,we are to learn that all-important lesson in religion1 the holy and humble energy and independence which come to the man who knows whom he has believed1 and is aware that he possesses all spiritual blessing 7,eph4 i4 #c7 in ,him4 ,we are to rise up and1 if need be1 walk alone1 alone of human help1 in the certainty that ,christ has died for us1 and reigns for us1 and in us4 ,our ,paul may be far away in some distant ,rome1 and we may sorely miss him4 ,but we have at hand ,jesus ,christ1 who took ,bondservant's ,form1 and obeyed even unto death for us1 and who is on the eternal throne for us1 and who lives within us by ,his ,spirit4 ,looking upon ,him in the glory of ,his ,person and ,his ,work1 we are not only to wonder1 not only even to worship2 we are to work2 to work out our spiritual blessings#g into a life which shall be full of ,him1 and in which we shall indeed be saved ourselves1 and help others around us to their salvation4 ,in the fear and trembling of those who feel the blissful awfulness of an eternal ,presence1 we are to set ourselves1 with the inexhaustible diligence of hope1 to the business of the spiritual life4 ,we are to bring all the treasures of a manifested and possessed ,redeemer to bear upon the passing hour1 and to let ,him be seen in us1 ,christ our ,life1 always formative and empowering4 ii4 ,we have here in particular that deep secret of the ,gospel1 unspeakably precious to the soul which indeed longs to be holy--the ,indwelling of ,god in the believer4 ,it here appears in close and significant connexion with the revelation of the love and work of the ,incarnate and ,atoning ,lord2 as if to remind us without more words that ,he who gave ,himself for us did so not only to release us 7blessed be ,his ,name7 from an infinite peril1 from the eternal prison and death of a violated law1 but yet more that ,he might bring ,his rescued ones into an unspeakable nearness in ,him to ,god4 ,his was no mere compassion1 which could set a guilty captive free4 ,it was eternal love1 which could not be content without nearness to its object1 without union with it1 without a dwelling in the very heart by faith4 ,as if it was a matter of course in the plan of ,god1 ,st ,paul passes from the ,cross and the ,glory of ,jesus to the ,indwelling of ,god in the ,christian1 and to all the rest and all the power which that ,indwelling is to bring4 ,it is ,god who is working in you1 effecting alike your willing and your working2 for the sake of ,his good pleasure4 ,these are words of deep mystery4 ,they contain matter which has exercised the closest thought of some of the greatest thinkers of the ,church4 ,operatur in nobis velle2 ,he worketh in us to will4 ,how is this to be reconciled with the reality1 and in that sense the freedom1 of the human will8 ,what relation does it bear to human responsibility1 and to the call to watch1 and pray1 and labour8 ,very soon1 over such questions1 we have1 in the phrase of the ,rabbis1 to teach our tongue to say1 ,i do not know4 ,but the words appear in this context with a purpose perfectly simple and practical1 whatever be their more remote and hidden indications4 ,they do indeed intimate to us a reality and energy in the divine sovereignty which may well correct those dreams of self-salvation which man is so ready to dream4 ,but their more immediate purpose is as simple as it is profound4 ,it is on the one hand to solemnize the disciple with the remembrance of such an inward ,presence1 and on the other hand to make him always glad and ready1 recollecting that such an inward ,power is there1 altogether for his highest good1 and altogether in the line of the eternal purpose 7eudokia74 ,for the while at least let us drop out of sight all hard questions of theoretical adjustment between the finite will and the ,infinite1 and rest quite simply in that thought3--,god is in me1 working the willing and the doing4 ,the willing is genuine1 and is mine4 ,the working is genuine1 and is mine4 ,my will chooses ,him1 and my activity labours for ,him2 both are real1 and are personally mine4 ,but ,he is at the back2 ,he is at the pulse of the machine2 ,i1 ,his personal creature1 am held in no less a hold than ,his1 to be moulded and to be employed2 ,his implement1 ,his limb4 ,not very long ago ,i was in conversation with a young but deeply thoughtful ,christian1 who1 placed on a difficult social height1 was seeking with deep desire not only to follow the ,lamb whithersoever ,he goeth but to lead others similarly circumstanced to do the same4 ,i was struck with the strong consciousness which possessed that heart1 that the religious life must inevitably be a weary and exhausting effort on any other condition than this--,god working in us1 to will and to do4 ,ah1 they all say that it is so hard2 no one can really do it2 no one can keep it up4 ,but we must speak to them about the indwelling ,spirit of ,god1 about the ,lord's power in us2 then they will find that it is possible1 and is happy4 ,choris emou--isolated from ,me 7,john xv4 #e7--ye can do nothing2 and what seems our doing will1 in such isolation1 be only too sorely felt to be a weary toil4 ,but let us accept it as true1 at the foot of the atoning ,cross1 that the ,indwelling of ,god in ,christ is as much a fact as our pardon and adoption in ,him1 and we shall know something of the blessed life4 ,only1 we must not only accept it as true1 but use it4 ,work out--for it is ,god who is working in you4 ,and1 let us remember it once more1 we shall learn in that quiet ,school not only a restful energy but also that holy independence 7ten heauton soterian7 which is1 in its place1 the priceless gain of the ,christian4 ,our spiritual life is indeed intended to be social in its issues--but not at its root4 ,we accept and thankfully use every assistance given us by our ,lord's care1 as we live our life in ,his ,church2 yet our life1 as to its source1 is to be still hidden with ,christ in ,god4 ,we are to be so related to ,him1 in faith1 that our soul's health1 growth1 gladness1 shall depend not on the presence of even a ,st ,paul at our side1 but on the presence of ,god in our hearts4 ,let us cherish this blessed certainty1 and develope it into experience1 in these strange days of unrest and drift4 ,that secret independence will do anything but isolate us from our fellows4 ,it will make us fit1 as nothing else could make us1 to be their strength and light1 in truest sympathy1 in kindest insight1 in the fullest sense of loving partnership4 ,but we must learn independence in ,god if we would be fully serviceable to man4 iii4 ,we have in this passage one of the richest and most beautiful expressions found in the whole ,new ,testament of that great principle1 that at the very heart of a true life of holiness there needs to lie the law of holy kindness4 ,the connexion of thought between ver4 #ac and ver4 #ad is deeply suggestive here4 ,in ver4 #ac we have the power and wonder of the operative ,indwelling of ,god4 ,in ver4 #ad we have depicted the true conduct of the subjects of the ,indwelling2 and it shines with the sweet light of humility and gentleness4 ,it is a life whose hidden power1 which is nothing less than divine1 comes out first and most in the absence of the grudging1 self-asserting spirit2 in a watchful consistency and simplicity2 in the manifestation of the child-character1 as the believer moves about in the midst of the hard and most unchildlike conditions of an unregenerate world4 ,there is to be action as well as patience2 this we shall see presently4 ,the disciple is to be aggressive1 in the right way1 as well as submissive4 ,but the first and deepest characteristic of his wonderful new life is to be the submission of himself to others1 in the ,lord1 and in the power of ,his might4 ,we have this aspect of practical holiness presented to us often in the general teaching of the ,new ,testament2 but seldom is it so explicitly connected as it is here with that other spiritual fact1 the presence in us of the divine power4 ,perhaps our best parallels come from the two other ,epistles of the ,roman ,captivity1 ,ephesians and ,colossians4 ,in ,ephesians1 the third chapter closes with the astonishing prayer that the ,christian 7the everyday ,christian1 be it remembered7 may be1 through the ,indwelling of ,christ1 filled unto all the fulness of ,god2 and then the fourth chapter begins at once with the appeal to him to live therefore a life of all lowliness1 meekness1 longsuffering1 and forbearance in love4 ,in ,colossians we have the same sequence of thought in one noble sentence 7ver4 #aa7 of the first chapter3 ,strengthened with all strength1 according to the might of ,his glory1 unto all patience and longsuffering1 with joy4#h ,in all three passages comes out the same deep and beautiful suggestion4 ,the ,lord is not in the wind so much as in the still small voice4 ,omnipotent ,love1 in its blessed immanence in the believer's soul1 shews its presence and power most of all in a life of love around4 ,it is to come out not only in self-sacrificing energy but in the open sympathies of an affectionate heart1 in the soft answer1 in the generous first thought for the interests of others--in short1 in the whole character of #a ,cor4 xiii4 ,the spiritual power which runs rather in the direction of harshness and isolation1 which expends itself rather in censures than in longsuffering1 gentleness1 goodness1 and meekness1 is not the kind of power which most accords with the apostolic idea4 ,nothing which violates the plain precepts of the law of love can take a true part in that heavenly harmony4 ,on earth1 as in the holy place1 ,nothing is great but charity4 #i iv4 ,meanwhile the charity of the saints is not by any means the mere amiability which makes itself pleasant to every one1 and forgets the solemn fact that we who believe are the servants of a ,master whom the world knows not1 the messengers of a ,king against whom it is in revolt4 ,the ,philippian disciple was to renounce the spirit of unkindness1 of self2 he was to live isolated from 7choris7 murmurings and disputings4 ,but he was not to hide the sacred ,light1 for the sake of so-called peace1 from the world around4 ,he was to hold out the word of life2 confessing his blessed ,lord as the life of his own soul1 and so commending ,him to the souls of his fellows4 ,he was to make this a part of his very existence and its activities4 ,as truly as it was to be his habit to live a life of sweet and winning consistency1 it was to be his habit to offer 7epechein7 the water of life to the parched hearts around him1 the lamp of glory to the dark and bewildered whom he encountered upon the difficult road4 ,the truth and beauty of a life possessed by ,christ was to be the basis of his witnessing activities4 ,but the witness was to be articulate1 not merely implied2 he was to hold out the word 7logon7 of life2 he was to seize occasion to give a reason 7logon7 of the hope that was in him1 with meekness and fear 7#a ,pet4 iii4 #ae74 ,to be1 in his way1 an evangelist was to be one main function of his life4 ,in benignant and gracious conduct he was to be as a luminary 7phoster71 moving calm and bright in the dark hemisphere of the world4 ,but he was to be a voice as well as a star4 ,he was not only to shine2 he was to speak4 ,here is one of the passages1 by the way1 in which the ,apostle assumes1 and stimulates1 the missionary consciousness of the converts4 ,it is remarkable that neither he nor his brethren have much to say in the ,epistles about the duty of enterprises of evangelization1 as laid upon all believers4 ,the stress of their appeals is directed above all things on the supreme importance of holiness1 at any cost1 in common life4 ,but a passage like this shews us how entirely they take it for granted all the time that the ,churches would never concentrate themselves upon merely their own ,christian life2 they would go out continually1 with the beauty of holiness and with the word of life1 to bring the wanderers in1 and to extend the knowledge of the blessed ,name4 ,so1 and so only1 would their ,apostle feel1 in his prison at ,rome1 that his running 7edramon7 on the great circuit of his evangelistic journeys1 and his pastoral toil 7ekopiasa7 for the souls of his converts1 had not been thrown into the void 7eis to kenon74 ,so1 and so only1 would his life and death of sacrifice for them be crowned with its perfect joy4 ,let him see his beloved converts living and speaking as indeed the ,lord's witnesses1 and then with what inward gladness 7chairein71 with what a call for congratulation 7sugchairein7 on their part1 would he go out to death as the ,lord's martyr6 #a ,upekousate3 the aorist4 ,it gathers into one thought the whole recollection of his work at ,philippi4 #b ,there is not the slightest contradiction here to the profound truth of the ,justification by ,faith only2 that is to say1 only for the merit's sake of the ,redeemer1 appropriated by submissive trust2 that justification whose sure issue is glorification 7,rom4 viii4 #cj74 ,it is an instance of independent lines converging on one goal4 ,from one point of view1 that of justifying merit1 man is glorified because of ,christ's work alone1 applied to his case through faith alone4 ,from another point1 that of qualifying capacity1 and of preparation for the ,lord's individual welcome 7,matt4 xxv4 #ba2 ,rom4 ii4 #g71 man is glorified as the issue of a process of work and training1 in which in a true sense he is himself operant1 though grace lies below the whole operation4 7,note on this verse in ,the ,cambridge ,bible for ,schools and ,colleges74 #c ,it is possible to render logon xoee epechontes1 serving as life 7to the world74 ,but it is unlikely4 ,see ,philippians in ,the ,cambridge ,greek ,testament1 ,appendix4 #d ,the aorists obviously are anticipatory2 giving the review of the past as he will then make it4 ,cp4 e4g4 kathos epegnosthen1 #a ,cor4 xiii4 #ab4 #e ,he views the ,philippians1 in their character of consecrated believers 7cp4 ,rom4 xii4 #a71 as a holocaust to ,god2 and upon that sacrifice the drink-offering1 the outpoured wine1 is his own life-blood1 his martyrdom for the ,gospel which he has preached to them4 ,cp4 ,num4 xv4 #e for the ,mosaic libation1 oinon eis sponden 4 4 4 poisete epi tes holokautoseos4 ,lightfoot thinks that a reference to pagan libations is more likely in a letter to a ,gentile mission4 ,but surely ,st ,paul familiarized all his converts with ,old ,testament symbolism4 ,and his own mind was of course full of it 7,note here in ,the ,cambridge ,greek ,testament for ,schools74--,this and ,rom4 xv4 #af are the only two passages where ,st ,paul connects the language of sacerdotalism with the distinctive work of the ,christian ministry2 and both passages speak obviously in the tone of figure and1 so to say1 poetry4 #f ,chairete3 sugchairete4 ,the form leaves us free to render either indicative or imperative4 ,but the latter is most likely in the context4 #g ,soteria must here include not only final glory but the whole blessing possessed now and always in the ,soter4 #h ,observe the holy paradox of the thought here4 ,the fulness of divine power in the saints is to result primarily not in 'doing some great thing' but in enduring and forbearing1 with heavenly joy of heart4 ,the paradox points to one deep characteristic of the ,gospel1 which prepares the ,christian for service by the way of a true abnegation of himself as his own strength and his own aim4 7,note on ,col4 i4 #aa in ,the ,cambridge ,bible74 #i ,a4 ,vinet1 ,hymn on the ,crucifixion1 translated by ,c4 ,w4 ,moule4 ,o thou who makest souls to shine ,with light from brighter worlds above1 ,and droppest glistening dew divine ,on all who seek a ,saviour's love1 ,do ,thou ,thy benediction give ,on all who teach1 on all who learn1 ,that all ,thy ,church may holier live1 ,and every lamp more brightly burn4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if thus1 good ,lord1 ,thy grace be giv'n ,our glory meets us ere we die2 ,before we upward pass to heav'n ,we taste our immortality4 ,j4 ,,armstrong4 ,,timotheus ,,and ,,epaphroditus ,puisse la meme foi qui consola leur vie ,nous ouvrir les sentiers que leurs pas ont presses1 ,et1 dirigeant nos pieds vers la sainte patrie ,ou leur bonheur s'accroit de leurs travaux passes1 ,nous rendre ces objets de tendresse et d'envie ,qui ne sont pas perdus1 mais nous ont devances4 ,a4 ,,vinet ,,chapter ,,vii ,,timotheus ,,and ,,epaphroditus ,,philippians ii4 #ai-cj ,epaphroditus--,the variety of ,scripture--,contrasts in context--,henry ,martyn's letter--,the human element--,his letters ,i have read--,the two aspects of ,scripture--,divine messages in human context--,together with them ,ver4 #ai4 ,but ,i hope in the ,lord ,jesus1 with an expectation conditioned by my union with ,him in all things1 and with you in ,him1 promptly to send to you ,timotheus1#a that ,i too1 ,i as well as you1 who will of course be gladdened by his presence1 may be of good cheer1 getting1 through him1 a knowledge 7gnous7 of your circumstances 7ta peri humon74 ,i send him1 and not ,ver4 #bj4 another1 for ,i have--at hand1 and free to move--no one equal-souled with him1#b one who 7hootis7 will genuinely take anxious care about your circumstances2 the care which is not a weary burthen1 better cast upon the ,lord 7iv4 #f71 but a sacred charge1 undertaken in and for ,him1 and absorbing all the ,ver4 #ba4 thought4 ,for all of them 7oi pantes71 all from whom ,i could in this case select1 are bent on 7xetousi3 cp4 ,col4 iii4 #a7 their own interests1 not the interests of ,jesus ,christ2 they plead excuses which indicate a preference of their own ease1 or reputation1 or affections1 to a matter manifestly and wholly ,,his4 ,ver4 #bb4 ,but the test through which he1 ,timotheus1 passed 7ten dokimen autou7 you remember 7ginoskete1 you recognize1 as you look back72 you know that as child with father so he with me1 in closest companionship and sympathy1 did bondservice#c for the ,gospel1 eis to euaggelion1 unto it1 for the furtherance ,ver4 #bc4 of its enterprise and message4 ,so him then 7touton men oun#d7 ,i hope to send1 immediately upon 7hos an 4 4 4 exautes7 my getting a view of 7apido7 my circumstances1 my position with regard to my trial ,ver4 #bd4 and its result4 ,but 7though ,i thus allude to external uncertainties7 ,i feel sure1 in the ,lord1 in the light of union and communion with ,him1 that ,i too in person shall speedily arrive1 in the track of this my messenger and forerunner4 ,ver4 #be4 ,but ,i count#e it obligatory 7anagkaion71 and not merely a matter for hopes and personal satisfaction1 to send to you1 as ,i now do1 in charge of this ,letter1 another person1 ,epaphroditus1 my brother1 fellow-worker1 and fellow-soldier1 a man who has toiled and contended at my very side for the ,lord and against the ,enemy1 while he is also your missionary and ministrant#f for my need4 ,yes1 ,i feel that ,i ought ,ver4 #bf4 to send him1 and to send him now2 since he has been suffering from home-sickness for#g all of you1 7all1 without exception2 his affection knows no party or partiality17 and from the distraction 7ademonon7 of over-wrought feeling1 because you have heard that he ,ver4 #bg4 fell ill#h 7esthenese74 ,and so it was2 for he did fall ill1 almost fatally 7paraplesion thanato74 ,but our 7ho7 ,god pitied him1 sparing him the grief of broken hopes and purposes in the ,lord's work on earth1 and the grief of being a cause of tears to you2 and not only him but also me1 that ,i might not have#i sorrow upon sorrow4 ,for had he died1 ,i should have had a sore bereavement1 and the sad consciousness that you1 in a loving effort for my benefit1 had lost a beloved friend2 and all this added to1 heaped upon 7epi c4 acc471 the antecedent pain of my captivity and the trials which it involves4 ,ver4 #bh4 ,with the more earnestness therefore ,i have sent him1#aj that seeing him you may be glad again1 and that ,i may feel less sorrow1 finding my imprisonment1 and also my loss of this dear friend's company1 softened to my heart by the thought of your joy in ,ver4 #bi4 welcoming him back4 ,receive him therefore in the ,lord1 in all the union and sympathy due to your common share in ,him1 with all gladness1 and ,ver4 #cj4 hold in high value such men as he is2 because on account of ,christ's work he was at death's very door1#aa playing as it were the gambler with his life1#ab that he might 7lit41 may7 supply your lack1 do the service which you could not do1 and so complete your loving purposes1 in regard of the ministration you designed for me4 ,our present section illustrates well the inexhaustible variety of ,scripture4 ,that pregnant ,christian thinker1 the late ,dr ,john ,ker1 has some good sentences on this subject3 ,what varieties are in the ,bible1 side by side6 ,the ,book of ,ruth1 with its pastoral quiet after the wars of the ,judges1 like an innocent child which has crept between the ranks of hostile armies2 the intense devotion of the ,psalms after the speculative discussions of ,job1 and before the practical wisdom of ,proverbs2 the gloom of ,ecclesiastes1 and then the sweetness of the ,song of ,solomon1 as sharply divided as the eastern morning which leaps from the night1 or1 as an old ,greek might have said1 silver-footed ,thetis rising from the bed of old ,tithonus2 ,isaiah's majestic sweep of eagle pinion1 with ,jeremiah's dovelike plaint2 the cloudlike obscurities of ,ezekiel1 to be solved1 as one might expect1 by piercing light from the sky2 and the perplexities of ,daniel1 to be opened by the movements of the nations4#ac ,what a variety lies before us here6 ,into the heaven of heavens we have presumed1 ,and drawn empyreal air2 while the ,apostle has told us 7only fourteen verses above7 how ,christ ,jesus1 in the glory of the ,throne1 in the ,form of ,god1 cared for us men and for our salvation1 and made ,himself void1 and took the creature-nature1 and died2 and how ,he is now on the ,throne again in ,his ,incarnation1 to receive supreme and universal worship4 ,and then again we came back to earth1 yet so as to be led into the deep secrets of the ,lord in the inner life of ,his saints below2 ,god is working in you1 to will and to do1 for ,his good pleasure's sake4 ,and then we have seen this inner life expanding and shewing itself in the holy life without1 which shines as a star in the dark1 and speaks like a voice from the unseen4 ,and then again we have watched the ,apostle's martyr-joy as he thinks of dying for his ,philippians1 if need be4 ,close upon all these heights and depths now comes in this totally different passage about ,timotheus and ,epaphroditus1 with its quiet1 practical allusions to individual character1 and to particular circumstances1 and to personal hopes and duties2 its words of sympathy and sorrow2 the dear friend's agitated state of mind2 his recent almost fatal illness2 the mercy of his recovery2 the pleasurable thought of his restoration to the loving circles at ,philippi4 ,nothing could be more completely different than this from the grand dogmatic passage traversed a little while before1 nor again from the passages to follow in the next chapter1 where the believer's inmost secrets of acceptance and of life are in view1 and his foresight of glory4 ,we are placed here not in the upper heaven1 nor before the judgment-throne1 nor in the light of the resurrection-morning4 ,we are just in the hired rooms at ,rome1 and we see the ,missionary seated there1 studying the characters of two of his brethren1 and weighing the reasons for asking them1 at once or soon1 to arrange for a certain journey4 ,he reviews the case1 and then he puts down1 through his amanuensis1 for the information of the ,philippians1 what he thinks of these two men1 and what he has planned about them4 ,all is perfectly human1 viewed from one side4 ,i or my reader may at any time1 in the course of life and duty1 be called upon to write about ,christian friends and fellow-workers of our own in a tone neither less nor more human and practical than that of this section4 ,in any collection of modern ,christian letters we may find the like4 ,i open at this moment the precious volume of ,henry ,martyn's correspondence1 published 7#ahdd7 as a companion to the ,memoir4 ,there ,i read as follows1 in a letter to ,daniel ,corrie1 dated ,shiraz1 ,december #ab1 #ahaa3 ,your accounts of the progress of the kingdom of ,god among you are truly refreshing4 ,tell dear ,h4 and the men of both regiments that ,i salute them much in the ,lord1 and make mention of them in my prayers4 ,may ,i continue to hear thus of their state2 and if ,i am spared to see them again1 may we make it evident that we have grown in grace4 ,affectionate remembrances to your sister and to ,s4 ,i hope they continue to prosecute their labours of love4 ,remember me to the people of ,cawnpore who enquire4 ,why have ,i not mentioned ,colonel ,p48 ,it is not because he is not in my heart1 for there is hardly a man in the world whom ,i love and honour more4 ,my most ,christian salutations to him4 ,may the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with your spirit1 dearest brother4 ,yours affectionately1 ,h4 ,,martyn4 ,what is the difference in quality and character between this extract and our present section of ,philippians1 or between it and many another passage in the ,pauline ,epistles8 ,from one point of view1 ,i repeat it1 none--none that we either can1 or should care to1 affirm4 ,of the letters compared1 one is as purely human as the other1 in the simplicity of its topics1 in its local and personal scope1 in its natural and individual manner4 ,i would add that1 so far as we can tell1 the one was written under just as much or little consciousness of a supernatural prompting as the other4 ,i feel sure that when ,st ,paul wrote thus 7whatever might be his sense of an afflatus at other times1 when he wrote1 or spoke1 or thought1 abnormally7 he felt exactly as we feel when writing a quiet letter2 he was thinking1 arranging topics1 choosing words1 considering the needs of correspondents1 just as simply as we might do4 ,and all this is an element inestimably precious in the structure and texture of the ,bible4 ,it is that side or aspect of the ,bible which1 at least to innumerable minds1 brings the whole ,book1 in a sense so genuine1 home2 making it felt in the human heart as a friend truly conversant with our nature and our life4 ,thy testimonies1 writes the ,bible-loving ,psalmist 7,ps4 cxix4 #bd71 are the men of my counsel1 an'shey 'atsathi2 a pregnant phrase1 which puts vividly before us the human element of the blessed ,word1 its varieties and individualities1 its living voice1 or rather voices1 and the sympathetic confidence which it invites as it draws close to us to advise and guide4 ,how perfectly in contrast are the ,bible on the one side1 with this humanity and companionship1 and such a sacred book as the ,koran on the other1 with its monotonous oracles6 ,strange1 that the man-made sacred book should be so little humane and the ,god-made ,book so deeply and beautifully so6 ,yet not strange1 after all4 ,for ,god knows man better than man knows himself2 and when ,he prepares a ,book of books for man1 we may expect it to correspond to the deep insight of ,him who is ,maker of both the volume and the reader4 ,for now on the other part we have to remember that this ,book1 so naturally and humanly written1 as to a very large proportion of its contents1 is yet ,god-made all through4 ,it is1 in a sense quite peculiar to itself1 divine4 ,i quoted a passage from a letter of ,henry ,martyn's just now1 on purpose to place it beside this letter of ,st ,paul's1 with a view to shewing the likeness of the two4 ,but are they like in all respects8 ,no2 they present a radical difference from another side4 ,it is just this1 that the biblical letter is not only human as to its type and utterance2 as to its message1 it is authoritative1 it is from ,god4 ,henry ,martyn writes as a ,christian man1 and it helps us spiritually to be in contact with his affectionate and holy thoughts4 ,paul writes as a ,christian man1 but also as a chosen vessel to bear the ,name of his ,lord2 as the messenger of the mind of ,christ2 as he who received his ,gospel not of man1 nor by man1 but by the revelation of ,jesus ,christ 7,gal4 i4 #ab74 ,from his own days to these he has been known in the ,church of ,god as the divinely commissioned prophet and teacher4 ,clement of ,rome in the first century refers to him as having written to ,corinth by divine inspiration4#ad ,simon ,peter1 earlier than ,clement1 refers to ,paul 7#b ,pet4 iii4 #af7 as the writer of ,scriptures1 graphai3 that solemn word1 restricted in the language of ,christianity to the oracles of ,god4 ,the simplest and seemingly most naturalistic passage occurring in a ,pauline letter is a ,scripture2 and as such it speaks to me only not like the utterances of a ,martyn but with the voice of the ,lord of the ,gospel4 ,paul1 ,paul--his letters ,i have read1 but not always ,i agree with him6 ,so1 according to the story1 said a ,german literary visitor in an ,oxford common-room1 fifty years ago2 the words shocked the ,anglican company4 ,very many people think with the ,german now1 whether or no they have really read ,paul's letters4 ,but their thought is not that of the ,church of ,god2 and the soul that will indeed make experiment of what ,paul's letters can be when they are read as divine1 and before ,god1 will surely find itself in harmony in this matter with the ,church4 ,it will be little disposed to take up the cry 7true enough in itself71 ,back to ,christ1 in that false sense which discredits the servant's words as if the ,master was not committed to them4 ,if they have kept ,my saying1 they will keep yours also4 ,in a passage like the present therefore we feel the two elements or aspects1 the human and the divine1 each real and powerful1 and both working in perfect harmony4 ,the human is there1 not in the least as a necessary element of error2 rather as an element of delicate and beautiful truth1 the truth of justest thought and feeling4 ,the divine is there1 as the message from ,christ ,himself through ,his servant2 sacred1 authoritative1 binding on belief1 giving solid ground for the soul's repose4 ,we study here ,st ,paul's watchful and unselfish remembrance of the ,philippians1 in the case of ,timothy and his mission1 and still more in that of ,epaphroditus4 ,we recognize of course the actings of a noble human heart1 and we are right to do so4 ,but we find more than this2 we see ,,jesus ,,christ informing us1 in the concrete example of ,his servant1 exactly how it behoves us1 as ,his servants1 to feel and act under our responsibilities4 ,st ,paul's thought and action is written for our learning4 ,true1 the learning comes not as a mere code1 or lecture4 ,it takes the form of a living experience1 recorded1 in the course of correspondence1 by the man who is going through it4 ,but the man is a vehicle of revelation4 ,he writes about himself2 but his ,master is behind him1 and is taking care that his whole thought shall be the well-adjusted conveyance of a thought greater than his own4 ,as we come to the incidental details of the passage1 we find the same double aspect of ,scripture everywhere4 ,st ,paul speaks about people who are seeking their own interests1 and not the interests of ,jesus ,christ 7ver4 #ba74 ,he says this quite naturally1 and with a reference quite local and in detail4 ,but on the other side the words are an oracle2 they convey the message of the ,master of ,his people2 they implicitly claim on ,his part that we shall seek not our own interests1 but ,his4 ,again1 quite in passing1 the ,apostle speaks of this or that hope or trust as being formed in the ,lord4 ,he does so with no conscious dogmatic purpose1 surely2 it is because it comes as naturally to him to do it as for an ordinary correspondent to say that he hopes to do this or that if all goes well4 ,but in the epistolary ,scripture these brief phrases have another side2 they are authority and oracle2 they convey the mind of ,christ about our right relations with ,him2 they tell us1 from ,him1 that it is ,his will that we too1 as ,his1 should form our hopes and plans in ,him1 in conscious recollection of our being ,his members4 ,st ,paul speaks again of his human sensibilities4 ,he tells us of his sorrows1 and his longings for encouragement1 and his thankfulness that an aggravation of trial1 sorrow upon sorrow1 has been spared him4 ,he speaks of ,epaphroditus1 and of his generous carelessness of his own health and life1 and of the illness he had contracted1 and of his merciful recovery1 and of his home-sick longing for ,philippi1 and of his bewilderment of regret as he thinks of the ,philippians' anxiety about him4 ,all this is quite as naturally and humanly conceived and written on ,st ,paul's part as anything that ,i or my reader ever wrote about joys and griefs1 our own or of our friends4 ,but not one whit the less is this all a message1 an oracle1 from our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 in a sense in which no letter of ours could possibly be such4 ,for it is a ,scripture4 ,and so it tells me from above that the free and loving exercise of human sympathies is entirely according to the will of ,god2 that human tears and longings are in perfect harmony with holiness4 ,it assures me that from one point of view it is right to speak of the prolongation of the believer's life as a mercy1 even though to depart is to be with ,christ1 which is far better4 ,it assures me1 let me notice by the way1 that bodily sickness is not by any means necessarily a direct result or index of sinfulness in the sufferer4 ,there are those who think and say that it is4 ,but this is not the view of the chosen vessel4 ,he sees no sin in ,epaphroditus' falling ill1 nigh unto death1 drawing near1 up to death4 ,it is for him only an occasion for fresh gratitude and affection towards the sufferer1 and for deep thanksgivings to ,him who in ,his mercy has granted the recovery4 ,all this is not only an experience1 recorded with beautiful naturalness2 it is a revelation1 an oracle4 ,we learn by it1 as by the voice of ,christ1 that although ,he took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses1 ,his servants do not therefore of necessity fail in either faith or love when they suffer in this tabernacle1 and groan1 being burthened4 ,let them look indeed with great simplicity1 in humble faith1 for the healing power of their ,lord1 whether or not it may please ,him to apply it through human agency4 ,but do not let them think it an act of faith to dictate to ,him1 as it were1 the necessity of their physical recovery4 ,if it be ,thy will1 is never out of place in such appeals4 ,faith can breathe its most absolute and restful reliance into that ,if4 ,we close the section of ,timotheus and ,epaphroditus4 ,we have given our main thought to the light which it throws upon the nature of the ,scriptures1 those blessed men of our counsel4 ,we have scarcely turned aside to think of the actual men of the passage2 ,timotheus1 and his self-forgetting devotion to the ,lord and to ,st ,paul1 overcoming the sensitiveness of a tender nature2 ,epaphroditus1 at once brave and affectionate1 yearning for the old friends in the old scene1 restless in the thought of their trouble about him1 yet ready to throw his life down as a die in the cause of ,god and of ,his people4 ,but if we have said little about them1 it is not that we do not love their very names1 and feel our union with them4 ,once they were mourning here below2 finding then1 as we find now1 that the day's burthen is no dream4 ,but we shall see them hereafter1 in the mercy of ,god1 changed and glorified1 yet the same1 where there will be leisure to learn all the lessons that all the saints can teach us from their experience of the love of ,jesus4 ,meanwhile let us pray1 with the ,moravians in their beautiful ,liturgy3 ,keep us in everlasting fellowship with our brethren of the ,church triumphant1 and let us rest together in ,thy presence from our labours4 #a ,timotheon is slightly emphatic by its place in the ,greek2 as if to say1 ,though ,i must still be absent1 he will soon be with you4 #b ,not equal-souled with myself2 which would demand rather1 in the ,greek1 oudena allon echo isopsychon4 #c ,possibly1 entered on bondservice1 took up the slave's life1 with a reference to ,timothy's earliest connexion with ,st ,paul 7,acts xvi4 #a-c74 ,but the reference to the memories of ,philippi is much more likely4 ,the aorist1 edouleusen1 will in this case gather up into one the whole recollection4 #d ,the touton is slightly emphatic by position1 for ,st ,paul is about to speak of other persons also1 himself and ,epaphroditus4 #e ,egesamen3 ,i render the epistolary past by a present tense1 which is the ,english idiom4 #f ,so ,i render apostolon1 to represent something of the sacredness attaching by usage to the word4 ,if ,i read aright1 we have here an instance of gentle pleasantry1 quite in harmony with the gravity of the ,epistle at large4 ,he takes the ,philippians' message of love and gift of bounty as a sort of gospel to himself1 and so regards their messenger as a missionary to him4 ,so also with the word leitourgos3 its usual associations in ,new ,testament ,greek are sacred1 or at least solemn2 and so ,st ,paul seems to employ it here4 ,epaphroditus was no mere agent2 he was a ministrant1 commissioned from a high quarter--the ,philippians' love4 #g epeide epidothon en3 the epistolary past 7en7 is rendered in accordance with ,english idiom4 ,epipothon is perhaps too heavily rendered above2 but the phrase is certainly a little stronger than epepothei would have been4 #h ,perhaps it was an attack of ,roman fever4 #i ,ina me 4 4 4 scho3 lit41 that ,i may not4 ,but the ,english idiom asks for might4 ,the ,greek puts the past intention into what was its present aspect4 #aj ,epempsa auton3 the epistolary aorist4 #aa ,quite literally1 up to death he drew near4 ,it is as if ,st ,paul had been about to write1 mechri thanatou esthense1 and then varied the expression by writing eggise4 #ab ,paraboleusamenos te psyche3 so read1 not paraboleusamenos 7which would mean1 taking evil counsel for his life1 neglecting its interests74 ,paraboleusamenos is a well-attested reading2 the verb is not found elsewhere1 but the form is abundantly likely4 ,it would be developed from the adjective parabolos1 reckless1 connected with the verb paraballesthai1 to cast a die4 #ac ,thoughts for ,heart and ,life1 by ,john ,ker1 ,d4,d4 7#ahhh71 p4 #ib4 #ad ,see ,ep4 i4 ad4 ,cor41 ,sec4 #dg3 ,take up the ,epistle of the blessed ,paul1 the ,apostle4 4 4 4 ,he wrote to you in the ,spirit 7pneumatikos7 about himself1 and ,cephas1 and ,apollos4 ,one family we dwell in ,him1 ,one ,church1 above1 beneath1 ,though now divided by the stream1 ,the narrow stream of death4 ,one army of the living ,god ,to ,his command we bow2 ,part of ,his host hath cross'd the flood1 ,and part is crossing now4 ,c4 ,,wesley4 ,,joy ,,in ,,the ,,lord ,,and ,,its ,,preserving ,,power3 ,,that ,i ,,may ,,know ,,him ,o ,almighty ,god1 whom truly to know is everlasting life2 ,grant us perfectly to know ,thy ,son ,jesus ,christ to be the way1 the truth1 and the life2 that1 following the steps of ,thy holy ,apostles1 we may stedfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life2 through the same ,thy ,son ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,amen4 ,collect for ,st ,philip and ,st ,james4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,joy ,,in ,,the ,,lord ,,and ,,its ,,preserving ,,power ,,that ,i ,,may ,,know ,,him ,,philippians iii4 #a-aa ,doctrinal perils at ,philippi--,be glad in the ,lord--,the true ,israel--,an ideal legalist--,position and experience--,the spiritual power of holy joy--,acceptance and holiness--,atoning ,cross and ,risen ,life ,with the section just closed the ,epistle reaches its middle point and already looks towards its end4 ,we may lawfully think of ,st ,paul as pausing here in his dictation2 he returns to it after some considerable interval1 with new topics1 or rather with one important new topic1 in his mind4 ,hitherto1 if we have read him aright1 we have seen him occupied1 from one side or another1 with the thought of ,christian ,unity at ,philippi4 ,that thought has been either explicitly developed1 as in the close of the first chapter1 and in the opening of the second1 and again in the passage embracing ii4 #ad-af2 or it has been rather implied than expounded4 ,the ,apostle's assurances of love and prayer have been often worded so as to suggest it4 ,the grand passage of doctrine1 ii4 #e-aa1 has been occasioned directly by it1 and is made to bear immediately upon it2 the ,lord's wonderful self-abnegation 7if the word may be tolerated7 is revealed and asserted there1 not in an isolated way1 but as it speaks to the believer of the spirit which should animate him1 and which will preclude jealousies and separations as nothing else can4 ,and even the paragraph where ,timotheus and ,epaphroditus are before us is tinged with the same feeling2 what the ,apostle says about both these dear friends is so said as to unite the sympathies of the ,philippians4 ,but he has more to speak of than this sacred call to union of spirit and of life in ,christ4 ,we gather that ,epaphroditus1 talking over the condition of the ,mission with his leader1 had alluded to the presence there of serious doctrinal perils1 which must ultimately affect ,christian holiness4 ,that ubiquitous difficulty1 the propaganda of anti-,pauline ,christian ,judaism1 had come on the scene1 or was just coming4 ,the teachers who affirmed1 or insinuated1 that ,jesus ,christ could be reached only through the ceremonial law1 were now to be reckoned with4 ,the converts were disturbed1 or soon might be disturbed1 by being told that proselytism to ,moses1 sealed by circumcision1 was a sine qua non in order to a valid hope of salvation through the ,gospel2 that the man awakened from his paganism must be at least something of a ,jew to be anything of a ,christian2 that the door was not absolutely open between the sinner's soul and the ,saviour1 to be passed through by the one step of a living trust in the ,promise4 ,let us remember that assertions like these1 which to ,christians now may seem obviously futile1 by no means necessarily seemed so then4 ,then1 much more than now1 pagan enquirers after ,,jesus would be sure to be conscious that the true salvation offered was1 in one sense1 emphatically a ,jewish salvation4 ,it was the message which told of the life and death1 the person and work1 of ,one who was1 after the flesh1 a ,jew4 ,it was the announcement that the long hope of ,israel was fulfilled in ,him4 ,its terminology was full of words and ideas altogether ,jewish4 ,and its messengers--above all1 for the ,philippians1 ,st ,paul--were ,jews1 of unmistakable nationality1 training1 and 7doubtless7 appearance4 ,on a first view1 on a hasty and shallow view certainly1 it may have seemed a quite natural incident in such a message when some of its propagandists asserted that to reach this ,hebrew ,deliverer and ,king the enquirer must form a connexion in religion which should be definitely ,hebrew4 ,it is conceivable that even yet1 in the history of the ,church1 this phase of error may in some form assert itself again4 ,we look in the future1 it may be in the near future1 for the keeping to the old ,israel of promises which have never been revoked4 ,we believe that ,rom4 xi4 shall yet find its fulfilment1 and that the receiving of them again shall be life from the dead to the world4 ,in that great period of blessing1 the work of missions may 7shall we not say1 probably will87 be very largely taken up by ,hebrew ,christians4 ,and if any of these1 like some of their predecessors of the first age1 should have only a distorted view of the ,gospel of ,christ1 their intense national character may tell not a little on the form of their message4 ,but this is by the way4 ,all that is really before us here is the fact that--not the open hostility of unconverted ,jews but--the sidelong counter-action of ,judaistic ,christians was threatening ,philippi1 and must be met by the ,apostle4 ,nor was this1 if we explain rightly the close of ch4 iii41 the only such danger in the air4 ,the antinomian traitor was also within the gates4 ,there were those who could assert that the ,gospel1 the ,pauline ,gospel1 the wonderful message of ,justification by ,faith only1 and of a life lived in the ,spirit as its sequel1 was the very truth they held and rejoiced in2 but they taught it so as to reason from it that practical holiness did not matter2 the justified1 the accepted1 the man of the ,spirit1 lived in a transcendental religious region2 he was not to be bound in conduct by common rules4 ,was he not in grace8 ,and was not grace the antithesis of works8 ,was not grace1 before everything else1 the condonation of sin8 ,and the more it did that work1 was it not the more glorious8 ,shall we not continue in sin then1 that grace may abound8 ,what does it signify1 though the perishable and burthensome body defiles itself8 ,the emancipated spirit of the spiritual man lives on another plane2 the sensual and the mystical elements may approach1 may run parallel1 but can never meet4 ,the body may sin2 the spirit must be pure--if only the man is in grace4 ,such assuredly were some of the conditions of error and evil to be considered when on that far-off day1 in his ,roman chamber1 ,st ,paul turned his soul again to ,philippi1 and asked his scribe to write4 ,there is a solemn comfort in the thought4 ,in our days of trial1 when again and again it is as it the foundations were destroyed1 it is something to remember the awful mental and moral trials of the apostolic age4 ,it was indeed an age of faith2 but1 as the other side of that very fact1 it was an age of clouds and darkness1 from the point not of faith but of sight4 ,it had a glorious answer to the tremendous questions that beset it4 ,but that answer was not human reasoning1 or material successes2 it was the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,and so it is for us to-day4 ,but now ,st ,paul is at work2 let us listen1 and we shall hear how promptly he brings that answer to bear in his letter to ,philippi4#a ,ver4 #a4 ,for the rest 7to loipon71 my brethren1 to turn now to another topic1 as ,i draw towards an end1 let me give you this comprehensive watchword ,be glad in the ,lord4#b ,to write the same things to you1 to reiterate that one thought1 that ,,christ is our glory and our joy1 to me not irksome1 it is safe for you4#c ,safe1 because there are spiritual dangers around you from which this will be the best preservative2 false teachings which can only be fully met with the gladness of the truth of ,christ4 ,beware of1 ,ver4 #b4 keep your eyes open upon 7blepete71 the dogs1 the men who would excommunicate all who hold not with their half-,christian ,pharisaism and its legal burthens1 but who are themselves thus self-excluded from the covenant blessing4 ,beware of the evil workmen1 the teachers whose watchword is works1 works1 works1 a weary round of observances and would-be merits1 but who are sorry work-men indeed1 spoiling the whole structure of ,heaven's easy1 artless1 unencumber'd plan4 ,beware of the concision1 the apostles of a mere physical wounding1 which1 as enjoined according to their principles1 is nothing better than a mutilation 7katatome71 a parody of what circumcision was meant to be1 as the sacrament of a preparatory dispensation now terminated in its ,ver4 #c4 fulfilment4 ,for not they but we are the circumcision1 the true ,israel of the true covenant1 sealed and purified by our ,god2 we who by ,god's ,spirit worship1#d doing priestly service in a spiritual temple#e in a life1 love1 and power1 which is ours by the presence in us of the ,holy ,ghost1 the promise of the ,father2 and who exult1 not in tribal1 national1 ceremonial prerogatives1 but in ,christ ,jesus1 our refuge and our crown1 our righteousness and glory1 with an exultation infinitely warmer than the legalist's can be1 and meanwhile pure1 for its source is altogether not ourselves2 and who1 in ,him1 not in the flesh1#f not in self and its workings1 are confident 7for confident we are1 but it is a confidence in self-despair1 the confidence of those who have been driven by self-discovery to ,christ alone74#g ,i speak with a general reference1 of all true disciples2 but let me instance myself as a case peculiarly in point4 ,i speak thus1 ,ver4 #d4 though having 7echon71 ,i1 myself 7ego71 from their view-point1 confidence even in flesh4 ,whoever else thinks of confiding in flesh1 of building a legal standing-place on his privilege and merit1 ,i may do so more than he2 for ,i have reached the ne plus ultra in that ,ver4 #e4 direction4 ,as for circumcision1#h ,i was an eight-day child2 no proselyte1 operated upon in later life1 but a son of the ,covenant2 descended from ,israel's race1 one of the progeny of him who was a prince with ,god 7,gen4 xxxii4 #bh72 of ,benjamin's tribe1 the tribe which gave the first ,god-chosen king to the nation1 and which remained faithful among the faithless to the house of ,david at a later day2 ,hebrew offspring of ,hebrew ancestors1#i child of a home in which1 immemorially1 the old manners and the old speech were cherished2 in respect of the law1#aj a ,pharisee--the votary of religious precision1 elaborate devotion1 exclusive privilege1 and energetic prose- ,ver4 #f1 lytism2 in respect of zeal1 intense and perfectly sincere1 persecuting the ,church2 in respect of the righteousness which resides in the ,law1 as its terms are understood by the ,pharisee1 found 7genomenos7 blameless4#aa ,such was my position4 ,i possessed an ideal pedigree2 full sacramental position from the first2 domestic traditions pure and strict2 an absolute personal devotion to the cause of my creed2 the most rigorous observance of its rules2 the most energetic ,ver4 #g4 efforts to maintain and extend its power4 ,but the kind of things which 7hatina7 ,i felt 7moi en7 so many gains1#ab these things ,i have come to consider 7hegemai1 perfect71 because of our 7ton7 ,christ 7discovered at last in ,his glory1 as the slain and risen ,jesus71 just one loss1 one deprivation2 not merely a worthless thing1 but a ruinous one2 a robbery of the true ,blessing ,ver4 #h4 from my soul4 ,aye more1 ,i actually 7kai7 now consider all things1 from all points of view1 all possessions1 all ambitions1 to be similarly loss1 deprivation1 because of the surpassingness of the knowledge of ,christ ,jesus my ,lord1 because of the immeasurable betterness of a spirit-sight of what ,,he is1 in ,himself1 and as my own2 because of whom--on account of what ,he now was to me--,i suffered deprivation 7exemiothen7 of my all 7ta panta71 in the crisis of my change2 and ,i consider it only refuse1#ac rubbish1 that ,i may gain#ad 7in a blessed exchange of profit against loss1 the loss of what ,i thought my gains7 ,christ1 nothing less than ,,him1 my boundless ,wealth 7ploutos ,ver4 #i4 anexichniaston1 ,eph4 iii4 #h71 and be found1 at any and every time of finding 7,ps4 xxxii4 #g1 ,heb47 by the ,holy ,one1 in ,him1 one with ,him1 in ,his precious merits and in ,his risen life1 but now especially in ,his merits2 not having a righteousness of my own1 that derived from the ,law1 a title to acceptance drawn from my own supposed perfect correspondence to the ,law1 but that which comes through faith in#ae ,christ1 through reliance wholly reposed in ,him1 the righteousness which is derived not from the ,law but from ,god1 coming wholly out of ,his uncaused and sacred mercy1 on terms of our 7te7 faith1 conditioned#ae ,ver4 #aj4 to us by simply our accepting reliance2 in order to know ,him1 ,,him1 my ,lord1 with an intuition possible only to the soul which accepts ,him for its ,all2 and the power of ,his ,resurrection1 as that ,resurrection assures ,his people of their justification 7,rom4 iv4 #bd1 #be71 and of their coming glory 7#a ,cor4 xv4 #bj71 and yet more as ,he1 by ,his life-giving ,spirit1 shed forth from ,him the risen ,head1 lives ,his indissoluble life 7,heb4 vii4 #af7 in ,his members2 and the partnership of ,his sufferings1 that deep experience of union with ,him which comes through daily taking up the cross1 in ,his steps1 for ,his sake1 and in ,his strength2 growing into conformity 7summorthi-xomenos1 a present participle7 with ,his ,death1 drawn evermore into spiritual harmony with ,him who wrought my salvation out by an ineffable surrender ,ver4 #aa4 of ,himself to suffer2 if somehow ,i may arrive1 along the appointed path of the believer's obedience1 at the resurrection which is out from the dead 7ten exanastasin ten ex nekron3 so read72 that blessed hope for all who sleep in ,him1 when their whole existence1 redeemed and perfected1 shall leave the world of the dead behind for ever4 ,here is a piece of consecutive rendering and paraphrase longer than usual4 ,and meanwhile the passage before us is one of extraordinary fulness and richness1 alike in its record of experience and its teaching of eternal truths4 ,but it seemed impossible to break into fragments the glorious wholeness of the ,apostle's thought and utterance4 ,and then1 the utterance is so rich1 so detailed1 so explanatory of itself1 that ,i could not but feel that1 for very much of it at least1 my best commentary was the closest rendering ,i could offer1 with a few brief suggestions by the way4 ,drawing now to a close1 ,i can only indicate1 under one or two headings1 some main messages to the mind and soul4 i4 ,i gather from the connexion of the passage1 as we have traced it1 the supreme importance of a true joy in the ,lord1 a true personal sight of the ,king in ,his beauty1 in order to our spiritual orthodoxy4 ,let me quote again from the ,prayer ,book of the ,moravians1 from which ,i gave one short extract in the last chapter4 ,in their ,church ,litany1 among the first suffrages1 occur these petitions3 ,from coldness to ,thy merits and death4 ,from error and misunderstanding1 ,from the loss of our glory in ,thee1 ,preserve us1 gracious ,lord and ,god4 ,the words are the very soul of ,st ,paul1 as it conveys the ,spirit's oracle to us here4 ,st ,paul dreads exceedingly for the ,philippians the incursion of error and misunderstanding2 the advent of a mechanical rigorism of rule and ordinance1 and 7as we shall see in later pages7 the subtle poison also of the specious antinomian lie4 ,how does he apply the antidote8 ,in the form of an appeal to them to be sure to not to lose their glory in the ,lord2 and then he writes a record of his own experience in which he shews them how his own ,pharisaic treasures had all been cast away1 or willingly given up to the spoiler2 and why8 ,not for abstract reasons1 but because of the surpassingness of the knowledge of ,christ ,jesus my ,lord2 because of the irresistible and infinite betterness of ,his discovered glory1 seen in the atoning ,cross and the ,resurrection power4 ,let us arm ourselves likewise with the same mind4 ,we have countless perils about us in our modern ,christendom1 things which only too easily can trouble the reason and sway the will away from the one hope set before us4 ,let us meet them1 whatever else we do1 with the ,moravians' prayer4 ,let us meet them with obedience to the ,apostle's positive injunction1 ,rejoice in the ,lord4 ii4 ,the passage bids us remember the profound connexion between a true knowledge of the ,lord ,jesus as our ,atonement and a true knowledge of ,him as our ,life and ,power4 ,both are here4 ,in ver4 #i1 so it seems to me1 any unprejudiced reader of ,st ,paul's writings must see language akin to those great passages of ,romans and ,galatians which put before us the supreme question of our ,justification1 and which send us for our whole hope of ,acceptance before the eternal ,judge1 whose law we have broken1 to the ,atoning ,death of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,in those passages1 demonstrably as ,i venture to think1 the word ,righteousness is largely used as a short term for the ,holy ,one's righteous way of accepting us sinners for the sake of the ,sinless ,one1 who1 in our nature1 was made a curse for us1 made sin for us1 delivered for our offences1 set forth for a propitiation1 that we might be justified from all things in our union with ,him by faith4 ,if so1 this is the purport of similar phrases here also4 ,st ,paul is thinking here first of the discovered glory of ,christ as the propitiation for his sins1 his peace with ,god1 his refuge and his rest for ever against the accuser and the curse4 ,that comes first1 profoundly first4 ,but then we have also here the sequel truth1 the glorious complement4 ,here is ,acceptance1 wholly for ,jesus ,christ's most blessed sake4 ,but this is but the divine condition to another divine and transcendent blessing2 it is revealed as the way in to a knowledge of this ,lord of ,peace1 a deep and unspeakable knowledge of ,him1 such as shall infuse into ,his disciple the power of ,his ,risen ,life1 and the secret of an inward assimilation of the soul to the very principle of ,his ,death1 and shall be the path whose end shall be ,his glory4 ,st ,paul here bids us never put asunder what ,god hath joined together4 ,never further than the ,cross1 never higher than ,thy feet2 there may we be found1 in ,him2 unshaken by surrounding mysteries1 and meekly resolute against fashions of opinion4 ,let us be recognized for those who truly know for themselves1 and truly commend to others1 that blessed ,justification by ,faith which is still1 as ever1 the ,beautiful ,gate of the ,gospel4 ',tis joy enough1 my ,all in ,all1 ,before ,thy feet to lie2 ,thou wilt not let me lower fall1 ,and who can higher fly8 ,but then let us be known as those who1 accepting ,christ ,jesus as our ,all for peace1 7whatever we may have to consider to be loss that we may do so17 have clasped ,him also as our ,hidden ,life1 our ,risen ,power1 our ,king within4 ,o ,jesus ,christ1 grow ,thou in me1 ,and all things else recede2 ,my heart be daily nearer ,thee1 ,from sin be daily freed4 #ag ,always at the atoning ,cross2--yes1 every day and hour2 knowing no other stand before the face of the ,holy ,one4 ,always receiving there the ,risen ,life1 the presence inwardly of the ,risen ,one1 the secret power to suffer and to serve in peace2--yes1 for ever yes2 to the praise of the glory of ,his grace4 ,so1 and only so1 shall we live the life of real sinners really saved2 worshipping by the ,spirit of ,god1 exulting in ,christ ,jesus1 and confident1 but not in the flesh4 #a ,the reader may be aware that ,bishop ,lightfoot's theory of the connexion of thought at the beginning of ch4 iii4 is different from that advocated here4 ,he thinks that ,st ,paul dictated on continuously till the close of iii4 #a1 and was interrupted there1 and then began de novo with iii4 #b1 entirely on another line4 ,in this view1 the words about writing the same things unto you refer still to ,christian unity1 on which ,st ,paul was going to dilate further1 but a sudden pause occurred1 and the theme was dropped4 ,with reverence for the great expositor1 ,i cannot but think this unlikely4 ,it assumes that ,st ,paul was curiously indifferent to the sequence of thought in an important apostolic message1 which assuredly he would read over again before it was actually sent4 ,a theory which fairly explains the passage1 and meanwhile avoids the thought of such indifference1 seems to me far preferable4 #b ,the words obviously may be rendered1 ,farewell in the ,lord2 and so some take them1 explaining that ,st ,paul was intending to close immediately1 and so wrote his ,adieu here2 but then changed his plan4 ,this is very unlikely however4 ,see below1 iv4 #d3 ,chairete en ,kurio pantote4 ,the always there scarcely suits a formula of farewell1 while it perfectly suits an injunction to be glad4 ,and that passage is the obvious echo of this4--,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 both render rejoice1 though ,r4,v4 writes or1 farewell in the margin4 ,st ,chrysostom in his comments here explains the passage as referring to the ,christian's joy 7chara74 ,the ancient ,latin versions render ,gaudete 7not valete7 in ,domino4 #c ,i thus render rhythmically the rhythmical ,greek 7it is an iambic trimeter73 emoi men ouk okneron1 humin d asphales4 ,it is probable that the words are a quotation from a ,greek poet1 perhaps a comic poet2 the comedies being full of neatly expressed reflexions4 ,for such a quotation1 probably from the comedian ,menander1 see #a ,cor4 xv4 #cc3 phtheirousin ethe chresth homiliai kakai3 ,ill converse cankers fair morality4 #d ,the reading pneumati ,theou 7not ,theo7 latreuontes is to be preferred4 #e ,datreuien means first to do servants' work1 then to do religious service 7so almost always in ,,lxx4 and ,n4,t47 and sometimes specially priestly duty 7see e4g4 ,heb4 xiii4 #aj74 ,this latter may be in view here3 we ,christians1 born anew of the ,spirit1 are the true priests1 and we little need to be made ,jewish proselytes first4 #f ,the sarx in ,st ,paul is very fairly represented by the word self as used popularly in religious language4 ,it is man taken as apart from ,god1 and so man versus ,god2 then by transition it may mean1 as here1 the products of such a source1 the labours of the self-life to construct a self-righteousness4 ,it is hardly necessary to say that1 in such contexts as this1 where it stands more or less distinguished from the pneuma1 it is not a synonym for the body4 ,sins of the flesh may be sins purely of the mind1 as e4g4 emulation 7,gal4 v4 #bj74 #g ,i thus attempt to convey the emphasis of the words ouk en sarki pepoithotes1 which is not precisely as if he had written en sarki4 #h ,peritoue3 a dative of reference1 a frequent construction with ,st ,paul4 ,see ,rom4 xii4 #aj-ab for several examples together4 #i ,see ,trench1 ,synonyms1 ,sec4 xxxix41 for the special meanings of ,israelites1 the member of the ,covenant-people2 ,ebraios1 the ,jew who was true to his inmost national traditions2 and ,ioudaios1 the ,jew merely as other than the ,gentile4 #aj ,the article is absent2 but context leaves no doubt of the special reference here4 #aa ,in solemn contrast but with perfect consistency1 from another point of view--that not of the ,pharisee but of ,,god--he can point out elsewhere that no flesh can possibly claim righteousness on the ground of fulfilment of code and precept4 ,see especially ,rom4 iii4 #ai1 #bj4 ,but his business here is to meet the legalist on the legalist's own ground4 #ab ,notice the plural2 as if1 miser-like1 he had counted his bags of treasure4 ,and then see the contrasted singular1 ,xemian3 he finds them all one mass of loss4 #ac ,skubala3 the ,greek etymologists derived the word from kusi balein1 to cast to dogs4 ,otherwise it is traced to a connexion with skor1 excrement4 #ad ,practically1 he means that ,i might gain1 in the past transaction of conversion and surrender4 ,he thinks the past over again4 #ae ,lit41 faith of1 pisteos ,christou4 ,this use of the genitive with pistis1 to denote its object1 is frequent4 ,cp4 e4g4 ,mark xi4 #bb2 ,gal4 ii4 #af1 #bj4 #af ,even as the benefit of food is conditioned to us by our 7not buying but7 eating it4 #ag ,see the whole hymn 7rendered from ,lavater's ,o ,jesu ,christe1 wachs in mir7 in ,hymns of ,consecration1 #bie4 ,we will dwell on ,calvary's mountain ,where the flocks of ,zion feed1 ,oft resorting to that fountain ,open'd when our ,lord did bleed2 ,thence deriving ,grace1 and life1 and holiness4 ,from the ,moravian ,hymn-book4 ,,christian ,,standing ,,and ,,christian ,,progress ,i want that adorning divine ,thou only1 my ,god1 can'st bestow2 ,i want in those beautiful garments to shine ,which distinguish ,thy household below4 ,i want1 as a traveller1 to haste ,straight onward1 nor pause on my way1 ,nor forethought nor anxious contrivance to waste ,on the tent only pitch'd for a day4 ,i want--and this sums up my prayer-- ,to glorify ,thee till ,i die1 ,then calmly to yield up my soul to ,thy care1 ,and breathe out1 in faith1 my last sigh4 ,,charlotte ,,elliott4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,christian ,,standing ,,and ,,christian ,,progress ,,philippians iii4 #ab-af ,christian exultation--,christian confidence--,not in the flesh--,in ,jesus ,christ--,the prize in view--,no finality in the progress--,not already perfect--,the recompense of reward--,what the prize will be ,in a certain sense we have completed our study of the first section of the third chapter of the ,epistle4 ,but the treatment has been so extremely imperfect1 in view of the importance of that section1 that a few further remarks must be made4 ,let us ponder one weighty verse1 left almost unnoticed when we touched it4 ,observe then the brief1 pregnant account of the true ,christian1 given in ver4 #c3 ,we are the circumcision1 we who by ,god's ,spirit worship1 and who exult in ,christ ,jesus1 and who1 not in the flesh1 are confident4 ,this is a far-reaching description of the true member of the true ,israel1 the man of the ,covenant of grace4 ,note first its positive lines4 ,we worship1 we exult1 we are confident4 ,every affirmation is full of divine principles of truth4 ,we worship2 ours is a hallowed1 dedicated1 and reverent life4 ,it is spent in a sanctuary4 ,whatever we have to be1 or to do1 as to externals2 whether to rule a province1 a church1 a school1 a home2 whether to keep accounts1 or sweep a room2 whether to evangelize the slums of a city1 or the dark places of heathenism1 or to teach language1 or science1 or music2 whether to be active all day long1 or to lie down alone to suffer2 whatever be our actual place and duty in the world1 we worship4 ,we have set the ,lord always before us4 ,we have sanctified ,christ as ,,lord in our hearts 7#a ,pet4 iii4 #ae2 so read74 ,we belong to ,him everywhere1 and we recollect it4 ,we owe adoring reverence to ,him everywhere1 and we recollect it4 ,let us reiterate the fact2 ours is a hallowed life1 for it belongs to a divine ,master2 it is a reverent life1 for that ,master in ,his greatness is to us an abiding ,presence4 ,the fact of ,him1 the thought of ,him1 has expelled from our lives the secular air and the light and flippant spirit4 ,we are nothing if not worshippers4 ,then1 secondly1 we exult4 ,ours is a life of gladness1 so far as it is the true ,christian life4 ,constantly and profoundly chastened by its worshipping character1 it is constantly quickened and illuminated by this element of exultation4 ,the word is strong1 kauchomenoi1 exulting4 ,we observe that the ,apostle does not say that we are resigned1 that we are at peace1 that there is a calm upon us4 ,this is true2 but he says that we exult4 ,the still waters1 the mey m'nuchoth of ,ps4 xxiii4 #b1 are anything but stagnant4 ,they are a lake2 but it is a lake upon a river1 like the fair waters of ,galilee1 receiving and giving1 and therefore alive with pure movement1 while yet surrounded by the rest1 m'nuchah1 which means repose not from action but underneath it4 ,we exult4 ,ours is not an autumn of feeling2 not a state of the soul in which the characteristics are the sighs and starting tears of memory and apprehension4 ,it is an everlasting spring1 in which the mighty but temperate ,sun of ,salvation is shining1 and will not set2 not parching but quickening all day long4 ,we exult4 ,it is a happy life1 not only with the happiness of a cheerful contentment1 beautiful as that is2 ours is the happiness of wondering discovery1 and rich possession1 and ever-opening prospects2 it is quick and lively2 it is exultation4 ,then1 we are confident4 ,if ,i traced the bearing of this clause aright1 in the last chapter1 we shall feel that the word pepoithotes is meant to carry a positive message4 ,it is not only that we do not rely on the flesh2 it is that we are reliant1 though not on the flesh4 ,even so1 in the true idea of the ,christian life4 ,we are confident4 ,we are not wanderers from one peradventure to another2 we are reliant1 we are assured1 we know where we are1 and what we are1 and whither we are bound4 ,true1 we1 are intensely conscious of the limits of our knowledge2 it is only here and there that we can absolutely say1 ,we know4 ,but then1 the points where we can say so are points of supreme importance4 ,we know that the ,son of ,god is come4 ,we know that our sins are forgiven us for ,his name's sake4 ,we know that all things work together for good to them that love ,god4 ,we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved1 we have a building of ,god1 a house not made with hands1 eternal in the heavens2 therefore we are always confident4 ,and all this is summed up in the thought that we know ,,whom we have believed1 and that ,,he is able to keep what we have committed unto ,him4 ,our certainty is a confiding certainty4 ,it does not reside in our courage1 or our mental insight2 it is lodged in a ,person1 who is such that ,he claims our entire reliance on ,his work1 ,his word1 ,himself4 ,then from its other side this wonderful verse gives us the cautions1 the negatives1 of the ,christian life2 though even here it speaks the language of the highest positive truth4 ,we worship by ,god's ,spirit2 our reverence1 our adoration1 the hallowing and religiousness of our lives1 is not a form imposed from without2 it is a power exerting itself from within1 having come to our poor hearts from above4 ,assuredly we do not neglect or slight actions and rites of worship2 ,he who has made each of us soul and body1 one man1 does not mean us to despise the outward and physical in devotion4 ,but we watchfully remember that no such actions or rites are1 for one moment1 the soul of worship1 or its formative power4 ,that soul and power is ,god's ,spirit only2 the ,holy ,ghost dwelling in the renewed being1 and teaching the man to cry ,abba1 ,father1 and making intercession for him with groanings which cannot be uttered1 and taking of the things of ,christ1 and shewing it unto us4 ,we pray1 and it is in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,we worship1 and it is in ,spirit1 and in truth4 ,again1 we exult in ,christ ,jesus4 ,our glad and animated happiness lies in nothing short of ,,him as its cause4 ,we are thankful for noble religious traditions and institutions1 and for holy parentage1 and for all which makes ,christianity correspond in practice to its name4 ,but we are watchful not to let even these blessings take the unique place of ,christ ,jesus in our exultation4 ,in all things ,he must have the pre-eminence4 ,piety itself without ,him1 if it can be found1 is not a body but a statue4 ,all the privileges of the ,church of ,god1 without ,him1 though we reverently cherish every teaching and every ordinance that is ,christian indeed1 are but the frame without the picture1 the casket without the stone4 ,then again1 not in the flesh are we confident4 ,we have learnt a deep distrust of everything which ,st ,paul classes under that word flesh4 ,it is always offering itself to us1 in one ,protean shape or another1 to be our comfort and our repose4 ,sometimes it takes the form of our supposed usefulness and diligence2 sometimes of our strict and exemplary observances2 sometimes1 putting on a disguise still more subtle1 it sets before the ,christian the depth1 or the length1 of his spiritual experience4 ,or it grows bolder1 and is content with coarser masks2 it tempts us to a miserable reliance on some imagined betterness when we compare ourselves1 forsooth1 with some one else4 ,i knew long ago an old shepherd1 in my father's parish1 who based a hope for eternity on the fact 7if such it was7 that he was never tipsy on a ,sunday4 ,we are amused1 or we are shocked4 ,but this was only an extreme type of a vast phenomenon1 to be found lurking in countless hearts1 when ,god lets in the light2 the reliance on our being somehow1 so we think1 not as other men are4 ,and from this whole world of delusion1 in all its continents and islands1 the ,lord calls us away here by ,his ,apostle4 ,he bids us migrate as it were to another planet1 laying our whole confidence1 not part of it1 on ,,him2 let that other world1 our old world1 roll along without us4 ,christ presents to us ,himself 7as we follow out this rich ,philippian passage7 as all our ,righteousness1 in ,his precious justifying ,merit1 offered for the acceptance of the very simplest faith4 ,and ,he presents ,himself as all our ,power1 for deliverance and for service1 in ,his resurrection ,life2 coming to reveal ,himself to us in the divine beauty of ,his sufferings1 ,his death1 through which he has passed for us into indissoluble life 7,heb4 vii4 #af74 ,our ,righteousness--it is ,,he1 the propitiation for our sins4 ,our ,sanctification--it is still ,,he1 in the power of ,his resurrection1 and fellowship with ,his sufferings1 and assimilation to ,his death4 ,our ,redemption1 from the power of the grave--it is still this same ,jesus1 in union with whom alone we attain unto the resurrection which is out from the dead4 ,even so1 ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 let us thus be found in ,thee2 worshipping1 exulting1 confiding2 resting on ,thee1 abiding in ,thee1 with an accepting faith which only grows more simple and single as the years move on and gather since we believed4 ,help us1 ,o ,christ1 to grasp each truth ,with hand as firm and true ,as when we clasp'd it first to heart ,a treasure fresh and new2 ,to name ,thy name1 ,thyself to own1 ,with voice unfaltering1 ,and faces bold and unashamed ,as in our ,christian spring4 #a ,but ,st ,paul is again dictating1 and we must follow4 ,he has confessed and affirmed1 once for all1 his standing and fixity in the ,lord1 and in ,him alone4 ,now he must emphasize another aspect of the living truth1 his progress in the ,lord2 the non-finality of any given attainment in union with ,him4 ,ver4 #ab4 ,not as though ,i had already received 7elabon7 the crown of accomplished glory1 or had been already perfected1 with the perfection which shall be when we shall be like ,him1 for we shall see ,him as ,he is4 ,no1 ,i am pressing on 7dioko de71 as on the racer's course1 if indeed1 if as a fact1 in blessed finality1 ,i may seize 7katalabo7 that promised crown with a view to which#b ,i was actually 7kai7 seized by ,christ ,jesus1 when in ,his mercy ,he as it were laid violent hands upon me1 to pluck me from ruin1 and to constrain me into ,his salvation and ,his service4 ,yes1 ,i press on to seize that crown1 with the animating thought that it was on purpose that ,i might seize it that the ,lord seized me2 and that so every stage in the upward and onward course of faith runs straight in the line of ,his will whose mighty1 gracious grasp is on me as ,i go4 ,brethren1 ,ver4 #ac4 7,i speak the word of pause and of appeal1 as if ,i could stand by you1 and lay my hand upon your arm17 ,i 7ego71 whatever others may think and do about themselves1 do not account myself 7emauton1 emphatic like ego7 to have seized the crown as yet2 no1 one thing 7en de7--my thoughts1 my purposes1 are all concentrated on this one thing--the things behind forgetting1 as one experience after another falls behind me into the past1 and towards the things in front stretching out and onward 7epekteinomenos71 like the eager racer1 with head thrown forward and body bent towards his object1 seeking for more and yet more1 in the grace and power of my unchangeable ,ver4 #ad4 ,saviour1 goal-ward ,i press on 7kata skopon dioko71 not uncertainly1 with no faltering or divided aim1 unto 7eis71 till ,i actually touch1 the prize 7brabeion1 #a ,cor4 ix4 #bd71 the victor's wreath1#c the prize of1 offered by1 made possible through1 the high call of ,god1 the voice of ,his prevailing grace#b coming from the heights 7ano7 of glory and leading the believer at length up thither1 in ,christ ,jesus2 for through ,him comes the call1 and its blessed effect is to unite the called1 the converted1 sinner to ,him1 so that he lives here and hereafter in ,him4 ,so let all ,ver4 #ae4 us perfect ones 7hosoi oun teleioi71 with the perfection not of ideal attainment but of ,christian maturity and entirety of experience1 be of this mind2 the mind of those who rest in ,christ immoveably for their acceptance1 and press forward in ,christ unrestingly in their obedience1 ever discovering fresh causes for humility and for progress1 as they keep close to ,him4 ,and if you are diversely 7eteros7 minded in any thing1 if in any detail of theory or statement you cannot yet see with me1 this also ,god shall unveil to you4 ,sure ,i am that the ,spirit of ,god speaketh by me1 and that ultimately therefore you will1 in submission to ,him1 see as ,i have taught you4 ,but ,i am not therefore commissioned in this matter to denounce and excommunicate2 ,i lay the truth before you1 and in love leave it upon your reverent thoughts4 ,only1 as to ,ver4 #af4 what we have succeeded in reaching1#e so far as our insight into ,christ has actually gone1 up to our full present light in the ,gospel1 let us step in the same path 7to auto stoichein#f71 on the unchanging principles of faith1 love1 and holiness1 and with a watchful desire to cherish to the utmost a holy harmony of spirit and conduct4 ,here1 in suggestive contrast or complement to the section we studied last1 the ,christian appears in full and energetic movement1 animated with a sacred discontent1 repudiating all thought of finality in his conformity to his ,lord1 and in his actual spiritual condition2 running1 pressing on1 remembering at every step that1 although grace is present in power1 and glory is in view1 still this is the journey1 not the home2 the race1 not the goal2 ,nil actum reputans dum quid sibi restat agendum4 ,the passage contains of course much divine teaching in detail4 ,but two main points come up conspicuously for our learning4 i4 ,we have here a strong1 and at the same time a most tender1 warning against all approaches to a theoretical perfectionism4 ,under that word1 as ,i am well aware1 many varieties of opinion in detail may be found4 ,and again1 few who hold opinions commonly called perfectionist like the word perfectionism4 ,but ,i speak with practical accuracy when ,i give that title to such views as on the whole affirm the attainableness here below of a spiritual condition in which man needs no longer confess himself as now a sinner1 and in which his attention tends to be drawn more to his perfectness than to his imperfections of condition4 ,that such views are held1 and strongly held1 by many earnest ,christians1 is a familiar fact4 ,as far as my own observation goes1 such views are not uncommonly attended1 in those who hold them1 by a certain oblivion to personal shortcomings and inconsistencies2 by an obscuration of consciousness1 and of conscience1 more or less marked1 towards the sinfulness of ordinary1 everyday violations of the law of holiness in respect of meekness1 humbleness of mind1 longsuffering1 sympathy1 and other quiet graces4 ,in the present passage the ,apostle's whole spirit moves in just the opposite direction4 ,his complete repose in ,christ as the ,righteousness of ,god for him1 and then his deep nearness to his ,lord as the ,power of ,god in him1 alike seem not so much to banish as utterly to preclude any thought about himself but that of his own imperfection4 ,he writes as one whose very last feeling is that of complacency in his spiritual condition4 ,i deliberately do not say self-complacency2 for all ,christians would repudiate that word2 ,i say1 complacency in his spiritual condition4 ,his spiritual position1 in ,christ1 as he is found in ,him1 fills him with much more than complacency2 it is his glory and his boast4 ,but when he comes to speak of his spiritual condition1 the possessing thought is that all is imperfect and progressive4 ,he has a perfect blessing2 but he is an imperfect recipient of it2 he has not attained4 ,he is deeply happy4 ,but he is thoroughly humble4 ,as we read the passage1 we feel very sure that the man who wrote it would lie very tenderly and candidly open to reproofs1 and to painful truths told him about himself4 ,for his ,lord1 he is ready to bear rejoicing witness to the whole world4 ,for himself1 even as in ,christ1 he holds no brief2 nay1 he takes the other part4 ,he has had a vision of absolute holiness which has completely guarded him from the delusion of thinking that he is himself absolutely holy1 even in the fullest state of grace4 ,he is so genuinely perfect in the sense of mature knowledge of his ,lord that he is incapable of thinking himself perfected4 ,all the while1 this does not for a moment leave him in the miserable plight of acquiescing in sin because he knows he is still a sinner4 ,if he were merely going by a theory1 it might be so4 ,but he is going by the ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 he is using ,,him1 daily and hourly1 as not only his always abasing standard1 but as all his salvation1 and all his desire2 as the infinitely blissful ,object of his affections and of his knowledge2 as his ,summum ,bonum4 ,while ,christ is fully this to the ,christian1 he will be little likely on the one hand to say1 ,i am perfect 7,job ix4 #bj72 on the other he will be always seeking1 in the most practical of all ways1 watching1 praying1 believing1 for a closer conformity and yet closer 7summorphixomenos7 to his ,lord's bright image4 ,and at the back of all his thoughts about defect and progress will lie the restful certainties to which no ideas of defect attach1 and from which the idea of progress is absent1 because it is out of place--the certainties of the ,righteousness of ,god1 of peace with ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 the being found in ,him4 ii4 ,the passage puts very distinctly before us the thought of the ,reward of ,grace4 ,the writer is living1 loving1 working1 in view of a prize1 brabeion3 he looks forward to the ,master's hand as it will extend the wreath of victory1 and to ,his voice as it will utter the longed-for words1 ,well done1 good and faithful ,servant4 ,this same man has laboured1 in many an hour of public and private teaching1 and in many an inspired page1 to emphasize the magnificent truth that grace is grace2 that ,god owes man nothing2 that all things are of ,god2 that to him that worketh not1 but believeth on ,him that justifieth the ungodly1 his faith is reckoned for righteousness4 ,he well knows that there is a side of truth from which the one possible message is the ,lord's own solemn question and answer 7,luke xvii4 #i71 ,doth he thank that servant8 ,i trow not4 ,the most complete and laborious service cannot possibly outrun the obligation of the rescued bondservant to the ,possessor1 of the limb to the blessed ,head4 ,but then1 this absolute servitude is to ,one who is1 as a fact1 eternal ,love4 ,the work is done for a ,master who1 while ,his claims are absolute1 is such that ,he personally delights in every response of love to ,his love1 of will to ,his will4 ,his servant cannot serve ,him with a grateful heart without thereby pleasing the heart of his ,lord4 ,and so1 at the close of the day's work1 while1 from the side of law and claims1 the ,lord doth not thank that servant1 from the side of love and of moral sympathy ,he will welcome him in with ,well done1 good and faithful servant2 enter thou into the joy of thy ,lord4 ,and that holy prize does1 and must1 prove a magnet to the ,christian's will and hopes4 ,what is he looking for8 ,not an accession of personal dignity in heaven1 but a word from his beloved ,master's heart4 ,there is nothing mercenary in this4 ,true1 it has respect unto the recompense of reward4 ,but the reward is what only love can give1 and only love can take4 ,it is love's approval of the service of love4 ,much discussion has been spent upon the theory of reward1 in the matter of our service rendered to our ,king who has saved us4 ,the theme no doubt is one which admits of much interesting and important enquiry2 and it has many sides4 ,but after all the true philosophy of it lies in the truth as it is in ,jesus4 ,let the ,christian be seeking the reward of personal aggrandizement in heaven1 to sit on ,his right hand1 or on ,his left1 in ,his glory2 and the motive is as earthly as if the scene of its fulfilment were to be an earthly palace4 ,let him be seeking the well done of ,jesus ,christ1 because ,jesus ,christ has redeemed him1 and is dear to him2 and he is in the line of the will1 and of the love1 of ,god4 #a ,dr ,h4 ,bonar4 #b ,heth o katelephthen3 grammatically we may render1 inasmuch as ,i was seized2 cp4 the ,greek of ,rom4 v4 #ab2 #a ,cor4 v4 #d4 ,but the connexion of thought seems to be best met by the above rendering1 which is practically that of ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 #c ,stephanos1 as in #a ,cor4 ix4 #be1 ,rev4 iii4 #aa1 and often4 ,stephanos is properly the victor's wreath1 diadema the king's crown 7,rev4 xix4 #ab74--;,for a short essay on ,st ,paul's use of athletic metaphors see this ,epistle in ,the ,cambridge ,greek ,testament1 ,appendix4 #d ,klesis1 kalein1 kletoi1 in the ,epistles will be found regularly to refer not to the general invitations of the ,gospel1 but to the actually prevailing power of ,god over the wills of ,his people4 ,see particularly #a ,cor4 i4 #bc1 #bd1 where the call is clearly distinguished from the general proclamation1 which alas so many ,greeks and ,jews heard1 but only to reject it4 #e ,hephthasamen3 the verb seems always to indicate not merely reaching1 but reaching with some difficulty4 ,i attempt to express this in the translation4 #f ,there is good evidence for omitting the words kanoni1 to auto phronein4--,stoichein is more in detail than peripatein3 to step1 not only to walk4 ,see the ,greek of ,rom4 iv4 #ab4 ,sovereign ,lord and gracious ,master1 ,thou didst freely choose ,thine own1 ,thou hast call'd with holy calling1 ,thou wilt save1 and keep from falling2 ,thine the glory1 ,thine alone6 ,yet ,thy hand shall crown in heaven ,all the grace ,thy love hath given2 ,just1 though undeserv'd1 reward ,from our glorious1 gracious ,lord4 ,f4 ,r4 ,,havergal4 ,,the ,,blessed ,,hope ,,and ,,its ,,power ,we are waiting1 we are yearning for ,thy voice ,through the long1 long summer day and winter night2 ,we are mourning till ,thou bid'st our souls rejoice1 ,till ,thy coming turns our darkness into light3 ,come1 ,lord ,jesus1 come again2 ,we shall see ,thee as ,thou art1 ,then1 and not till then1 ,in ,thy glory bear a part2 ,then1 and not till then1 ,thou wilt satisfy each heart4 ,j4 ,,denham ,,smith4 ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,blessed ,,hope ,,and ,,its ,,power ,,philippians iii4 #ag-ba ,the problem of the body--,cautions and tears--,that blessed hope--,the duty of warning--,the moral power of the hope--,the hope full of immortality--,my mother's life--,he is able--,the promise of his coming ,the ,apostle draws to the close of his appeal for a true and watchful fidelity to the ,gospel4 ,he has done with his warning against ,judaistic legalism4 ,he has expounded1 in the form of a personal confession and testimony1 the true ,christian position1 the acceptance of the believer in the righteousness which is of ,god by faith1 and the sanctification of the believer through union with his ,lord and in an always growing communion with ,him4 ,throughout this deep and most tender argument has run everywhere the truth with which it began1 that the sure antidote to the spiritual errors in question is joy in the ,lord4 ,the glad use of ,jesus ,christ in ,his personal glory and perfection1 as ,he merited for us1 and as we abide in ,him--this is the way4 ,already another class of mistake and danger has risen before his mind1 and occupies it now exclusively4 ,from ver4 #ab onward1 if ,i read the passage aright1 he has been thinking not of the legalist only1 who opposed and denounced his doctrine of grace and faith1 but of the school or schools which rather would applaud it--and then distort it4 ,there was the teacher who would assert a premature and delusive personal perfection1 proclaiming himself so close to ,christ that he had already reached the holy goal4 ,and there was the teacher who would reason so upon the perfectness of the atoning merits as to disclaim the need of seeking with all his soul a personal conformity to the ,lord of the ,atonement4 ,such a man would conceivably affirm for himself an experience of intense spiritual insight1 a communion with ,god profound and direct1 an exaltation into a celestial atmosphere of consciousness2 while yet1 and on his own avowed theory1 he was living a life in which sin was allowed to reign in his mortal body1 ,what did it matter8 ,the spirit soared and expatiated in a higher region4 ,the true man lived in the world above1 commercing with the skies2 it was but the body1 soon to perish1 which went its own way1 and might be allowed to do so1 for it could never be other than the uncongenial burthen of the real man4 ,such theories1 as all are aware1 were largely developed and widely spread in the sub-apostolic age4 ,the word ,gnosticism1 so familiar to the reader of the early history of thought in and around the ,church1 reminds us of this2 for while many ,gnostics were severe ascetics1 others were practical libertines2 and the divergent practices sprang from one deep source of error1 dishonour of the body4 ,to both schools1 spirit was good1 matter was evil4 ,by both therefore the body was viewed not as a subject of redemption1 but as a barrier in its way4 ,the one aimed to wear out the barrier1 to help it to disappear4 ,the others left it1 as they thought1 alone2 leapt1 as they thought1 over it2 as if they could pursue a spiritual life which should be irrespective of the body's hopeless evils4 ,the embryo1 at least1 of this latter type of thought was beyond doubt apparent in ,st ,paul's day1 and had begun to be felt at ,philippi4 ,there1 in that loving and beloved community1 the plague had begun1 or at least the infection was imminent4 ,many walked 7perhaps not actually at ,philippi yet1 but they might soon come7 in the foul broad road which they asserted to be clean and narrow4 ,very probably they used the terms of the ,pauline ,gospel1 and said much of grace1 and faith1 and the ,spirit1 and the things above4 ,but none the less they were the victims of an awful self-delusion2 teachers whose doctrine led downwards to the pit4 ,to them he comes at length1 explicitly and finally4 ,in view of them he places before the ,philippians once more the fact of his own and his brethren's examples1 and then the sanctifying power of that blessed hope1 the ,redemption of the ,body4 ,ver4 #ag4 ,united imitators of me become ye1 brethren2 taking me1 your long-known guide in the ,lord1 for your moral pattern1 and strengthening your mutual cohesion 7summimetai7 by so doing 7an appeal prompted not by egotism or self-confidence1 but by single-hearted certainty about my message and my purpose72 and mark1 watch1 in order to tread in their steps1#a those who so walk as you have us1 me and my missionary-brethren1 for a model2 those whose practical conduct in human life and intercourse 7peripatein71 seen among you day by day in its wholesomeness and truth1 plainly reproduces what you remember of ours4 ,there is need for this attention1 and for this ,ver4 #ah4 discrimination4 ,for there are many men walking1 pursuing a line of conduct and practice1 whom ,i often used to tell you of1 in the days of our direct intercourse1 but 7de7 now tell you of actually 7kai7 with cries and tears 7klaion71 7so much has the evil grown1 in extent and in depth1 so awfully apparent are its issues1 for this world and the world to come17 as the enemies1 the personal enemies 7tous echthrous71 as if in a bad pre-eminence1 of the ,cross of our 7tou7 ,christ1 that ,cross of whose virtues they can say much1 but whose power upon the soul they utterly ignore2 of ,ver4 #ai4 whom the end is perdition1 ruin of the whole being1#b final and hopeless2 of whom the god is the belly1 7the sensual appetites1 the body's degradation1 not its function17 while they claim an exalted and special intimacy with the ,supreme2 and their 7he7 glory1 their boast to see deeper and to soar higher than others1 is in their shame2 men whose mind is for 7phronouten7 the things on earth1 not1 as they dream1 or as at least they say1 for the things of an upper and super-corporeal world4 ,no2 their subtle doctrine of spirit and body--what is it when tested in its issues8 ,it is but a philosophy of sin2 a gossamer robe over the self-indulgence which has come to be the real interest of the theorist1 the real occupation of his will4 ,all is really1 with them1 of the earth1 earthy4 ,far other is the doctrine we have learned1 and have striven to exemplify1 at the feet of ,christ4 ,ver4 #bj4 ,for our city-home1 the seat of our citizenship1 and of the conduct which it demands and inspires1#c subsists in the heavens1 is always there1 an antecedent and abiding fact 7huparchei71 on which we are to act in life2 in that heavenly world1 where the ,lord is1 and for which ,he is training us2 the eternal ,country of this eternal ,city and ,home2 out of which 7city7#d we are actually 7kai7 waiting for1 as our ,saviour1 in the full and final sense1 the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 who will ,ver4 #ba4 transfigure--not annihilate1 not cast away as essentially evil1 but wonderfully change in its conditions1 and so in its guise1 in its semblance 7schema7--the body of our humiliation1 this body1 now inseparably connected with the burthens and abasements of our mortality1 humbling us continually in the course of its necessities1 and of its sufferings1 but not therefore1 in its essence1 other than ,god's good handiwork2 to be conformed1 with a resemblance based on an essential assimilation 7summorphon1 morphe71 to the body of ,his glory1 as ,he resumed ,his blessed ,body when ,he rose1 and as ,he wears it now upon the ,throne1 and in it manifests ,himself to the happy ones in their bliss2 according to1 in ways and measures conditioned only by1 the forth-putting 7energeia7 of ,his ability actually to subdue to ,himself all things that are 7ta panta74 ,so the great passage1 the pregnant chapter1 ends4 ,as it began so it closes--with ,jesus ,christ4 ,with ,him ,his servant can never have done2 ,him first1 ,him midst1 ,him last1 and without end4 ,jesus ,christ is the present joy1 and the everlasting hope4 ,his perfected righteousness is the believer's actual deep safety and repose4 ,his unsearchable riches of personal grace and glory are the constant animation and ever-rising standard of the believer's spiritual progress4 ,he is the eternal ,antidote to our fears1 and also to our sins4 ,he is the infinite ,contradiction to the least compromise1 under any pretext1 with evil2 and ,he is this1 among other ways1 by being ,himself that blessed ,hope2 the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 which is our ,hope 7#a ,tim4 i4 #a72 so that the prospect of ,his ,return1 and of what ,he will do for us1 and for ,himself 7eauto71 when ,he returns1 is to be our mighty motive in the matter of practical1 aye of bodily1 cleanness and holiness of life4 ,the whole passage now before us is strongly characteristic of the ,new ,testament way of dealing with sin4 ,in the first place1 there is no lack of urgent and explicit warning4 ,the moral and spiritual evil is labelled unmistakably4 ,it is pointed out as a danger not hypothetical but actual2 not floating in the air1 but embodied in lives and influences3 ,many persons walk whom ,i tell you of with tears as the enemies of the cross of ,christ4 ,and of these persons1 as such1 it is unflinchingly said that their end is atoleia1 ruin1 perdition2 dread and hopeless word4 ,in all this lies a lesson for our day4 ,in many quarters the solemn utterance of warning is now almost silent2 it is regarded as almost unchristian to warn sinners1 even open sinners1 to do anything so much out of the fashion as to flee from the wrath to come1 the wrath which is coming upon the children of disobedience4 ,but this is not the apostolic way1 nor the ,lord's way4 ,yet this passage1 this heart-searching appeal1 while it deals with warning1 does not end with it4 ,its strongest and chosen argument is not fear but hope2 not perdition but the coming again of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and our gathering together unto ,him4 ,st ,paul has to guard the ,philippians against a most subtle form of sensual temptation1 a masterpiece of the ,enemy4 ,in passing1 and with bitter tears1 he points to the gulph where that path ends4 ,in closing1 and with his whole heart1 he points to the coming ,lord in ,his benignant glory1 and to the unutterable joy of our being then1 finally and even in our material being1 transfigured for ever into ,his likeness4 ,for our own blessing1 and for that of others1 let us follow this example4 ,whether in the pulpit to a listening throng1 or in more individual approaches to other men1 or when we turn in upon ourselves1 and1 like the ,psalmists1 speak to our own souls1 in the most secret possible hour1 let us seek to speak thus4 ,let us not take an opiate against the ideas of judgment1 wrath1 perdition--unless1 with our ,bibles quite open1 we are quite sure that such things are only dreams of a past religious night4 ,let us take urgent heed1 above all for ourselves1 lest we lose faith in the warnings of ,god4 ,but all the while let us present to ourselves1 and to others1 as the great argument of all for saying ,no to specious sin1 that blessed ,hope4 ,let us consider ,jesus ,christ1 till ,he shines upon us in something of the glory of ,his ,person and ,his ,work4 ,let us wait for ,him from heaven4 ,more and more1 as the years roll1 and the suns set1 and that day is approaching1 let us take our place among those who love ,his appearing4 ,and as for our bodies1 and ,his call to be pure in body as in spirit1 let us continually remember that the body is for the ,lord1 and the ,lord for the body 7#a ,cor4 vi4 #ac74 ,let us not merely try to reason down temptation1 or to order it down1 in the name of abstract rightness1 or of concrete peril4 ,let us recollect as a glorious fact that the body is the purchased property of the ,lord ,jesus2 that ,he cares for it1 as ,his dear-bought possession2 that ,he can1 by ,his own ,spirit1 sanctify it now1 through and through2 and that ,he is coming1 perhaps very soon indeed1 to transfigure it to be conformed to the body of ,his glory4 ,the whole genius of the ,gospel tends to connect together1 as closely as possible1 holiness and happiness4 ,they are to act and react in manifold ways in the ,christian life4 ,holiness lies at the root of happiness1 as its deep condition4 ,but also happiness1 from another point of view1 waters the root of holiness1 and expands its flowers1 and brings its sweet fruit to fulness4 ,the joy of the ,lord is your strength--your strength to say to temptation a ,no which shall be entirely willing and simple4 ,never shall we so tread down the tempter1 and the traitor1 as when we are rejoicing in ,christ ,jesus1 and in the hope of the glory of ,god4 ,then let us cultivate this blessed secret4 ,let us prove the power of ,christ loved and looked for4 ,in a very special sense let ,st ,paul teach us here to apply to our present needs the force of a heavenly future1 the future of ,his coming1 and of our meeting ,him and being transfigured by ,him4 ,in many directions1 in the ,church1 this rule is being practised now with great earnestness1 and with happy issues2 the looking for the ,lord's ,return is indeed a reality to many4 ,but in many directions it is otherwise4 ,christian thought and labour too often seem to limit themselves to the sphere of the present1 and to forget that the goal of the ,gospel is not a state of social bien-etre developed by philanthropy under the auspices1 so to speak1 of ,christ1 but an immortality of holy power and service1 won for us by ,his merits1 prepared for us by ,his exaltation1 while we are prepared for it by ,his ,spirit working in us4 ,again and again we need to remember this4 ,the ,gospel showers along its path1 upon the mortal life of man1 personal and social blessings of the philanthropic kind which nothing else can possibly bring down4 ,it makes to-day infinitely important by connecting it with the eternal to-morrow4 ,but the path is towards that to-morrow4 ,we look at the things not seen1 for the things which are not seen are eternal4 ,we desire a better country1 that is1 an heavenly4 ,it doth not yet appear what we shall be2 we shall be like ,him1 for we shall see ,him as ,he is4 ,much current ,christian teaching practically tends to drop immortality very nearly out of sight4 ,the ,lord's ,return1 the heavenly ,life1 the liberty of the glory of the sons of ,god--these topics are either little mentioned1 or treated too much as luxuries and ornaments of the ,gospel4 ,but it was not so for the ,lord ,jesus1 and for ,his ,apostles4 ,and we shall find that to follow ,him and them in this1 as in other things1 is best4 ,it hath the promise of the life that now is1 and of that which is to come4 ,their doctrine of the future is much more than an antidote to death4 ,it is the mighty animation of life4 ,it makes altogether for present purity1 and righteousness1 and self-sacrificing love1 in the concrete circumstances of this generation4 ,it is the thought in which alone man can live his true life now1 as a being who is made to glorify ,god--and to enjoy ,him fully for ever4 ,as a matter of fact1 no human life is so true1 full1 and beautiful as that which is at once assiduously attentive to present duty and service1 and full of the everlasting hope4 ,such lives are being lived all around us4 ,which of my readers has not known at least one such8 ,for me1 one among many shines out in my heart radiant with a brightness all its own2 it is the life of my blessed ,mother4 ,she has now been a great while with the ,lord1 on whom she so long believed4 ,but the impression of what that conversation was is not only indelible2 it lives and moves1 as fresh to-day as ever4 ,it was a busy life--the life of a wife1 a mother of many sons1 a friend of many friends1 the pastor's help-mate in a poor parish4 ,it was a life of minute and devoted attention to every duty1 large and little4 ,it was a life of warm and ready sympathies1 and manifold interests4 ,but it was a life all the while of divine communion1 and of an unwavering hope full of immortality4 ,dear to that heart indeed were husband1 children1 friends1 neighbours1 suffering and sinning world4 ,very fruitful was that life for individual and social blessing1 just such as the philanthropist seeks to convey4 ,side by side with my ,father1 who laboured incessantly through a long life for ,god and man1 and for men's health as well as their salvation1 my ,mother lived for others in all their present needs4 ,but the springs of what she was1 and did1 were within the veil4 ,and the choice and the longing were always1 in perfect harmony with every strong human affection1 directed towards heaven ,she did indeed wait1 as for her ,saviour1 for the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,and the whole result1 for those whom that life affected1 was a deep1 strong evidence of ,christianity4 ,in her we saw the ,gospel beautify the present by lifting the veil of the blessed future4 ,we recognized the reality of ,jesus ,christ now by converse with one who so much desired the sight of ,his glory then4 ,as we draw to an end1 let us take up the closing words of our paragraph1 and read them as a special lesson of faith4 ,st ,paul is telling us of a change yet to pass over us1 over these our bodies1 altogether inconceivable in kind and degree4 ,they are to be transfigured into conformity to the body of our ,saviour's glory4 ,yes1 it is inconceivable2 in modern parlance1 it is unthinkable4 ,how can these things be8 ,well1 ,scripture does not invite us to conceive it1 to think it1 in the sense of thinking it out4 ,it helps us indeed elsewhere 7#a ,cor4 xv47 with intimations and illustrations1 up to a certain point2 but this is not to explain1 or to ask us to explain4 ,what it does is something better2 it invites us to trust a personal ,agent1 who understands all that ,he has undertaken1 and who is able4 ,how can these things be8 ,not according to this or that law1 principle1 or tendency1 which we can divine4 ,no2 but according to the mighty working whereby ,,he is able to subdue all things unto ,himself4 ,the method of the ,bible is to give us ample views of what ,jesus ,christ is1 and then 7not before7 to ask us to trust ,jesus ,christ to ,,do what he says ,he can4 ,he says1 ,i will raise you up at the last day4 ,and ,he does not go on to explain4 ,he says nothing in detail of ,his modus operandi4 ,we are in absolute ignorance of it1 as much as the ,christians of five1 or ten1 or eighteen centuries ago4 ,we do not know how4 ,but we know ,him4 ,and ,he has said1 ,i will--and has died and risen again4 ,shall we not rest here8 ,it is good ground4 ,i know whom ,i have believed2 and am persuaded that ,he is able4 ,and what is true of ,his power and promise in this great matter of our resurrection and our glory1 is true of course all round the circle of ,his undertakings4 ,he can subdue all things4 ,and therefore1 not only death1 and the grave1 and the mysteries of matter1 but also our hearts1 our affections1 our wills4 ,he can bring every thought into captivity to the holy rule of ,his thought4 ,he can subdue our iniquities4 ,and he can subdue also all that we know as circumstance and condition2 making the crooked straight1 and the rough places plain4 ,how1 we may be wholly ignorant beforehand2 only1 according to the mighty working4 ,lastly1 it is heauto1#e unto ,,himself4 ,what a word of rest and power6 ,our expectation of ,his victories in us and for us does not terminate upon ourselves2 it is never safe to terminate things there4 ,it rises and rests in ,himself4 ,our glorification1 body and soul1 is1 ultimately1 unto ,him2 therefore the prospect1 and the desire1 are boundlessly right and safe4 ,to subdue all things unto ,himself2 so as to serve ,him1 to promote ,his ends1 to do ,his will4 ,our absolute emancipation from all the limitations of both moral and material evil is unto ,himself4 ,emancipation on this side1 it is an entire and eternal annexation on the other4 ,the being will be fully liberated that it may fully serve--day and night in ,his temple4 ,even so1 come1 ,lord ,jesus4 ,come1 to our full and final salvation4 ,come1 that we1 the beings whom ,thou hast made1 and remade1 may enjoy the liberty of the glory 7,rom4 viii4 #ba7 for which we were destined in ,thy love4 ,come1 that we may be for ever happy1 and strong1 and free1 in that wonderful world of the resurrection4 ,come1 that we may meet again with exceeding joy the beloved ones who have gone before us1 and all ,thy saints1 and may with them inherit the everlasting kingdom4 ,but oh come yet more for ,thyself1 and for ,thy glory1 and to take ,thy full possession4 ,subdue all things1 ,lord ,jesus1 unto ,thyself4 ,subdue our death for ever1 that our endless life may be1 in all its fulness1 spent for ,thee4 ,for ,thou hast met our longings ,with words of golden tone1 ,that we shall serve for ever ,thyself1 ,thyself alone2 ,shall serve ,thee1 and for ever1 ,oh hope most sure1 most fair2 ,the perfect love outpouring ,in perfect service there4 #f #a skopeite3 skopein usually has reference to the attention which results in avoidance2 so ,rom4 xvi4 #ag3 parakalo skopein tous ta skandala poiountas kai ekklinate k4t4l4 ,but here obviously the looking is for imitation4--,the ,philippians knew ,st ,paul's teaching1 and in his attached leading disciples among them they could see it embodied4 #b ,cp4 ,matt4 vii4 #ac2 ,rom4 vi4 #ba2 #b ,cor4 xi4 #ae2 ,heb4 vi4 #h2 #a ,pet4 iv4 #ag4 #c ,i thus attempt to give the meaning of politeuma1 so far as ,i understand it4 ,the ,r4,v4 renders it citizenship1 and commonwealth in the margin4 ,the usage of the word in ,greek literature amply justifies either1 and either well suits the general context4 ,the ,apostle means that ,christians are citizens of the heavenly ,city as to their status1 and are therefore obliged by their nobility to live1 however far from their home1 as those who belong to it1 and represent it4 ,what seems lacking however in the rendering of the ,r4,v4 is the idea of locality1 which 7to me7 was clearly present to ,st ,paul's mind in his use of politeuma here4 ,the proof of this lies in the words ex ou just below2 not ex on 7ouranon7 but ex ou 7politeumatos73 ,i can find no proof of the assertion 7,moulton's ,winer1 p4 #agg7 that ex ou is a mere equivalent for hothen1 and so may refer to the plural ouranoi4 ,the rendering seat of citizenship seems fairly to represent politeuma thus4--,the ,a4,v4 conversation 7,lat4 conversatio1 intercourse of life7 probably represents an impression of the translators that the ,apostle is as it were echoing i4 #bg1 axios tu euaggeliou politeuesthe4 ,but the imagery here is different1 and definite4 #d ,see note just above on ex ou4 #e ,perhaps read auta4 ,but the translation must remain the same4 #f ,f4 ,r4 ,havergal4 ,,purity ,,and ,,peace ,,in ,,the ,,present ,,lord ,now the ,christians1 ,o ,king1 as men who know ,god1 ask from ,him petitions which are proper for ,him to give and for them to receive2 and thus they accomplish the course of their lives4 ,and because they acknowledge the goodnesses of ,god towards them1 lo6 on account of them there flows forth the beauty that is in the world4--,apology of ,aristides1 about ,a4,d4 #acj2 translated by ,,mrs ,,rendel ,,harris4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,purity ,,and ,,peace ,,in ,,the ,,present ,,lord ,,philippians iv4 #a-i ,euodia and ,syntyche--,conditions to unanimity--,great uses of small occasions--,connexion to the paragraphs--,the fortress and the sentinel--,a golden chain of truths--,joy in the ,lord--,yieldingness--,prayer in everything--,activities of a heart at rest ,ver4 #a4 ,so1 my brethren beloved and longed for1 missed indeed1 at this long distance from you1 my joy and crown of victory 7stephanos71 thus1 as having such certainties and such aims1 with such a ,saviour1 and looking for such a heaven1 stand firm in the ,lord1 beloved ones4 ,the words are a link of gold between the passage just ended and that which is to follow4 ,they sum up the third chapter of the ,epistle into one practical issue4 ,in view of all that can tempt them away to alien thoughts and beliefs ,st ,paul once more points the converts to ,jesus ,christ2 or rather1 he once more bids them remember that in ,him they are1 and that their safety1 their life1 is to stay there1 recollected and resolved4 ,there is the point of overwhelming advantage against error1 and against sin2 and only there4 ,standing in the ,lord1 in remembrance and in use of their vital union with ,him1 they would be armed alike against the pharisaic and the antinomian heresy4 ,counterfeits and perversions would be seen1 or at least felt1 to be such while they were thus in living and working contact with the ,,reality4 ,there1 with a holy instinct1 they would repudiate utterly a merit of their own before ,god1 and a strength of their own against sin4 ,there1 with equal inward certainty1 they would detect and reject the suggestion that they should not surely die1 though impurity was cloaked and loved4 ,but the words we have just rendered look forward also4 ,st ,paul is about to allude1 for the last time1 and quite explicitly1 to that blot on the fair ,philippian fame1 the presence in the little mission ,church of certain jealousies and divisions4 ,one instance of this evil is prominent in his thoughts1 no doubt on ,epaphroditus' report4 ,two ,christian women1 ,euodia#a and ,syntyche1 evidently well-known ,church members1 possibly officials1 deaconesses1 like ,phoebe 7,rom4 xvi4 #a71 were at personal variance4 ,into their life and work for ,christ 7for workers they were1 or however had been2 they had wrestled along with ,paul in the ,gospel17 had come this grievous inconsistency4 ,somehow 7modern experiences in religious activity supply illustrations only too easily7 they had let the spirit of self come in2 jealousy and a sense of grievance lay between them4 ,and out of this unhappy state it was the ,apostle's deep desire to bring them1 quickly and completely4 ,he appeals to them personally about it1 with a directness and explicitness which remind us how homelike still were the conditions of the mission ,church4 ,he calls on his true yoke-fellow1 and on ,clement1 and on his other fellow-labourers1 to help the two to a better mind1 by all the arts of ,christian friendship4 ,but surely first1 in this verse1 he leads not only the ,philippians generally but ,euodia and ,syntyche in particular up to a level where the self-will and self-assertion must1 of themselves1 expire4 ,stand firm in the ,lord4 ,in recollection and faith surround yourselves with ,jesus ,christ4 ,the more you do so the more you will find that so to be in ,him is to be of one mind in ,him4 ,in that ,,presence self is put to shame indeed4 ,pique1 and petty jealousies1 and miserable heart-burnings1 and just pride1 die of inanition there1 and heart meets heart in love1 because in ,christ4 ,it is not guaranteed to us1 ,i think1 that we shall certainly be brought here on earth to perfect intellectual agreement by a realized union with ,christ all round4 ,such agreement will certainly be promoted by such a realization2 we all know how powerfully1 in almost all matters outside number and figure1 feeling can influence reasoning2 and to have feeling rightly adjusted1 in ,him that is true1 must be a great aid to just reasoning1 and so a great contribution to mental agreement4 ,thomas ,scott1 in his ,force of ,truth1 7a memorable record of experience17 maintains that vastly more doctrinal concord would be attained in ,christendom if all true ,christians unreservedly and with a perfect will sought for ,god's heart 7and mind7 in ,god's words4#b ,but it is a law of our present state1 even in ,christ1 that we know in part2 and while this is so1 certain discrepancies of inference would seem to be necessary1 where many minds work each with its partial knowledge4 ,it is otherwise with the spirit of our mind1 the attitude of will and affection in which we think4 ,in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ this is meant to be1 and can be1 rectified indeed1 as every thought is brought into captivity to ,him4 ,if so1 to stand firm in ,him is the way of escape out of all such miseries of dissension 7whether between two friends1 or two ,churches1 or two enterprises7 as are due not to reasoning but to feeling4 ,in ,him there is really no room for envy1 and retaliation1 and the unhappy desire of becoming great1 and the eager combat for our own opinion as such4 ,standing firm in ,him the ,euodias and ,syntyches of all times and places must tend to be of one mind1 one attitude of mind 7phronein74 ,so far as they are1 in a sinful sense1 not so minded1 it is because they are half out of ,him4 ,but now ,st ,paul comes to them1 name by name4 ,what must the tender weight of the words have been as they were first read aloud at ,philippi6 ,ver4 #b4 ,to ,euodia ,i appeal 7parakalo71#c and to ,syntyche ,i appeal1 to be of the same mind1 in the ,lord2 to lay aside differences of feeling1 born of self1 in the power of their common union in ,christ4#e ,aye 7read ,ver4 #c4 nai1 not kai71 and ,i beg thee also1 thee in thy place1 as ,i seek to do in mine1 thou genuine yoke-fellow1#e help them 7autais7--these sisters of ours thus at variance1 women who 7aitines7 wrestled along with me1 as devoted and courageous workers1 in the cause of the ,gospel1 when the first conflicts with the powers of evil were fought at ,philippi2 yes1 do this loving service1 with ,clement#f too1 and my other fellow-workers1 whose names are in the ,book of ,life2 the ,lord's own1 written in heaven1 ,his for ever4#g ,wonderful is the great use of small occasions everywhere in ,scripture4 ,minor incidents in a biography are texts for sentences which afford oracles of truth and hope for ever4 ,local and transitory errors1 like that of the ,thessalonians about their departed friends1 give opportunity for a prophecy on which bereaved hearts are to rest and rejoice till the last trumpet sounds4 ,the unhappy disagreement of two pious women at ,philippi is dealt with in words which lead up to the thought of the eternal love of ,god for ,his chosen2 as if the very unworthiness of the matter in hand1 by a sort of repulsion1 drove the inspired thought to the utmost height1 without for one moment diverting it from its purpose of peace and blessing4 ,and now1 in the passage which is to follow1 the thought still keeps its high and holy level4 ,it says no more indeed of the ,book of ,life4 ,but it unfolds in one sentence after another the manifestation here below of the eternal life in all its holy loveliness4 ,it invites ,euodia1 and ,syntyche1 and us with them1 to the sight of what the believer is called to be1 and may be1 day by day1 as he rejoices in the ,lord1 and recollects ,his presence1 and tells ,him everything as it comes1 and so lives in rest and quietness1 deep in ,his peace2 and finds his happy thoughts occupied not with the miseries of self-esteem and self-assertion1 but with all that is pure and good1 in the smile of the ,god of peace4 ,the passage now to be translated has surely this among its other precious attractions and benefits1 that it stands related to what has gone just before4 ,the precepts and promises are not given as it were in the air2 they are occasioned by ,euodia and ,syntyche1 or rather by what they have suggested to ,st ,paul's mind1 the crime and distress of an unchristian spirit in ,christians4 ,it is with this he is dealing4 ,and he deals with it not by an elaborate exposure of its obvious wrong1 but by carrying it into the sanctuary of holiness and peace1 there to die4 ,with this recollection let us read the words now before us4 ,ver4 #d4 ,rejoice in the ,lord always2 again ,i will say 7ero71 ,rejoice2 ,i have said it above1 as my antidote-word to every subtle error2 ,i come back 7palin7 to say it again1 as my antidote to self-will4 ,your ,ver4 #e4 yieldingness1 your selflessness1 the spirit which will yield in anything that is only of self1 for ,christ's sake1 let it be known to all men1 let it be proved a reality in real life1 by all and sundry who have to do with you2 the ,lord is near1 always beside you1 to ,ver4 #f4 know1 to love1 to elevate1 to calm4#h ,about nothing be anxious 7merimnate72 never let yourselves be burthened and distracted as those who are alone from your ,lord2 but in everything1 however great1 however little1 by your 7te7 prayer1 your whole worshipping approach to ,him1 and your 7te7 supplication1 your definite petitions of ,him1 with thanksgiving1 thanks at least for this1 that you have ,him to speak to and to trust1 let your requests be made known towards our ,god 7pros ton ,theon71 with perfect simplicity of detail1 putting aside all the mysteries of prayer in the ,ver4 #g4 recollection that ,he bids you pray4 ,and1 and thus1 not anyhow1 but thus1 in adoring1 trusting communion with ,him1 the peace of ,god1 the innermost tranquillity caused by contact with ,him1 breathed by ,his ,spirit into ours1 the peace which transcends all mind1 for no reasoning can explain and define its nature and its consciousness1 shall 7it is nothing less than a promise7 safeguard1 as garrison1 as sentinel 7phrouresei71 your hearts1 in all their depths of will1 affection1 and reflexion1 and your thoughts1 the very workings of those hearts in detail1 in ,christ ,jesus4 ,in ,him you are1 as your ,fortress of rest and holiness2 and1 while there you rest1 this sacred keeper watches the door2 the peace of ,god is sentinel4 ,such was to be the condition for the true play of the inner life2 such1 not in a dream but at ,philippi1 were to be their hearts and thoughts1 in ,christ ,jesus2 thus happy1 gentle1 unanxious1 prayerful1 thankful1 all the day4 ,and now1 what is to be the matter for such conditions1 the food for such thinking and such willing8 ,there is to be no vacuum1 called peace4 ,these hearts and thoughts are to be active1 discursive1 reflective2 reckoning1 calculating1 reasoning out 7logixesthai7 innumerable things--all with a view1 of course1 to the life-long work of serving ,god and man4 ,ver4 #h4 ,for1 finally1 brethren1 all things that are true1 all things that are honourable1 serious1 sacred1 venerable1 self-respectful1 all things that are righteous1 as between man and man in common life1 all things that are pure1 clean words1 clean deeds1 all things that are amiable1 gracious1 kindly2 for manner as well as matter falls under the will of ,god2 all things that are sweet to speak of1 things prompting a loving and noble tone of conversation2 whatever virtue there is1 truly so called1 not in the pagan sense of self-grounded vigour1 even in right directions1 but in that of the energy for right which is found in ,god2 and whatever praise there is1 given rightly by the human conscience to deeds and purposes of good2 these things think out1 reckon1 reason on 7logixesthe74 ,let right in all its practical1 all its noble forms1 be the subject-matter of your considering and designing activities within4 ,strong1 not in yourselves but in your ,lord's presence and ,his peace1 use ,his strength in you to work out every precept of ,his ,word1 every whisper of ,his ,spirit1 every dictate of the conscience ,he has given4 ,then follows one word of a more personal kind2 it is no egotism1 but as if he would remind them amidst these great generalities of principle that they well knew a human life which strove to realize them in practice4 ,ver4 #i4 ,the things you learnt of me1 and received as revealed truth from me1 and heard and saw in me1 these things practise 7prassette71 make them the habits of your lives2 and so the ,god of peace1 ,author and ,giver of peace within1 and of harmony around1 shall be with you2 your ,companion and ,guardian1 ,lord of the ,sabbath of the soul1 secret of the true unity of the group1 and of the ,church4 ,thus we read over again this golden chain of commandments which are not grievous and exceeding precious promises4 ,few passages of equal length1 even in ,st ,paul's ,epistles1 at once invite more attention to details of language and convey richer spiritual messages4 ,very passingly and partially ,i have noted the more important details of word and phrase1 in the course of the translation4 ,it remains to say not what ,i would but what ,i can1 in brief compass1 upon the messages to the ,christian's soul4 ,let us be quite practical1 and let our study take the simplest form4 ,in this wonderful paragraph let us not only wonder2 let us take its sentences as revelations of fact4 ,here the ,holy ,spirit through the ,apostle sets before us some of the intended facts of the normal ,christian life4 ,these precepts were not meant to dissolve into bright dreams2 they were to be obeyed in ,philippi then1 and in ,england now2 they were spoken for not ideal but actual human beings1 the rank and file of the followers of the ,lord4 ,these promises were not meant to be met with an aspiration1 followed by a sigh4 ,they were to be received and used1 as certainties of the grace of ,god1 before the sons of men4 ,come then to the paragraph once again1 to study it with real life in immediate view1 and in the full consciousness of our own sin and weakness4 ,here are some of the normal possibilities of grace1 not for the strong and holy but for the very weak1 for those who know that in their flesh dwelleth no good thing1 but who come to ,jesus1 and 7if only for very fear and need7 stay by ,him4 ,here then is the fact1 first1 that the ,christian life1 as such1 is to be1 and may be1 a life of joy in the ,lord always4 ,such is the ,lord that ,he is indeed able to be a perpetual cause of joy4 ,the believer has but to recollect ,,him1 to consider ,,him1 to converse with ,,him1 to make use of ,,him1 in order to have in himself 7not of himself7 a well of water1 springing up unto eternal life4 ,in joy and sorrow1 life and death1 ,his love is still the same2 for ,,he is still the same2 and the believing man is ,his4 ,he will henceforth covet1 and cultivate1 this life of holy joy in the ,lord always4 ,it is not a boisterous mirth2 it is pure and chastened2 but it is joy4 ,it is an unfigurative happiness1 a deep practical cheerfulness1 full of health for him who has it1 and a most powerful secret for influence over those who have to do with him4 ,think of the track of light left behind by lives of holy joy which we have watched6 ,it was good to be near them4 ,the very things and places round them were warmed and beautified by them4 ,and their source and strength lay1 not in the believer1 but in the ,lord2 therefore the way is open for us too2 we may be bearers of such sunshine too1 happy and making happy4 ,by influence of the light divine ,let thy own light to others shine2 ,reflect all heaven's propitious rays ,in ardent love and cheerful praise4 #i ,again1 here is the fact that the normal ,christian life is1 as such1 a life of moderation known unto all men1 in the controlling calm of the nearness of the ,lord4 ,the meaning of this moderation 7to epieikes7 we have seen2 it is that blessed facility1 that unselfish yieldingness1 which is not weakness at all but the outcome of the meekness of a heart which ,christ has overcome4 ,it is the instinctive spirit1 where ,he is in full command of thought and will1 when personal grievances cross us1 when our personal claims are slighted1 our feelings disregarded1 and even our legitimate rights overridden4 ,of course more considerations than one have to be taken as to our action when our rights are overridden4 ,we have to ask whether our yielding will be helpful or hurtful to others2 we have even to ask whether to yield may not do harm to the invader4 ,but these questions1 if honestly asked1 stand clear of the spirit of self2 they regard others4 ,and wherever they can be so answered as to leave us free to yield in view of others1 we1 if ,christians indeed1 living really our ,christian life1 shall find it quite possible1 in the ,lord ,jesus1 to let our yieldingness be known unto all men1 in the deep calm of the ,lord at hand4 ,yes1 this can be so1 in the most complicated life1 and with the most irritable character1 if we will fully receive the grace of ,god 7#b ,cor4 vi4 #a74 ,and the all men who know it will note it1 and will recognize1 sooner or later1 the ,master in the servant4 ,yet again1 the normal ,christian life is given here as a life free from care1 from that miserable anxiety1 merimna1 which blights and withers human happiness far and wide1 whether it comes in the form of a weight of large responsibilities or of the most trifling misgivings4 ,be careful for nothing2 care-ful in the antique sense of the word2 burthened with care4 ,in the modern sense of careful1 no one should be more careful than we2 faithful in the least1 shewing all good fidelity in all things1 walking circumspectly1 accurately1 akribos 7,eph4 v4 #ae71 pleasing the neighbour for his good unto edification1 whether we eat or drink1 doing all to the glory of ,god1 watching and praying always4 ,but in the other sense we are1 we positively are1 enjoined to live without carefulness2 to take pains1 but in peace2 to work and serve1 but at rest within2 to provide1 to think beforehand 7pronoeisthai1 ,rom4 xii4 #ag71 but in the repose of soul given by the fact that with the morrow will come the ,lord1 or rather that ,he will walk with us and lead us into it4 ,it is a great triumph to live such a life2 but it is ,his triumph1 not ours4 ,let us leave ,him free 7may the word be used in reverence87 to win it2 to do this mighty work1 to bear our burthen daily 7so we may render ,ps4 lxxviii4 #ai74 ,nothing will much more glorify ,him in eyes that notice our daily walk than to see us always taking care1 yet always unanxious while we take it4 ,in the calm of sweet communion ,let thy daily work be done2 ,in the peace of soul-outpouring ,care be banish'd1 patience won4 #aj ,the sweet hymn leads us straight to the next point4 ,the normal ,christian life1 according to this paragraph1 is a life of perpetual1 habitual1 converse with ,god1 converse about everything4 ,and such converse has everything to do with the unanxious life4 ,the man who would be unanxious is to cultivate the practice of reverent1 worshipping 7proseuche71 thankful1 detailed prayer2 so shall he enter into peace4 ,here is a large subject2 it is inexhaustible2 from every aspect prayer is wonderful2 and there are many kinds and types of prayer1 as regards the act and exercise of it4 ,but the all-important thing to remember here is that we are called to pray as the great means to a divine unanxious peace2 and that we are called to pray in the sense of making our requests known in everything4 ,shall we1 in the grace of ,god1 set ourselves to do it8 ,shall we remember the presence of the ,hearer1 and practise the ,presence8 ,shall we act upon it8 ,more1 and more1 and always more1 shall we really in everything turn to ,him1 and tell ,him8 ,thought is good1 but prayer is better2 or rather1 thought in the form of prayer is1 in ten thousand cases1 the best thought4 ,let us make it a rule1 ,god helping1 in everything which calls for pause1 for consideration1 for judgment1 to pray first and then to think4 ,innumerable futile thoughts will thus be saved1 thoughts made fruitless by a hurry of spirit1 or a heat1 or a hardness1 which puts all our view out of order4 ,we shall indeed need to take pains4 ,for while nothing is simpler in idea than the act of speaking to the unseen ,friend1 nothing is more easy1 alas1 to let slip in practice4 ,but the pains will be infinitely worth the while2 it will be all applied at the right point4 ,wonderful result1 guaranteed here by the ,hearer of prayer2 ,his peace shall safeguard our hearts and our thoughts1 in ,christ ,jesus1 in the living ,sanctuary of security and strength4 ,there all our powers shall be active1 yet at rest2 dealing with a thousand things1 yet always conditioned by ,him who is the ,one ,thing ,needful4 ,unity will lie at the heart of multiplicity2 ,christ will rule life from the centre4 ,lastly1 the normal ,christian life1 thus conditioned1 is a life whose mental energies 7logixesthe7 are fully at work1 always gravitating towards purposes and actions true1 pure1 gracious1 virtuous1 commendable2 sowing the fruit of righteousness in peace1 at the side of the ,god of peace4 ,true1 the man may have many things to think of which are either perfectly secular in themselves 7he may be a servant1 he may be a man of business1 he may be a physician1 he may be a minister of state72 or which are evil in themselves 7he may be an investigator1 or a judge1 of crime74 ,nevertheless1 this will not deflect the true current of the mind4 ,these thinkings will all find place and direction in the thought which remembers that the thinker is the ,lord's1 and that in his whole life he is to be true to the ,lord's glory and the good of man4 ,the ,god of peace will be with him wherever he goes1 whatever he does2 deep below the surface1 but so as to control the whole surface all the while4 ,such is the ,christian life1 where the ,christian stands firm in the ,lord4 ,it was thus at ,philippi4 ,in the early generations of the ,church 7let the ,apology of ,aristides alone be adequate witness7 it was thus1 to a degree and to an extent most memorable1 in at least very many ,christian circles4 ,it is thus still1 in many an individual life4 ,but is it in any sense whatever thus in the rule and average or even earnest ,christian lives8 ,is it thus in ours8 ,henceforth1 let us live--not unto ourselves1 but unto ,him who died for us1 and rose again4 ,to ,him1 in ,him1 by ,him1 we are bound to live so 7,rom4 viii4 #ab1 opheileta71 we are able to live so4 ,let us present ourselves to ,god 7,rom4 vi4 #ac71 watching and praying1 and it shall be4 ,two arms ,i find to hold ,thee fast1 ,submission meek and reverent faith2 ,held by ,thy hand that hold shall last ,through life and over death4 ,not me the dark foe fears at all1 ,but hid in ,thee ,i take the field2 ,now at my feet the mighty fall1 ,for ,thou hast bid them yield4 #aa #a ,so certainly read1 not ,euodias1 which would be a man's name1 a contraction of ,euodianus4 ,euodias as a fact is not found in inscriptions4 ,euodia on the other hand is a known feminine name2 and the words just following 7help these women7 make it practically certain that the two persons just named were both female converts4 7,euodian of course may be the accusative of either ,euodias or ,euodia47 #b ,cor ,dei in verbis ,dei2 ,gregory the ,great's noble description of the ,bible1 in a letter to the courtier ,theodoras1 begging him to study daily the ,letter of the heavenly ,emperor4 #c ,i exhort1 ,r4,v4 ,a slightly tenderer word seems better to represent parakalein in this personal connexion4 ,i beseech 7,a4,v47 is perhaps rather too tender4 #d ,as a curiosity of interpretation1 ,ellicott 7see also ,lightfoot1 p4 #agj7 mentions the conjecture of ,schwegler1 that ,euodia and ,syntyche are really designations of ,church-parties the imagined ,petrine and ,pauline parties1 the names being devised and significant ,euodia',good-way1' ,orthodoxy2 ,syntyche',combination1' of ,gentiles and ,jews on equal terms4 ,this theory of course regards our ,epistle as a fabrication of a later generation1 intended as an eirenicon4 ',what will not men affirm8' 7,note on ver4 #b in ,the ,cambridge ,bible for ,schools74 #e ,we know nothing for certain of this person4 ,lightfoot suggests that it was ,epaphroditus1 whom ,st ,paul would thus commission not only orally but in writing1 as a sort of credential4 ,one curious and most improbable conjecture is that it was ,st ,paul's wife4 ,renan 7,saint ,paul1 p4 #adh7 renders here ma chere epouse4 #f ,perhaps the bishop of ,rome of a later day4 ,so ,origen and ,eusebius4 ,but we cannot be certain of the identity4 #g ,cp4 ,rev4 iii4 #e1 xiii4 #h1 xvii4 #h1 xx4 #ab1 #ae1 xxi4 #bg2 and ,luke x4 #bj4 ,and see ,exod4 xxxii4 #cb1 #cc2 ,ps4 lxix4 #bh1 lxxxvii4 #f2 ,isa4 iv4 #c2 ,ezek4 xiii4 #i2 ,dan4 xii4 #a4 ,the result of the comparison of these passages with this seems to be that ,st ,paul here refers to the ,lord's 'knowledge of them that are ,his' 7#b ,tim4 ii4 #ai3 cp4 ,john x4 #bg1 #bh71 for time and eternity4 ,all the passages in the ,revelation1 save iii4 #e1 are clearly in favour of a reference of the phrase to the certainty of the ultimate salvation of all true saints 4 4 4 so too ,dan4 xii4 #a and ,luke x4 #bj4 ,rev4 iii4 #e appears to point in another direction 7see ,trench on that passage74 ,but in view of the other mentions of the ',book' in the ,revelation the language of iii4 #e may well be only a vivid assertion that the name in question shall be found in an indelible register4 4 4 4 ,practically1 the ,apostle here speaks of ,clement and the rest as having given illustrious proof of their part and lot in that 'life eternal' which is 'to know the only true ,god1 and ,jesus ,christ whom ,he hath sent' 7,john xvii4 #c74--,the word 'names' powerfully suggests the individuality and speciality of divine love4 7,note in ,the ,cambridge ,bible for ,schools47 #h ,i think the ,apostle has in mind ,ps4 cxix4 #aea1 where the ,septuagint version has su eggus ei1 ,kurie4 ,he is thinking of the secret of the ,presence 7,ps4 xxxi4 #bj74 ,we need not shut out the calming thought of the ,lord's approaching ,return2 but it does not seem to be the leading thought here4 #i ,bishop ,ken4 #aj ,g4 ,m4 ,taylor1 in ,hymns of ,consecration1 #cdi4 #aa ,in the ,house of the ,pilgrimage4 ,,the ,,collection ,,for ,,st ,,paul3 ,,the ,,farewell ,is thy cruse of comfort wasting8 rise and share it with another1 ,and through all the years of famine it shall serve thee and thy brother4 ,is thy burthen hard and heavy8 do thy steps drag wearily8 ,help to bear thy brother's burthen2 ,god will bear both it and thee4 ,is the heart a living power8 self-entwin'd1 its strength sinks low2 ,it can only live in loving1 and by serving love will grow4 ,e4 ,,rundle ,,charles4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,the ,,collection ,,for ,,st ,,paul3 ,,the ,,farewell ,,philippians iv4 #aj-bc ,the ,philippian alms--,his sense of their faithful love--,he has received in full--,a passage in the ,scriptural manner--,the letter closes--,christ is preached--,together with them ,the work of dictation is nearly done in the ,roman lodging4 ,the manuscript will soon be complete1 and then soon rolled up and sealed1 ready for ,epaphroditus2 he will place it with reverence and care in his baggage1 and see it safe to ,philippi4 ,but one topic has to be handled yet before the end4 ,now concerning the collection6 ,epaphroditus1 who had brought with him to ,rome the loving alms of the ,philippian believers1 must carry back no common thanks to them4 ,all honour shall be done by the ,lord's great servant to those who have done the ,lord this service in him2 they shall know how it has rejoiced and warmed his heart2 they shall be made very sure that inasmuch as they have done it to their ,missionary they have done it to their ,,king4 ,we do not know how much the money amounted to4 ,it was not improbably a substantial sum4 ,among the contributors might be ,lydia1 whose means may well have been comfortable2 and the ,keeper of the ,prison would be by no means a beggar3 what gratitude to ,st ,paul glowed in both those hearts6 ,but not in theirs only2 the rank and file of the mission would do all that love could do for the man who had manifested ,,jesus to them4 ,and when that is the spirit1 the liberality will often be surprising4 ,not long ago in one of our ,north ,american missions a small meeting of poor ,christian ,indians apologized for the scantiness of their collection for missionary objects2 it was worth only ,l#g2 they would do better the next time6 ,but small or large1 the ,philippian gift was precious with the weight of love4 ,and no doubt it was exceedingly useful practically4 ,it would secure for the imprisoned missionary many alleviating personal comforts1 and part of it would probably be spent upon the work of evangelization in ,rome and its neighbourhood2 for then as now work inevitably meant expense4 ,ver4 #aj4 ,but1 to turn now from teaching to thanking--,i rejoice 7echaren3 the ,english present best gives the point of the epistolary aorist7 in the ,lord1 in our union of heart and life with ,him1 greatly1 that now at length1 after an interval which was no fault of yours1 you have blossomed1 out#a into loving thought on my behalf4 ,with a view to this 7eph o71 this effort to aid me1 you were1 ,i know 7kai71 taking thought 7ephroneite71 even when you made no sign2 but you were at a loss for opportunity for the transmission2 no bearer for your bounty could be spared1 or found4 ,ver4 #aa4 ,not that ,i speak thus in the tone of need 7kath usteresin71 as if ,i had been wondering1 and fretting1 and suspecting you of forgetfulness or of parsimony2 no1 ,i have been in a happier mood than that2 for ,i1 for my part 7ego3 slightly emphatic71 have learnt 7emathon3 our perfect tense best gives this aorist7 to be1 in my actual circumstances1 self-sufficing 7autarkes72 carrying with me all ,i have2 independent1 not of grace1 but of surroundings4 ,ver4 #ab4 ,i know both 7kai1 not de7 how to run low1#b and how to run over1 as ,i do now1 with your bounty2 and both experiences need a teaching from above if they are to be rightly borne4 ,in everything and in all things1 in the details and in the total1 ,i have been let into the secret1 ,i have been initiated into the mystery1#c of being full fed and of being hungry1 of ,ver4 #ac4 running over and of coming short4 ,for all things ,i am strong in ,him who makes me able4#d ,but not even this joyful testimony to the enabling presence of his ,lord must divert his thought from the loving act of the ,philippians4 ,he seems about to dilate on the glorious theme of what he can be and do in ,christ2 the wonder of that experience on which he entered at the crisis detailed in #b ,cor4 xii4 is surely powerfully upon him2 the ,my grace is sufficient for thee2 the sense of even exultation in weakness and imperfection1 that the power of ,christ may overshadow him4 ,but all this leaves perfectly undisturbed his delicate sympathy with the dear ,macedonian converts4 ,and so he will assure them that no spiritual sufficiency can blunt the sense of their generous kindness4 ,ver4 #ad4 ,yet you did well1 you did a fair1 good deed1 when you joined together 7sunkoinonesantes7 in participating in my tribulation1 with the partnership of a sympathy which feels the suffering it relieves4 ,but you ,ver4 #ae4 know1 7to add a thought on your previous bounties1 which may as it were correct 7de7 the thought that ,i needed this last bounty to assure me of your love17 you know1 ,philippians1#e that in the beginning of the ,gospel1 in the early days of the mission in your region1 when ,i left ,macedonia1 parting from you on my way south1 in order to quit ,macedonia 7,roman ,northern ,greece7 for ,achaia 7,roman ,southern ,greece71 via ,thessalonica and ,beroea1#f no church participated with me1 helped me in my labours1 in the matter of giving and taking1 7they giving and ,i taking the needed monetary aid17 but you alone4 ,but ,ver4 #af4 you did so2 because even in ,thessalonica2 even when ,i was still there1 in a place which was but ninety miles away1#g and in the same province still2 twice over 7kai hapax kai dis7 you sent aid to my need1 within the few weeks which ,i spent at ,thessalonica4 ,again he will not be misunderstood4 ,this warmly expressed gratitude may conceivably be mistaken for an indirect petition1 thanks for favours to come4 ,so with sensitive delicacy he pursues3 ,ver4 #ag4 ,not that ,i am in quest of 7epizeto3 almost1 ,i am hunting for7 the gift1 the mere sum of money1 in and for itself2 but ,i am in quest of the interest that is accumulating to your account2#h ,i am bent upon just such a developement of your generosity as will win from the heavenly ,master more and yet more of that supreme reward1 ,his own ,well done1 good and ,ver4 #ah4 faithful4 ,but 7he is still anxious1 lest this too should be mistaken for a personal bid for more7 ,i have received in full 7apecho72 you have amply discharged love's obligations1 in the gift now sent2 and ,i run over2 the largeness of your bounty makes an overflow4 ,i have been filled full1 in accepting from ,epaphroditus what came from you2 an odour of fragrancy1 a sacrifice acceptable1 pleasing to ,god1 to whom you have really presented what you have sent to the man who serves ,him--this evidence of your sacrifice to ,him of yourselves and your possessions1 a burnt offering 7,lev4 i4 #i7 of surrender1 a peace offering 7,lev4 ii4 #b1 iii4 #e7 of thanksgiving4#i ,i cannot ,ver4 #ai4 requite you2 but my ,god shall fill up every need of yours 7pasan chreian1 not p4ten chr471 making up to you in ,his own loving providence the gap in your means left by this your bounty1 and enriching you the while in soul1 according to1 on the scale of1 ,his wealth1 in glory1 in ,christ ,jesus4 ,yes1 ,he will draw on no less a treasury than that of ,his glory1 ,his own ,nature of almighty ,love1 as it is manifested to and for you in ,christ ,jesus1 in whom all the ,ver4 #bj4 ,fulness dwells4#aj ,but now to our ,god and ,father1 to ,him of whom ,i and you are alike the dear children1 be the glory1 the praise for this and for all like acts of ,his children's love1 for ever and ever2 to the ages of the ages1 the endless cycles of eternal life1 in which shall it be fully seen how ,he was the ,secret of all the holiness of all ,his saints4 ,amen4 ,so the utterance of thanks for a loving and liberal collection closes4 ,here is another case of the phenomenon we have seen already--the beautiful skill with which a local and personal incident is used as the occasion for a whole revelation of grace and truth4 ,we can easily imagine a gift like that which came from ,philippi acknowledged with a few cordial words which would adequately express gratitude and pleasure1 but would otherwise terminate wholly in themselves4 ,how different is this paragraph6 ,throughout it1 side by side1 run at once the most perfect and delicate human courtesy and considerateness1 and suggestions of eternal and spiritual relations1 in which the gift touches at every point the heart of the ,lord1 and the promises of grace1 and the hope of glory4 ,this message of thanks gives us1 just in passing1 such oracles of blessing as1 ,i can do all things in ,him that strengtheneth me1 and ,my ,god shall supply all your need4 ,it is on one side a model of nobility and fineness of human thought and feeling1 on the other an oracle of ,god4 ,this is just in the manner of ,scripture4 ,never book spake like this ,book4 ,now the close comes4 ,the greetings which those who are one in the ,lord cannot but send to one another in ,his name1 have to be spoken1 and then the scribe's pen will rest4 ,ver4 #ba4 ,salute every saint in ,christ ,jesus1 every holy one of your circle1 holy because in ,him2 pass the greetings round from my heart to each member of the ,church4 ,and as ,i write1 the ,christians now around me1 my personal friends upon the spot1 must send their message too2 there salute you all the brethren who are with me4 ,and not they only1 but all the believers of the ,roman mission1 represented around me in my chamber as ,i dictate1 do the same2 and among them one class asks to join with special warmth2 there ,ver4 #bb4 salute you all the saints1 but particularly those who belong to 7oi ek7 the household of the ,emperor 7kaisaros72 the ,christians gathered from the retainers of the ,palace2 peculiar in their circumstances of temptation1 and quickened thereby to a special warmth of faith and love4#aa ,nothing is left now but the final message from the ,lord ,himself2 the invocation of that grace which means in fact no abstract somewhat but ,his living ,self1 present in ,his people's inmost being1 to vivify and to bless4 ,ver4 #bc4 ,the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with your spirit4#ab ,amen4 ,the voice is silent2 the pen is laid aside4 ,in due time the papyrus roll1 inestimable manuscript1 is made ready for its journey4 ,and perhaps as it now lies drying the ,missionary and his brethren turn to further conversation on the beloved ,philippian ,church1 and recall many a scene in the days that are over1 and which are now gliding far into the past of the crowded years2 and they speak again of the brightness of ,philippian ,christian life1 and the shadows that lie on it here and there2 and then1 while the ,praetorian sentinel looks on in wonder1 or perhaps joins in as a believer1 they pray together for ,philippi1 and pour out their praises to the ,father and the ,son1 and anticipate the day of glory4 ,it is all over now2 it all happened very long ago4 ,but though that blessed group of our elder brethren are all gone into the world of light these many more than eighteen hundred human years1 that ,letter is our contemporary still4 ,the word of ,god liveth and abideth for ever 7#a ,pet4 i4 #bc72 it is never out of date1 never touched by the pathetic glamour of the past1 with the suggestion of farewells1 and waxings old1 and vanishings away4 ,to us to-day1 so near the twentieth century1 the ,epistle to the ,philippians is immortal1 modern1 true for our whole world and time4 ,and what is its secret1 its elixir of undying life8 ,it is the ,name of ,jesus ,christ4 ,it is that these pages are the message of the chosen ,vessel about that ,name4 ,our studies in the ,epistle shall close with that reflexion4 ,the incidental topics and interests of the document are numerous indeed2 but the main theme is one1 and it is ,jesus ,christ4 ,from first to last1 under every variety of reference1 ,christ is preached4 ,let me quote from a ,sermon preached many years ago1 the last of a series in which ,i attempted to unfold the ,epistle to a ,christian congregation in the beloved ,church of ,fordington1 ,dorchester1 then my ,father's cure and charge4 ,the mere number of mentions of the ,saviour's name is remarkable4 ,more than forty times we have it in this short compass2 that is to say1 it occurs1 amidst all the variety of subjects1 on an average of about once in every two or three verses4 ,this is indeed perfectly characteristic1 not of this ,epistle only but of the whole ,new ,testament4 ,what the ,apostles preached was not a thing but a ,person2 ,christ1 ,christ ,jesus1 ,christ ,jesus the ,lord4 ,but let us not look only on this frequency of mention4 ,let us gather up something of what these mentions say 'concerning the ,king4' ,the writer begins with describing himself and his associates as the servants1 the absolute bondmen1 of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and truly such servants witness to the worthiness of their ,master4 ,he addresses those to whom he writes as saints1 as holy ones1 in ,jesus ,christ4 ,their standing1 their character1 their all1 depends on ,him2 on union with ,him1 on life in ,him4 ,without ,him1 apart from ,him1 they would not be saints at all4 ,the writer speaks of his imprisonment at ,rome2 the subject is full of ,jesus ,christ4 ',my bonds in ,christ' is his remarkable description of captivity4 ,and the result of that captivity was1 to his exceeding joy1 just this1 amidst a great variety of conditions in detail1 including some exquisite trials to patience and peace3 ',christ is being preached'2 'that ,christ may be magnified in my body1 whether by life or death4' ,he is kept absolutely cheerful and at rest2 and the secret is ,jesus ,christ4 ,he has occasion to speak of his trial1 with its delays1 and its suspense between life and death4 ,the whole is full of ,jesus ,christ4 ',to me to live is ,christ'2 ,he fills1 and as it were makes1 life for me4 ',and to die is gain'--why8 ,because 'to depart and to be with ,christ is far1 far better4' ,the dilemma in which he stands 7for he is 'in a strait betwixt the two'7 is a dilemma between ,christ and ,christ1 ,christ much and ,christ more1 ,christ by faith and ,christ by sight4 ,he dwells1 in various places1 on the life and duties of the ,philippians4 ,his precepts are all this1 in effect--,christ applied to conduct4 ',let your life-walk be as it becometh the ,gospel of ,christ'2 ',filled with the fruit of righteousness which is through ,jesus ,christ'2 ',it is granted to you not only to believe in ,christ but also to suffer for ,his sake4' ,in particular1 he has to press on them the homely duty of practical self-forgetfulness4 ,he takes them for model and motive to the heaven of heavens1 and shews them ',christ ,jesus' there1 as for us men and for our salvation ,he prepares to come down1 and comes4 ',let this mind be in you1' as you contemplate the original ,glory1 the amazing ,incarnation1 the atoning ,death1 of ,christ ,jesus4 ,he expresses hopes1 intentions1 resolutions1 as to his own actions4 ,all is still 'in ,jesus ,christ4' ',i trust in the ,lord ,jesus to send ,timotheus1' ',i trust in the ,lord to come myself shortly4' ,does he speak of the believer's joy8 ',we rejoice in ,christ ,jesus1' ',rejoice in the ,lord alway1 and again ,i say1 ,rejoice4' ,does he speak of pardon and of peace8 ',i counted all things but loss that ,i might win ,christ1 and be found in ,him1 having the righteousness which is of ,god by faith4' ,does he speak of knowledge1 and of power8 ',that ,i might know ,christ1 and the power of ,his resurrection1 and the fellowship of ,his sufferings1 being made conformable unto ,his death'2 ',i can do all things in ,christ which strengtheneth me4' ,he speaks of a holy immortality1 of eternal glory1 and of pleasures for evermore4 ,it is no vague aspiration2 it is a sure and certain hope2 and it is altogether in ,jesus ,christ4 ',our home1 our citizenship1 is in heaven1 from whence also we look for the ,saviour1 the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 who shall change the body of our humiliation into likeness to the body of ,his glory1 according to the working whereby ,he is able even to subdue all things unto--,himself4' ,he bids his beloved converts stand fast2 it is 'in the ,lord4' ,he bids them be of one mind2 it is 'in the ,lord4' ,he bids them be always calm1 always self-forgetting2 'the ,lord is at hand4' ,he assures them of an all-sufficient resource for their every need2 ',my ,god shall supply all1 according to ,his riches1 in glory1 in ,christ ,jesus4' ,his last message of blessing brings together their inmost being and this same wonderful ,person2 ',the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with your spirit4 ,amen4' 4 4 4 ,what a witness it all is to the glory of our beloved ,redeemer2 to the majesty of ,his ,person2 to the fulness and perfection of ,his ,work2 to the solidity1 the sobriety1 the strength1 of the faith which is in ,him6 ,there is no inflation or rhetoric in the language of the ,epistle about ,him4 ,glowing with love1 it is all clear and calm4 ,yes1 for ,christ ,jesus is not a phantom of the fancy2 a hope floating on the thick waves of a wild enthusiasm4 ,he is an anchor1 sure and steadfast4 ,blessed are they who ride secure on the deep1 held fast by ,him4 ,the ,epistle witnesses to ,him as to a ,treasure worth all our seeking1 at any cost2 infinitely precious to our joyful finding2 infinitely deserving of our keeping1 of our holding1 our 'apprehending1' as ,he in ,his mercy has laid hold of us1 and will keep hold of us1 even to the end2 'unto the day of ,jesus ,christ4' ,as then1 so now2 ',he help'd ,his saints in ancient days ,who trusted in ,his name2 ,and we can witness to ,his praise1 ,his love is still the same4' ,may the ,spirit bring home to our spirit this great witness of the ,epistle2 it has its perfect adaptation to each heart1 to every life1 to every hour4 ,then hereafter we shall give ,god thanks yet better for ',philippians1' as we too enter1 late or soon1 into that world where the ,apostle1 and ,timotheus1 and ,epaphroditus1 and ,euodia1 and ,syntyche1 and ,clement1 and the saints of ,caesar's household1 have so long beheld the ,lord4 ,in that land of light we1 who have believed1 shall rest with them4 ,we shall know them4 ,in the long leisure of endless life we shall enjoy their company1 amidst the multitudinous congregation of the just made perfect4 ,there we shall understand how1 under the infinite differences of our earthly conditions1 the one ,hand led them and led us along the one way of salvation to the one end of everlasting life4 ,above all1 we there1 with them1 shall know ,,jesus ,,christ1 even as we are known4 ,there we1 with them1 shall realize how to ,him1 and to ,him alone1 from all ,his servants1 from ,hebrew1 and ,roman1 and ,philippian1 and ,englishman1 and ,african1 from ancients and moderns1 wise and ignorant1 of all kinds and times1 was due the whole praise of their whole salvation4 ',conflicts and trials done ,his glory they behold1 ,where ,,jesus and ,his flock are one1 ,one ,shepherd and one fold4' #a ,anethalete to huper emou phronein4 ,literally1 you shot forth 7as a branch7 thought in my behalf4 7,the ,english perfect best represents this aorist47 ,the phrase is unmistakably pictorial1 poetical4 ,if ,i read it aright1 it is touched with a smile of gentle pleasantry2 the warm heart comes out in a not undesigned quaintness of expression4 #b tapeinousthai is used in classical ,greek of the falling of a river in drought4 ,perhaps such an image is present in the language here4 #c ,memuemai3 the verb whose root is that of mysterion1 mysterium1 mystery4 ,in the ,greek world mysteries were systems of religious belief and practice derived1 perhaps1 from pre-,hellenic times1 and jealously guarded from common knowledge by their votaries4 ,admission into their secrets1 as into those of ,freemasonry now1 was sought by people of all kinds1 from ,roman consuls and emperors downwards2 with the special hope of freedom from evil in this life and the next4 ,st ,paul's use of this phenomenon to supply language for ,christian experience is beautifully suggestive4 ,the knowledge of the peace of ,god is indeed an open secret1 open to whosoever will learn of ,him4 ,but it is a secret1 a mystery1 none the less4 #d ,the word ,christo should be omitted from the reading1 though perfectly right as a note or explanation4--,the iochus is the forth-putting of the dunamis--the action of the faculty4 ,he is ready to act 7or to bear7 in a power always latent1 always present1 through his union with his ,lord4 ,the all things so met are1 of course1 the all things of the will of ,god1 the choice of the ,master for the servant in the way of circumstance and trial2 not the all things of the mere wish or ambition of the servant4 #e ,philippesioi3 the ,greek form represents a ,latin ,philippenses1 by which the residents in the ,roman colony would call themselves4 ,so ,corinthiensis means not a born ,corinthian but a settler at ,corinth4--,greek tends to represent a ,latin syllable -ens by -es3 so ,klemes1 ,clemens4 #f ,see ,acts xvii4 #a-ae4 #g ,on the ,egnatian road4 ,he made three stages of the distance2 ,amphipolis1 ,apollonia1 ,thessalonica4 #h ,ton karpon ton pleonazonta eis logon hymon4 ,i venture to render these words as above1 as a monetary phrase1 relating to principal and interest4 ,it is true that karpos is not found used in the sense of interest1 for which the regular word is tokos4 ,but it would easily fit into the language of the money-market4 ,and ,st ,chrysostom's comment here seems to show that he1 a ,greek1 understood it thus3 horas hoti ekeinois ho karpos tiktetai 7tokos74 #i ,for osme euodias see ,eph4 v4 #b4 ,the phrase is common in the ,septuagint to render the ,hebrew savour of rest1 the fume of the altar pictorially represented as smelt by the ,deity4 #aj ,this reference of doxa seems better than that which would connect it only with the eternal future1 the glory of heaven1 and make the sentence mean that ,he would hereafter requite them there4 ,he would indeed do so4 ,but the phrase pleroun pasan chreian hardly suggests that thought here4 #aa ,bishop ,lightfoot 4 4 4 7,philippians1 pp4 #aga-agh7 has shewn with great fulness of proof that 'the household of ,caesar' was a term embracing a vast number of persons1 not only in ,rome but in the provinces1 all of whom were either actual or former slaves of the ,emperor1 filling every possible description of office more or less domestic4 ,the ,bishop illustrates his statements from the 4 4 4 burial inscriptions of members of the ',household' found 4 4 4 near ,rome4 4 4 4 ,these inscriptions afford a curiously large number of coincidences with the list in ,rom4 xvi4 4 4 4 ,amplias1 ,urbanus1 ,apelles1 ,tryphaena1 ,tryphosa1 ,patrobas1 ,philologus4 4 4 4 ,bishop ,lightfoot infers from this whole evidence the great probability that the 'saints' greeted in ,rom4 xvi4 were1 on the whole1 the same 'saints' who here send greeting from ,rome4 4 4 4 ,their associations and functions1 not only in the age of ,nero but in the precincts of his court1 and probably 7for many of them7 within the chambers of his palace1 give a noble view in passing of the power of grace to triumph over circumstances1 and to transfigure life where it seems most impossible 7,note in ,the ,cambridge ,bible for ,schools and ,colleges74 ,see also the writer's commentary on the ,ep4 to the ,romans 7,expositor's ,bible71 pp4 #dbc-dbe4 #ab ,read meta tou pneumatos huon1 not m4 panton humon4 ,,the ,,praetorian ,,and ,,the ,,apostle ,,acts xxviii4 #af1 #ca ,paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him4 4 4 4 preaching the kingdom of ,god1 and teaching those things which concern the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 7,,the ,,soldier loquitur47 ,father1 the dawn is near6 the shield ,of ,luna sinks remote and pale ,o'er ,tiber and the ,martial field2 ,the breeze awakes2 the cressets fail3 ,this livelong night from set of sun ,here have we talk'd3 thy task is done4 ,but yesterday ,i smil'd or frown'd ,to watch thy audience1 soon and late1 ,with scroll and style embattl'd round ,in barbarous accents ply debate2 ,while this would chide1 and that would start ,sudden1 as sword-struck in the heart4 ,i laugh'd aside1 or1 tir'd1 withdrew ,from the strange sound in waking dreams ,to ,umbrian hills--the home ,i knew-- ,the cottage by ,mevania's streams3 ',twas hush'd at length3 the guests were flown1 ,and thou wast left and ,i alone4 ,thou hast forgiven 7,i know thee now7 ,the insults of this heathen tongue2 ,the taunting questions why and how2 ,the songs 7oh madness67 that ,i sung3 ,thou hast forgiv'n the hateful strain ,of dull defiance and disdain4 ,thy gaze1 thy silence1 they compell'd ,my own responsive3 aw'd ,i stood ,before thee2 soften'd1 search'd1 and quell'd2 ,the evil captive to the good3 ,half conscious1 half entranc'd1 ,i heard 7,while the stars mov'd7 thy conquering word4 ,these ears were dull to ,grecian speech1 ,this heart more dull to aught but sin2 ,yet the great ,spirit bade thee reach1 ,wake1 change1 exalt1 the soul within3 ,i've heard2 ,i know2 thy ,lord1 ev'n ,he1 ,,jesus1 hath look'd from heaven on me4 ,thou saw'st me shake1 and 7spite of pride7 ,weep on thy hand3 so stern thy truth3 ,i own'd the terrors that abide ,dread sequel to a rebel's youth3 ,but soon ,i pour'd a happier shower ,to learn thy ,saviour's dying power4 ,ah1 speechless1 rapt1 ,i bent1 to know ,each wonder of that fateful day ,when midst thy zeal's terrific glow ,he met thee on the ,syrian way3 ,i saw1 ,i felt1 the scene3 my soul ,drank the new bliss1 the new control4 ,father1 the dawn is risen6 the hour ,is near1 too near1 when from this hand ,thy chain must fall--from yonder tower ,another guard must take my stand3 ,the ,city stirs3 ,i go1 to meet ,the foe1 the world1 in camp and street2 ,a ,christian--yes1 for ever now ,a ,christian3 so our ,leader keep ,my faltering heart3 to ,him ,i bow1 ,his1 whether now ,i wake or sleep3 ,in peace1 in battle1 ,his3--the day ,breaks in the east3 oh1 once more pray6 #ahfi4