Bible Commentaries
Philippians

PHILIPPIANS

XXII

THE BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS INTRODUCTION

We come now to the third group of Paul’s letters, i.e., the letters of his first imprisonment at Rome. These letters, in chronological order, are Philippians, Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews.

It would be well at this point to name several books, most of which have already been given, as general helps on the whole group: Conybeare & Howson’s Life and Epistles of Paul; Farrar’s, Life and Letters of Paul; Stalker’s Life of Paul; Horae Paulinae; by Wm. Paley, Robertson’s, Syllabus of New Testament Study; St. Paul; by Adolphe Monod. Meyer’s translation, Malcolm McGregor, Divine Authority of Paul’s Writings. The author’s sermon before the Southern Convention at Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1908, on The Nature, Person and Offices of Our Lord and His Relations to the Father, the Universe and the Church; Wilkinson’s Epic of Saul, and Epic of Paul.

The special helps on this book are as follows:

For Exposition – Lightfoot on Philippians (the best for exposition and criticism; American Commentary; Pidge on Philippians; Cambridge Bible; Moule on Philippians; Expositors’ Bible; Rainey on Philippians; Speakers’ or Bible Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, brief and critical. For Homiletics as well as Exposition – The Pulpit Commentary on Philippians; Robert Hall’s Expository Sermons on Philippians; Johnston’s, Expository Lectures.

For Devotion – Hoyt’s Gleams from the Prison of Paul.

For Geographical and Historical Setting – Both Conybeare & Howson and Farrar cited in the general helps for the group of letters, to which we may add Ramsay on Paul the Traveler; and .Forbes, Footsteps of Paul.

Expository, Practical and Devotional – Matthew Henry, or better, The Comprehensive Commentary, edited by Jenkins. REMARKS

1. The time order of Philippians given above has been questioned on plausible grounds, by able scholars, but the author believes that the stronger arguments support the order given.

2. The assignment of the authorship of Hebrews to Paul and its collocation above have both been confidently challenged by able modern scholars, whose arguments will receive most respectful consideration in the introductory chapters to that book. The author will claim for his own views on both points no more value than the weight of his reasons warrants. The importance of this group of letters has never been questioned. In them is a distinct advance –

1. In the amplification of the plan of salvation.

2. In clearness and volume of doctrine concerning the nature, person, and offices of our Lord, in order to meet new heresies developed in the churches.

3. In the idea, purpose, and mission of the church.

4. In the relations of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, and the supersession of the Old by the New.

These very great advances in New Testament teaching invest these letters with a value for all people of all time. Their importance appears also from the relations of the group to other New Testament books before and after:

1. We find in Philippians 3 the connecting link with the controversies of the preceding group of letters, and in Philippians 2:5-11 an introduction to Colossians and Ephesians.

2. We find not only additions to the history of Paul which was abruptly closed in Acts, and light on the prison life in Rome, but we see that the word of God cannot be bound, nor the outgoings of a great Christian heart imprisoned.

3. We will be prepared to understand better all the succeeding letters of Paul, with their hints of additional history.

4. We find that other New Testament authors, far remote from each other, are constrained to write to the same people addressed by this group of letters) mainly on the same lines of thought, and with a view to correcting the same dangerous heresies. To one province of Asia Minor the eyes of Paul in Rome, Peter in Babylon, John in Ephesus or an exile in Patmos, Jude in Jerusalem, are all turned in deepest concern.

To become systematic theologians on the plan of salvation; to have full conceptions of the nature, person, offices and relations of our Lord; to have a rounded conception of the idea, purpose, and mission of the church; to know the relations between the covenants, the abrogation of the one in order to its supersession by the other, every way superior, we must master this group of letters. We should lay hold on all available help and give honest, hard, painstaking and prayerful study to the letters. There is no room here for the idler. Mental and heart laziness should have no place here.

We should not only acquire the needful knowledge, paying whatever necessary cost, but assimilate it in our lives that in wisdom we may apply it to life’s emergencies. It is not sufficient that we be good ministers, but able ministers also, of our Lord. While it is the business of our Seminaries to give edge to the ax and point to the sword, it is the student’s business to turn the grindstone. Nor will mere equipment serve the purpose. We must learn how to use the sharpened tools to the best advantage. Not what we eat, but what we digest becomes a part of ourselves.

As we take up each letter of the group these questions at least must be answered: Who wrote it? When? From what place and under what conditions? To whom addressed, and their condition? What the occasion? What the purpose? What the matter? What the character and style? What its relation to other books? What its place in the canon? What its contribution to the sum total of Bible truth? What its great pulpit themes? What its influence on later times? Moreover, the geographical and historical setting should be as familiar as our front yard.

Let us now consider the first book of the group. The author of this letter, beyond all reasonable question) is Paul. The letter avows it; the character, style, circumstances and context demonstrate it; abundant historical evidence establishes it. When, whence, and under what circumstances the letter was written go together in this case. The date determines the place, and vice versa, and the two determine the circumstances. Some, without due warrant, have contended for Caesarea as the place, which would affect both date and circumstances. The contention rests on such insufficient grounds that it is not worth our while to waste time on it. The place was Rome. The circumstances are those of the author’s first imprisonment in the imperial city, as briefly set forth by Luke in Acts 28:14-31, and supplemented by allusions in all the letters of the group. See particularly Philippians 1:12-25; Philippians 2:17; Philippians 4:10-18; Philemon 1:1; Philemon 1:10; Philemon 1:22-23; Colossians 4:3; Colossians 4:18; Ephesians 3:1; Hebrews 13:3; Hebrews 13:18-19; Hebrews 13:23-24. The circumstances, in the main, were these:

1. Though a prisoner be was not closely confined, but allowed to live in his own hired house, using it as a preaching house, and for the reception of his many visitors as well as a center of wide correspondence.

2. The restraint on his movements consisted in his being chained to a soldier of the Praetorian Guard, changed from time to time.

3. The chaining to so many of these soldiers in succession enabled him to leaven the whole division of the emperor’s guard with the gospel.

4. The fact of the restraint on his personal movements stirred up his friends to preach the gospel more earnestly and effectually, and also gave opportunity to his Jewish enemies in the Roman churches to greater activity in preaching.

5. The imprisonment, in checking his travels and limiting his personal preaching, necessitated a resort to writing, which, as embodied in these letters, bequeathed a legacy to all succeeding ages incomparably richer than could have been derived from all his viva voce sermons, so his bonds tended to the furtherance of the gospel. The word of God was not bound. Through these letters and through the labors of his friends – Luke, Timothy, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, Epaphras, and many others – he reached the heart of the world and superintended the work of two continents.

6. The beastly and bloody Nero was the reigning Caesar, but not yet were his hate and fury turned against the Christians. Paul had not yet been brought to trial – so long the law’s delay – but felt confident of acquittal, and was assured in heart that he would again resume his missionary activities. This hope of release finds expression in all the letters of this group. He held himself ready, however, for life or death.

7. His support, in the meantime, was a serious question, as we have no passage to show that he was permitted to work at his trade. Philippi, at least, sent contributions to him, but we have no knowledge that any other church did, and in his expression of thanks for this help, he lets us know how extreme was his want at times (Philippians 4:11-13).

The exact date of the letter is not so clear, nor the order of place in the group. It is evident that the letter was not written in the beginning of his two years’ imprisonment at Rome, but this is equally evident concerning the other letters of the group. All of them belong to the second year, so that there was time enough for all necessarily antecedent events in the case of any of them. Within a year two or more trips either way could easily have been made from Rome to Philippi, Colossae and Ephesus, and back again to Rome.

The letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians were all sent at one time. The internal evidence is strong that Philippians preceded them, and that Hebrews was the latest of all.

Philippians 3 (with Philippians 1:15) is a distinct echo of the great controversies in the letters of the preceding group, particularly Galatians and Romans, and is both the connecting link and surviving wave of that controversy. The issue in Hebrews is quite distinct, ana relates to an utter break between Christianity and Judaism – a later development. Colossians and Ephesians contend against a heresy unknown to Romans and Galatians.

Thus, while Philippians connects back with the preceding group, it is equally evident that Philippians 2:6-11 on the nature, person, and office work of our Lord is a fitting introduction to the enlarged discussion on the same point in Colossians and Ephesians. The time order of the group given in the beginning of this chapter is most philosophical and is better sustained by the evidence, The date, therefore, is A.D. 62. The occasion of the letter is clear from the context (Philippians 2:25-30; Philippians 4:10-18):

1. The church at Philippi, having learned of Paul’s arrival at Rome, his imprisonment there and consequent privation, generously (and for the fourth time since he established the church) made up a contribution in his behalf, sending it by Epaphroditus, one of their elders.

2. Epaphroditus, stirred in heart by what he learned at Rome, entered the work there so vigorously that he brought on an almost fatal sickness.

3. The concern of his home church for him in this illness, of which they had heard, filled him with longing to return to them.

4. So when able to travel he is sent to bear this letter. To whom addressed? The first verse tells us: "To all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. The history of the establishment of this church is found in Acts 16, and is elaborately considered in the interpretation of that book. Its subsequent history up to the writing of this letter may be gathered from allusions in Acts 20:1-6, in the letters of the preceding group, and in this letter. Something of this important history needs restatement here, as it is not merely thrilling in interest and teeming with profitable lessons, but because it is necessary to the proper interpretation of the letter itself:

1. Philippi was the first church established by Paul in Europe. Only the churches in Rome, established by others, preceded it in Europe.

2. The marks of a special providence leading to its establishment are exceptionally clear and convincing. It was not in Paul’s mind to pass over into Europe at this time, but quite otherwise. His mind turned to proconsular Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade him at this time (Acts 16:6), opening later, when matters were riper, a great and effectual door in that province (Acts 19, and 1 Corinthians 16:8-9). Barred from Asia, he attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus suffered him not (Acts 16:7), and so he was led to Troas on the Aegaean Sea, which separated Asia from Europe, and there, at his wits’ end, a vision directed him to Macedonia. The lessons of this providential guidance are valuable for all time, to wit:

(a) Jesus selects the preacher’s field of labor, as well as the preacher himself.

(b) It is not his method to require the conversion of everybody in one field, whether country or city, before carrying the gospel elsewhere, but to establish here and there centers of radiating light.

(c) The Holy Spirit is the guide of both preacher and church, and his mind may be assuredly gathered from inward monition, outward circumstances, and Providence. Philippi was a Roman Colony, with Roman citizenship, Roman law and magistrates, to which facts there is abundant incidental allusion in both the history and the letter. At no other place of his labors, so far, were there relatively so few Jews – not even one synagogue. There was only a prayer chapel, and here first does he meet pure Gentile persecution. All persecutions of both our Lord and his church, so far, were either altogether Jewish or instigated by Jews, and so will it be for years to follow, Ephesus being a later exception, till Nero’s fiery hate and Domitian’s cold-blooded tyranny make Gentile persecution the rule. Hence the Philippian church is unique in its history until it drops out of history altogether, leaving scarcely a memorial behind.

It surpassed all the other apostolic churches in liberality and in fidelity to the simplicity of gospel doctrine, and these characteristics abide for all the years it remains in historic light. So Ignatius found it on his way to Roman martyrdom, and Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians could only imitate this letter of Paul. It was in this church, followed by other churches among the Greeks, that the Christian woman comes into a prominence hardly possible where the Jewish element predominated, and the only rebuke in the letter, and that a very gentle one, seeks the reconciliation of two prominent women.

The characteristics of the letter are:

1. Pre-eminently it is a letter of joy. "I rejoice – ye rejoice," echoing the beatitude of our Lord, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad." Moreover, it is joy in sorrow, affliction, and persecutions, as when the writer, while with them "sang praises at midnight," notwithstanding stripes, bonds, dungeons, and threatened death. Yet again, like the Sermon on the Mount, it gives a sovereign specific for happiness (Philippians 4:6-9) whatever the outward circumstance.

2. It is interpenetrated with doctrines, not in formal statement as in Galatians, Romans, and Hebrews, but in incidental allusion for practical ends. To the author it is an amazing thing that commentators should characterize it as the letter without doctrine. It goes far beyond Romans and Galatians in the sweep of its doctrinal teaching. It will surprise any student who attempts to make a list of its doctrines and compare them with the sum of the doctrines in other letters. The author surprised himself in that way, and after filling a page of legal cap, one doctrine to the line, he gave up the job, for his list would equal the sentences of the letter itself, and yet only four doctrines are stated elaborately – the doctrine of our Lord (Philippians 2:6-11); the doctrine of justification by faith (Philippians 3:1-10); the doctrine of perfection in soul and body (Philippians 3:11-14) ; the recipe for happiness (Philippians 4:6-8).

3. Because of its abundant and correlative doctrines, all applied practically, it has ever been a rich field for homiletics. It was this characteristic that led Robert Hall (with others) to select that whole letter for a series of expository sermons delighting himself and his audience. In preaching from Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews one cannot escape topical discussion, so perfect the system of truth, so closely connected and graded the argument, and so single the climax. But from Philippians we may cull a hundred fine and distinct themes for textual preaching, sometimes several in a single sentence. On this account also it is easy to give an analysis of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, but quite difficult to give a satisfactory analysis of Philippians.

It is evident from many allusions that this church kept in closer touch with Paul than any other established by him. After leaving Ephesus Paul returned to Macedonia (Acts 20:1; 2 Corinthians 2:12-13; 2 Corinthians 8:5-6). Still later, on leaving Corinth he returned to Philippi and there kept the passover (Acts 20:6). And it is every way probable that once at least after his release at Rome he visited this church. (See Philippians 1:24-25 and 1 Timothy 1:3.) On the other hand, this church sent contributions to him twice while at Thessalonica, once at least while at Corinth (2 Corinthians 11:9), then here at Rome.

On the authenticity of this letter there is no room for reasonable doubt. The early historic testimony is abundant and clear. All the ancient versions contain it. Early in the second century Ignatius and Polycarp quote it and imitate it. Late in the second century Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus quote it, and somewhat later Tertullian bears direct testimony to it. Apart from all external evidence, the letter itself in spirit, style, and genius attests itself.

But there is a proof in our day more satisfying to the individual soul than any of these. That proof is experimental. Whoever reads the letter as God’s word and follows its direction finds in himself a verification; all its faith, joy, hope, and love abide in him. The author has found by application of its doctrines and promises to his own heart demonstrations that it is God’s book.

Of the post apostolic history of this church only two notable incidents are known, and both of these occurred but a few years after the death of John. The one was the great reception given by the church to Ignatius, the prisoner, on his way to martyrdom at Rome; the other was Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians in reply to their request. Both were notable events, deeply impressing the hearts of the Philippians and long remembered. The letter of Polycarp, John’s disciple, we find, somewhat abridged – in the "Cambridge Bible." There are many quotations in it from our Lord and Paul. Apart from the quotations we find allusions, more or less direct) to New Testament writings in almost every sentence.

We may perhaps infer one important lesson from the silence of history henceforward concerning this most faithful of the apostolic churches – a lesson embodied in the proverb: "Blessed is the land that has no history." The point of the proverb lies in the fact that history is devoted mainly to great changes, convulsions, revolutions, and crimes. The peaceful, happy life has no records. That church or man becomes most notorious that does unusual things and develops the most startling heresies. On this account the church historian finds it easier to trace departures from gospel order and life than conformity with them. The Roman apostasy leaves a broader and more sharply defined historic trail than all the faithful churches put together. The harlot is in the city clothed in purple and scarlet, while the true woman is nourished in the wilderness (Revelation 12:6; Revelation 17:1-8).

QUESTIONS

1. Of what group of Paul’s letters is Philippians a part?

2. Name the letters in chronological order.

3. What general helps on the whole group?

4. What special helps on this book commended?

5. What two special remarks on this group?

6. What is the importance of the group in distinct advance on preceding parts of New Testament?

7. What is the importance, in view of the relations of these letters to both preceding and subsequent New Testament books?

8. What is the importance of mastering this group of Paul’s letters?

9. What is necessary in acquiring knowledge? Illustrate.

10. What questions must be answered relative to each book of this group?

11. Who is the author, and what the proof?

12. Where written, and what the proof?

13. What the circumstances of the writer, and what their effect or the spread of the gospel?

14. What can you say of the date and the order in the group?

15. What is the occasion?

16. To whom addressed?

17. Where do we find the history of the establishment of this church and its development up to the writing of this letter?

18. Restate the salient points of this history.

19. What are the valuable lessons of the history?

20. What are the peculiarities of this city and church. (1) as to civil government, (2) as to Jewish population, and (3) as to persecutions there?

21. Wherein did it surpass other apostolic churches?

22. What is the position of women in this and other Greek churches?

23. What are the great characteristics of this letter?

24, Why is it more difficult to give an analysis of Philippians than in Galatians and Romans?

25. Show from the history how Paul and this church kept in better touch with each other than was the case of most other churches.

26. What is the evidence of the authenticity of this letter?

27. What are two notable events only characterize the post apostolic history of this church?

28. What is the historic value of Polycarp’s letter?

29. What important lesson may be inferred from the silence of subsequent history concerning this church? Illustrate by example.