Philippians 2:1

Ch. Php_2:1-4. The subject continued: appeal for self-forgetful Unity

1. therefore] The connexion of thought with the previous sentences is close. He has pressed on them the duty and blessing of concord and cooperation, and now enforces it further, with a special appeal to them to minister happiness to himself, as to a Christian brother, by obedience.

consolation] R.V. comfort, which is better. The Greek word, in its prevailing meaning, denotes rather encouragement, strengthening, than the tenderer “consolation”; and the word “comfort”, by its derivation (confortatio), may fairly represent it. The thought of the mutual love and union of the Philippians would cheer and animate their Apostle and friend.

in Christ] Getting its motive and virtue from the union in Christ of the Apostle and the Philippians.

comfort of love] Better, consolation, &c. See last note but one.—The word occurs here only in N.T. A closely similar form occurs in a kindred connexion, 1Co_14:3.—“Of love:”—love’s result and expression.

fellowship of the Spirit] Cp. 2Co_13:14 “the communion of the Holy Spirit.” In the Greek here the word pneuma (spirit) is without the article, and many scholars hold that in all such cases not the Divine Spirit as a Person, but His gift or gifts, is meant; and that thus here the meaning will be “if there is a participation, on your part and mine alike, in the same spiritual love, joy, peace, &c.” But the presence or absence of the article in these cases is a very precarious index of meaning, when the substantive is a great and familiar word. Context and parallels are necessary to the decision in each place. And in this place the parallel (2 Cor.) quoted, seems to us to point clearly to the highest reference—to “the one and the selfsame Spirit” (1Co_12:11), the promised Paraclete Himself, Whom all the saints “share” as their common Life-Giver, Strengthener, and Sanctifier.—“Fellowship of” might grammatically mean “union of heart and interests, prompted by.” But usage is decisively for the meaning “participation in.”

bowels and mercies] Better, with R.V., tender mercies and compassions. No English version before 1582 has the word “bowels.” On that word see note above on Php_2:8.—He appeals with pathetic directness and simplicity, last of all, to their human emotions as such.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php_2:1-13

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ

Christian unity

I.

The doctrine of Christian unity.

1. This unity is inward and consists of harmonious spiritual feeling.

(1) It can only subsist among Christians.

(2) At the same time it is possible and also common for those who in the main are brethren to fail grievously.

(3) This unity is specifically--

(a) Agreement of view.

(b) Accord in purpose.

(c) Mutual love.

2. It is also outward and visible.

(1) Wherever there is true inward feeling there is a corresponding outward manifestation.

(2) This unity when seen cannot but impress the world with a favourable conclusion.

II. The causes of divisions. The spirit of vain-glory, self-preference, self-interest. It was from envy the brethren of Joseph hated him. The same was at the root of Absaloms and Adonijahs rebellion. This was rebuked by Christ when He set a little child in the midst of His contentious disciples. We are not willing to admit this as the cause in our own case. We persuade ourselves that real grievances are the cause, and that conscience is prompting us to be valiant for the truth. But these considerations, when genuine, would indeed lead to plainness of speech, but would, in their end and aim, promote rather than retard brotherly love and union. Grievances are only occasions for forbearance.

III. The remedy. The mind that was in Christ Jesus. His humble, self-emptying spirit. The spirit, then, of humiliation which will not stand upon claims and rights, but readily concede them, is that which will check disunion and promote unity. Conclusion:

1. Make this a means of trying your own spirits.

2. Do we wish to learn this necessary disposition?

3. Without this vain is our profession of vital Christianity. (E. Meade, M. A.)

The excellence of Christian unity

1. Does Christian unity consist in the union of Christians in one corporate, visible organization? It should do, and one day will do.

2. But even this desirable object by itself would not secure true unity. It would be but a body without life--the unity of the church yard.

3. The only true unity is that of the text, one of soul and brotherly affection.

I. Look at its excellence. It gives peace; promotes strength and usefulness; commands attention and imitation.

1. Notice the individual man. The soul is a little kingdom. In it there dwell a variety of faculties; there are fears, hopes, likes, dislikes; appetites to urge and principles to check; self-will to prompt, self-interest to restrain; passions to hurry away, conscience to control, etc. When these are in discord what a troubled sea there is. But when the Spirit of God is received and obeyed, what a blessed harmony is the result--a peace that passeth under standing.

2. Take the family. Let love reign there, sustained and cherished by mutual forbearance in the fear of God, parents honoured, sons and daughters kind and helpful, and how the power and usefulness of the family are increased. It is not to have many hands at a rope which will pull the weight, but all moved by the same impulse and pulling together.

3. Suppose the same to prevail in a parish. Why should it not? It was so once at Jerusalem, and would now as then (Act_2:46-47) result in personal happiness and numerous conversions.

4. If the same obtained throughout the world the effect would be irresistible.

II. The evils of disunion and division.

1. It is a proof of being unspiritual and carnal, as it was in the case of the Corinthians, and in some cases of being unconverted. How dwelleth the love of God in the fomenters of strife and discord.

2. It is a hindrance to grace, comfort, and usefulness.

3. It is a stumbling block to the world. (E. Meade, M. A.)

Love promotes unity

He found an inexpressibly sweet love to those that he looked upon as belonging to Christ, beyond almost all that he ever felt before, so that (to use his own words) it seemed like a piece of heaven to have one of them near him. (Life of Brainerd.)

How unity is obtained

When the tide is out you may have noticed, as you rambled among the rocks, little pools with little fishes in them. To the shrimp, in such a pool, his foot depth of salt water is all the ocean for the time being. He has no dealings with his neighbour shrimp in the adjacent pool, though it may be only a few inches of sand that divide them; but when the rising ocean begins to lip over the margin of the lurking place, one pool joins another, their various tenants meet, and by-and-by, in place of their little patch of standing water, they have the oceans boundless fields to roam in. When the tide is out--when religion is low--the faithful are to be found insulated, here a few and there a few, in the little standing pools that stud the beach, having no dealings with their neighbours of the adjoining pools, calling them Samaritans, and fancying that their own little communion includes all that are precious in Gods sight. They forget, for a time, that there is a vast and expansive ocean rising--every ripple brings it nearer--a mightier communion, even the communion of saints, which is to engulf all minor considerations, and to enable the fishes of all pools--the Christians--the Christians of all denominations--to come together. When, like a flood, the Spirit flows into the Churches, Church will join to Church, and saint will join to saint, and all will rejoice to find that if their little pools have perished, it is not by the scorching summers drought, nor the casting in of earthly rubbish, but by the influx of that boundless sea whose glad waters touch eternity, and in whose ample depths the saints in heaven, as well as the saints on earth, have room enough to range. (Dr. Hamilton.)

The Christian doctrine of self

I. The adjuration (Php_2:1).

1. The strength of the appeal lies in the completeness of its expressions.

(1) If there be any consolation in Christ. I charge you by every holy argument which our common union with Christ suggests, not such as the dignity of your position, the grandeur of anion, the weakness and odiousness of discord, etc.

(2) Paul passes from the Christ as external from whom every argument flows, to the love which is internal. Comfort of love. I charge you by our common possession of love, and by the tender motive contained in it.

(3) Thus the exhortation to self-renouncing devotion is based upon union with Christ and enforced by the love of the heart. Christ gives the strength of the argument: love gives that argument its tenderness.

2. Here follows another pair of appeals, but now the Holy Spirit is the strength of the invocation.

(1) Fellowship of the Spirit. I appeal to the common inheritance of the Holy Ghost which makes Christians one. That fellowship is the ground of your self-renouncing devotion and the power which renders you capable of it.

(2) Bowels and mercies. The gentle, compassionate, forgiving spirit is most mighty in annihilating causes of dissention and is the source of all compassion in us to mankind. Renounce, therefore, every selfish impediment and devote yourself to the common cause afresh.

3. Thus the apostles joy would be fulfilled. He was already happy in their devotion and in the fruits of their fellowship. But he had heard of the risings of a fatal spirit among them. His joy could not reach its consummation without their united and persevering devotion.

II. The exhortation.

1. In its unity. Here we have self-love in the great uniting object of Christs kingdom, subordinate in humility to the honour of others, and losing its essential selfishness in the perpetual combination of the advantage of others with its own. These three are one. Self-renunciation is the secret of unity in the Church, of humility in the individual, and of charity in all the relations of life.

2. In its divisions.

(1) The oneness of a common interest is enforced. Like minded, regarding together one object of pursuit, viz., all the compass of that truth which commands the Churchs faith, all the variety of those interests that concentrate the Churchs desire and effort; all that constitutes the great business of Christs servants in the world. This unity of purpose is either the result of a common love set upon the same object--having the same love, or is shown by the concentration of the faculties of the soul on that object--of one accord in the promotion of one thing.

(2) The humble preference of others to self in all that pertains to dignity (Php_2:3).

(a) Negatively. They are to avoid the conduct he condemns at Rome--strife was to be kept out of their community and vanity out of their character. A mind clothed with humility cannot desire preeminence, and cannot, therefore, contend against others to bring them down, or seek vain self-elevation for its own sake.

(b) Positively. In the exercise of humility they were to regard not that every ones moral character was better than their own, but that others were mars worthy of distinction in the Church. In honour preferring one another.

(3) The habitual consideration of others well-being in connection with our own (Php_2:4). Own things must be taken in the largest sense, temporally and spiritually. Nothing is our own absolutely and apart from others. Our things are ours only in union with the things of ethers. We are not forbidden to seek our own interests, but only in common with the good of all around us. None of us liveth to himself. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

Christian concord

1. The therefore connects the passage with the conversation worthy of the gospel.

2. The central precept is in Php_2:2 --That ye be like minded, which suggests the subject of the whole.

I. The constituent element of Christian concord.

1. Mutual and all-pervading love--Having the same love. All true Christians have this in some measure. Among the members of a congregation it should be peculiarly strong. To its prevalence will correspond congregational life and health. Frequent and close intercourse in a large city church is impossible--all the more necessary, therefore, to combine in the various schemes of Christian effort. One of the most valuable results of Sabbath Schools, Dorcas Societies, etc., is the formation of Christian friendship.

2. Union or accord of souls minding the same thing--the basis of Christian concord--oneness of view in respect to all matters of vital moment. Having this oneness of view Christians will also in the degree in which they yield up their hearts to the common faith have a substantial oneness of disposition and resolution. The one thing is--

(1) The advancement of the kingdom of God in ourselves through advance in the beauty and strength of godliness.

(2) In the Church, through the increase of wisdom, purity, and zeal.

(3) In the world, through the universal and successful proclamation of the gospel.

3. Mutual helpfulness. Christian love cannot flourish apart from Christian energy. A monastery is a hot bed of jealousy and discord, and the more closely a denomination or Church approaches this character in inactivity and uselessness, the more open it will be to dissensions.

II. Its motive.

1. The fulfilment of the apostles joy. Each reference to their possible religious experience is like a rod of Divine power calling out a stream of sympathy and affection.

2. If Pauls joy was augmented by the union of the Philippians, much more will Christs joy be fulfilled by the answer to His prayer that they all may be one. It is only the dissentions of the Church that postpones this blessed consummation.

III. The sources of discord and the means of drying them up.

1. The great causes of dissention in any society are here indicated.

2. These evils are only to be removed by the cultivation of the opposite virtues of humility, which is an exclusively Christian grace.

3. This is not meanness of spirit. While it recognizes facts as they are in, human nature, it involves a profound respect for mans possible self.

4. This lowliness of mind leads each to esteem others better than self (Rom_12:10; Eph_5:21; 1Pe_5:5). This does not imply blindness to ones own ability and attainments, or to the deficiencies of others; but a humble view of self will inspire to help others to fill their place of usefulness--to please them for their good to edification.

5. It will also lead every man to look not on his own things, and to cherish a spirit of unselfishness in regard to others. (R. Johnstone, LL. B.)

Christian unity

I. Its spirit--Christian, kind, brotherly, compassionate.

II. Its practice--Peaceable, humble, unselfish. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Pauls appeal

1. The if is not here the sign of doubt or hesitation, but rather of assured certainty. When persons wish to disclose the vastness of an assembly, they sometimes say, If there was one present, there were two thousand. As employed by Paul it is equivalent to If there is any water in the sea, or any light in the sun.

2. Consolation, comfort of love, etc., signify much in common. This appeal is a burst of tenderness. Affection delights in repetition. Love amplifies its expressions to the utmost; it is the effort of an eloquent rhetorician, artless, yet full of art. There are expressions full of summer light and beauty which are only revealed to the heart.

3. Paul having laid his basis in the very heart of Christ, makes an appeal--fulfil ye my joy. It is right to interject ones personality as an element in an argument for brotherhood and consolidation in the Church. It appears an infinite descent from Christ to Paul, but, in reality, it is no descent; in this argument Christs purpose and Pauls desire are identical. The soul has moods which bring it close to the heart of God. Paul appears before the Philippians more as saint than logician, and in that capacity Christ and the servant are one. The apostle likens his joy to a cup that is nearly full, and intimates that unanimity in the Church would fill it perfectly--make it overflow. See the importance even of a single element. An atom may be necessary to perfection. Beauty may depend on the straightness or curve of a single line. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The apostles appeal

I. The manner of the apostles exhortation. He exhorteth them to be like minded, having their affections (Rom_12:16), likings, and desires so set on the same things as to fulfil his joy. I joy in your fellowship in the gospel, etc. (chap. 1:5-7), yet my joy is not full so long as I hear of your contentions.

1. If there be any consolation in Christ.

(1) In general the apostles vehement obtestation for the embracing of concord, love, and humility, is to be noted. Pastors ought to labour to repress such enormities among their people as hinder the course of Christian conversation by beseeching as though they desired no other recompense than that such disorders might be reformed. They are fathers to their flocks (1Co_4:15; 1Jn_2:1). Sometimes, however, sternness must be used. Paul did not deal with the Galatians as with the Philippians, nor with some of the Corinthians (1Co_4:21).

(2) In particular, the ground of his argument is, that if they had received comfort in Christ by him, then they ought at his request thus to comfort him, as to be like minded, etc.

2. If there be any comfort of love. The ground of which argument is that if they loved him as he loved them, and desired his comfort as he did theirs, then they would fulfil his joy. To yield to the holy desires of one another is an effectual token of Christian love towards one another (Joh_14:15; Phm_1:17). Men are ready enough to yield to wicked enticings (Pro_1:10-12).

3. If there be any fellowship of the Spirit, i.e., if ye be knit together in the bond of one Spirit, and have fellowship as members of one body, under one head, fulfil ye my joy. The ground of this argument is, that men knit together are to give proof thereof by concord. What proof of this many give, let their contentions and divisions witness.

4. If any compassion and mercy. The ground of which argument is that in mercy and compassion to him, the Lords prisoner for their sake, they should fulfil his joy in being like minded. The godly requests of Gods saints afflicted for Christs sake should move in us such compassion as that we should gladly hearken and yield to them.

II. The matter. Observe--

1. The godly pastors joy is to be in his people, whatever his own case may be.

2. That that joy is not full as long as there is anything amiss amongst his people.

3. That he should be admonished to labour that nothing be amiss either touching doctrine or practice, so that his joy may be full. That there was something amiss here is proved by the exhortation; whence learn--

(1) That, what the state of the best churches, so of the most holy men is.

(2) To long to be of that triumphant Church, and to enter the holiest. Here Abraham, David, Job, Paul, Peter, have their faults.

There they are perfected.

1. He exhorteth them to be like minded (Rom_12:16), having their affections, likings, desires, set on the same things (1Co_1:10; Rom_15:5). Are not Jews, Turks, Pharisees, etc., like minded? The necessity of this is seen--

(1) From the fact that we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, etc. (Eph_4:5).

(2) Because there is no better remedy against dissensions (Joh_17:21; Php_3:16). Let us, therefore, beware how we dissent about matters of less moment when we are agreed in greater.

2. Having the same love. This is how we may be like minded. Love--

(1) In respect of the object. Love the same Church, gospel, truth. Where one loves one thing, and another another, distractions and desolations ensue.

(2) In respect of fervour.

3. One accord--agreeing in our wills that unity and concord may be maintained (Psa_7:18; Psa_133:1; Act_4:32).

4. One mind, or judgment. (H. Airay, D. D.)

Mutual harmony

We hear a great deal about the harmony of the spheres. That is poetry, but let us try and translate that poetry into practice. It is a painful thing to take up a newspaper now-a-days! Every one seems to be fighting, abroad and at home. There is too much bitter controversy. We want to realize that if there is a mutual work to be done and faith to do it, there must be mutual love to supply the fire.

I. The first way I want to approach this text is--along the line of variety. Being of one accord does not always mean being of the same opinion. Of course, in the main there can be no good work done unless the great verities are believed in by us all. You have to live in harmony; your very nature is to be harmonious within you. You may be a very inharmonious man in yourself. You may be affectionate. Yes! but there is no courage in you. We have all got to contribute something to the harmony. I do not want, in a choir of musicians, all to play the violin; I should not like to listen to a band of flutes. To be all of one accord does not mean all doing the same thing or playing the same instrument. One man has his special gift. But in all this variety there is harmony; and is not that one of the most beautiful things in the world. The worst of it is that one bad musician can spoil a choir. One cantankerous person in the household can upset everything. One may injure many! Now variety is intended by God. There are men emphatically endowed by special gifts for mission work; some have tender sympathies and they can be friends to the fatherless and widow; some have gifts for calling out the energies of the young. But there must be harmony in all the variety--being of one accord.

II. There must be in this one accord subordinancy of one to the other. Everything must be subservient to great ends. There must always be the Chorus Leader. What we want is the harmony of true, beautiful, religious charity. By subserviency I mean everything uniting for Christs ends.

III. In this harmony there is health. If I have no pare in my hand or foot, but if I have a headache--what then? Where is the harmony within me? When the blood flows healthily, the eye is clear, the step elastic, the brain vigorous, the appetite sharp and good, and the sleep is restful--all is well! But if one of the members gets out of order, it is all misery. The head looks at the foot and says, Why dont you get better? but by-and-by the head is all right, and the foot suffers too. The members are not of one accord. You may lift that thought up into the highest regions of all, and you may realize that if there is to be accord and harmony amongst men in the Church we must all take care of one another, it will not do to neglect anybody. You must look out and take care of the humblest member as well as the highest. It is so in a nation. A nation is in harmony when the rich sympathize with and help the poor, and the wise help the ignorant. A prosperous Church or nation is where there is health in the body politic.

IV. We shall thus enjoy influence. The world likes harmony; it does not know how it is attuned; but it likes it. I have seen in a picture gallery a poor fellow who comes in a sort of semi-fustian; he is no connoisseur, but there was harmony he could detect, and he liked it.

V. It means heaven! Rest in God. We have the mind of Christ. And that is heaven begun on earth. There is no harmony in a piano of itself. The mind makes the harmony. I cannot make harmony out of the piano; it is produced by the spirit that comes through the fingers. Being of one accord. Yes! one mind. We must be moulded after the mind of Christ. You may have a violin, flute, piano, and harp, but you must have one chord. Being of one accord. Oh, what a heaven it will be where we shall have our different mental calibre, for we shall not all be exactly alike. One star differeth from another in glory, and, in proportion as you realize that idea, you realize the harmony of heaven. (W. M. Statham.)

Christian union--strength

The King of the Lacedaemonians being once asked why it was that Sparta was not surrounded by walls, is said to have pointed to the citizens, all filled with one and the same enthusiasm--one united band--and to have answered, These are the walls of the Spartan State. With these, thus separate and yet one, all enemies can be repelled. So is it with the city of God, Christs own Church. Its citizens, when they are of one mind and heart, are its unassailable bulwarks. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Thus, when warfare is over and victory is won, in the city of Peace, where no bulwarks can ever be needed, those who have overcome will join in--The undisturbed song of pure consent, Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne. (J. Hutchinson, D. D.)

Christian union how obtained

Those whose inmost hearts, warmed and expanded by the love of Christ, are welded together, as the glowing iron from the furnace, being softened and rendered adhesive by the heat, and so are joined in love spiritual, as the different members of the same body are joined in the union of nature--these hold the same love, these love as brethren; and there is no tie so close, so firm, and so enduring. Every other union is cemented by the cement of earth, but this by the true attraction of cohesion which is from heaven. (E. Meade, M. A.)

Shoulder to shoulder

Now then, Highlanders, shoulder to shoulder! was the cheery and inspiriting word of command that rang out above the roar of battle, as a gallant soldier led his Scotchmen to the charge; and every man, not for himself, but for England, rushed forward as with only one shoulder in the regiment, and with the irresistible might of their courage and their valour, swept the broken ranks of their defeated foes before them. Oh! let us hear the voice of our great Captain ringing across this worlds great battlefield, and summoning us to give up our petty jealousies and our miserable little differences. Soldiers of the Cross, shoulder to shoulder!--against all the evil, all the falseness, all the baseness, all the meanness, all the impurity, all the pride, all the folly, all the mighty army of sin that the Prince of Darkness has set in battle array against us. (T. T. Shore.)

Consolation in Christ

1. The language of man has received a new coinage of words since his perfection in Eden. Adam could scarce have understood the word consolation, because he did not understand the word sorrow. He soon needed it, but did not find it like the first promise which spake of Christ. And consolation can be found nowhere but in Him.

2. The Holy Spirit is revealed to us as the Comforter, and it is His business to console; but Christ is the consolation.

I. Christ in his varied positions is a consolation for the divers ills of the people of God. All His paths drop fatness, etc.

1. There are times when we look on the past with deepest grief, with fond regrets for the lost Paradise. To meet this, consider Christ in old eternity, as the covenant Head, stipulating to redeem thee; and think of the anticipating mercies of God.

2. If your minds dwell in sadness on the fact that you are absent from the Lord, think of the great truth that Christ of old had delights with the sons of men, and delights to have fellowship with them now. Remember that he appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, to Jacob at the brook Jabbok, to Joshua as Captain of the Lords host, to the three Hebrew children, and so today.

3. Pursue the Masters footsteps as He comes out of the invisible glory and wears the visible garment of humanity. You are tried and troubled, but what better consolation can you have than that Christ is one with you in your nature and suffered all that you are now suffering.

(1) You are poor, He had not where to lay His head.

(2) You are in pain; He agonized in Gethsemane and was nailed to the cross. Was there ever sorrow like unto His? What consolation in the fact that that sorrow expiated sin!

4. Follow Him to the grave. You, through fear of death are all your lifetime subject to bondage, but surely you may find an easy couch where your master slept. But this consolation is as naught compared with that derived from His resurrection. Be not faithless, but believing.

5. See Him ascending to His glory, and anticipate the joy you will have in His triumph. He went as your representative.

6. Behold Him, the great High Priest, the advocate with the Father; and sending down consolations upon His people.

7. But He shall come again as King and complete his ministry of consolation for body as well as for soul.

II. Christ in His unchanging nature a consolation for our continual sorrows.

1. He is a surpassing consolation. Talk about the consolations of philosophy; the charms of music; the comfort of friendship; the joys of hope; we have all these and others in superabundance in Him.

2. His consolations are unfailing. All other wells are dry; but this flows in an unceasing stream.

3. His consolations are everlasting; in youth, manhood, old age, in the prospect of death and eternity.

4. They are always within a believers reach, a very present help in time of trouble. You may always cheer your heart with Him, when all other things are far away.

III. Is Christ an available consolation for me?

1. Not if you are a self-sufficient moralist trusting in your own righteousness. You are trusting in a lie, and Christ will never be friends with a lie.

2. Not if you are a backslider, unless you return, to which Christ invites you.

3. Yes! if you are a penitent, obedient believer. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Consolation in Christ

I. I ask the young convert if there be any consolation in Christ. Why there is no consolation without Him, they reply. When anguish took hold of us because of Gods judgments we knew not whither to flee. We tried to stifle fear and silence conscience, but our misery increased. We then tried to soothe conscience by reformation, but we found no comfort. We resorted to the means of grace and called upon God, but the answer was, Cursed is every one that continueth not, etc. Then almost in despair Jesus appeared to us, the burden was removed, and we were made happy.

II. I appeal to the active Christian. He responds, Yes: His yoke is easy, etc. All our ability to perform duty, and all our acceptance of it, are from Him, and we glory in Him as our righteousness and strength.

III. The afflicted Christian responds, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. My afflictions have been my greatest blessings. I have had the example of Christ before me, His patience with me, His everlasting arms underneath me. His word or His smile have either removed my afflictions or inspired me with fortitude and joy to bear them.

IV. The dying Christian will reply that he has only a desire to depart, and that while passing through the valley Christs rod and staff are his comfort.

V. The glorified saints ascribe everything to Him that brought them out of great tribulation.

VI. What do You say? There may be consolation in Christ, but I can say nothing of it from experience. I could never see any such excellence in Him as to induce me to give up my present enjoyment. But the day will come when you would give all the world for one smile of the consolation of Israel. Inferences: From what has been said--

1. We should thank God for His unspeakable gift.

2. We see what enemies they are to themselves who are enemies to Christ.

3. How greatly they mistake who represent religion as gloomy.

4. Let your lives declare this consolation.

5. If there be such consolation here, what must heaven be? (S. Lavington.)

The tender sympathy of Christ

St. Yoo, of Kernartin, one morning went out and saw a beggar asleep on his doorstep. The beggar had been all night in the cold. The next night St. Yoo compelled this beggar to come into the house and sleep in the saints bed, while St. Yoo passed the night on the doorstep in the cold. Somebody asked him why that eccentricity? He replied, It isnt an eccentricity; I want to know how the poor suffer, I want to know their agonies, that I may sympathize with them, and therefore I slept on this cold step last night. That is the way Christ knows so much about our sorrows. (Talmage.)

Any comfort of love--

A communion discourse

1. The comfort of love--when love is mutual--no one questions. The dependent child, in the arms of the loving mother, experiences it. There is no comfort in selfishness, indifference, and hate.

2. As over against all the reasonings of the enemies of Christianity, there stands out in bold relief this unanswerable fact, that Christ comes with comfort--the com fort of love--to a world full of suffering. The mission of our Saviour, as put by Isaiah (Isa_41:2), is to comfort all that mourn (Luk_4:18). As light to the eye, as food and water to the body, more than as medicine to the sick, is this Divine comfort of love to a world full of broken hearts.

3. Stoicism, born before the story of the manger was told, teaching indifference alike to pain and pleasure, illustrates the highest achievement of human wisdom; but it offers no comfort to a suffering world.

4. The Lords Supper is an object lesson--the culminating expression of Gods comforting love.

5. Standing by the cross, we grasp the full measure of Gods comforting love.

6. It is not strange that men with honest love have struggled to compass this mystery, but it is strange that men should have converted that which is the comfort of love into a battlefield. (J. G. Butler, D. D.)

The emotional in Christianity

Notice--

I. How emotional life has been stifled. At one time men have been bound by monotonous rituals and artificial formularies, and at another period by rigid theological statements, the result of anatomical analysis--a paring and cutting which takes the life and leaves the letter. Real religion is full of emotion. Bead the Psalms and see how they abound in it.

II. The perversion of emotion is also destructive of the souls true life. This is seen where self is made the sole object of thought. The bitterest torment is the torment of self. The word miser, for example, means miserable.

III. Turn from these to the true function of emotion--the comfort of love.

1. Love is a comfort in the discoveries it makes of the new possibilities of the soul. Think of the grace of tears! I have seen a man who had been elbowing his way through life amid its rough and selfish oppositions, hammering his heart hard, as it were, lest it by softening should become weak. Such a man, made callous by contact with an unsympathetic world, I have seen stand by the coffin of his child. His stony heart broke, and he was glad to weep. The bondage of the hard, real world was sundered, its barriers dissolved, and he recognized that the long-hidden power to feel was not destroyed.

2. Love is a comfort, inasmuch as it is restful and quiet. Ambition, anger, and jealousy bring pain. These are costly indulgences, for they cause sleeplessness and rob one of strength. But there is comfort in love. The mother bears her babe on her breast, and cradles it in her soul. She pastures her eyes in its face, and its beautiful smile is a reflection of the serene and joyful sense of possession which she herself feels. O the luxury of that love! If in a palace, its gilded wealth is but tinsel in the atmosphere of such love. Love beautifies the deformed body and withered features. More than that, it trusts against hope. A bridge was begun in California, over a quagmire. Piles were driven and earth was brought, but every effort failed, till finally a simple platform of boards was constructed, on which yielding support people were floated across. So love, with its strong, instinctive trust, floats across chasms that mere reason can never bridge.

3. There is comfort in love, because it harmonizes everything. What a world this would be if love reigned! There would be none to chafe and crowd and irritate. What oil does love pour on troubled waters! I recall the bright tranquillity of an aged grandmother, whose active days were over and who could only sit in her chair and look her benedictions on us all. That smile of hers lubricated all the wheels of daily life; it dried up all tears as the sun dries up the showers, and shed an atmosphere of peace and harmony through the household.

4. Love takes hold on the infinite. Ambition disappoints and pleasure cloys, but love never dies. It has its successive growths. The childs love is fickle and selfish; that of the youthful pair is founded on mutual esteem and gets chilled, but that of a mother yearns to give its best treasures even to the prodigal, and to love him back to purity. There are no mathematics, no question of seventy times of forgiveness in such love. It is a picture of the love of God, and lifts us towards the Infinite. True love inspires the missionary, who, like Carey or Martin, goes to far-off lands with the gospel, or to the loathsomely sick in hospital, or to the brutal in prison. This is the secret of Pauls boast that he could do all things, for, to him who thus loveth, all things are possible. (J. B. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php 2:1. The apostle, in the latter part of the preceding chapter, having exhorted the Philippians to walk worthy of their Christian profession, by having their conversation according to the gospel; and, as nothing is more required by it, or can be more suitable to it, than mutual love among the followers of Christ, he here beseeches them, by every thing most affecting in Christianity, to fulfil his joy, by exercising that love. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ — And his grace, in his person and offices, in his humiliation and sufferings for you, or in his exaltation and glory. This is not an expression of doubt, but the strongest affirmation that there is the greatest consolation in him, 2Co 1:4. If any comfort of love — In the love of God to you, or in your love to him in return; if any fellowship of the Spirit — Any communion with the Father and the Son, through the Holy Spirit dwelling in you; if any bowels and mercies — Resulting therefrom; any tender affection toward each other, or any compassion for me, now a prisoner for Christ, fulfil ye my joy — To all the other causes of joy which I have concerning you, add this also, and make my joy complete; that ye be like-minded — That ye be alike disposed; that ye esteem, desire, and pursue the same thing, even your high and holy calling, as το αυτο φρονητε seems here to signify, it being explained in the following clauses as implying having the same love, being of one accord; συμψυχοι, united in soul, or animated with the same affections and intentions; το εν φρονουντες, minding; that is, delighting in and aiming at one thing, namely, the glory of God, or the honour of Christ, in their salvation. It is justly observed by Macknight here, that the word φρονειν, rendered to mind, has different meanings in the New Testament. Sometimes it denotes an act of the understanding, Act 28:22: We desire to hear of thee, α φρονεις, what thou thinkest, Gal 5:10; That, ουδεν αλλο φρονησετε, ye will think nothing differently. Sometimes it denotes an act of the will, Php 2:5; τουτο φρονεισθω, Let this disposition be in you which was even in Christ. It signifies also to set one’s affections on an object so as to use every means in one’s power to obtain it, as Col 3:2; τα ανω φρονειτε, Set your affections on things above, and endeavour to obtain them. Php 4:10, I rejoiced that now at length, ανεθαλλετε το υπερ εμου φρονειν, you have made your care of me to flourish again.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Mutual Service of Paul and Philippian Church

§ 7. Php_2:1-11, In view of what has just been said, therefore the Apostle entreats his readers, under all the obligations arising from past fellowship (Php_2:1), to make his joy complete by a thorough concord (Php_2:2). This will be attained through self-effacing regard for each other (Php_2:3-4), of which Christ is the ground and example (Php_2:5-8).

1. St. Paul invokes four bonds of friendship: exhortation (i.e. encouragement) in Christ, given on his part; consolation of love, fellowship in the Spirit (cp. Php_1:19), tender mercies and compassions, mutually exhibited; if there be any such things—or if they count for anything as between us (the sentence is elliptical, and the text a little doubtful)—this entreaty will prevail.

2. That ye be of the same mind (Php_2:2) imports oneness of sentiment and aim, to be realised in having the same love—i.e. cherishing a uniform reciprocal affection—as men conjoined in soul ('of one accord,' RV; cp. Php_1:27, 'with one soul'), minding the one thing (cp. Col_3:2 RV). In rendering the last clause of one mind, AV ignores the Gk. definite article: St. Paul's 'one thing needful' (cp. Luk_10:42) is nothing else than 'the gospel' (see Php_1:5, Php_1:8, Php_1:27); concentration upon this is the guarantee of unity.

3, 4. Such oneness of soul means doing nothing in a factious or vainglorious way, each man in lowliness of mind counting the other better than himself, and keeping an eye not for his own interests but for those of his neighbour. In short, love and humility together overcome all divisive influences, and bring about the perfect socialism of the Spirit.

Php_2:5 goes on to say that this altruism is the proper Christian way of thinking: Have this mind in you, which is indeed (the mind) in Christ Jesus—i.e. the mind grounded in Him. The Pauline phrase 'in Christ Jesus' signifies the mystical union: not the Jesus Christ who 'was' (the verb of AV is wanting in the Gk.), but the Christ Jesus who 'is,' inspires this way of thinking.

Php_2:6-8 lead back from the present to the past, exhibiting the Christian altruistic mind as it wrought first in the Founder; St. Paul relates the experience of the Head to teach the members a lowly, self-renouncing love. For this purpose he must show how much Christ had to forgo and to what lengths His abnegation went. The difficult expressions of this profound passage are, especially, the synonymous connected phrases form (of God, of a bondman), on an equality (with God), likeness (of men), in fashion (as a man), which denote resemblance in different aspects or degrees. The first signifies essential form, the mode of existence proper to the person in question; the second, the footing on which he stands, or might stand; the third, his visible features; the fourth, the guise, or habit of life, in which he moves. The verbs of Php_2:7-8—emptied (RV), and humbled Himself—affirm respectively a negative self-deprivation or depotentiation, and a positive self-humiliation based upon the former; the latter act has its antithesis in the exalting of Christ by God spoken of in Php_2:9, and the former in the granting to Him of the name above every name. The rare verbal noun of Php_2:6, (counted it not) a prize (RV; AV 'robbery'), meant first 'the act of grasping' or clutching,' and then 'a thing to be clutched.' We take the sense of the passage to be, that Christ, while divine in His proper nature, did not, when the call came to serve others, hold fast in self-assertion His God-like state, but divested Himself of this by assuming a servant's form (adding to His divine a human being, which eclipsed the Godhead in Him) and leading an earthly life such as our own (Php_2:6, Php_2:7). But He went lower still; having stooped from His Godhead to man's condition, He traversed all the stages of obedience down to the humiliation of death (cp. Php_3:21), and of death in its uttermost shame (Php_2:7-8). Such was the devotion of the Son of God to men; and every man who is in Christ Jesus shares this mind.

The verb 'emptied' in Php_2:7 supplies the theological term kenosis for the deprivation of divine attributes or powers involved in the incarnation of our Lord. However far this diminution went—and we cannot pretend to define its limits—since it was a self-emptying, an act of our Lord's sovereignty, it involved no forfeiture of intrinsic Deity.

At Php_2:8 the illustration properly ends; but St. Paul cannot leave his Master on the cross, nor have it supposed that self-abnegation is real loss: cp. Mat_10:39; Joh_12:24. By a divine recompense, Christ was lifted up from the death of the cross to the Messianic dominion, with glory added to His primal glory (Php_2:9-11): Wherefore indeed God more highly exalted him, and granted to him the name that is above every name: cp. Eph_1:20-22. This 'name' is the completed title, the Lord Jesus Christ, under which our Saviour will be adored throughout the universe. Things under the earth was a Gk. euphemism for the dead: cp. Rom_14:9; Eph_4:9.

Php_2:10-11 appropriate for Jesus the language of Isa_45:23, which foretold the worship to be paid to Israel's God by all mankind. The glory of the Father will be realised in the universal acknowledgment of the Lordship of the Son whom He enthroned: cp. 1Co_15:24-28.

§ 8. Php_2:12-18. The connexion of the third exhortation, to thoroughness in the pursuit of salvation (Php_2:12-18), with the two foregoing paragraphs may be brought out thus: And so, my beloved—since Christ's triumph, won by self-forgetting love, is sure (§ 7), and since you are my fellow-soldiers in His war (§ 6)—as you have always answered to my challenge, I expect that now in my absence—when you depend on yourselves—much more than in my presence, with fear and trembling yon will prosecute the work of your salvation; for God is he that worketh in you both the willing and the working (contrast Rom_7:18), for his good-pleasure's sake (Php_2:13). God's working in the Philippians is alleged not to enforce the fear and trembling (which St. Paul assumes and approves in them), but as a strong encouragement: 'Whatever human aid is wanting, God is with you—in you!' cp. Php_1:6, Php_1:28 also Eph_3:20; Col_1:29; Act_20:32. That God is thus working in the readers in the interests of His good pleasure, implies that their life-work is taken into God's plan for the kingdom of His Son; see Php_2:9-11, Php_1:29 also Luk_12:32; 2Th_1:11, 2Th_1:12.

14. The consciousness of God's sovereign grace operating in the Philippian Christians will prevent their work being marred by murmurings and reasonings against their lot (cp. Php_1:29; Php_4:6 also 1Pe_4:12-14); in this confidence they will bear themselves as God's children (Php_2:15, Php_2:16) amid an evil world, where they are set to shine as luminaries, holding forth in its lustre the word of life: cp. 1Th_1:8-10 also Mat_5:14-16; Joh_1:6-8; Joh_5:35. For salvation-seeking is not egoism; Christian excellence is that of a lamp, the more radiant as it is better trimmed.

16b. The writer, too, will gain much by the advancing salvation and luminous witness of his converts: this will be for a glorying to myself against the day of Christ, as showing that I have not run in vain nor toiled in vain: cp. 1Th_3:5; Gal_2:2.

17, 18. Supposing the worst fears of the Philippians realised by his condemnation to death, their faith will turn this into a glad offering on the Apostle's part to God. Even in this issue, he joys and rejoices with them, and calls on them to joy and rejoice with him 1 While he and they are true to Christ, nothing can take away their common joy: cp. Php_1:20; Rom_8:31-39. St. Paul represents his death under the figure of a libation, or drink-offering (RM): his blood, shed for the salvation of the Gentiles (Rom_15:16; Col_1:24, etc.), would be poured out over the sacrifice and service rendered to God by the faith of his Churches—a shower that will feed the sacrificial flame.

IV. The Approaching Visits (Php_2:19-30)

§ 9. Php_2:19-24. The Apostle hopes however in the Lord Jesus (under His sovereign direction) that events will take a different course; he will send Timothy forthwith to Philippi, so soon as the outlook is clear, purposing himself to follow when free (Php_2:23-24): cp. Php_1:25, Php_1:26. The motive for sending is, that I too (as well as you) may be of good cheer through learning the news about you (as you through hearing about me); and the reasons for sending Timothy are, on the one hand, his genuine care for the Philippians and the absence of any one else like-minded (lit. 'equal-souled'), and on the other hand the knowledge the Philippians have of his character and intimacy with his master (Php_2:22). In the hard saying, they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ (RV), 'all' is limited by the context, and by the Gk. definite article, to St. Paul's available helpers. Some of his companions were busy elsewhere; others decline the errand through motives that he regards as selfish (Php_2:20-21).

§ 10. Php_2:25-30. Epaphroditus returns forthwith, carrying this letter (Php_2:25); see Intro. The Apostle heaps commendation upon him, apprehending seemingly that he might have a cool reception (see Php_2:29-30), since he is going home prematurely and without having rendered all the service expected. To St. Paul he has proved my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, having shared the Apostle's toils and labours to the best of his power; on behalf of the Philippians, your apostle (deputy-messenger) and minister (minister-in-sacred-things: this word is repeated in the service of Php_2:30) to my need. The Apostle sends him back thus early because of his homesickness, which was aggravated by news of the grief of his friends at his recent illness (Php_2:26)—an illness threatening death, which God had averted in mercy both to himself and to Paul; his immediate return, under these circumstances, is happier for all parties (Php_2:27-28): Epaphroditus, it seems, had fallen into sickness through some venture, beyond the common risks of travel, in which he had hazarded (the rare Gk. verb means 'gambling with') his life—'setting his life upon a cast'—to serve the Apostle on behalf of the Philippians in promoting the work of Christ (Php_2:30). How this came about, it is idle to conjecture.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Exhortation to unity, Php_2:1-2.

1. Therefore—Resumes the “standing fast in one spirit” of Php_1:27. Four distinct motives to perfect harmony are now urged, namely, the consolation found in union with Christ, the power of love in prevention of strife, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as a basis of unity, and tenderness of feeling for brethren and compassion for them who err, all which the apostle assumes to exist among them, and in their individual hearts.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Php_2:1. Consolation in Christ.—Exhortation would be better, inasmuch as consolation anticipates the comfort of the next phrase. Comfort of love.—Encouragement which love gives. Fellowship of the Spirit.—“Participation in the Spirit” Meyer’s remark is, “This is to be explained of the Holy Spirit.” Beet intimates a widening of the idea—“brotherliness prompted by the Holy Spirit.” Bowels and mercies.—On the former term see Php_1:8. The word for mercies denotes the yearning of the heart, though, it may be, there is no ability to help.

Php_2:2. Fulfil ye my joy.—“Fill up” my cup of joy. See Php_1:4. Likeminded.—“General harmony, … identity of sentiment” (Meyer). On this verse, with its accumulations, Chrysostom exclaims, “Bless me! how often he says the same thing!”

Php_2:3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.—The verb is suppressed in the Greek, a construction more natural and more forcible than to connect the nothing with the preceding clause. “Partisanship and pomposity.” For the ruin of how many Churches are this pair responsible! In lowliness of mind.—A rare flower, scattering its fragrance unseen. “It was one great result of the life of Christ (on which St. Paul dwells here) to raise humility to its proper level; and, if not fresh coined for this purpose, the word (for ‘lowliness of mind’) now first became current through the influence of Christian ethics” (Lightfoot).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Php_2:1-4

Christian Unity an Occasion of Joy.

I. Christian unity is a striving after the Spirit of Christ.—“That ye be likeminded” (Php_2:2).

1. Manifested in loving consolation to those in distress.—“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love” (Php_2:1). If the pagan expressed unity by those who dwelt in one village and drank of one fountain, how much more real is the union of those who drink of the same Spirit and practise the lovingkindness of the one Christ. A striking evidence of the unity of Christianity is seen in its sympathy everywhere for the poor, the sick, and the unfortunate. It is Christ-like to comfort and help the distressed.

2. Manifested in spiritual fellowship.—“If any fellowship of the Spirit” (Php_2:1). Christians are one by their communion together, flowing from their joint participation in the same Spirit. The union of hearts is more real and stable than the external union expressed by creeds and contracts. The Spirit is the unifying power of Christendom.

3. Manifested in compassion for the suffering.—“If any bowels and mercies” (Php_2:1). Christianity is a mission to the suffering. Before the Christian era there were no hospitals and infirmaries, no cure for the afflicted poor. Unselfish benevolence was almost unknown. Nothing is more remarkable than the spirit of tender compassion that Christianity has breathed into social and national life.

II. Christianity is opposed to a spirit of faction and empty boasting.—“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory” (Php_2:3). The message of the gospel is one of peace and goodwill to all men. It is foreign to its spirit to exalt the interests of party or of self; it seeks to promote a universal and all-pervasive charity. The Germans have a legend connected with the terrific battle of Chalons between the Visigoths and the Romans against Attila. The bloody work of the sword was done, the plain was strewn with heaps of the slain; but for three nights following—so ran the story—the spirits of the slain hovered over the scene and continued the strife in the air. The like has been done again and again in the party strifes and controversies of the Church. Unity is impossible where contention and vanity have sway.

III. Christian unity is strengthened by the maintenance of a humble spirit.—

1. In comparing oneself with others. “In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Php_2:3). The man who walks humbly with God, realising his complete dependence on Him, will not unduly exalt himself, and will highly esteem others, as knowing that they are equally with himself dependent on God for their abilities. Instead of fixing your eyes on those points in which you may excel, fix them on those in which your neighbour excels you: to do this is true humility. The excellencies of others are better known than their defects, and our own defects are better known to ourselves than to others. A sense of personal short-coming will keep us humble. Humility is a special product of Christianity. The whole Roman language, with all the improvements of the Augustan age, does not afford so much as a name for humility; nor was one found in all the copious language of the Greeks, till it was made by the great apostle.

2. In considering other people’s interests as well as your own.—“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Php_2:4) The truly humble are thoroughly disinterested. The work of the meek and lowly Jesus is the loftiest example of disinterestedness. He looked to the things of others rather than to His own. In unselfishly seeking the good of others we promote our own. When Augustine was asked, “What is the first thing in religion?” he answered, “Humility.” “What is the second?” “Humility.” “And what is the third?” “Humility.” Speaking of pride, Augustine truly said, “That which first overcame man is the last thing he overcomes.” Humility is a strong bond of Christian unity.

IV. Christian unity is an occasion of great joy.—“Fulfil ye my joy” (Php_2:2). The weak spot in the disposition of the Philippians was a tendency to quarrelsomeness; hence he insists upon unity. They had given him joy in the other Christian excellencies they possessed; he asks them to complete his joy in cherishing the grace of unity. “Behold,” exclaimed tho rejoicing Psalmist, as he contemplated the union of the Jewish tribes, “how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” The bundle of arrows cannot be broken while it remains a bundle. Tacitus, an ancient Latin historian, says of the Germans, what sceptics and others find true of Christians, “Whilst fighting separately, all are conquered together.” The strength of the Christian Church lies in its consolidation.

Lessons.—

1. Christian unity is of supreme importance.

2. Is absolutely necessary to represent the Spirit of Christ.

3. Is the cause of much joy to the anxious minister.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Php_2:1-2. Unity and Concord in the Church.—

1. As unity and concord is necessary in itself and at all times, so is it most necessary in suffering times: the enjoyment of Christ’s presence, the reaping of any spiritual advantage by the communion and love of the saints, fellowship with God through the operation of the Spirit, depend upon it.

2. The success of the gospel will be matter of joy to a public-spirited Christian, even in the midst of his own crosses and sufferings.

3. That unity and concord among the Churches may be solid and lasting, there should be unity of will and affections, of designs and endeavours, and in opinion and matters of judgment.—Fergusson.

Php_2:3. Humility an Antidote to Contention.—

1. The lust of vainglory, whereby a man pursues more after the applause of men than to be approved of God, is the mother of contention and strife, and unfriendly to union and peace.

2. The grace of humility does not consist in an affected strain of words and gestures, but, being seated in the heart, makes a man think meanly of himself and of anything that is his.

3. So conscious should we be of our own infirmities, so modest in the esteem of our own graces and virtues. so prone to charity, that we ought to esteem any other, for what we know of him, to be better than ourselves.—Ibid.

Php_2:4. Looking on the Things of Others.

I. One school in which we learn the lesson of unselfishness is the home circle.

II. Another way in which God teaches us the same lesson is through the experience we gain in the intercourse of daily work.—We divide men into the selfish and the unselfish—those who work for self and think of self, and those whose labours are for other men.

III. We are taught to consider other men by the perplexities and confusion which arise when we think only of ourselves.—The modern philosophy is true so far when it says that man is nothing in himself, but only a bundle of relations, the meeting-point of many influences. Those who fix their attention upon the meeting-point forget what makes the man. Probably there is no more confused or miserable man than the self-analyst.—A. R. MacEwen.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

(2) Christ’s Example on the Way through Humiliation to Exaltation (Php_2:1-11)

After earnestly and eloquently entreating them to stand together in harmony (Php_2:1-4), he holds up to view the person of the Redeemer (Php_2:5-6), His state of Humiliation (Php_2:7-8), and His state of exaltation (Php_2:9-11)

1If there be therefore any consolation [exhortation] in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any1 bowels and mercies [compassion], 2fulfil ye [make full] my joy, that ye be like-minded [mind the same thing], having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind [with one soul minding the one thing]. 3Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other [others] better than [superior to] themselves. 4Look not every man2 on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5Let this mind3 be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; 6who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7but made himself of no reputation [emptied or divested himself], and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a [the4] name which Isaiah 10 above every name; that at [in] the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things [beings] in heaven, and things [beings] in earth, and things [beings] under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Php_2:1. If there be therefore any exhortation in Christ (εἴ τις οὖν παράκλησις ἐν Χριστῷ). Οὖν goes back to the preceding thought (Php_1:27-30). He now exhorts them to be united in the present conflict, in which they as well as himself are engaged, that the joy which he has felt on account of their harmony may receive no check. Εἰ presents what is actual as hypothetical for the sake of the conclusion, as in Eph_3:2; Eph_3:4; Eph_3:21; Col_1:23; Col_2:20; Col_3:1. We are to supply ἐστί, but not also ἐν ὑμῖν (Meyer). It is to be taken for granted that such exhortation (παράκλησις), which by ἐν Χριστῷ (Php_1:26) is defined as based upon Christ, as having its sphere or element in Him, is found richly in the Apostle; but he adopts this mode of expression in his humility. Comp. Rom_15:30. [The A. V. renders παράκλησις consolation, but that sense destroys the difference between this clause and the next. The meaning here is: If those who are in Christ may address to each other exhortations and entreaties with a right to expect that they will not be unavailing, then fulfil, etc. We may carry forward the idea of ἐν Χριστῷ to the other clause.—H.]—If any comfort of love (εἴτι παραμύθιον ἀγάπης). According to 1Th_2:11 : ὡς πατὴρ τέκνα ἑαυτοῦ παρακαλοῦντες ὑμᾶς καὶ παραμυθούμενοι; and 1Co_15:3 :παράκλησιν καὶ παραμυθίαν, this ἅπαξ λεγόμενον must denote consolation of love, friendly address, or encouragement which springs from love, as described by the genitive. We are to refer the above without doubt to the Apostle. [The Apostle would say: If it be a characteristic of true love that it is ever ready to comfort or encourage those for whom it is cherished, then comply with my request and thus manifest your love to me.—H.]—If any fellowship of spirit [or the Spirit] (εἴ τις κοινωνία πνεύματος). The article being omitted, we cannot compare this expression with 2Co_13:13 : κοινωνία τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, and explain it as fellowship with the Holy Spirit (Bengel, Meyer); but the κοινωνία, which was described in Php_1:5 with reference to its object or outward action, is described here in its inward sphere: fellowship of spirit among themselves, and with the Apostle, by virtue of which exhortation and entreaty readily find response and acceptance as addressed to each other. That this fellowship of spirit is a gift of the Holy Spirit, is only pre-supposed, not stated. [The absence of the article does not decide against the other view; for πνεῦμα as being of the nature of a proper name may have the article or omit it. See Winer’s Gramm., p. 122. Most interpreters understand the Holy Spirit to be meant.—H.]—If any bowels and compassion (εἴ τινα σπλάγχνα καί οἰκτιρμοί). The first substantive (Php_1:8) denotes the seat, the source, of the second; the second being in the plural represents the individual proofs, the acts as repeated, manifold. See Winer’s Gramm., p. 176; Col_3:12; σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ, lect. var. (οἰκτιρμῶν). Thus the fellowship or participation (κοινωνία) in the third clause appears in its action and effects. [The two nouns give intensity to the idea. The Apostle intimates in terms of the greatest delicacy that any reluctance to grant him the favor for which he so earnestly pleads, would have all the effect upon his feelings of unkindness and cruelty.—H.] The first two clauses we are to refer to Paul, the other two to the Philippians; the implied affirmation of the several conditions (εἴ τις. … οἰκτιρμοι), as respects both Paul and those addressed, enforces the exhortation (πληρώσατε) which they severally introduce. It is incorrect to regard the first and third as objective, and the second and fourth as subjective motives (Meyer), or to refer all four to the Philippians only (Meyer, Schenkel). That we are to supply χαρά, from Php_2:2, in each of the conditional clauses (‘si quod (gaudium) consolatio amoris,’ etc.), according to Bengel, is inadmissible.

Php_2:2. Make full my joy (πληρώσατέ μου τὴν χαράν). The Apostle has joy already, and it only remains that this should be full and complete (comp. Php_1:9; 1Jn_1:4; 2Jn_1:12). The Philippians are to make it so by allowing his appeal to prevail with them (first two clauses), and by maintaining and exhibiting the virtues to which he exhorts them (last two).—He sums up the whole as it were in one word: That ye mind the same thing. Ἵνα represents the harmony of the Philippians (τὸ αὐτὸ φρονῆτε), as sought by them in order [as one of its attendant aims] to fill up the measure of Paul’s joy. According to Php_3:15; Php_4:2; Rom_12:16; Rom_15:5, minding and striving after the same object are meant.—This is more closely defined, first on its ethical side: Having the same love (τὴν αὐτὴν ἀγάπην ἔχοντες). As possessors and dispensers of that love which in its object, purity and strength, is essentially the same, they should be of one mind.—Secondly, the trait or conduct appearing on its intellectual side is: Being of one accord (A. V.), or like-minded, pondering the one thing (σύμψυχοι τὸ ἓν φρονοῦντες). With reference to the object had in view, the τὸ αὐτό represents it as a single thing, and the question they consider is, what one thing is necessary; and further, the personal unity which corresponds to this unity of aim, becomes prominent, as in Php_1:27 : μιᾷ ψυχῇ,. Tittmann (Syn. I. p. 67) correctly observes: ἰσόψυχος est qui eodem modo est animatus (like-minded); σύμψυχος autem, qui idem sentit, unanimis (harmonious); σύμψυχοι esse possunt, qui non sunt ἰσόψυχοι; sunt igitur σύμψυχοι οἱ αὐτὸ φρονοῦντες. Sed τὸ ἓν φρονεῖν est unum velle, in uno expetendo consentire. In this earnest exhortation the accumulation of terms and phrases cannot surprise us. It is incorrect to regard σύμψυχοι as independent, the subject of a separate predication (Oecumenius, et al.). To these two positive qualifications correspond the negative ones in Php_2:3.

Php_2:3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.—Μηδὲν κατ’ ἐριθείαν for bids whatever is without or against τὴν αὐτὴν ἀγάπην, while μηδὲ κατὰ κενοδοξίαν forbids whatever violates τὸ ἓν φμονεῖν, μιᾷ ψυχῇ. On the first substantive see in Php_1:17; on the second, Suidas: ματαία τις περὶ ἑαυτοῦ οἴησις (Gal_5:26, κενόδοξοι); κατά denotes rule, motive (Winer’s Gram., p. 401). Without question it is more simple to continue φρονοῦντες from the preceding verse (Winer, Gram., p. 587) than to supply ποιοῦντες (Erasmus, Luther, et al.), or even to construe it with the following ἡγούμενοι (Hölemann).—The positive (Php_2:2 b) is opposed here to the negative (Php_2:3 a).—But in lowliness of mind (or in humility) let each esteem others superior to themselves.—Ἀλλά marks strongly the opposition. The instrumental dative (τῇ ταπεινοφροσύνῃ) corresponds to κατά with the accusative. See Winer’s Gram. p. 402, note 2. On the substantive see Eph_4:4; Col_2:18; Col_2:23; Col_3:12. Ἀλλήλους ἡγούμενοι ὑπερέχοντας ἑαυτῶν teaches that humility fixes its eye on another’s excellences, and judges him from this point of view. Bengel: Jure et dotibus fieri id potest, non extreme tantum, sed per veram ταπεινοφροσύνην, cum quis per abnegationem oculos avertit a suis prærogativis et alterius dotes, quibus prior est, studiose contemplatur.

Php_2:4. Look not every one on his own things, but every one also on the things of others (μὴ τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἕκαστοι σκοποῦντες, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἑτέρων έκαστοι).—The sentence presents a general principle. The unusual plural ἕκαστοι, which is emphatic in each number, but especially in the second, where it stands at the end, indicates that this should be true of every member of the church. Τὰ ἑαυτῶν, τὰ ἑτέρων, signify in general res, causa, as in Php_2:21; 1Co_13:5 (τὰ ἑαυτῶν); 1Co_10:24 (τὸ ἑαυτοῦ, τὸ τοῦ ἑτέρου), 33 (τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ, τὸ τῶν πολλῶν), τὰ being used, and not τὸ, in order to mark the multiplicity. It is also to be noticed that ἄλλος denotat alium, nulla diversitatis nisi numeri ratione, ἕτερος non tantum alium, sed etiam diversum indicat (Tittmann, Syn. I. p. 155 sq.). While in the above passages ζητεῖν is employed, we have here σκοποῦντες (Php_3:17). Hence, according to the context, we are to think of the gifts and excellencies of others before our own, and of their advantage, interest, as well as our own. This distinction, however, comes out more clearly in view of what follows. Ἀλλὰ καί after μή limits or softens the antithesis. We are to think also of the things of others, hence not merely and exclusively of them. It is selfishness only that is forbidden. [“We are to look,” says Lightfoot, “beyond our own interest to that of others.”—H.] See Winer’s Gram. p. 498. It is incorrect to deny this distinction between ζητεῖν and σκοπεῖν so as either to find no reference to gifts and excellencies (Meyer), or to think exclusively of these (Calvin).

Php_2:5. Let this mind be in you, or, according to the better text, have this mind in you (τιῦτο γὰρ φρονεῖτε ἐν ὑμῖν).—Paul confirms his exhortation to unity by showing what self-denying love and humility are, as illustrated in the example of Christ. Τοῦτο has as its correlative ὅ in the following clause, while ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ answers to ἐν ὑμῖν. Hence the meaning must be in animis vestris, but not intra vestrum cœtum (Hölemann). [For the force of γάρ see notes on the text.—H.]—Which was also in Christ Jesus (ὁ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ιησοῦ sc. ἐφρονήθη). Καί also, i.e., as well as ἐν ὑμῖν.

Php_2:6. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.—Ὅς has for its antecedent Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, and points to His antemundane state, as Php_2:7-8, refer to His earthly existence, and Php_2:9-11 refer to His subsequent glorified condition. The subject is the ego of the Lord, which is active in all the three modes of existence. It is the entire summary of the history of Jesus, including His ante-human state (Meyer). Hence neither the λόγος ἄσαρκος alone, nor the λόγος ἔνσαρκος, is to be taken as the subject. The emphatic participial clause (ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων) connects itself with the principal clause (οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ), and the participle must be taken as imperfect, not as present (Umbreit, Studien und Kritiken, 1828, p. 594). The finite verb ἡγήσατο, from its import, requires us to think of a resolution or decision to which what is stated in the participle stands related as concessive in accordance with the sense of the whole passage. (Comp. 2Co_8:9, ἐπτώχευσε πλούσιος ὤν); hence neither causal (Rheinwald et al.) nor merely temporal (Meyer). If now we regard strictly the connection and drift of the context, which is to bring before us Christ’s example, as a testimony in behalf of that humble self-denial which promotes harmony, and against the ἐριθείαν and κενοδοξίαν which destroy it, the meaning of this difficult passage cannot be mistaken. The words in themselves are plain, Ὑπάρχων, stronger than ὤν, denotes Christ’s pre-existence, ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ. According to Mar_16:12 (ἐφανερώθη ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ), and in accordance with its use elsewhere, μορφή must be understood of the outward form, “species externa,” and this as defined by θεοῦ, which must be understood as not of the person of God, the Father, but only of the Godhead,—is a divine morphe or form, that of a God. Comp. Php_3:21; Rom_8:29 : σύμμορφον. The μορφῇ θεοῦ corresponds to μορφὴν δούλου, Php_2:7, as ὑπάρχων has its parallel in λαβών there. Bengel well observes: ipsa natura divina decorem habebat infinitum in se, etiam sine ulla creatura illum decorem intuente. Comp. Joh_5:37 : εἶδος αὐτοῦ (of God); Joh_17:5 : τῇ δόξῃ ᾖ εἶχον παρά σοι; Col_1:15 : εἰκὼν τοῡ θεοῦ; Heb_1:3 : ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ. It is incorrect to regard it as equivalent to φύσις, οὐσία (the Greeks, Augustine et al.), status (Calov, et al), and to hold that Jesus, when He was on earth, caused His δόξα to be recognized through the medium of His words and works (Luther, et al), of His miracles (Grotius, et al), and in the transfiguration (Wetstein). [“Though μορφή,” says Lightfoot, “is not the same as φύσις or οὐσία, yet the possession of the μορφή involves participation in the οὐσία also; for μορφή implies not the external accidents, but the essential attributes. Similar to this, though not so decisive, are the expressions used elsewhere of the Divinity of the Son: εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ, 2Co_4:4; Col_1:15; and χαρακτήρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως—τοῦ θεοῦ, Heb_1:3. Similar also is the term which St. John has adopted to express this truth—ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ.” It may be added that the word is fitly chosen for the expression of the Apostle’s idea. For though μορφή denotes properly the outline or shape of an object, and not directly the substance or nature of the object, it yet presupposes the existence of that nature or reality, of which it is the manifestation, just as the figure or shadow implies a body or substance which determines the figure or outline. Besides, to deny that Christ’s μορφή or form as God, agreed with the reality, would oblige us to deny also in the next verse that His form or condition as a servant agreed with the reality, and this would destroy the force of the Apostle’s reasoning. The condition in both cases presupposes the corresponding nature or reality, and is called μορφή precisely on account of that condition. The Apostle seems to have chosen this peculiar word because he would provide in his mode of speaking for the fact, that though the state or manifestation was changed, the nature or essence of the personality remained unchanged.—H.]—The expression οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο is more difficult. It denies a precedence of self, as is the case with those τὰ ἑαυτῶν σκοποῦντες (Php_2:4). In its connection with ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων, and its position before ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτόν, it points to a decision in a negative form before the incarnation. Hence it is not the same as οὐχ ἥρπασε, which did not for a moment enter into the thoughts of Christ. Ἁρπαγμός may, like πειρασμός, βαπτισμός, signify the act of robbery; and it would properly denote this according to the rules of derivation (Winer’s Gram. p. 93); but usage allows it to be taken as res rapta or rapienda (Brueckner against Meyer); just as χρησμός may be non vaticinatio sed vaticinium, χρησματισμός et negotiatio et id quod hac perpetratur, so here also ἁρπαγμός=ἅρπαγμα (Tholuck: Pfingstprogramm, 1847, pp. 17–19). Whether the meaning is res rapta or rapienda, the context must decide. Here now ἀρπαγμόν is predicate in its relation to τὸ εἰ̄ναι ἴσα θεῷ as the object (Winer’s Gram. p. 323). On this construction καὶ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν in Mat_11:12 is very instructive. Ἁρπάζειν is not a heroic exspoliare, but a violent appropriating to one’s self, of which the object is τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ. This is therefore not “spolium, præda,” but “res rapienda.” The emphasis falls here on εἶναι; ἴσα (not ἴσα—see Winer’s Gram. p. 177) is an adverbializing accusative (Bengel), but different from ἴσος, since it denotes several relations of likeness, and from ἴσος, since it does not point to a likeness of person, as Joh_5:18 (ἴσον ε̇αυτον ποιῶν τῷθεῷ), but to the equality of Christ’s condition with that of God’s. What is meant by this expression appears from Php_2:10-11 : it is the κυριότης of the Lord, His worship in the church, in heaven, and upon earth. Hence the difference between ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων and τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ is that the former denotes the Lord’s mode of existence, as a divine existence for Himself apart from the world and before it, the dignity of the Son, founded upon His eternal origin or generation from the Father, but the latter His existence as the King of His people in the realm of the Father, at His right hand. It is entirely like Eph_1:20-23; Joh_5:22-23; Joh_20:28; Mat_28:18-20. Accordingly it must signify “rapiendum non duxit.” For the former (μορφὴ θεοῦ) was His from eternity, while the latter (τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ) He had not as yet obtained. He was already enjoying the former before He had received the latter. It is not correct to regard the object of ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο as identical with what is stated concessively in the participial clause (Luther, Meyer, et al), or ἁρπαγμόν as equivalent to “præda, res rapta” (Ambrosius, et al.), “spolia” (Erasmus, Rheinwald, et al.), “holding tenaciously” (Hölemann), “concealing” (Matthies), “a triumphant display” (Luther, et al.), nor are we to understand by εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ “plenitudinem et altitudinem dei” (Bengel), “vitam vitæ dei æqualem” (Van Hengel), or “identity with the Father” (Rilliet). It is entirely fanciful to scent Gnostic allusions in ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ, ἴσα θεῷ εἶναι, ἁρπαγμός as also in ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε and ἐν ομοιώματι, σχήματι εὑρεθεις (Php_2:7), and in ἐπουρανίων,ἐπιγείων,κατὰ χθονίων (Php_2:10), (Baur) as Brueckner shows (Ep. ad Phil. Paulo auctori vindicata, p. 15 ff.) in his exposé of the difference between the doctrine of the Gnostics and the present passage, and of the contradiction between Baur’s earlier and his later representation of this doctrine, and also Ernesti (Studien und Kritiken, 1848, pp. 858–924; 1851, pp. 595–630), with admirable acuteness and learning. Yet the view advanced as a conjecture by Umbreit (Studien und Kritiken, 1828, p. 595) and earnestly maintained by Ernesti, that this passage is to be explained out of Gen_2:3, is unnecessary and untenable.

[The view of τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ (adopted above by Dr. Braune) as= the κυριότης, or worship of Christ in the church, in heaven, and on earth” (Php_2:10-11) which He did not claim for Himself in His pre-existent state, makes the self-denial of Christ negative merely, not positive, as the Apostle’s use of the example would seem to require Moreover, if this equality with God Which Christ forbore to arrogate to Himself before the incarnation be the same as the sovereignty which God conferred on Him after His humiliation and sufferings and death, as a reward for such self-devotement (see Php_2:9 and Heb_12:2), we cannot regard such an equality as, properly speaking, subject to acceptance or rejection till the antecedent historical condition has been fulfilled.—We subjoin a summary of the views of some of the later writers in our own language on this important passage. The meaning which Bishop Ellicott prefers is: “He did not deem His equality to God a prize to be seized, but emptied Himself, etc.; in other words, He did not insist on His own eternal prerogatives, but, on the contrary, humbled Himself to the condition and sufferings of mortal man.” See his Commentary on Phlippians (in loc.) for the grounds of this interpretation.—Prof. Lightfoot presents the philological details at some length. Instead of ἁρπαγμός, “the more usual form of the word is ἅρπαγμα, which properly signifies simply ‘a piece of plunder,’ but especially with such verbs as ἡγεῖσθαι, ποιεῖσθαι, νομίζεινν, etc., is employed like ἕρμαιον, εὕρημα, to denote a highly-prized possession, an unexpected gain.” He adduces examples of this usage from some of the later Greek writers. “It appears then from these writers that ἅρπαγμα ἡγεῖθαι frequently signifies nothing more than ‘to clutch greedily,’ ‘prize highly,’ ‘to set store by,’ the idea of plunder or robbery having passed out of sight. The form ἁρπαγμός, however, presents a greater difficulty; for neither analogy nor usage is decisive as to its meaning: (1) The termination -μος indeed denotes primarily the process, so that ἁρπαγμός would be ‘an act of plundering.’ But as a matter of fact substantives in -μός are frequently used to describe a concrete thing, e.g. θεσμος, χρησμος, φραγμός, etc. (2) And again the particular word ἁρπαγμός occurs so rarely that usage cannot be considered decisive. Under these circumstances we may, in choosing between the two senses of ἁρπαγμός, fairly assign to it here the one which best suits the context. The meaning adopted above satisfies this condition: ‘Though He preexisted in the form of God, yet He did not look upon equality with God as a prize which must not slip from His grasp; but He emptied Himself, divested Himself, taking upon Him the form of a slave.’ The idea is the same as in 2Co_8:9, δι’ ὑμᾶς ἐπτώχενσεν πλούσιος ὤν. The other rendering (adopted by the A. V.), ‘thought it not robbery to be equal with God,’ disconnects this clause from its context.5—Alford translates: ‘who being’ (originally) ‘in the form of God regarded not as self-enrichment His equality with God.’ He observes (1) that ἁρπαγμός holds the emphatic place in the sentence; (2) that this fact casts τὸ εἴναι ἴσα θεῷ into the shade as secondary and as referring to the state indicated by ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων above; and (3) that αρπαγμός strictly means, as here given, the act of seizing or snatching—not from another, but for one’s self. Dr. Wordsworth paraphrases the thought thus: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who subsisting from eternity in the form of God, did not think His own equality with God (τό εἴναι ἴσα θεῷ) was a spoil which He had usurped wrongfully, and of which He might justly be divested by another, or which on principles of justice He was Himself obliged to give up to another,” etc. The following is Professor Eadie’s paraphrase of the meaning: “The Apostle affirms that Jesus, in His pre-incarnate state, was ‘in the form of God;’ and adds, that He thought it not a seizure, or a thing to be snatched at, to be on a parity with God, but emptied Himself. Now, it seems to us very plain that the parity referred to is not parity in the abstract, or in anything not found in the paragraph, but parity in possession of this form of God. He was in the form of God, and did not think it a thing to be eagerly laid hold of to be equal with God, having or exhibiting this form. The apostle adds, ἀλλ’ ἐαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν, but emptied Himself, and the clause is in broad and decided contrast with ἁρπαγμὸν ούχ ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα τῷ θεῷ. That is to say, the one clause describes the result of the other. It was because He did not think it a seizure to be equal with God, that He emptied Himself. He did not look simply to His own things—the glories of the Godhead; but He looked to the things of others, and therefore descended to humanity and death. His heart was not so set upon this glory, that he would not appear at any time without it. There was something which he coveted more—something which He felt to be truly a ἁρπαγμός, and that was tie redemption of a fallen world by His self-abasement and death. From His possession of this “mind,” and in indescribable generosity He looked at the things of others, and descended with His splendor eclipsed—appeared not as a God in glory, but clothed in flesh; not in royal robes, but in the dress of a village youth; not as Deity in fire, but a man in tears; not in a palace, but in a manger. … And in this way He gave the church an example of that self-abnegation and kindness which the apostle has been inculcating, and which the Lord’s career is adduced to illustrate and confirm” (Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle to the Phlippians, pp. 108, 9).—For a list of monographs on this difficult text the reader may see Meyer’s “Briefe an die Philipper,” etc., p. 63 (1859), and Wiesinger’s Commentary on Philippians (Eng. trans.), p. 61.—H.]

Php_2:7. But emptied or stripped himself, and took upon him the form of a servant (ἀλλ’ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε μορφὴν δούλου λαβών). The ἀλλά introduces the antithesis (not tamen, nihilominus, quin potius). The first member corresponds to the second in Php_2:6, and the second here to the first there; and at the same time unfolds further the antithesis to οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο. In opposition to the not thinking of an act stands something done: in opposition to the unwillingness to rob another stands a giving up on His part; and in opposition to the thing which He does not even wish to arrogate to Himself stands His own person which He surrenders. This last contrast appears in ἑαυτόν, which precedes with emphasis, in opposition to ἑαυτῷ τι, and hence not Himself in opposition to another (Meyer, et al.), as the relations in the case and the context show; since the equality with God (τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ) was not to be seized from men or angels, nor could God be deprived of it, but He, the Son, by His own might and will could seize upon it, although it would not be withheld from Him by the Father.—Ἐκένωσε=κεν̀ον ἐποίησεν, exinanivit, divested Himself, i.e., of that which He had, ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων, hence of the form of God, of the divine mode of existence. Since He has emptied Himself of this, as the word properly means, the μορφή is not something merely external, and since He has given up only the ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων, it cannot be an evacuare of the person, as if that now had in it no longer anything divine—no δόξα which remained to Him (Joh_1:14; Col_2:9); hence the nearer limitation by μορφὴν δούλον λαβών, which is itself more closely defined. The antithesis is Still μορφὴ θεοῦ, and δούλου is chosen, because according to the context (ἴσα θεῷ Php_2:6, comp. Php_2:10-11) the κυριότης belongs to the θεότης. It is the becoming man, or the incarnation that is meant, as the sequel declares, and since λαβών (which is contemporaneous with ἐκένωσε as in Eph_1:9; Eph_1:13) must be taken as a modal limitation of the verb (ἐκένωσε), this emptying of Himself (κἑνωσις) is the Lord’s incarnation. It is incorrect to deny here the becoming man, the act of incarnation, and to find only His position as a servant indicated (Schenkel), for in this case μορφὴν δούλου λαβών must follow ἐν χήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος, and could not stand at the beginning; Observe too, that the δούλου is without the article, and hence it does not mean the servant of God, in the sense of the Messiah. The following also are incorrect interpretations: libenter duxit vitam inopem (Grotius), miseram sortem, qualis esse servorum solet (Hölemann), semet ipse depressit (Van Hengel), veluti deposuit (Calov), non magis ea usus est (Clericus), since the subject of discourse here is not anything within the human life of Christ, the laying aside of the δόξα, or abstaining from the full use of it.—And was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man (ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενομενος καὶ σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος). These two clauses plainly belong together. They serve more closely to define μορφὴν δούλου λαβών Bengel: forma dicit aliquid absolutum, similitudo relationem ad alia ejusdem conditionis, habitus refertur ad aspectum et sensum. Δοῦλος is more exactly defined by ἀνθρώπων,ἄνθρωπος; ἐν ὁμοιώματι,ὡς, correspond to μορφήν and indicate the difference between the Lord in the form of a servant, as the son of man, and men. He is not indeed purus putus homo, but the incarnate Son of God. Τενομενος denotes a becoming, the human individual development, and preserves the λαβών from being mistaken as a merely outward assumption. Hence ὁμοίωμα is to be understood of the inner and outer, the spiritual and bodily life, and ἐν points this out as the sphere of His development, and the dative σχήματι as the respect in which, or rule according to which, He is found as man. Winer’s Gram., p. 215. By σχῆμα (vultus, vestitus, victus, gestus, sermones et actiones. Bengel), is denoted the outward manifestation which is indicated by εὑρεθείς (not equivalent to ὤν), was recognized by all who came into contact with Him. Comp. 1Jn_1:1-3. ὡς ἄνθρωπος Theodoret observes: ἡ γὰρ ἀναληφθεῖσα φύσις ἀληθῶς τοῦτο ἦν, αυ̇τὸς δὲ τοῦτο οὐκ ἦν,τοῦτο δὲ περιέκειτο. Bengel: Vulgaris, ac si nil esset præterea, nec inter homines quidem excelleret; nil sibi sumsit eximium. It is incorrect to regard ὁμοίωμα and σχῆμα as indistinguishable synonyms (Heinrichs, et al.), or the latter as dignitas (Grotius), dress (Elsner), γενόμενος as natus (Rilliet), ἀνθρώπων as a designation of the debile et abjectum (Hölemann), of the infimæ et contemtæ sortis (Wolf), or of the first human pair, because He like them was peccati expers (Grotius).

Php_2:8. He humbled himself (ἐταπείνωσενἑαυτόν). The humiliation described by ἐκένωσε, which took place in His incarnation, because He thereby passed over from the divine into the human mode of existence, is now particularly noted. Here observe the asyndeton, the verb being also connected with ἀλλά, while the position of the verb before the pronoun renders it emphatic. The general description (ἐκένωσε) gives place to the particular one (ἐταπείνωσεν). Hence there is no climax here (Meyer), nor does the latter exceed the former (Schenkel), nor does it refer to any humiliation below the dignity of man (Hölemann).—It is more closely defined by the following: And became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Hence it is inadmissible to find in the preceding participial clause (Php_2:7) the nearer limitation of ἐταπείνωσεν (Wiesinger), since this cannot be separated from the participial clauses belonging to a ἐκένωσε, while ἐταπείνωσεν receives now its limitation. It is not without reference to μαθεῖν ὑπακοήν, His learning obedience or subjection (Heb_5:8), that γενόμενος precedes. It is not stated to whom He became ὑπήκοος, since the design was to mark the μορφὴ δούλου, form of a servant, according to its nature. If it were more exactly defined the object would be God (Php_2:9; Rom_5:19), not men (Grotius). The extent to which this obedience was carried appears in μέχρι θανάτου, unto death (Act_22:4; Heb_12:4; Mat_26:38). Hence it is not a temporal limitation (Van Hengel), nor is it to be joined with ἐταπείνωσεν (Bengel, et al.), Θανάτου δὲ σταύρου, a construction like σοφίαν—σοφίαν δὲ οὐ τοῦ αἰω̄νος τούτου in 1Co_2:6 (Winer’s Gram., p. 443). Δέ often brings forward something new, a more precise statement as opposed to something to be denied or rejected. It is opposed here to the idea of a natural or common death. Death by crucifixion was a punishment for slaves, criminals, outcasts, and hence increased the degradation. Τουτέστι τοῦ ἐπικαταράτου,τοῦ τοῖς ἀνόμοις ἀφωρισμένου (Theophylact). See Gal_3:13.

Php_2:9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him (διὸ καὶ ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερύψωσε). This was a consequence and result (διό) of the self-renunciation and the self-abasement of the Son. To this act is joined (καί) that of the Father. On the expression see Heb_13:12; Rom_1:24; Act_10:29; on the thought Heb_2:9-10; Heb_12:2. The language here involves an idea of merit on the part of Christ and of recompense on the part of God. The verb marks the antithesis to ἐταπείνωσε μέχρι θανάτου σταύρου, and the preposition in the verb (ὑπερύψωσε) indicates that it is an exaltation corresponding to the ὑπεράνω πάντων in Eph_4:10. The reference is to the resurrection and ascension, the end of which was His sitting down at the right hand of God (Mat_28:18; Mar_16:19; Act_7:55-56; Eph_1:20-21; Col_3:1; Heb_8:1). The view of Grotius is incorrect: eum multo sublimiorem fecit, quam antea fuit, for the Saviour was not sublimis on earth (Php_2:7-8), and did not become sublimior than He was before the creation of the world (Php_2:6), and besides ὑπέρ will not bear that signification. Bengel: Exinanitionis priæmium justissimum est exaltatio (Luk_24:26; Joh_10:17); neque ea non potuit illam consequi (Joh_10:15); quæcunque Patris sunt, filii sunt; ea non potuere ita Patris esse, ut non essent filii (Joh_17:5); Christum Christus exinanivit Christum deus exaltavit (1Pe_5:6) eumque facit pariter deo.—And given him the name which is above every name. Καί introduces the explanation of the ὐπερύψωσε, by which was obtained the εἶναι ἴσα τω θεῷ (Php_2:6) which Christ would not seize for Himself. Ἐχαρίσατο αὔτῷ, denotat, quam accepta deo fuerit exinanitio (Bengel). Τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα (Winer’s Gram., p. 140) designates the well-known name which transcends every name, which according to the context is received and borne in heaven and on earth, since it is the nomen cum re (Bengel), which is everywhere manifest and recognized, and includes the adoration of the person of Christ in its divine dignity. It is thus not mere dignitas (Grotius), or the particular name of Jesus (Michaelis), or κύριος (Van Hengel).

Php_2:10. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow.—Ἵνα points out the purpose of this exaltation, which reaches its fulfilment, not by a single step, but gradually. See 1Co_15:25-26; Rom_14:11; Isa_45:23. Ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι stands emphatically at the beginning, and marks the ground and occasion of the πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ. The bending of the knee presents “plastically” (Meyer) the act of adoration. Eph_3:14; Rom_11:4; and comp. ἐπικαλεἰσθαι τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου (Act_7:59; Act_9:14; Act_9:21; Act_22:16; 1Co_1:2; Rom_10:12-13; 2Ti_2:22). It is therefore not merely adhibito nomine Jesu (Van Hengel), since indeed Psa_63:5 : ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου ἀρῶ τὰς χεῖράς μου, is said of prayer to God, nor is it merely a circumlocution for ἐν Ἰησοῦ (Estius), or equivalent to εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, the glorification of His dignity (Heinrichs), or quoties auditur nomen (Erasmus).—Of beings in heaven, and beings in earth, and beings under the earth—comprises the entire realm of worshipping creatures. Τῶν ἐπουρανίων are the angels (Eph_1:20-21; Heb_1:4; Heb_1:6), τῶν ἐπιγείων, men upon the earth, τῶν καταχθονίων, the dead in Hades. The following are incorrect classifications: οἱ δίκαιοι, οἱ ζῶντες, οἱ ἁμαρτωλοί (Chrysostom); the dead, the living, the embryos (Stolz); homines sortis nobilioris, mediocris et infimæ (Teller). The words must not be taken as neuter (Beza), nor is there in καταχθονίων a reference either to the demons (the Greeks, Erasmus), which Eph_6:12 forbids, or to the souls in purgatory (Catholics).

Php_2:11. And that every tongue should confess (καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξομολογήσεται).—To the outward, inarticulate expression καί adds still another, the eloquent homage breaking forth from the heart and confessing itself to Him. What the bending of the knee indicates, the tongue expresses (Wiesinger). In πᾶσα the three categories (Php_2:10) are included as in πᾶν γόνυ. To refer it therefore to πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (Theodoret) is erroneous, as also to take it proomni idiomate (Beza).—That Jesus Christ is Lord.—Ὅτι introduces the contents of the confession. Ἰησοῦς Χριστός is the subject, and κύριος the predicate, and precedes in accordance with the scope of the context: the kingship is to be pointed out of which the realm is unlimited (Eph_1:23; Eph_4:10; 1Co_15:25; 1Co_15:28). It is not to be limited to rational creatures (Hölemann), or to the Church (Rheinwald, Schenkel).—To the glory of God the Father (εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ πατρός) belongs properly to the verb, not to the predicate κύριος (Bengel), from which it is separated by the subject. It presents the end, purpose, of this adoring confession. It is therefore not the same as in gloria (Vulg.) or even, θεῷ (Van Hengel, who takes ὅτι as causal), as if ἐξομολογεῖν meant laudibus celebrare. [In θεοῦ πατρός the first term denotes a relation which God sustains to all His creatures; the second denotes one, which is peculiar to those who believe on His Son (comp. Gal_1:1). On the universality of this confession see the last paragraph under Doctrinal and Ethical.—H.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The motives urged in teaching and exhortation are first objective, based upon Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; and secondly, subjective, as dependent on the character of individuals. Both of these concur in the case of him who teaches and exhorts, and of those dependent on the instructions and exhortations. The objective motives occupy the first place, and to these we should always appeal first of all. Among them stands in the foremost rank the example of Christ, which Php_2:5-11 bring into view especially. Among the subjective motives are love and compassion, important beyond comparison with others, for they answer to the objective which come from God, who is love, and to the character of sin, which is an evil, an injury, against which we must be preserved. All other motives are, as it were, crutches, which, as adapted to a sickly self-love, must be finally thrown away, e.g., regard for the judgment of others, fear of punishment, hope of reward. For with human nature as it is, one would not willingly do right, if, without doing so, he could be happy; and he would rather do wrong, if no harm should come to him from it.

2. The Apostle appeals to various motives for the maintenance of unanimity in the Church. But the unanimity which he seeks is moral rather than intellectual. It is not uniformity, but only the possession of a common centre, around which each one moves in a common love, which, however, may exhibit different degrees of strength and purity in different individuals, just as the centripetal force is capable of manifold gradations.

3. Among the bonds of this concord is humility, which in its two-fold intellectual and moral sphere, recognizes clearly both its own gifts and those which others possess, and does not allow one to esteem others less than himself, but prompts him with a sense of his own unworthiness to regard them more highly, because their unworthiness does not concern him. It is characteristic of humility that it has its centre outside of itself, and includes the great whole of which it is a member within itself; while pride makes the individual himself the centre, and not only breaks loose from the whole, but stands opposed to it, and so becomes the source of all discord and enmity.

4. Parry spirit and vain glory are excluded. The former misuses its neighbor, the latter its own possessions and those of the world; the former presses others down in order to raise itself; the latter draws others to itself in order to please them. The one exalts itself at the expense of others; and the other at the expense of its own real worth; patty spirit often brings into action great talents and energy; self contents itself with the mere appearance. However sharply the former may spy out the weaknesses of others and the advantages of particular relations, it is yet sure to destroy itself; or it may be happy in the present moment, while blinded to the evils which follow in its train.

5. The example of Christ is here presented to the Church with a fullness and completeness such as is found nowhere else. The whole life, not merely the sufferings of Christ (1Pe_2:21-25), enforces the doctrine, that we ought to deny self in humble love towards our neighbor, and only in such a way desire to share in his glory. If Christ existing in the form of God (ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων, Php_2:6),not seeking the things of Himself (τὰ ἑαυτοῦ σκοπῶν), but also those of others (τὰ ἑτέρων, Php_2:4), resolved not to seize for Himself the sovereignty of a God over His creatures (Php_2:6), but in love (ἐν ἀγάπῃ, Php_2:2) and lowliness of mind (ταπεινοφροσύνῃ), ennobled and exalted those of mankind, made through Him in His image, and emptied Himself (ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτόν) by becoming a man (Php_2:7), obedient in all things, even unto the death of the cross; and God has now exalted Him as the object of worship (Php_2:9-11); then we also have no other way open to us to the glory with Him, except through humble self-denying love in fellowship and unity with the brethren.

6. [Neander:—That we rightly understand the use made of the example of Christ, as the model after which the Christian life is formed, we must first endeavor to bring the model itself clearly and distinctly before our minds. Before the eye of the Apostle stands the image of the whole Christ, the Son of God, appearing in the flesh, manifesting Himself in human nature. From the human manifestation he rises to the Eternal Word (as John expresses it), that Word which was, before the appearance of the Son of God in time—yea, before the worlds were made; in whom before all time God beheld and imaged Himself; as Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians calls Him, in this view, the image of the invisible, i.e., the incomprehensible God. Then, after this upward glance of his spiritual eye, he descends again into the depths of the human life, in which the Eternal Word appears as man. He expresses this in the language of immediate perception, beholding the divine and the human as one; not in the form of abstract truth, attained by a mental analysis of the direct object of thought. Thus he contemplates the entrance of the Son of God into the form of humanity as a self-abasement, a self-renunciation, for the salvation of those whose low estate He stooped to share. He whose state of being was divine, who was exalted above all the wants and limitations of the finite and earthly existence, did not eagerly claim this equality with God which He possessed; but, on the contrary, He concealed and disowned it in human abasement, and in the form of human dependence. And as the whole human life of Christ proceeded from such an act of self-renunciation and self-abasement, so did His whole earthly life correspond to this one act even to His death; the consciousness on the one hand of divine dignity which it was in His power to claim, and on the other the concealment, the renunciation of this, in every form of humiliation and dependence belonging to the earthly life of man. The crowning point appears in His death—the ignominious and agonizing death of the cross. Paul then proceeds to show what Christ attained by such self-renunciation, thus carried to the utmost limit, by such submissive obedience in the form of a servant; the reward which He received in return, the dignity which was conferred upon Him. Here, too, is presented the universal law, laid down by Christ Himself, that whoso humbles himself, and in proportion as he humbles himself, shall be exalted.—H.]

7. Concerning the person of Christ, the passage before us states the following truths: (a) His ego, His essential entity, is an antemundane person, who had a divine mode of existence (ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων). He is thus to be conceived of as existing within the being of God, as πρὸς τον θεόν (Joh_1:1), yet not merely as a thought, a principle, but as a person, λόγος ἄσαρκος. (b). Before the world was, before any creature existed, there was still wanting to Him who is ἴσος θεῷ, the τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ, a kingdom, and a people over which He might rule as the Anointed One at the right hand of the majesty of the Father, (c) He gave up His μορφὴν θεοῦ, the form of God, not His ego, not the possession of the glory, the κτῆσις of the δόξα. He assumed a servant’s form (μορφὴν δούλου), not sin, in becoming man. With the incarnation His humiliation began, in which He exhibited obedience even to the death of the cross, the shameful death of a slave. Within the human life also, which began with the incarnation, there were degrees of exinanition or self-divestment from Bethlehem to Golgotha. (d) He humbled not His nature, but only His personal existence, Himself, by the assumption of human nature and by His entrance into the life of men, so as to subject Himself to ignominy and death. He thus humbled Himself not through the obedience, but in the obedience which He rendered to the Father’s will, without sin, even in the most extreme trials that befell Him. (e) Such merit was followed by exaltation, which consisted in this, that He now became as κύριος, the object of worship for the whole realm of created spirits unto the praise of God the Father. (f) Into this position of exaltation the Father has placed the loved and loving Son. (g) In the worship of Jesus Christ the glory of the Father is constantly to be kept in view, as is the case in the public prayers and collects of the Evangelical Churches of the Reformation.

8. Our passage teaches nothing concerning the relation of the divine and the human nature, and of their attributes, to each other, of the relation of the two natures to the personal unity, or of the κτῆσις, or possession of the divine δόξα, or glory, to the χρῆσις, or use, of the same. Here we have opened to the efforts of Christological inquiry a wide and important domain which was measured and is measured or limited only by the fundamental conditions or outposts of Christianity, such as the hypostatic union, and based upon this the real communion of natures, which includes both the divine δόξα, as opposed to Ebionitism, Pelagianism, Socinianism, Rationalism, and the human development against Docetism and Romanism, and so the immutability as well as the self-limitation of the absolute God.

9. History of the interpretation of the text and of its doctrinal application. (a) The ancient Church almost throughout, before and after the Council of Nicæa, taught that the λόγος ἄσαρκος did not retain the divine δόξα for Himself, for His own advantage, while yet He did not cease, as λόγος ἔνσαρκος, to be what He was. His incarnation was not a yielding up of His divinity, but an assumption of humanity, which was taken up into His divinity. Only Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, Novatian, maintained opposite views. (b) The middle ages honored the divine nature at the expense of the human. Thomas Aquinas admitted only an outward development, in age and wisdom, with reference to men to whom He daily gave new proofs of it. (c) The Reformation harmonizes in general in the true confession of faith, yet the Lutherans, upon the fundamental principle, finitum capax esse infiniti, which the Reformed (Calvinists) denied, extended further the doctrine of the two natures and conditions of Christ. Thus Luther, led by his doctrine on the Lord’s Supper, concludes from the form which Christ possesses, exalted at the right hand of God (which is conceived of, not as a place of abode, but as a mode of existence), that the humanity was taken up into the divine glory, and that from the incarnation onwards the condition of humiliation appears more as a veiling, self-limitation, that of exaltation as a complete, visible revelation of the divine life. So in the Formula Concordiæ, VIII., which, by “its very indefiniteness allows room for further examination,” concerning which see Frank, Theologie der F. C., III., pp. 165 ff. The controversy of the theologians of Giessen and Tübingen, since 1607, did not concern itself about the κτῆσις, the possession of the divine glory, which was undisputed, but only about the χρῆσις, the use of it. The former, Menzer and Feuerborn, with the F.C., maintained a κένωσινχ ρήσεως, the latter, Haffenreffer, Thummius, Nicolai, only a κρύψιν χρήσεως, in respect to which the Decisio Saxonica, 1624, places itself on the side of the Giessen theologians, without reaching any very important result. (d) The modern development of Christology began with regarding the Son of God, the pre-existent God-man, as being in the perfect man (Goschel), then attempted to conceive of the same as becoming the God-man (Rothe, Dorner). Thomasius (Christi Person and Werk, II., § § 40, 43), following Hofmann (Schriftbeweis II.), went farther, since he supposed a self-abdication of the real attributes of the divine nature, amounting to a συγκοπή of the divine life of the Logos, or a sleep-like unconsciousness, and thus both impaired the unio personalis and assumed an exclusion of the Son from the Trinity during the earthly life of Christ. Gess (Die Lehre von der Person Christi), and Georg Ludw. Hahn (Theologie des N. T. 1.) suppose a self-abnegation also of the immanent, attributes, while Schenkel (Die Christ. Dogmatik, II.) does not proceed beyond the mere human nature, and falls into Socinianism. Others again revive Apollinarism. Comp. Dorner, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person Christi, II., pp. 1203 ff.

9. The correct standpoint even for our time which, in the effort to conceive of the human development of the Redeemer, is in danger of lowering His divine personality, is shown by Chemnitz: Reliqua vero, quæ vel quæri vel disputari possunt, et in verbo non habent expressam patefactionem, cum magni hujus profunditatem in hac vita exhaurire et pervidere non possimus, ita me differre et rejicere ad magnam illam cœleslem, æeternam et illustrem scholam, ubi gloriam Christi salvatoris et fratris nostri ad faciem sicut est videbimus. Nec propter ea, quæ explicare non possum, ab illis, quæ expresso verbo patefacta sunt, discedere me debere. Hæc responsio, si videbitur rudior, simplicior et puerilior, non pugnabo, sed scio veram, certam, firmam et omnium tutissimam esse. It is important to hold fast the ethical and practical sense of the passage, and to deny neither the constant unchangeableness of the divinity of the Son in itself (Joh_1:1; Joh_1:18; Joh_3:13), nor His real, loving, self-denying, and self-abasing entrance into fellowship with sinful humanity in life and in death (Joh_1:14; Joh_17:5).

10. [The final and universal acknowledgment of Christ’s sovereignty (Php_2:10) is affirmed also in Rom_14:11. All the hosts of heaven and the myriads of the human race who still live, or have lived, or shall live, are to “bend the knee” before Him who bears the “name which is above every name,” who, as the Apostle John has said, wears “the title written on His vesture and His thigh, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ ” (Rev_19:16). But this language is to be understood in harmony with the teachings of other passages. “Even the enemies of Christ,” says Dr. Tholuck, “who reject the gospel, acknowledge the reality of His power, if they are unable to resist the decisions of His justice, i.e., if at the end of the world they are excluded from all part in the blessings of His Kingdom; while those who have repented and submitted to His claims are received to the joys and the rewards of heaven. Both classes in this case yield to Him the homage of their submission. But according to a just distinction which some of the older writers have made, that of the one is obedientia ex animo, i.e., a voluntary, hearty obedience; that of the other, obedientia cum tremore, a subjection reluctant, extorted by fear.” Viewed in this light, the passage in our Epistle is parallel entirely to that in 2Th_1:7-10. (Disputatio Christologica de loc. Paul Phil. II. 2 ff.—H.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Motives (Php_2:1), aim (Php_2:2-4), and method (Php_2:5-11) of a Christian teacher, a spiritual father.—We must ever start from what we have in order to get forward and upward. First, fulfil thine own duty, which should be to thee a pleasure, not a burden, and then lay hold of the good that is in others, be it ever so little, or merely supposed to be there; yet assume it, use it without complaint or mistrust.—Truth is one, simple, and yet so infinitely rich that there can be unanimity and yet no monotony, like the harmony in a choir of many voices. Most controversies in the church have moved and still move around the germ of the truth, around the fundamental doctrine, but do not touch exactly the thing itself. They have reference only to the human confirmation of the truth, its mediation through conceptions, or mode of apprehension, and affect not the Christian character of the individual, provided only he abides in love.—Not, how art thou esteemed by thy neighbor, but, how dost thou serve him, is the main point.—He is great who humbles himself in obedience, but disobedience dishonors and degrades; the former recognises the higher will, and looks forward to the glorious end; the latter is concerned only with itself, and does not get beyond self.—Self-seeking is a deadly plague to the soul.—The example of Jesus Christ instructs, directs, leads, makes the way of the cross a path of light; He went no other way, and the Christian also, His disciple, may not go a different one.

Starke:—If we would make people religious we must not use the wheel and the sword in the church, or fight them with the iron Bible, or preach fables; but build our exhortation upon Christ, the fellowship of the Spirit, the fellowship of God, for such arguments pierce through bone and marrow.—Love of honor in a preacher is a baneful poison, a prolific source of dissension in the church of God.—Self-seeking destroys country and people, churches and schools, cities and houses.—Who has knees to bend, let him bend them! Christ is the One most worthy of glory, the One whom we can never fully honor.

[Robert Hall:—Christianity was never intended to destroy the different stations and gradations of life; but it is intended to destroy that arrogance and superciliousness with which rank and splendor are too often borne. As it teaches the poor humility and submission, so it teaches the rich humanity, gentleness, and compassion. In this respect it merges all distinctions (Php_2:3).—H.].

Rieger:—He who exalts himself above others, thinks that others also must accommodate themselves to him, acts as if they must regard his rights and their maintenance as of the first importance. With respect to the self-abasement of Christ, the language always was: He humbled Himself in order to show His obedient, willing spirit; but with reference to His exaltation, the language is: God has raised Him up, placed Him at His right hand, etc., in order to distinguish Him as the Author and Finisher of our faith, the pioneer in the way of faith by which we must now come to God.

Schleiermacher:—Unity of mind among all Christians can be nothing else than unity in the knowledge that Christ is the Redeemer of the world, and in the disposition to recognize Him as such, and to accept Him as Leader in the way of salvation. 1) In what respects especially the Redeemer is our example. 2) How can we imitate this example?

Heubner:—It is characteristic of the Christian that he does not think highly of himself, but is disposed to regard others as more important, more deserving. He acknowledges gladly their excellencies and gives way to them. Such humility towards men, unaffected, and yielding the pre-eminence which pride arrogates to itself, flows from humility towards God.

[Neander:—One’s judgment of another (see Php_2:3) is not within the control of his own will. How can he esteem his brother higher than himself, if this is not in accordance with the truth, if he cannot but perceive in himself excellencies which are wanting in the other, and defects in the other from which he himself is free. Is humility to be grounded upon falsehood? Most certainly not. But there is here presupposed, as resulting from the development of the Christian life, a pervading temper of heart, of which such a judgment of one’s self in comparison with others is but the necessary and natural expression. The Christian’s love will lead him first of all to discern what is good in another; to discover even in his blemishes his peculiar gifts, that in which he is really superior to himself; while on the other hand, through a self-scrutiny, sharpened by the Spirit which quickens him, he detects with rigorous exactness his own faults. And this self-rigor, united with love, will give leniency to his judgment of whatever may obscure the divine life in others.—H.].

Passavant:—Strife and vain glory are pests in hearts, houses, families, congregations, cities, the state, the church.

As the Epistle for Palm Sunday (Php_2:5—11).

Rautenberg:—The Mediator crowned with praise and honor on account of His sufferings and death. 1) By the world before God; 2) by God before the world.

Zeiss:—Royal image of the Christian who consecrates his life to the Lord; 1) Humility of heart is his costly’ adornment; 2) the blessing of love his joyful delight; 3) pleasing God his exalted aim; and 4) harvesting of the seed his heavenly reward.

Law and Testimony:—What a Christian shares with his Lord Jesus: 1) the cross; 2) the glory. Conditions of the church of Christ; 1) its servitude; 2) its glory. The palms which we strew in the path of the Lord Jesus: 1) That we believe in the Crucified One; 2) that we trust in the Exalted One. The five-fold hosanna with which we prepare the way of the Lord Jesus: hosanna (1) of humility, (2) of patience, (3) of faith, (4) of prayer, and (5) of hope.

Prohle:—The Epistle on Palm Sunday an earnest reminder of the entrance into the passion week. It reminds us, 1) of the cross and death of Christ; 2) of His innocence and holiness; 3) of His divine dignity; 4) of His complete subjection to God’s will; 5) of the triumphant end of His sufferings.—The traits of a true imitation of Christ: 1) Humility; 2) Self-denial; 3) Obedience unto death.

Footnotes:

[1]Php_2:1.—ἔι τις σπλάγχνα is found in א A B C D E F K L. It is either a solecism (Tischendorf N. T. ed. VII: maj.) or a mistake (Winer, el at.) of Paul or of the transcribers for τινα. [Wordsworth makes here the just remark (in opposition to a possible extreme): “But this text, among others, affords evidence that it is not a sound principle of criticism, to limit the data for determining the readings of the N. T. to the most ancient extant MSS., and that it is necessary to extend the range of inquiry to the cursive MSS. and other collateral aids.”—H.]

[2]Php_2:4—ἕκαστοι has stronger support in A B F G, et al., than ἓκαστος in א C D E, et al.

[3]—τοῦτο γὰρ φρονεῖτε is found in D E F G; γάρ is wanting in א A B C, probably because ἕκαστοι was added from Php_2:4. [“As Php_2:5 begins an ecclesiastical lecture, and as the explanative force of γάρ (= ‘verily,’ ‘as the case stands’) might not have been fully understood and have led to the omission of the particle, the reading γάρ seems slightly more probable” (Ellicott).—H.] א ABC* read φρονεῖτε, others read φρονείσθω. [The former is also grammatically the more difficult, and therefore more likely to be original.—H.]

[4]Php_2:9.—τὸ ὄνομα in א A B C; the article is omitted in D E F G, et al.

[5][Professor Lightfoot states his objections to the rendering of the A. V. in an extended note in his Commentary at the end of chap. 2.—H.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Philippians

A PLEA FOR UNITY

Php 2:1-4 {R.V.}.

There was much in the state of the Philippian church which filled Paul’s heart with thankfulness, and nothing which drew forth his censures, but these verses, with their extraordinary energy of pleading, seem to hint that there was some defect in the unity of heart and mind of members of the community. It did not amount to discord, but the concord was not as full as it might have been. There is another hint pointing in the same direction in the appeal to Paul’s true yoke-fellow, in chapter 4:, to help two good women who, though they had laboured much in the gospel, had not managed to keep ‘of the same mind in the Lord,’ and there is perhaps a still further indication that Paul’s sensitive heart was conscious of the beginnings of strife in the air, in the remarkable emphasis with which, at the very outset of the letter, he over and over again pours out his confidence and affection on them ‘all,’ as if aware of some incipient rifts in their brotherhood. There are always forces at work which tend to part the most closely knit unities even when these are consecrated by Christian faith. Where there are no dogmatical grounds of discord, nor any open alienation, there may still be the beginnings of separation, and a chill breeze may be felt even when the sun is shining with summer warmth. Wasps are attracted by the ripest fruit.

The words of our text present no special difficulty, and bring before us a well-worn subject, but it has at least this element of interest, that it grips very tightly the deepest things in Christian life, and that none of us can truly say that we do not need to listen to Paul’s pleading voice. We may notice the general division of his thoughts in these words, in that he puts first the heart-touching motives for listening to his appeal, next describes with the exuberance of earnestness the fair ideal of unity to which he exhorts, and finally touches on the hindrances to its realisation, and the victorious powers which will overcome these.

I. The motives and bonds of Christian unity.

It is not a pedantic dissection {and vivisection} of the Apostle’s earnest words, if we point out that they fall into four clauses, of which the first and third {‘any comfort in Christ, any fellowship of the Spirit’} urge the objective facts of Christian revelation, and the second and fourth {‘any consolation of love, any tender mercies and compassions’} put emphasis on the subjective emotions of Christian experience. We may lay the warmth of all of these on our own hearts, and shall find that these hearts will be drawn into the blessedness of Christian unity in the precise measure in which they are affected by them.

As to the first of them, it may be suggested that here, as elsewhere in the New Testament, the true idea of the word rendered ‘comfort’ is rather ‘exhortation.’ The Apostle is probably not so much pointing to the consolations for trouble which come from Jesus, as to the stimulus to unity which flows from Him. It would rather weaken the force of Paul’s appeal, if the two former grounds of it were so nearly identical as they are, if the one is based upon ‘comfort’ and the other on ‘consolation.’ The Apostle is true to his dominant belief, that in Jesus Christ there lies, and from Him flows, the sovereign exhortation that rouses men to ‘whatsoever things are lovely and of good report.’ In Him we shall find in the measure in which we are in Him, the most persuasive of all exhortations to unity, and the most omnipotent of all powers to enforce it. Shall we not be glad to be in the flock of the Good Shepherd, and to preserve the oneness which He gave His life to establish? Can we live in Him, and not share His love for His sheep? Surely those who have felt the benediction of His breath on their foreheads when He prayed ‘that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee,’ cannot but do what is in them to fulfil that prayer, and to bring a little nearer the realisation of their Lord’s purpose in it, ‘that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.’ Surely if we lay to heart, and enter into sympathy with, the whole life and death of Jesus Christ, we shall not fail to feel the dynamic power fusing us together, nor fail to catch the exhortation to unity which comes from the lips that said, ‘I am the vine, ye are the branches.’

The Apostle next bases his appeal for unity on the experiences of the Philippian Christians, and on their memories of the comfort which they have tasted in the exercise of mutual love. Our hearts find it hard to answer the question whether they are more blessed when their love passes out from them in a warm stream to others, or when the love of others pours into them. To love and to be loved equally elevate courage, and brace the weakest for calm endurance and high deeds. The man who loves and knows that he is loved will be a hero. It must always seem strange and inexplicable that a heart which has known the enlargement and joy of love given and received, should ever fall so far beneath itself as to be narrowed and troubled by nourishing feelings of separation and alienation from those whom it might have gathered into its embrace, and thereby communicated, and in communicating acquired, courage and strength. We have all known the comfort of love; should it not impel us to live in ‘the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace’? Men around us are meant to be our helpers, and to be helped by us, and the one way to secure both is to walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.

But Paul has still further heart-melting motives to urge. He turns the Philippians’ thoughts to their fellowship in the Spirit. All believers have been made to drink into one spirit, and in that common participation in the same supernatural life they partake of a oneness, which renders any clefts or divisions unnatural, and contradictory of the deepest truths of their experience. The branch can no more shiver itself off from the tree, or keep the life sap enclosed within itself, than one possessor of the common gift of the Spirit can separate himself from the others who share it. We are one in Him; let us be one in heart and mind. The final appeal is connected with the preceding, inasmuch as it lays emphasis on the emotions which flow from the one life common to all believers. That participation in the Spirit naturally leads in each participant to ‘tender mercies and compassions’ directed to all sharers in it. The very mark of truly possessing the Spirit’s life is a nature full of tenderness and swift to pity, and they who have experienced the heaven on earth of such emotions should need no other motive than the memory of its blessedness, to send them out among their brethren, and even into a hostile world, as the apostles of love, the bearers of tender mercies, and the messengers of pity.

II. The fair ideal which would complete the Apostle’s joy.

We may gather from the rich abundance of motives which the Apostle suggests before he comes to present his exhortation, that he suspected the existence of some tendencies in the opposite direction in Philippi, and possibly the same conclusion may be drawn from the exuberance of the exhortation itself, and from its preceding the dehortation which follows. He does not scold, he scarcely even rebukes, but he begins by trying to melt away any light frost that had crept over the warmth of the Philippians’ love; and having made that preparation, he sets before them with a fulness which would be tautological but for the earnestness that throbs in it, the ideal of unity, and presses it upon them still more meltingly, by telling them that their realisation of it will be the completion of his joy. The main injunction is ‘that ye be of the same mind,’ and that is followed by three clauses which are all but exactly synonymous with it, ‘having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.’ The resemblance of the latter clause to the main exhortation is still more complete, if we read with Revised Version {margin} ‘of the same mind,’ but in any case the exhortations are all practically the same. The unity which Paul would fain see, is far deeper and more vital than mere unanimity of opinion, or identity of polity, or co-operation in practice. The clauses which expand it guard us against the mistake of thinking that intellectual or practical oneness is all that is meant by Christian unity. They are ‘of the same mind,’ who have the same wishes, aims, outlooks, the same hopes and fears, and who are one in the depths of their being. They have ‘the same love,’ all similarly loving and being loved, the same emotion filling each heart. They are united in soul, or ‘with accordant souls’ having, and knowing that they have them, akin, allied to one another, moving to a common end, and aware of their oneness. The unity which Christian people have hitherto reached is at its best but a small are of the great circle which the Apostle drew, and none of us can read these fervid words without shame. His joy is not yet fulfilled.

That exhortation to be ‘of the same mind,’ not only points to a deep and vital unity, but suggests that the ground of the unity is to be found without us, in the common direction of our ‘minds,’ which means far more than popular phraseology means by it, to an external object. It is having our hearts directed to Christ that makes us one. He is the bond and centre of unity. We have just said that the object is external, but that has to be taken with a modification, for the true basis of unity is the common possession of ‘Christ in us.’ It is when we have this mind in us ‘which was also in Christ Jesus,’ that we have ‘the same mind’ one with another.

The very keynote of the letter is joy, as may be seen by a glance over it. He joys and rejoices with them all, but his cup is not quite full. One more precious drop is needed to make it run over. Probably the coldness which he had heard of between Euodias and Syntyche had troubled him, and if he could be sure of the Philippians’ mutual love he would rejoice in his prison. We cannot tell whether that loving and careful heart is still aware of the fortunes of the Church, but we know of a more loving and careful heart which is, and we cannot but believe that the alienations and discords of His professed followers bring some shadow over the joy of Christ. Do we not hear His voice again asking, ‘what was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?’ and must we not, like the disciples, ‘hold our peace’ when that question is asked? May we not hear a voice sweeter in its cadence, and more melting in its tenderness than Paul’s, saying to us ‘Fulfil ye My joy that ye be of the same mind.’

III. The hindrances and helps to being of the same mind.

The original has no verb in front of ‘nothing’ in verse 3, and it seems better to supply the one which has been so frequently used in the preceding exhortation than ‘doing,’ which carries us too abruptly into the outer region of action. Paul indicates two main hindrances to being of the same mind, namely, faction and vainglory on the one hand, and self-absorption on the other, and opposed to each the tone of mind which is its best conqueror. Faction and vainglory are best defeated by humility and unselfishness. As to the former, the love of making or heading little cliques in religion or politics or society, has oftenest its roots in nothing loftier than vanity or pride. Many a man who poses as guided by staunch adherence to conviction is really impelled only by a wish to make himself notorious as a leader, and loves to talk of ‘those with whom I act.’ There is a strong admixture of a too lofty estimate of self in most of the disagreements of Christian people. They expect more deference than they get, or their judgment is not taken as law, or their place is not so high as they think is their due, or in a hundred different ways self-love is wounded, and self-esteem is inflamed. All this is true in reference to the smaller communities of congregations, and with the necessary modifications it is quite as true in reference to the larger aggregations which we call churches or denominations. If all in their work that is directly due to faction and vainglory were struck out there would be great gaps in their activities, and many a flourishing scheme would fall dead.

The cure for all these evils is lowliness of mind. That is a Christian word. Used by Greek thinkers, it meant abjectness; and it is one conspicuous instance of the change effected in morals by Christian teaching that it has become the name of a virtue. We are to dwell not on our gifts but on our imperfections, and if we judge ourselves with constant reference to the standard in Christ’s life, we shall need little more to bring us to our knees in true lowliness of mind. The man who has been forgiven so many talents will not be in a hurry to take his brother by the throat and leave the marks of his fingers for tenpence.

Christian unity is further broken by selfishness. To be absorbed in self is of course to have the heart shut to others. Our own interests, inclinations, possessions, when they assert themselves in our lives, build up impassable barriers between us and our fellows. To live to self is the real root of every sin as it is of all loveless life. The Apostle uses careful language: he admits the necessity for attention to our ‘own things,’ and only requires that we should look ‘also’ on the things of others. His cure for the hindrances to Christian unity is very complete, very practical, and very simple. Each counting other better than himself, and each ‘looking also to the things of others’ seem very homely and pedestrian virtues, but homely as they are we shall find that they grip us tight, if we honestly try to practise them in our daily lives, and we shall find also that the ladder which has its foot on earth has its top in the heavens, and that the practice of humility and unselfishness leads straight to having ‘the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

II. CHRIST, THE BELIEVER’S PATTERN

CHAPTER 2

1. Oneness of mind through self effacement (Php 2:1-4)

2. The humiliation and exaltation of Christ (Php 2:5-11)

3. Work out your own salvation (Php 2:12-13)

4. As lights in the world (Php 2:14-16)

5. The example of Paul (Php 2:17-18)

6. The example of Timotheus (Php 2:19-24)

7. The example of Epaphroditus (Php 2:25-30)

Php 2:1-4

This chapter puts before us Christ as our pattern. The path He went is to be the believer’s path. He trod the way, and the many sons He brings ere long with Himself to glory are called upon to follow Him in the same way. And what honor, what glory, to be called to follow in the same path! The chapter begins with a loving appeal of the prisoner of the Lord. He reminds them of the comfort in Christ which was their blessed portion, of the comfort of love and the fellowship of the Spirit and the bowels of mercies, the result of these precious possessions of the gospel. And now while they had manifested all this in a practical way among themselves and towards the apostle, he tells them that they would fulfill his joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, united in soul and thinking one thing. That they had difficulties among themselves may be learned from the fourth chapter. And so he desired that all might be one. it is a precious echo of our Lord’s prayer in Joh 17:1-26. Nothing is to be done among His people in the self-seeking spirit of strife or vainglory. This is the spirit of the natural man and of the world.

The true way which becomes the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who live by Him and for Him, is to esteem the other better than himself in lowliness of mind, regarding not each his own things (or qualities) but each the things of others also. To walk in such a manner is only possible with those who have received, by being born again, a new nature and walk in the power of the Spirit of God. To be utterly forgetful of self, complete self effacement and self-denial and thus the absence of strife and vainglory and the manifestation of true humility, is the manifestation of the mind of Christ. But is it possible at all times to esteem each other better than himself?

We let another answer: “There will be no difficulty in this if we are really walking before God; we shall be occupied with each other’s good, and the one will esteem the other better than himself, because when the soul is really before the Lord, it will see its own short-comings and imperfections, and will be in self-judgment; and according to the love and spirit of Christ see all the good that is from Him in a brother and one dear to Him, and will therefore look upon his fellow-Christian as better than himself, and so all would be in beautiful harmony; and we should be looking after each other’s interests too”--(J.N. Darby, Philippians). How true it is, love likes to be a servant; selfishness likes to be served.

Php 2:5-11

With the fifth verse begins that portion of the chapter which reveals Christ as our pattern. Christ in His humiliation and His exaltation; Christ who did not please Himself, who was obedient unto death, the death of the cross; Christ, who is now exalted and has a name which is above every other name, is blessedly before us in these verses. There are seven steps which lead down deeper and deeper, even to the death of the cross. And there are seven steps which lead up higher and higher.

His Humiliation

1. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God

2. He humbled Himself

3. He became a servant

4. He was made in the likeness of man

5. He was found in fashion as a man

6. He became obedient

7. Obedient to the death of the cross.

His Exaltation

1. God highly exalted Him

2. Gave Him the Name above every name

3. Every knee is to bow at His name

4. Things in heaven must acknowledge Him

5. Things on earth

6. Things under the earth

7. Every tongue must confess Him as Lord

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The Spirit of Christ is in the believer for this very purpose, not that we should be imitators of Christ, but that His own life may be reproduced in us. We have this mind of Christ in the divine nature. What wonderful grace that we are called with such a calling, to be in His fellowship and follow His own path! Having delivered us from guilt and condemnation we are called to walk even as He walked down here, the author and finisher of the faith.

We trace briefly His path. We behold Him first in His absolute deity, “subsisting in the form of God.” He ever was and is God; as we know from the opening of the gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Who can describe what glory was His? And the equality with God which is His He did not esteem an object to be grasped at, but He emptied Himself (This is the correct translation and better than the King James version, “He made of Himself no reputation.”) He gave up something which was His; He laid aside His outward glory. Some teach that He laid aside His deity. This is positively an unscriptural and evil doctrine. It is widely known in theological circles as the kenosis-theory, which is so dishonoring to our adorable Lord. He could never be anything else but the true God and the eternal life. He came down from the heights of eternal and unfathomable glory and took on a body prepared for Him, yet in that body He was very God. Joh 17:5 shows of what He emptied Himself.

The next step tells us that He who gave up, came down. “He took upon Him the form of a servant, taking His place in the likeness of men.” Had He taken upon Himself the form of an angel, it would have been a humiliation, for He created the angels. But He was made a little lower than the angels. He took on the servant’s form in the likeness of men. But in Him was no sin, so that it was impossible for Him to sin, for He knew no sin and was in all points tempted as we are, apart from sin.

But the path did not end with this. He who gave up the glory, He who came down and became a servant also became obedient. It was an obedience unto death, the death of the cross. Wonderful condescension and love. It was all for our sake. And redeemed by His precious blood, called into His own fellowship, His way must become ours; we are to follow Him. If we then consider Him and let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus, self will have nothing more to say; all strife and vainglory will be at an end. And this path of giving up, coming down, true humility, self-denial and true obedience is the only one in which there is perfect peace and rest for the child of God. “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls.

The description of His exaltation follows. God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. What glory it is! In the first chapter of Hebrews we read that the risen man Christ Jesus is the heir of all things, “made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Heb 1:4). In Him we have also obtained an inheritance. Before He ever received that glory He prayed to the Father “the glory Thou hast given me I have given to them” (Joh 17:22). In His glorious exaltation He is likewise our pattern. We shall see Him as He is and shall be like Him, His fellow-heirs. And while we follow in His steps down here we can look upon Him seated in the highest heaven and rejoice that we shall someday be with Him and share His glory. Every knee must ultimately bow at the name of Jesus, even beings under the earth, infernal beings. They must own His title in glory. Yet this does not make them saved beings. Nor does this passage teach that ultimately all the lost will be saved, as claimed by restitutionists and others. The fact that every tongue will have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord does not mean the salvation of the lost. In Col 1:20 things, or beings in heaven and on earth are also mentioned in connection with reconciliation, but then the things under the earth are omitted. See our annotations on that passage.

Php 2:12-13

Words of exhortation come after this blessed paragraph in which the Lord Jesus is put before us as our pattern. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.” These words are misunderstood by many Christians. It is being taught that Christians should work for their own salvation. This is the grossest perversion of this exhortation. Every true believer has salvation which is given to Him by grace. It is his own salvation; he does not need to work for it. Others say that one who is really saved by grace must work in order to stay saved, and work with fear and trembling. They tell us, if a believer does not keep on working, if he fails and sins, he will fall from grace and is in danger to be unsaved and lost again. This also is Unscriptural; the Word of God teaches the eternal security of all who have received eternal life, the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The exhortation does not mean that we must work to keep ourselves saved, but it means that our own salvation which we have in Christ is to be worked out into result. Salvation is to be practically manifested in the life and walk by glorifying Christ. We are to work it out after the blessed pattern of Christ with fear and trembling, not the fear of being lost, but the fear of failure in not walking in lowliness of mind, in true humility and in obedience. This will ever be the chiefest concern of the believer who walks in the Spirit. “It is this, therefore, which is to induce the fear and trembling; not in selfish dread, but the sense of our responsibility to Him to whom we owe our all and whose our life is. Plenty there is to make us serious in such work as this, but nothing to dishearten us. if God has taken in hand to work in us after this fashion, that is ample security for our success. The fact that the apostle was now absent from them, he whose presence had been so great a comfort and blessing to their souls, was only to make them more completely realize this divine power which was carrying them on to the full blessing beyond” (Numerical Bible).

Php 2:14-16

If we thus work out our own salvation, with Christ ever before us as our pattern, following after Him in the same path, we shall do all things without murmurings and reasonings. These are the fruits of the old self. But following Him as our pattern there will be no more strife and vainglory; we shall esteem the other better than ourselves and consequently there will be no murmurings. Furthermore, like our Lord was “harmless and sincere,” we shall be harmless and sincere, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, without any self-assertion whatever. And as He was the light down here, so are believers now to shine as lights. As He on earth was the Word of life, holding it forth is what the apostle writes believers should also do, “holding forth the Word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.” (See 1Th 2:20.)

Php 2:17-18

Three witnesses follow whose experiences tell us that the grace of God can produce such a character after the pattern of Christ in the believer. First, the apostle speaks of himself “Yea and if I am poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith I rejoice in common with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me.” With death threatening, the prisoner of the Lord expresses His joy. Paul speaks of what the Philippians did, their ministrations of faith as the greater thing; he looks upon it all as a sacrifice and himself and his service only as a libation; that is, he views his own life poured out upon it. Thus he manifested lowliness of mind. In regarding the devotion of the Philippians as the sacrifice, and the devotion of his own life he regards only as poured out as a drink offering (the symbol of joy) upon their sacrifice.

Php 2:19-24

Timotheus is the next witness. Of him Paul writes, “For I have no one like-minded who will care naturally for your state (or, who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on). For all seek their own things and not the things of Christ.” Many already there lived selfishly, seeking in service their own things and not serving and walking, glorifying Christ. So it is today in the Laodicean condition into which Christendom is fast sinking. But Timotheus, Paul’s spiritual son (1Ti 1:2) was a blessed exception. He was in fullest fellowship with the apostle, like-minded, who forgot him- self completely and cared genuinely for the Philippians. They knew the proof of him, for as a son with the father, he served with the apostle in the gospel. The two, Paul and Timothy, illustrate what it means “to be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (Php 2:2). And thus it ought to be among all the members of the body of Christ. What a comfort Timotheus must have been to Paul in the Roman prison! What cheer and joy to have such a one with him! What refreshment to his soul! But he is willing to give him up. “But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.” Not seeking his own, in self-denying devotion, he is willing to part with him, so that the Philippians might enjoy his fellowship.

Php 2:25-30

Another gracious witness is Epaphroditus. He also manifests the mind of Christ. Epaphroditus was the messenger of the Philippians. He brought to Rome the collection, expressing the fellowship of the church in Philippi. But he had been taken violently ill in the exercise of his service, “for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death.” He did not regard his own life and in this he exemplified the Lord Jesus Christ. “Greater love can no one show than that he lays down his life for his friends.” His was a service in entire forgetfulness of self. And when he was sick nigh unto death “God had mercy on him.” The Philippians also heard of the dangerous illness of their beloved messenger. They must have been deeply grieved. Then unselfish Epaphroditus was greatly distressed because the Philippians had heard of his illness. In his suffering, nigh unto death, his thoughts were with the saints in Philippi, and he was grieved that they had anxiety for him. It all shows the mind of Christ.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Need of Loving Humility. Php 2:1-4

v. 1. If there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

v. 2. fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

v. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

v. 4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

The apostle had urged the Philippian Christians to stand firm in the common battle and to contend for the great blessings of mercy. To this he adds a new thought: If, now, there be any admonition in Christ, if any urging of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any sympathy and mercies, fulfill my joy that you share the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord. If, on the one hand, all these things count for anything, if they have any effect, then, on the other hand, the results should show. If on Paul’s side there was admonition in Christ, if he had been active in exhorting them for the sake of Christ, if he had attempted to influence their will, if his urgings upon their mind and heart had been of any value whatever, then the Philippians in turn should be zealous in unanimity and humility. The result should show fellowship of the spirit, sympathy and mercies, tenderness and compassion. The Spirit of God works real, lasting communion among the Christians. Every believer feels the bonds of this communion and is proud to be held by them. And the work of the Spirit yields compassion and mercies, tender love among the Christians, every one taking a merciful, sympathetic interest in the welfare of the others. With these essential conditions present, humility and compassion can reign supreme. Paul has had reasons for rejoicing over the Philippians and their faith and their love. This joy of his they shall now make full, complete, render it a perfect joy, by proving themselves true Christians in all things, especially in this respect, that they love one another in true unanimity of thought. Their harmony should be so complete that they even think the same thing, their thoughts following the same trend, running in the same channel. This harmonious unity finds its expression in various ways. They have the same love, every one loving the other just as he desires to be loved. They are of one mind or soul, they feel and think as though they had a single soul, deferring to the peculiarities in the judgment of others. They think the one thing, having their minds directed toward that one needful fact that should ever be a Christian’s chief consideration, the glory of Christ and the building of His kingdom, assisted by the faithful love of every believer.

To this the apostle adds: Nothing through strife or vainglory, but in humility regarding one another more excellent than yourselves, looking not everyone to his own interests, but every one also to those of others. Selfish ambition, which brooks no interference and picks a quarrel at the slightest provocation, which seeks only its own interests and ends, and tries to exalt itself at the expense of others, has no right to exist in the midst of the Christian congregation. The situation must rather be at all times that Christians in and by humility regard one another as superior, as more excellent, that they mutually count others as in every way to be preferred. By the power of this humble-mindedness, which is the chief characteristic of Christians, each one should think little of himself, but much of his fellow-Christian; each one should see in himself mainly his faults and weaknesses, in the other, however, excellencies of every description. Of every single member of the Church it should finally be true that he have no selfish notion of furthering only his own interests, his own welfare, but always that which is good and of benefit to his brother. That is the way in which true Christian harmony may be upheld and furthered. The general experience seems to show that such congregations as have many advanced and well founded members are apt to sin in this respect, that pride takes possession of their hearts, that sinful, overbearing behavior results.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php 2:1

Two Incitements to Love.

I. It is tenderness and compassion which St. Paul wants the Philippians to practise, and he endeavours to win them to the practice by the recognition and proclamation of the tenderness and compassion that were already theirs. Listen, he says—listen to the love-beatings within you, and be loving. Lo, you carry within you a proud and brotherly sensibility; expand and apply it. He would draw them on to be kinder than they are by setting before them the kindliness they feel. And this is the best way of helping and persuading men to improve, the best way in which to try and lead them from lower things to higher, from unworthy to worthier conduct, namely by fastening upon what they are, in the midst of their faultiness, that is good and beautiful, upon what they have of good and beautiful motions in their breasts, by touching these, and calling their attention to them, and demanding that they should be cultivated and followed.

II. "If there be any consolation in Christ." That there is is true enough. How many have found, and are daily finding, it in Him. But the true rendering of the word is "exhortation." When, in enjoining on the Philippians to cultivate love, the Apostle points them to Christ, it would be surely, not comfort which he meant them to find in Him, but exhortation—exhortation to the love to which he was so anxious to lead them. And the figure of Jesus in the midst of the ages—is it not just this: a perpetual exhortation to men to be a little better than they are, to be less worldly, less grovelling, less selfish, to rise from their low levels to higher ways, with a nobler and purer spirit? And have we not met with persons, too, who in their silent examples, in their beautiful lives, in the spirit that breathed from them, have been full of exhortation to us, in the presence of whose pureness and earnestness, in witnessing whose deeds, we have felt ourselves called to heights above us, have seen with a touch of shame the comparative poorness of what we were and with a sigh of wishfulness the truer thing that we might be? And is not Christ preeminently such a Person? Whenever we meet Him in thoughtful pauses by the way, in moments of quiet meditation over the Gospel page, does He not act on us thus, with rufflings of self-discontent, with a sense of being coarser and earthlier than we ought to be? He stands out an angel in the sun, for ever above us all, yet for ever moving upon and affecting us all: painted for ever upon the eye of the world, we cannot help aspiring and endeavouring the more for the grandeur of His face; it disturbs us in our worldliness and selfishness, and is always exhorting us against them, is always appealing to us to rise toward nobler things.

S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 197.

References: Php 2:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 348. Php 2:1-4.—J. J. Goadby, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 293.

Php 2:1-11

I. "If" is not in this case a sign of doubt or hesitation, but, on the contrary, a sign of the most assured certainty. As employed by Paul, it is equivalent to "If there is any water in the sea," or "If there is any light in the sun."

II. This appeal of the Apostle is a burst of tenderness. Affection delights in repetition; love amplifies its expressions to the utmost.

III. Paul having laid his basis in the very heart of Christ, makes an appeal: "Fulfil ye my joy." It is right to interject one’s personality as an element in an argument for brotherhood and consolation in the Church.

Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 211.

References: Php 2:1-11.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 99; Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 50. Php 2:1-14.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 350.

Php 2:2

I. Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be of one mind. St. Paul’s happiness was not quite complete until he could see those whom he loved—and he loved these Philippians—walking in unity. There may be unity without acquaintance, and there may be unity amidst variety. These two defects (as they might appear) are not fatal to the unity of which St. Paul speaks. These things are not the real, certainly not the most formidable, impediments to Christian unity; its worst dangers lie nearer to us than these. St. Paul here shows us what they are. He points out what I may call the conditions of unity, and they are two: humility and unselfishness. (1) Humility. Act not, he says, on a principle of party spirit or vainglory; but in your humility count each superior to yourselves. Need I point out how inseparably connected are individual vanity and collective discord, how it is the assumption, and the pushing, and the arrogance, and the expectation of undue respect and deference, on the part of individuals, which cause at least half of those piques and misunderstandings and secret heart-burnings which run on at last into open dissensions? (2) Unselfishness. The two graces have their root in one. Look not each of you on your own things, but each of you also on the things of others. Vanity is a fruitful cause of dissension; but below vanity itself lies ever a foundation of selfishness.

II. Note the motives by which Christian unity is here recommended and enforced. I beseech you, Paul says in effect, by every comfort and by every privilege of the Gospel. If there be any such thing as consolation in Christ, if there be any such thing as comfort in love, if any such thing as a joint participation in the Holy Spirit, if any such thing as a heart of pitying compassion, then by all these things I beseech you to be of one soul and of one mind.

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 87.

I. "Being of one accord" does not always mean being of the same opinion. Of course in the main there can be no good work done unless the great verities are believed by us all. We believe the vital truths, but then there are shades of opinion about many things. I do not want to see eye to eye with every one on men or things. Variety is intended by God. There are men emphatically endowed by special gifts for mission work; some have tender sympathies, and they can be friends to the fatherless and widow; some have gifts for calling out the energies of the young.

II. There must be in this one accord subordinacy of one to the other. Everything must be subservient to great ends. There must always be the chorus-leader; you know he was called so in the Greek choruses. There must be men of the same faith, all inspired by the same Spirit. By subserviency I mean everything uniting for Christ’s end. You fall into your place, and subserve the interests of the Cross.

III. In this harmony there is health. It is so in a nation. A nation is in harmony when the rich sympathise with and help the poor, and the wise help the ignorant. You may live many years, but the poor you will have always to the end of time, and men must be self-disciplined who have these blessings and seek to use them aright. A prosperous Church and nation is where there is health in the body politic.

IV. We shall thus enjoy influence. The world likes harmony; it does not know always how it is attained, but it likes it.

V. Lastly, it means heaven. What does heaven mean? It means rest in God. Whose mind have we? Christ’s. And that is heaven begun on earth.

W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 397.

Php 2:3-5

The Discipline of the Christian Character.

I. The Christian character is set before us in manifold and diversified ways in the Bible. The Christian character in its completeness is the result and outgrowth of all that series of events of which the Bible is in part, but in the most important part, the record, which begins in ages back beyond our ken and which comes down even to the day which is passing. This form of human character, tending from the first to the mind of Christ and at last culminating in it in His person, and less completely in His saints after the day of Pentecost, is the character put before us in the Bible and given us to study, to learn from according to our measure, to assimilate and reproduce.

II. The foundation of the religious character of the Old and New Testaments was laid in a great idea which is brought into clear and strong distinctness in the age of the Patriarchs, in God’s dealings with Abraham, in what is shown to us of the discipline and guidance under which he became the father of the faithful, the first example, that is in detail, that is of feeling and action, of the religious idea. And that idea is the singleness and individuality of the soul in its relation to the God who called it into being. If the feeling of the individual being, merged and swallowed up in the aggregate, is strong and even irresistible at times now, how much more so in the infancy of the world, when that discipline of man began which was to lead at last to the mind of Christ. And so the first work of that discipline was to enforce and impress deeply another great and paramount aspect of man and life, another great side of the truth which should balance, correct, and complete the other. It was to teach and leave firmly planted the faith that God had His eye on each separable unit in these innumerable crowds; that each separate soul in them had its direct relations to its Maker, its course to follow for itself, its destiny to fulfil or to fail in, its special calls and gifts, according to its Master’s purpose, to account for, its own separate hopes, its own separate responsibilities. In the history of Abraham, from his call to the last trial of his faith, we see that great and, as far as we are allowed to see at least in its greatness and depth, that new, lesson.

III. We live alone as much as we die alone, and we, "whose spirits live in awful singleness, each in his self-formed sphere of light or gloom," need to know that great conviction before we die. It may indeed come at any moment; in the hurry of business, in the hour of joy, in the misery of bereavement, in the flash and revelation of the beauty or the awfulness of the world, oh even in the very moment of temptation and the hour of sin, we may learn and feel the startling and essential singleness of the soul. But it will be well for us not to wait for its coming, but to seek it as the Psalmist long ago taught men to seek it: "O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee."

Dean Church, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 104.

Php 2:3-5

I. There are two ways of doing even the best work: through strife and through love. This was seen in the first chapter, where two classes of preachers are described.

II. Entire sympathy with Christ will always heighten man’s appreciation of man.

III. Christianity is thus the only humanising and fraternising religion.

IV. Self-seeking is in utter antagonism to the spirit of Christianity.

V. Christianity never encourages a degrading view of human nature. Man is to be esteemed by man. Christians are to recognise each other’s excellencies. Love’s eye is quick to detect virtue in another. Up to this point Paul continues his appeal for unanimity. The spirit of this appeal is most suggestive; it is the spirit of profound and tender sympathy with Christ. Absence of union is a reflection upon the uniting force. What is the uniting force of a Christian Church? The love of Christ. Where, then, there is disunion, it is plainly to be inferred that there is either not sufficient of this love, or that this love is unequal to the exigencies of the case. The world has a right to compare the deeds of the servant with the deeds of the Master, because the connection is moral, and consequently involves responsibility. All the practices of the Church are carried back to Christ, and He is magnified or crucified afresh according to their nature.

Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 212.

Php 2:4

Courtesy.

I. Courtesy is the expression in outward manner of deference for the most delicate susceptibilities of others. It is doubtless, on the one side, a habit; it is practised instinctively; its forms are caught by unconscious imitation; it is inherited like other habits, so that it seems sometimes a native characteristic of particular blood. On the other side, like other habits, it has been generated originally by the feelings and the will. While it is practised it reacts on the mind and heart, and fosters and keeps alive those feelings from which it sprang. If the feelings which renew and vivify it die away, it will become an empty shell or form: a part will drop in here, and a part there. The hasty observer may not detect the change. The gracious manner will remain as an ornament in the public eye; but those who know the man behind the scenes will know that even the manner is forgotten when he is most truly himself.

II. Courtesy, then, if it be a virtue of manner, is an essentially Christian virtue; that is, it rests on ideas Christian in origin: (1) first, on the universality of our relations to mankind, in the sense that all men are of one blood, one Father; (2) secondly, on the special claim of the weak upon the strong, the claim for sympathy inherent in pain, even in the little pains of injured susceptibility, the paramount claim to tenderest consideration of childhood, of the weaker sex, of the poor, of the wronged, of the dependent. Graft upon these the idea inherent in the highest types of the Christian character drawn in the New Testament, the idea of self-respect, pride turned inwardly as a motive and exacting standard of personal high living, and we have complete the chivalrous conception of a gentleman’s courtesy. We find the best pictures of it in two characters put before us in the New Testament: (a) in the writings of St. Paul; (b) in the acts and words of One greater than St. Paul.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 82.

Christian Self-sacrifice.

I. Christian self-sacrifice necessarily takes two forms, for, on the one hand, there is a self-sacrifice for the sake of ourselves, as it were for our own self-discipline; there is a self-sacrifice which gives up a great deal which otherwise we might reasonably keep in order that we may more entirely devote our whole souls to God; there is a self-sacrifice the purpose of which is closer communion, the purpose of which is to live in our thoughts and in the impulses and emotions of our hearts more entirely in the Lord’s presence, close to Him, drawing in, as it were, into our souls the light of His love. This self-sacrifice has high honour, and, from certain points of view, it stands above all others. But, on the other hand, our Lord’s self-sacrifice was more markedly of another kind: self-sacrifice not for His own sake, but for the sake of others.

II. The commandment of the text ranges from the highest to the lowest; it embraces the largest and it embraces the smallest thing that we can do. It penetrates because it is a spiritual force; it penetrates even into all the details of life; and it bids the man be self-sacrificing as in great things, so in small things, because what is asked of men is not the self-sacrifice itself, but the self-sacrificing spirit, which is sure to issue in self-sacrifice perpetual.

III. This spirit of self-sacrifice, as it is the duty of individuals, so is it the duty of the Church as a body. The Church as a body is called upon to labour earnestly for the good of men and the good of those who have been brought by baptism within her pale, for the good of those who are still outside. The Church is called upon perpetually to that self-sacrifice which made the Lord stretch out His hand all day long to a disbelieving and gainsaying people.

Bishop Temple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 337.

Sectarianism.

I. Our first association with religion is its bearing on our own souls and their salvation. He that has been struck by a great conviction is for the time isolated from his fellows. All the world for him centres round the single question, "What must I do to be saved?" For a time the Church and general interests are lost to view, just as the whole world would be to a man who had fallen into a crevasse, and who could have leisure for no other thought than how to extricate himself and how to get others to help him into safety. Such a man must for the time look on his own things, not on the things of others. There are those who think that Christian separateness consists in being very unlike other men. Rather it should be said, Live in faith and prayer the same life that others live without them, and you have entered the true separate state of consecration to God.

II. There is the sectarianism of the congregation. We say, This is my Church; these are our forms of worship; this is our effort to do good. Without such appropriation of truth no Christian work can thrive. But if we mean that the work is ours to the exclusion of others or to the prejudice of others, sectarianism at once begins. We should try to see and to know each other’s work, and to take part in common effort.

III. There is a denominational sectarianism. There are three things in which the advantage of amity among the denominations maybe seen. (1) The first is that which occurs to us all: that, while we maintain a separate and defiant attitude, we waste our energies in collisions that cannot be avoided, and we are much weakened for all good purposes. (2) If we would deal with one another in the confidence of Christian brotherhood, our mutual influence for good would be increased a hundredfold. (3) Ministers and Church rulers of all denominations should ask themselves this question: how they will answer to Christ if they build up His people into the image of their own exclusiveness, instead of the image of the world-embracing love of their Lord.

W. H. Fremantle, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 385.

References: Php 2:4.—A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 158; W. Bennett, Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 105; G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 357; T. T. Lynch, Sermons for my Curates, p. 147; Forsyth Hamilton, Pulpit Parables, p. 66; J. Fraser, Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 209.

Php 2:5

The True Imitation of Christ.

Consider two or three simple instances of the mode in which we may catch something of the true mind of Christ, and carry out into our lives something of a true Imitatio Christi.

I. There is, first of all, the readiness to forego, for the good of others, things to which we feel we have a fair claim. It seems a very homely lesson, yet so strong is the tendency to self-assertion and pride that we find both the Apostle and his Master laying on it an exceeding stress; a homely lesson, yet one which, strange to say, may bring opportunities of drawing near to the mind of Christ, occasions in little things or in great.

II. Is not this a field in which we may seek for the mind which was in Christ Jesus? I do not mean only by being ready to do our appointed work with our whole hearts, but by recognising it as being the work set us by Him who sent us all into the world to work while it is day, by facing readily and cheerfully all that is distasteful and wearisome in the work, even as He bore the perpetual association with unsympathising dullness, with human ignorance, with scenes of misery, of disease, wretchedness, and sin.

III. Remember, too, another point in which we need the mind of Christ. Our work, our occupations, our recreations, are apt to take entire possession of us, to overwhelm us, to model us into their shape, to reduce us to their level; they cling to us like our shadows; they keep us from rising out of them or above them. Remember that He is recorded as having gone up from the crowded plain to the quiet hill, and there continued all night in prayer to God; and that we are told how the disciples went to their own home, but Jesus went to the mount of Olives. Surely we cannot fail if we wish to keep Him before our eyes to find even in the busiest life some still time for thought, for looking backwards and forwards, for withdrawing ourselves for a moment from the throng of common cares and pleasures to some peaceful hillside, from amidst the swarming and noisy flats of life, where we may snatch short times of insight and resolution which may be worked out in days of hurry or perhaps of gloom.

G. G. Bradley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 177.

I. St. Paul sees in the Passion of our Lord the crown and climax of the stupendous act of condescension which began in His incarnation. Being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient, submitted Himself to the will of the Father, even to the point of drinking the cup, to His true human nature the bitter cup, of death. We may notice two points which St. Paul emphasises. (1) The condescension has its roots in our blessed Lord’s conception of the scope and value of His own Divine prerogatives. It was He through whom all that is is, yet to Him that pre-eminence was not a thing to set store by in itself. From that infinite height He stooped to the level of the creatures of His hand, that He might serve. The Creator valued not His creative power, laid aside readily the Creator’s prerogatives, that He might help, might serve, His creature. (2) The condescension was complete, not measured or stinted. The cup was drained to the dregs. He came to do His Father’s will, and He did it—"felt all, that He might pity all," bore what to man is the extremity of pain and shame, that He might save man from pain and shame.

II. There is something of the sense of passing from infinite differences to infinitesimal ones, of turning the eyes from light so bright that nothing for the time is visible after it, when we pass from contemplating this infinite self-humiliation to think how we can in any true sense imitate it. Yet St. Paul bids us so pass. It is his very purpose in so painting the Divine condescension: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." The consciousness of this infinite condescension of God for us must transfigure life to us, break down once and for all our pride, show us the true proportions of things, open our hearts to Him who has done so much for us.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 35.

References: Php 2:5.—E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 191; Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 185; R. W. Church, Ibid., vol. xx., p. 181; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 323; H. D. Rawnsley, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 298; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 273; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., pp. 164, 180, 193, 201; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 157; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. viii., p. 107.

Php 2:5-7

The Humiliation and Glory of Christ.

Consider the practical purposes of the Apostle in bringing this subject before us.

I. Among the chief of these is the inculcation of humility. This whole marvellous passage is brought before us, not for dogmatic teaching, but for moral example. The main intention is, not to reveal Jesus Christ as the foundation of a sinner’s hope (although that is implied), but it is to point out the wonderful moral beauty of His condescension and to enforce it upon the regards of His followers for their devout and diligent imitation. Because He humbled Himself, because He pleased God, expressed the very mind of God, "God also hath highly exalted Him," and we are allowed to reason that with and in Him we too shall rise. The Master and the disciple, together treading the valley of humiliation, shall together sit on the throne. To be partaker of the sufferings is the sure pledge of participation in the glory.

II. "Work out your own salvation," this moral conformity to God, by following Christ; by cross-bearing; by self-denial; by descents into darkness with your lights, into misery with your joys; by holding yourself at the service of Christ; by making life a sacrifice and yourself a living victim; by filling yourself with the tenderness and Divine passion and unutterable love of the Cross.

A. Raleigh, From Dawn to the Perfect Day, p. 282.

The Incarnation a Lesson of Humility.

I. Christ "emptied Himself." He, the Creator, passed by the heavenly host, delivered not them by taking their nature, but came down to us, who were lower than the angels, last in order of His rational creation, and became as one of us. He emptied Himself of His immortality, and the Immortal died; He became subject to death, the penalty of sin. Not only in birth, in life, in death, but now also in His glory, He is content to be hidden still. So did He veil His majesty that because, as man, He confessed, "My Father is greater than I," some whom He came to redeem will not believe in Him; others believe not in Him as He is.

II. God incarnate preaches humility to His creature. For this is the foundation of the whole building of Christian virtues, or rather thus alone can we reach that foundation whereon we can build securely. The heathen had semblances or images of well-nigh every virtue; the heathen had self-devotion, contentment, contempt of the world without him and of the flesh; he had fortitude, endurance, self-denial, chastity, even a sort of reverence for God, whom he knew not; but he had not humility. The first beginning of Christian virtues is to lay aside pride.

III. Dig deep, then, the foundation of humility, so only mayest thou hope to reach the height of charity; for by humility alone canst thou reach that Rock which shall not be shaken, that is, Christ. Founded by humility on that Rock, the storms of the world shall not shake thee; the torrent of evil custom shall not bear thee away; the empty winds of vanity shall not cast thee down: founded deep on that Rock, thou mayest build day by day that tower whose top shall reach unto heaven, to the very presence of God, the sight of God, and shalt be able to finish it, for He shall raise thee thither who for thy sake abased Himself to us.

E. B. Pusey, Sermons from Advent to Whitsuntide, vol. i., p. 61.

Php 2:5-8

The Humiliation of the Eternal Son.

I. In looking into these words, we observe (1) that St. Paul clearly asserts Jesus Christ to have existed before His birth into the world. By saying that Jesus Christ existed in the form of God before He took on Him the form of a servant, St. Paul would have been understood by any one who read him in his own language to mean that, when as yet Christ had no human body or human soul, He was properly and literally God, because He existed in the form, and so possessed all the proper attributes, of God. (2) St. Paul goes on to say that, being God, Jesus Christ "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." This sentence would be more closely and clearly rendered, "Christ did not look on His equality with God as a prize to be jealously set store by." Men who are new to great positions always think more of them than those who have always enjoyed them. Christ, who was God from everlasting, laid no stress on this His eternal greatness; He emptied Himself of His Divine prerogatives or glory. (3) Of this self-humiliation St. Paul traces three distinct stages. The first consists in Christ’s taking on Himself the form of a servant or slave. By this expression St. Paul means human nature. Without ceasing to be what He was, what He could not but be, He wrapped around Himself a created form, through which He would hold converse with men, in which He would suffer, in which He would die. The second stage of His humiliation is that Christ did not merely take human nature on Him; He became obedient to death. The third stage in this humiliation is that, when all modes of death were open to Him, He chose that which would bring with it the greatest share of pain and shame. "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." When on the cross of shame He endures the sharpness of death, He is only completing that emptying Himself of His glory which began when, "taking upon Himself to deliver man, He did not abhor the Virgin’s womb."

II. Why may we suppose that God, by His providence acting in His Church, places before our eyes this most suggestive passage of Holy Scripture on the Sunday next before Easter? (1) We stand today on the threshold of the great week which in the thought of a well-instructed Christian, whose heart is in its right place, is beyond all comparison the most solemn week in the whole year. It is of the first importance that we should answer clearly this primary question: "Who is the Sufferer?" That which gives to the Passion and death of our Lord its real value is the fact that the Sufferer is more than man; that, although He suffers in and through a created nature, He is personally God. (2) The lesson which St. Paul draws for the benefit of the Philippians from the consideration of the Incarnation and Passion is a lesson which is as valuable to us as members of civil society, as it is valuable to members of the Church of Christ. If Christ did not set store on glory which was rightfully, inalienably His, why should we? All who have lived for others rather than for themselves in His Church have been true to Him, true to the spirit of His incarnation and death, true to what St. Paul calls "the mind that was in Christ Jesus."

H. P. Liddon, Passiontide Sermons, p. 18.

The Mystery of the Cross.

I. We all agree that God is good; all, at least, do so who worship Him in spirit and in truth. We adore His majesty because it is the moral and spiritual majesty of perfect goodness; we give thanks to Him for His great glory because it is the glory, not merely of perfect power, wisdom, order, justice, but of perfect love, of perfect magnanimity, beneficence, activity, condescension, pity, in one word of perfect grace. But how much must the last word comprehend as long as there is misery and evil in the world, or in any other corner of the whole universe! Grace, to be perfect, must show itself by graciously forgiving penitents; pity, to be perfect, must show itself by helping the miserable; beneficence, to be perfect, must show itself by delivering the oppressed.

II. The Apostles believed, and all those who accepted their Gospel believed, that they had found for the word "grace" a deeper meaning than had ever been revealed to the prophets of old time; that grace and goodness, if they were perfect, involved self-sacrifice. If man can be so good, God must be infinitely better; if man can love so much, God must love more; if man, by shaking off the selfishness which is his bane, can do noble deeds, then God, in whom is no selfishness at all, may at least have done a deed as far above his as the heavens are above the earth. Shall we not confess that man’s self-sacrifice is but a poor and dim reflection of the self-sacrifice of God? Shall we not find, as thousands have found ere now, in the Cross of Calvary, the perfect satisfaction of our highest moral instincts, the realisation in act and fact of the highest idea which we can form of perfect condescension, namely, self-sacrifice exercised by a Being of whom perfect condescension, love, and self-sacrifice were not required by aught in heaven or on earth save by the necessity of His own perfect and inconceivable goodness?

C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 1.

References: Php 2:5-8.—G. Huntingdon, Sermons for Holy Seasons, p. 75; T. A. White, Church of England Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 159; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 88. Php 2:5-9.—Ibid., vol. vi., p. 148.

Php 2:5-11

These delineations of Christ reveal the true method of rendering moral service to man. Human deliverance and progress will remain a theory only until men come to work upon the method here stated. Great philanthropic programmes must begin at Bethlehem and comprehend the mysteries of Golgotha if ever they would ascend from Bethany into the heavens. To serve man, Christ became man; so in serving others we must identify ourselves with them.

I. This identification of Himself with the human race made Christ accessible to all classes. We, too, in our philanthropic work must go down.

II. Christ’s piety was not a mere index finger. Instead of saying, "That is the way," He said, "I am the Way." A man’s whole moral vitality must constitute his redeeming power.

III. Does it not degrade a man to have this personal association with human vice and misery? The answer may be given in a question: Was Christ degraded? A man’s spirit will determine his fate. Benevolence will come forth unpolluted as a sunbeam, beautiful as summer’s purest flower.

IV. Condescension is not degradation. Christ speaks in monosyllables, as it were; He pronounces each word with emphasis, giving each a wide circumference, until every tone penetrates the listener’s ear. Be Godlike, and come down to those whom you would save.

Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 213.

References: Php 2:5-11.—C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 193; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 82; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 52.

Php 2:6-7

I. The Son of God was in the form of God: glorious as the Father; equal to the Father; the Creator and Upholder of the universe. Notwithstanding, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, i.e.—for the words are obscure as they now stand—He deemed not His equality with God a matter eagerly to be grasped by Him; did not think of it as the robber does of his prey, so that he would not on any account let it go; esteemed it not matter of self-enrichment or self-indulgence. He looked on His Divine glory and majesty as willing, if need be, to detach them from Himself, if He might thus the better fulfil the great end of His Divine being: the expression of the Father’s will and the showing forth of the brightness of His glory. He made Himself of no reputation; literally, He emptied Himself. He laid aside, not His Divine nature—for that was His very being—not His Divine person as the Son of God, not His purity and holiness—for these were the essential elements of His Divine nature and person—but all accessories to these: all power, all majesty, all renown, yea and what is more mysterious still to our apprehension: all that infinite knowledge of all things with which as God and Creator He was clothed.

II. "He was made in the likeness of man." From being a glorious uncreated Being He became enshrined in a created nature, became as to His outward form a creature and subject to the laws of the creature: hunger; weariness; pain; death. We in vain endeavour to form any idea of this vast descent into degradation of the Son of God. When He, in His glory and His joy, took on Him the character of Redeemer, He knew what was in man; He saw all the depths of depravity, all the wonders of selfishness, all the pollutions of sin, of which this our nature was capable, and to which it would degrade itself: and He shrank not from contact with, from identification with, the vessel which had been thus defiled. We shall never know what Christ’s humiliation was till we know what His exaltation and His glory are. The eye which cannot bear the light above is dazzled and misted when it contemplates the depth of darkness below.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vi., p. 35.

References: Php 2:6-11.—W. Harris, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 276.

Php 2:7

I. We must be careful that we do not suffer our knowledge of the perfect Deity of Jesus Christ to confound or weaken our apprehension of His entire and essential manhood. A very little error on this point may lead to the worst consequences. For instance, if Christ be not absolutely a Man, if His Divinity come in in the least degree to qualify human nature, then He practically almost ceases to stand forth as an example which we are to follow. For the answer will be always ready to our lips, He is of a different and distinct order; imitation is impossible, for He was Himself holy by Deity: and besides this, unless He be perfect man, His death may carry the form of an infinite sacrifice, but it cannot be viewed in the light of a strict substitution.

II. The manhood which Christ assumed is full of the deepest comfort to His Church. For observe its consequence. All the nature of our race was gathered and concentrated into the one human life. He stood forth the great representative Man; what He did, it was as though we had done it: what He bore, it was as though we had suffered it. But were even one iota taken out of the manhood of Jesus, the parallel of the work would cease, and the provisions of the mediatorial scheme would fail. Therefore St. John twice makes the belief in it essential to our salvation. "Whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is born of God."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 1.

Php 2:7

Christ a Slave.

The word servant will convey to us in this present age a very inadequate idea of the degree of the degradation of which it is the figure. For service has been dignified since Jesus was a servant. We know nothing now more really honourable than Christian service. But let us not forget that He first taught us to call servants friends.

I. Notice one or two of the laws and customs respecting Jewish slaves, that you may see the correctness of the title and the exceeding extent of the humiliation of Jesus. (1) No slave among the Jews could have any position or right as a citizen; he had no political standing. If injured, he had no redress; if assaulted, no protection. And very accurate was the counterpart in our Saviour’s life when subjected to the most outrageous violence and wrong. No arm of law was ever outstretched for His defence. (2) The slave could hold no property whatever. And what had He, the Servant of servants? Which of the world’s paupers ever walked the earth as poor as the world’s Creator? (3) And every slave was in the eyes of the law a mere piece of goods and chattels, which could be bought and sold. It was in the strictness therefore of the letter of the law to which He subjected Himself when for the base sum of less than three pounds Judas sold Him. (4) And when he died, the slave was still pursued by his brand; he might be scourged and tortured, and a last distinctive punishment was assigned him: the cross. So Jesus under the lash and on the tree was the slave.

II. As a servant or slave Christ had two duties to execute. The first was to His Father; (2) the second was to His people. What He did the last night in the upper chamber is only an epitome of His whole life; the girded towel and the basin in the hand characterised the Man. He is always going to persons’ feet; He is always performing inferior offices; He is always in the attitude of some active ministration; He takes His Church as a charge committed to Him by God, and He honours and tends each one, as a servant does his lord’s friends, and of each one He is able to give in the good account at last, "Of them which Thou gavest Me have I lost none."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874.

Reference: Php 2:7, Php 2:8.—W. J. Knox-Little, The Mystery of the Passion, p. 3.

Php 2:8

The Humility of Christ.

I. Among the virtues of Christ’s humanity brought to dwell among men was humility, a virtue which lies at the foundation of the Christian character, a virtue unknown to the moral philosophy of the ancient world. "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself." The Apostle is not now speaking of the infinite condescension whereby He as God left the glory that He had with the Father before the worlds were made, but rather he is speaking of the humility of Christ as man, by which as a Child, though conscious that He was about His Father’s business, He went down to Nazareth, and was subject to Joseph and Mary, that humility by which He became obedient unto death, even the shameful, ignominious death of the cross.

II. Humility is the direct opposite and contradiction of the spirit which, in the case of those who possessed high privileges among the sons of God, exalted them against God; and so they fell from heaven. And therefore, as humility is the groundwork and beginning of the Christian life, so it is the ingredient and accompaniment of all progress in heavenly virtue, the lowly handmaid of true charity.

III. Hard it is for human souls to keep humility and strength. According to the world’s estimation, humility is at a discount. And another difficulty arises from the fact that the counterfeits of humility are so detestable. But if the counterfeits are base, genuine humility, sterling modesty, bear none the less the stamp and impress of the Divine character; and if they be not current in the world, yet surely they pass without question for their full value in the Christian life. With humility come the grace, the courage, the fortitude, necessary for the Christian warfare. The truly brave are, as a rule, modest and humble. And, finally, humility is a brave helper and comforter in sorrow, and trial, and tribulation; and when the end draws nigh, it has the peace of resignation, it has the calm assurance of the presence of the Comforter within, with whom the soul can fear no evil, though it be in the valley of the shadow of death.

E. Warre, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiii., p. 209.

Christ Degraded.

I. Consider the manner in which Christ as a Man took the lowest place and did the meanest part. Here is the most beautiful feature in all the exquisite portraiture of His humiliation: that at the time He did any of the acts of His wonderful life the humiliation was never prominent and seldom apparent. For had you met Jesus in one of His usual walks of mercy, or sat with Him at the meal, or listened to Him as He spoke, I do not imagine that you would have been impressed at once and very consciously with the lowliness of the transaction, as though He were doing some very wonderfully condescending thing. That is what we often do—a posture, a garb, a studied word—and we call it humility. But there would have been a depth of selfforgetfulness in all which Christ said and did and was which would tell on you in a way which you could scarcely clothe in language, but when you looked quietly back upon it, it would amazingly grow upon you in the greatness of its quiet modesty. And this is the truth of the grace of a humble mind: it is too humble to look humble; it hides self so well that the act which hides it is not seen—the humility is humbled.

II. The great lesson of every Christmas is humility. The genius of the life of Jesus from its cradle to its glory was self-abandonment, the most self-denying love, robing itself in the most self-forgetting modesty. He cast His own deeds into the shade by the very light which threw a radiance on the actions of His people. If He told us to take the lowest seat, Himself chose a lower still than all His followers, and burying unparalleled glories in unequalled sufferings, He was to men only a Servant and to God nothing but a Child.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 9.

I. Christ’s death was not a mere martyrdom. A martyr is one who dies for the Church, who is put to death for preaching and maintaining the truth. Christ indeed was put to death for maintaining the Gospel, yet He was not a martyr, but He was much more than a martyr. Had He been a mere man, He would have been rightly called a martyr; but as He was not a mere man, so He was not a mere martyr. Man dies as a martyr, but the Son of man dies as an atoning Sacrifice. The sufferings and death of the Word incarnate could not pass away like a dream; they could not be a mere martyrdom or a mere display or figure of something else; they must have had a virtue in them. This we might be sure of, though nothing had been told us about the result; but the result is also revealed—it is this: our reconciliation to God, the expiation of our sins, and our new creation in holiness.

II. We believe that when Christ suffered on the cross our nature suffered in Him. Human nature, fallen and corrupt, was under the wrath of God, and it was impossible that it should be restored to His favour till it had expiated its sin by suffering. In Him our sinful nature died and rose again; when it died in Him on the cross, that death was its new creation: in Him it satisfied its old and heavy debt, for the presence of His Divinity gave it transcendent merit. His presence had kept it pure from sin from the first; His personal indwelling hallowed it and gave it power. And thus, when it had been offered up upon the cross and was made perfect by suffering, it became the firstfruits of a new man; it became a Divine leaven of holiness for the new birth and spiritual life of as many as should receive it.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 69.

References: Php 2:8.—Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 328; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 94; C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope, p. 162; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 85; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 155; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1869, p. 234. Php 2:9.—Philpot, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 265; Homilist, 2nd series, p. 541; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 267; J. Cairns, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 315. Php 2:9-11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 101; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 109; Ibid., vol. xviii., p. 293; Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 282; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 222.

Php 2:10

I. Even angels are to worship in the name of Jesus. It is, however, more to the purpose for us to remember that God desires men, all men, so to worship. And it is a thought at once solemnising and comforting that not only living men, but the dead also, are required to call upon God in the name of Jesus. It is assumed in the words of our text that all God’s creatures will bend the knee somehow. Prayer is an instinct of nature. God has so made us that we feel a power above us, and desire that that power should be friendly to us, and not hostile. The first element of prayer" is the calling in of that power, the praying it not to be unfriendly to us, not to exert itself to crush, but to benefit, to bless, to save. The poor idolater does that. All his miserable superstitions point that way. Prayer in some form is an instinct. But is prayer in the name of Jesus an instinct? Is it the prayer which even Christians always offer? That is the name which is our passport; that is the name which has power with God and prevails; that is the name which we must take with us if we would know what it is to be heard and to be answered.

II. And that every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is the second part of the design of the exaltation of Jesus. God will have Him owned as Lord throughout the whole world. Yes, the praises of the Church as well as the prayers of the Church have a value in heaven. The religion of many Christians never gets beyond prayer. There is not a word of praise in it; there is no bold, frank, honest avowal of convictions deeply cherished as to the person and the work of Christ. The language of praise in God’s worship ought to be consistent with the still more real language of the life. "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord," our Saviour Himself asks of us, "and do not the things which I say?" If the tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, ought not our acts and common words, our habits and principles, our aims and motives, to say the same thing? The acknowledgment which is frank and emphatic ought to be consistent also and harmonious.

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 103.

Reference: Php 2:11.—W. Wilkinson, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 109.

Php 2:12

Working out Salvation.

(1) This counsel implies that something has been already done. The very phrase "Work out" suggests this. The salvation has been begun, and is in one sense a complete thing. We stand still and see the salvation of God. (2) The exhortation implies that something more is to be done: "Work out your own salvation." Then it is not only a work done for us and without us, but it is a continual process within us. There is a new life created, and the life grows, as every life does, and must grow or die.

I. We work out our own salvation by the acquisition of spiritual truth. There is a danger in resting satisfied with a faith received by tradition from our fathers. While it is unwise to break away from the past, it is equally unwise to reject the new truth that may be revealed to us and to close our minds against reasonable and honest convictions.

II. There will then be progress in character. The spiritual truth thus acquired will be the food of the soul, supporting and strengthening it; the faith that was once like a weak thread binding us to Christ will become a cable to hold the ship from drifting in the storm.

III. This work must advance even in the absence of means which are important. God may deprive you of your compass and keep the north star all the more brightly before you; He may take away the Apostle, and yet grant a fuller revelation of Christ.

IV. Think of the spirit in which we are to do the work. There is no room for presumption, but much for precaution and self-distrust. "Be not high-minded, but fear."

J. Owen, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 237.

References: Php 2:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1003; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. viii., p. 144; F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 337.

Php 2:12-13

I. A Christian man has his whole salvation already accomplished for him in Christ, and yet he is to work it out. Work as well as believe, and in the daily practice of faithful obedience, in the daily subjugation of your own spirits to His Divine power, in the daily crucifixion of your flesh, with its affections and lusts, in the daily straining after loftier heights of godliness and purer atmospheres of devotion and love, make more thoroughly your own that which you possess. Work into the substance of your souls that which you have. "Apprehend that for which you are apprehended of Christ," "Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure," and remember that not a past act of faith, but a present and continuous life of loving, faithful work in Christ, which is His and yet yours, is the holding fast the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end.

II. God works all in us, and yet we have to work. The Apostle did not absorb all our individuality in one great Divine cause which made men mere tools and puppets; he did not believe that the inference was, Do you sit still and feel yourselves the ciphers that you are. His practical conclusion is the very opposite; it is, God does all: therefore do you work. Work, for God works in you.

III. The Christian has his salvation secured, and yet he is to fear and tremble. Your faith can be worth nothing unless it has, bedded deep in it, that trembling distrust of your own power which is the pre-requisite and the companion of all thankful and faithful reception of God’s infinite mercy.

A. Maclaren, Sermons, p. 215.

The Twofold Force in Salvation.

This sentence falls from the lips of St. Paul as easy and natural as his breath. It has no particular emphasis, no special importance; it is not a climax either of thought or feeling; it is not a definition; it shows no trace of a long or careful process of thought of which it is the conclusion. As it came from St. Paul it was a simple, natural, almost commonplace exhortation to earnestness, with the encouragement that God would cooperate, as any one of us might say to one another, Work with all your might, and God will help you. St. Paul says simply this: Strive for your salvation; work it out yourself,; do not rely on others; it is your own matter, and a very serious one: hence be earnest about it; do not trifle nor take it for granted that you will be saved; if you ever see salvation you must work for it with fear and trembling, or you may fail of it. But at the same time remember also, for your encouragement, that while you work God also works in you; He wills in your will; He acts in your act. If you are earnest in this matter and have an honest heart about it, you may rely on the fact that God is at work in you, the soul and energy of the whole process. Such, and so simple, is the thought. But, simple as it is, it teaches several important lessons.

I. That salvation is an achievement. It was a moral process that St. Paul had in mind. If a man has any sinful habits, he must overcome them; if he has any lacks or weaknesses, he must work to supply the deficiency. And then there is the great reality of character—a welded group of qualities that only comes about by elaboration. The qualities may have a natural root or ground, but each one must be worked out; it must come under the conscience and the will; it must be tried, and shaped, and fed, and worked into the substance of the character.

II. This achievement of salvation is at the cost of sharp and definite strife. All the various works that are commonly assigned to man are works of deliverance or salvation; they resolve themselves at last to that complexion, and properly take on that designation. You can have no better or truer name for the great world-work of man than salvation. And as salvation is the great world business, so is it the main thing every man has to do. When the house of his heart is swept clean, and the faulty or vicious disposition is brought under control, then there opens before him the great positive work of salvation; then he may begin to build himself up into the proportions of true spiritual manhood.

III. The world does not exist by itself; it exists in God. Man does not live, machine-like, by himself; he lives, and moves, and has and holds his being, in God. His energy and force are not his own, but flow out of God. He has, indeed, a free will, but God is the source of it; but, because it is a free will, God can only act with it and by its consent. He is not, however, excluded from the realm of our nature. God may enter the will, and fill it with power, and work with it, without impairing its nature or injuring the value of its action. Use your will; work out your salvation with fear and trembling, that is, in humble, dead earnestness; when you so work, God is working with you. It is all His; it is all yours: it is each; it is both: it is neither alone; together they are one.

T. T. Munger, The Appeal to Life, p. 169.

I. There is a sense in which salvation is not yet wrought out, not yet accomplished, not yet wrought so as to be wrought successfully. The Christian is saved; Christ has borne his sins; Christ has done all for him; Christ is his sufficient sacrifice; Christ is his availing Intercessor; Christ is charged with his soul; Christ is already his Life; and because Christ lives, he lives also: but yet, though saved, he is not safe; though all has been done for him, he is not in repose; though his true life is hid with Christ in God, yet his lower life is still lived on earth, in a world of abounding temptation, of perpetual turmoil, of overflowing iniquity, of unrest therefore, of anxiety, yes of risk. Like St. Peter walking upon the water, he is safe while he looks to Christ; but he is not safe from the danger of looking off from Christ. If he does that, he begins to sink. Perseverance is a privilege of the elect; but what sign is there of the elect, what infallible sign, save perseverance? He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved; till that endurance is completed, who shall presume upon it? The condition of the Christian is made up of various, of opposite, ingredients. There is sorrow for sin; there is peace in believing; there is the fear of God; there is the love of God; there is salvation rejoiced in; there is salvation to be wrought out.

II. Let us now turn to the opposite half of the text. A Christian must work out his own salvation; that is one truth: it is God who works in him both to will and to do; that is the other truth. Let us say then to ourselves, If it is God who works in Christians both to will and to do, to Him will I seek, for Him will I wait, with Him will I abide, day by day, that He may both lay in me the train of holy resolution, and also kindle it into action by the spark of His grace.

We have in the subject (1) a motive of warning and (2) a motive of hope.

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 119

The Work of the Christian Life.

I. The exhortation. There is a sense in which salvation is no work of ours, but is simply the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. But salvation is a great deal more than forgiveness. It is not enough that our souls are pardoned and justified through the faith of Christ unless we are also delivered from those evil tendencies, habits, and likings, those lusts of the flesh and of the mind, which are, after all, the real ruin of our souls. In this view of it, salvation must be wrought out by us, not merely for us. For this part of it our cooperation is as essential as God’s grace. Let us be up and doing, busy and earnest, patient, faithful, struggling with sinful lusts and habits, mortifying the flesh, and reaching forth and pressing on to the mark for the prize of our high calling. So let us give all diligence to work out our salvation.

II. The encouragement. God is working in us, and He is mighty to save. All the feelings you have that seem to discourage you ought to encourage you as being tokens of His working in you. Let not your heart be troubled, only let not your hand be slack, for He will have you to be working along with Him.

III. The manner of the work: "with fear and trembling." The very earnestness, the very devotion, the very eagerness, of Christian love and hope become a kind of fear. Such a responsibility we have for the grace shown to us in Christ; such a labour lies before us ere in Christ we are meet for the inheritance of the saints. The Christian must needs work on with fear and trembling, with diligence, watchfulness, and hopefulness, yielding up his soul to every impulse from on high to make his calling and election sure.

W. C. Smith, Christian World Pulpit, vol, xxiv., p. 81.

References: Php 2:12, Php 2:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 820; D. Rhys Jenkins, The Eternal Life, p. 242; G. Huntingdon, Sermons for Holy Seasons, p. 199; J. H. Thom, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, p. 80; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 180; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 131; Ibid., vol. x., p. 410; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 23; Redpath, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 301. Php 2:12-18.—J. J. Goadby, Ibid., vol. xv., p. 345. Php 2:13.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 362; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 306; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 243. Php 2:14, Php 2:15.—Gregory, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 49.

Php 2:14-16

The Duties of a Church towards its Neighbourhood.

I. The relation of a Church to a neighbourhood is that of salt to the land. Prejudice may be dispersed, and men be favourably disposed to the truth, (1) by the irreproachable character of the individual members of a Church; (2) by the harmony and brotherly love of a Church; (3) by the inviting aspect of the public worship and ministry of a Church; (4) by Churches forming benevolent institutions in their neighbourhood.

II. The relation of a Church to a neighbourhood is that of light to the world. A Church can testify to the truth (1) by providing and sustaining an efficient ministry; (2) by every member ministering as he hath received the gift; (3) by cherishing and exercising a spirit worthy of its vocation.

III. The individual members of any locality so circumscribed as to admit of fellowship are to that locality as separate stars in one constellation, and the Churches of such a locality are thereto as so many golden candlesticks in one holy place.

S. Martin, Rain upon the Mown Grass, p. 491.

Reference: Php 2:14-16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 472; Homilist, 4th series, vol. i., p. 301.

Php 2:15

Sons of God.

I. Sons of God. Let us inquire into the nature of the relationship. (1) The sons of God are here clearly distinguished from the world. It is a title in whose honour all then living, man as man, had not a right to share. But how does this square with the doctrine of the universal fatherhood, with the right which we claim for every human spirit to say, "My Father," with the assertion which we maintain that in regeneration a relation to God is not for the first time created, but renewed, and in a higher and more glorious form restored? I think we shall see our way through the difficulty if we recognise that children and sons are not coordinate here. The one is a higher power of the other; the one is the base out of which the other is to be evolved. The children, those made in the Father’s likeness, alone can become sons, children of His Spirit; but before the child grows into the son there must have been a spiritual unfolding of the Father’s likeness, which makes the children sons indeed. Man universally may be a child of the great Father; but he may be a sensual child, a rebellious child, a sullen, envious child, a prodigal child; and to such God accords not the name of sons. Children He still calls them; a Father’s duties He still amply fulfils; a Father’s tenderness He feels; a Father’s sorrows He knows: but sons they are not; they cannot be until the spirit of sonship is in them, until all the higher and heaven-born elements of their being conspire to make the relation of the child effectual to the gladdening of the Father’s home, the doing of the Father’s work, the blessing of the Father’s heart. (2) And this is what regeneration means. It is the begetting of the spiritual sonship, the carrying up of the child’s relation through all the higher powers and faculties of the human spirit, and yielding to God this child complete. And this needs a spiritual regeneration. Life must be kindled from the source of life and grow by communion with it.

II. The manifestation of sonship and its fruits. Christ first exalted goodness to the throne of the world. Force had been the Divine thing till then. It was to be the sheer force of goodness which should bear the Christian on to the spiritual conquest of mankind. There is nothing exclusive about sonship. "Holding forth the word of life." Why? That men may live also. The sons are to be magnets to draw the children to the Father, that they may be received as sons. This is the essential element of the light that they are to hold forth: the word of life, the word of sonship, the word of regeneration; they are to reveal the Father and the sons. One glimpse of a home to an exile is the sweetest attraction you can offer. That is the meaning of a Church: God’s home; Christ’s home for souls. And what a Church is on a large scale a home should be on a small one. This it is to be a light in the world, and to hold forth the word of life. God is calling for sons, that He may win more. Each son won home becomes a source of vital attraction and compels others. His house is filling fast. Each generation yields its elect spirits to people heaven; but there is room yet, will be room, till that great day of restitution, "the day of the manifestation of the sons of God."

J. B. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 40.

References: Php 2:15.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 250; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 462; F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 316. Php 2:15-16.—Outline Sermons to Children, p. 251.

Php 2:16

In the very act of working out his own salvation, if he be rightly taught what the charge means, a man will be, incidentally at least, holding forth or applying to others the word of life. This is true in some measure. But so prone are we all to selfishness, so prone to religious selfishness when we are driven out of the selfishness which is altogether indolent and worldly, and so many are those who would foster this spiritual selfishness by precepts distorted from the Gospel, that it is necessary to give reality and prominence to the charge before us by examining it separately and in detail.

I. Your work on earth is not done when you have saved yourself from an untoward generation. You have still to hold your lamp as far as you can into the dark mass around. God does not call you to a timid, fugitive, skulking piety, a religion which has to lock its doors and bar its windows, that it may be alone by itself in the sight of a God who seeth in secret. There is a part of it which has to do this; to be worth anything even for purposes of diffusion, the lamp must be kindled in secret, and fed in secret, and trimmed in secret; we can soon tell those whose religion has no such seclusion; but the office of the lamp is to shine. Men do not light a candle to put it under a bed, but to set it on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house. Even so it is with the Christian’s lamp, which is the word of life.

II. Note two of our modes of influence. (1) Example. There is no engine so powerful in its effects upon human life. (2) Sympathy. There is a way of presenting the Gospel, in word and even in example, which wholly fails to attract or to persuade. He that winneth souls is wise, not he that alarms, or he that drives, or he that coerces and constrains, but he that winneth souls. It becomes one who would discharge his conscience in this matter to examine not only the correctness, but the attractiveness, of his example.

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 135.

Php 2:20

The Experience of Isolation.

I. It is a common complaint amongst us that we want sympathy. We are lonely, we say. If not actually solitary, we are solitary in feeling and in heart. In later life people make up their minds to this, as a condition of earthly life. They have fought against it in youth; they have deemed it intolerable; they have thought existence itself valueless without sympathy. Now and then they have fancied for a brief time that they had found a sympathy real and indestructible below, but they have outlived the hope; they have known perhaps many such hopes one by one, and they have outlived them all. It is well if they have not too much acquiesced in this experience. The young are too impatient, too imperious, in their demand for sympathy; the old are sometimes too tolerant, at least too fond, of isolation.

II. St. Paul’s thirst for human love was not that sentimental, sickly, vague, purposeless thing which may sometimes amongst us take its name; it was not the case with him, as it too often is with us, that his heart’s best affections were roving in quest of an object, and that until the object presented itself in some human form he was a restless and dissatisfied roan. St. Paul’s best affections were engaged and fixed unalterably. The sympathy he sought was a sympathy in his work for Christ; the loneliness he bewailed was a loneliness in his care for Christ’s people. And if sympathy like this be still, as it sometimes was with St. Paul, denied or interrupted, yet even then we shall learn, like him, in whatever state we are, therewith to be content. If we really love Christ and are trying day by day to serve Him, we have within us the root of all comfort and the spring of all sympathy. They who are united in Him are united really in one another.

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 151.

Php 2:20-21

I. In these and like passages of the Epistles of St. Paul written subsequently to his imprisonment, we may trace signs of one of the many trials of the Apostle’s life; and it is one which we hardly perhaps estimate at its real measure. St. Paul’s life at this time must have seemed like what we call a failure. The great work for which he lived had shattered itself against the natural obstacles of a firmly established order: religion; law; the habits and prejudices of society; the recognised indulgences of human passion. His missionary journeys had come to an end, and he had not reconciled Jew and Gentile, his brethren after the flesh, so dear to him, his brethren after the promise, his crown and joy. The tide which had carried him so high was ebbing, and left him lonely and deserted, hardly recognised or cared for, except by his distant friends in the East. "Demas hath forsaken me." "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me," are the words of his last Roman letter. His career, his zeal, had ended in disaster. This is what it seemed to have come to; this is what it would have appeared to friend and foe when the old man was led out along the Ossian Way to die, he who had laid the foundations of the Church universal, the Church of all the nations, he who had left a name than which no earthly name is greater, than which there is no greater among the saints of God.

II. To a faith like St. Paul’s these adverse appearances, though they might wring from him as they passed a cry of pain and distress, wore a very different aspect and took very different proportions from what they would have to the world. To him the mere vicissitudes of a mortal career would be nothing more strange than the variations in his health or in the number of his years. They were but part of his Master’s use of him, part of that cross by which the world was crucified unto him, and he unto the world. So that he had faithfully done what God wanted of him, the outward features of that small fragment of time which we call his life were of slight moment. It mattered little that so much that seemed a course which had begun triumphantly seemed to end among the breakers. It mattered little to himself when he died that the world of his day pronounced the enterprise of his life a mistake and a failure.

III. Do not let us be afraid in a good cause of the chances of failure. "Heaven is for those who have failed on earth," says the mocking proverb; and since the day of Calvary no Christian need be ashamed to accept it. The world would have missed some of its highest examples if men had always waited till they could make a covenant with success. There in the light beyond the veil, and not here, we shall really know which are the lost causes and which are the victorious ones; those who have not been afraid to be like Him here shall be like Him there, for they shall see Him as He is.

Dean Church, Oxford University Herald, Feb. 18th, 1882.

Php 2:21

The Life of Christ the Only True Idea of Self-devotion.

There is something peculiarly touching in the saddened tone of these few words, in which St. Paul glances at the slackness of his fellow-labourers. It must have been a cross almost too heavy to bear without complaining when from his prison-house at Rome he saw his brethren in Christ drawing off one by one from the hardness of their Master’s service; it must have been a provocation almost beyond endurance to see day by day tokens of a faint heart and a selfish purpose coming out in the words and acts of those on whom he most depended. It added to his bondage the worst form of desolation: the loneliness of a high unbroken spirit in the throng of shrinking and inconstant men. The heart-sin of which St. Paul writes is a refined selfishness, so plausibly defended, so strongly entrenched in reasonable pleadings, as to leave him no more to do, than to expostulate and to be silent, to give them a fair opening to do high service for their Master and then to pass them by and choose some worthier and bolder men. The peculiar danger of this fault may be seen by the following remarks:—

I. It may consist with all that the Church requires of her people as a condition of communion in her fullest privileges. A man may be under the dominion of this paralysing fault, and yet really live in many ways a Christian life. A very large part of Christianity is directly favourable to a man’s worldly interests: all that goes to the establishing of a fair reputation and to the conciliation of goodwill is full of solid advantage; self-regard and self-respect urgently prescribe to a man such a habit of life as shall be in accordance with the outward example of Christ’s true servants.

II. This habit of mind, while it satisfies the external demands of the Church and ministers to the inward happiness of the mind, absolutely extinguishes all that ever produced any great work in Christ’s service; it stunts the whole spirit at the standard of self, and makes all a man’s thoughts and powers minister and submit themselves to his own aim and purpose, None are so hard to rouse to great works of faith as such men. If we should plead with a Magdalene out of whom have been cast seven devils, or a Peter who hath thrice denied his Lord, or a Paul who hath made havoc of the Church, there is material for a substantive and vivid character; there is energy for a life above the world. Conformed to the likeness of their Lord, the examples of all living men are no more to them than the gaudy, shifting clouds of an evening sky; moving along the path of the Cross, all the soft and silken curtains of life are as threads of idle gossamer. There is about them a moral weight, and an onward force, and a clear definite outline of character, before which everything gives way. They hurry all before them as by the spell of absolute dominion. Oh that we did but know the freedom and the happiness of a life above the world! They whose names are splendid with the most hallowed light have in their day moved along all paths of life. None so wise, so courteous, so beloved, as they; none richer nor more prosperous; none more faithful in their stewardship of this world’s wealth; none bequeathed costlier heirlooms to their children’s children, and that because they sought not their own, but the things that were Jesus Christ’s.

H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. i., p. 146.

References: Php 2:21.—J. F. Tinling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 191; Parker, Pulpit Analyst, vol. ii., p. 498.

Php 2:27

I. Is this the same Apostle who wrote above, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better? Does he account it a mercy on the part of God which withdraws a Christian man from the immediate fruition of the inheritance of the saints in light? The words are so; and lest we should too much qualify their meaning or say that the mercy spoken of was shown not to the man himself, but to those around him, who needed his ministration or might be benefited by his life, he adds immediately after, "and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." We may gather from this saying an illustration of the naturalness of the word of God. However bright the light which the Gospel throws upon the world beyond death, and however dim by comparison the glory which shines upon the present, still life is a blessing, and still death is an enemy. To speak of death itself as a pleasure is a fantastic and unreal language; to speak of a recovery from sickness as a misfortune is as contradictory to the language of the Bible as it is to the voice of nature within.

II. The word of God has ever two aspects. If God wills this, it is well for the Christian, and if God wills the opposite of this, yet for the Christian it is well still. If he lives, that is the fruit of his labour; he can still work on, gather in more souls for Christ, shine more brightly himself as he holds forth the word of life: and if he rises not, if he lives not, if he passes only from his bed to his coffin, from his chamber to his grave, even then—then even more, shall we say?—God had mercy on him, saw that he was meet for the inheritance above, and therefore, by a transition sharp but blessed, bade him enter in and rest for ever in the Lord.

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 167.

References: Php 2:29.—W. Braden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 225. Phil 2—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., pp. 103, 558. Php 3:1-11.—J. J. Goadby, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 90. Php 3:2.—J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 225.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Division 2. (Php 2:1-30.)

Christ in His self-humiliation our pattern.

We have now, therefore, set before us the whole path to its issue in glory, but as trodden in the first place and in full reality by Him who had come down into the world, drawn by His love alone, giving up all which was His just right, which He might have retained, and taking His place amongst men, to come down to the very lowest possible place in this way, the death of the cross. Such was the path which had ended, however, for Him in the glory in which now He was, and where every knee should shortly bow to Him and every tongue confess Him Lord. Such, then, is the pattern for us of One perfect in the path, but the apostle shows us also that there were, in fact, those who were running in it witnesses to the joy which, for themselves also, could make them despise the shame, and enable them to run on stedfastly to the goal which already has been shown us, -Christ Himself -the foremost in the race and who has reached the end of it.

1. He desires for the Philippians that there may be amongst them but one mind, but then, this mind could, therefore, only be the mind of Christ. If here for Him, representing Him on earth, they must realize the spirit in which He walked upon earth. There was abundant blessing that they had found already, which would be an incitement to them for this. Faith, hope and love, all drew them on, and were in them the testimony of that love which Christ had shown them.

(1) He appeals, therefore, to the comfort in Christ which they had enjoyed, the consolation of a love which had sought them and which was with them ever, a communion of the Spirit which had in it, therefore, a true, divine energy. There were bowels and compassions, tender thoughts and desires for others which the Spirit had awakened. He could appeal to them, therefore by all this, that they would fulfil what was his joy for them, that there might?be that perfect unity of mind which was but the unity of one aim, one interest, -the same love responsive in them all, soul joined to soul by this precious sympathy. Here oneness of mind would be not from mere reception of a common creed, but as the whole outcome of truth received, with all its blessed effects, as God wrought in them by it. The first necessity for this was that the spirit of the world, as the spirit of strife, with which the world was full, of vain glory which would necessitate a striving after it, should be absent from them. In the presence of God, lowliness is that which marks the soul. How could pride be nursed in such a presence? and where as a consequence realizing what they were themselves, of which they knew more, necessarily, than they could know of others? The result would be simple enough, the esteeming others as better than themselves. With regard to others, we have to give them credit to the full with regard to things in which we cannot know. With regard to ourselves, we are not called upon to spare ourselves; and in the consciousness of the love which is towards us, spite of all we are, we shall be delivered from any desire to make ourselves more than others. From this point of view, we can look upon each other, not with suspicion or envy, but, on the contrary, as rejoicing in that which we find of Christ in them. This is, in fact, the truest blessing for our own souls, -to walk in the enjoyment of that which Christ is, to all His own around us, and of the effects, therefore, produced by the reality of what Christ is, thus enjoyed.

(2) Now he puts before them this mind that was to be in them; a marvelous thing indeed, that, for such as we are, this mind can be enjoined and expected to be found in us, -the mind of One who, from a height of glory beyond possible apprehension, could come down, moved by His love alone, into the lowest possible depth where again the eye cannot follow Him, every step the giving up afresh of something that might be held! This is the course which manifests the mind of Christ, a course of continued self-denial and self-sacrifice, yet with an object which makes this not to be realized indeed as such. Here, we have then before us this wonderful path, -One subsisting in the form of God, that is to say, God Himself manifestly, so that there could be no question with regard to Him at all, yet this form of God He gave up; not the divine reality, which was, of necessity, His at all times, but the manifestation of it, the outward aspect. This he did not esteem "an object to be grasped," this equality with God. This, no doubt, is the proper translation here. It is much more than His not esteeming it robbery to be equal with Him. The point is, as the next words show us, that He was not seeking to retain that which was His without any question, but emptying Himself."

In this spirit, He took the place of a bond-servant in the likeness of men. He does not tarry among angels, unutterable condescension as that would be. The need of men appeals to Him and brings Him on. He is not merely a Man, but in the likeness of men also, (in all the truth of that which manhood implies,) but a Manhood necessarily without blemish, a Man unfallen, nay, more perfect and greater than Adam before the fall. Here then, He was found amongst us, but even here He could not tarry. Love brought Him farther in this path which continually descended. "Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient unto death." The very words show the glory that was His, and that that which was the consequence of the fall had no title over Him. It was in His self-humiliation that He stooped to death, this being for Him a path of obedience in which God was infinitely glorified.

But death itself was not the whole matter here. There was a depth far below death merely, the death of the Cross: not simply a death of shame, or which showed (as it did show) man’s rejection of Him, but beyond all that, a death in which alone man’s need could be reached, a death which alone could work atonement, a death, as we have seen in Galatians, of curse and penalty, not from man simply, but from God Himself. Here was the lowest point. Obedience itself could go no farther; and here was, at the same time, necessarily therefore, the full display of His proper glory to a soul that can realize it. Who could have stood in this place to do this work, but Himself alone? Who could, in utter loneliness and in the feebleness of humanity, -for "He was crucified through weakness," -yet lay the foundation upon which could be securely built a new creation brighter than all before; and where God should be seen in the full display of righteousness and holiness and love, His whole nature manifested, there where every element of trial and opposition was met and mastered! Here is the pattern path. For us it is not, after all, a path that we could take, save only in the principle of it, the mind which the apostle says we are to have of One who was perfect in the obedience which made the greatest demands upon Him, and in which every step of the way was a further surrender of that which otherwise was His to retain. How wonderful, we may say again, that God should work in such as we are any resemblance to this mind of Christ, and how wonderfully must He have supplied and qualified us, in order to expect any such thing rightly from us!

(3) To this point it is Christ’s course that we see, God leaving Him to it. Power was not on His side, but against Him. It was not by power that this conflict could be fought to victory, or those ends that He sought attained. Hitherto Christ might seem to be alone the worker, God simply remaining an impassive spectator of His course, but now the whole heart of God comes out manifestly. Once He has reached this point, the work being accomplished, the result gained, God now manifests Himself completely. "He has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly, earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Thus we see the goal reached. All opposition is vanquished and ceases. Every knee even of infernal beings must in result bow to Him. Everywhere He is confessed the Lord of all, a Man still, in the full reality of manhood, but a Man in whom now all that was lost or imperilled by the fall is restored and more than restored. The glory of God shines out as nowhere else.

2. This then is the example set before us, one that we might say, perhaps, is absolutely beyond us. We may concede that it is beyond us, but not that this would induce hopelessness. On the contrary, the perfection of the standard is that which gives continually fresh desire for acquirement, and in an object such as this is for the heart, an energy for acquiring. But we have now before us witnesses amongst mere men, who present us with such actual accomplishment in men as we can no longer say, therefore, is beyond us. Whatever such an one as Paul might be in this respect, there is no inherent impossibility in our following him, even as he followed Christ. Paul was a man encompassed with the same difficulties as those that we have, and we, on the other hand, have dwelling in us the same Spirit as he had.

(1) The apostle immediately encourages us, in fact, with the assurance that if we are to work out our own salvation, yet it is God who worketh in us both the willing and the doing. We have already seen what this working out of salvation means, that it applies to the difficulties in the way, a salvation from all that would hinder the glorifying of Christ in our life here. It is this, therefore, which is to induce the fear and trembling; not in selfish dread, but the sense of our responsibility to Him to whom we owe our all and whose our life is. Plenty there is to make us serious in such work as this, but nothing to dishearten us. If God has taken in hand to work in us after this fashion, that is ample security for our success. The fact that the apostle was now absent from them, whose presence had been so great a comfort and blessing to their souls, was only to make them more completely realize this divine power which was carrying them on to the full blessing beyond.

(2) They were to preserve, on the one hand, the character which belonged to them, and on the other, to hold forth that word of life which was their public testimony in the world. The one must have the other as an accompaniment, if it was to be a testimony for, instead of against the One they heralded. Solemn it is to realize that as witnesses for Christ there can by no possibility be a negative position for us. We have the responsibility of witnesses; and if we are not that, so as to commend Christ to others, we cannot help but dishonor Him.

The apostle bids them, therefore, act in the spirit of those who are in full subjection to God, without murmuring at circumstances which they might pass through, without reasonings such as unbelief might urge, where there was such a spirit. On the other hand, they were to be harmless, children of God, who could take that name without bringing reproach upon it; and that in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse. Stars are best seen in the night, though they may shine at all times; and the world, such as it is, is the best possible place for testimony of this kind. As lights in it, they would not shine indeed by their own light. Christians are planets and not suns. The word of life held forth is that which declares the light to be reflected light, from Him who, though absent, (for it is night time now,) is yet in this sense still the true light of it. Without the testimony to Christ, the best life may appear only to testify of what is natural in man. Men constantly plead, as we know, the lives of others who make no profession. The "word of life" held forth gives the glory to God which is His due, shows that the power is outside one’s self, while the effect upon one is manifest. The two things are here put in their place, the life and the light. The life in Christ was the light, but not so with us, although without the life the light would indeed be darkened. Their testimony would be for the apostle a thing to glory in, in the day of Christ, when it would be seen that he had "not run in vain nor labored in vain;" for a labor really vain must of necessity show a great defect in its own character. No true labor can be in vain in the Lord, as the apostle assures us.

(3) So much then as to the character of witness on the part of Christians; but now we have examples in actual life. First of all, the apostle himself, who in the joy which so fully characterized him, a joy in Christ, which is strength for all the way, was ready in the spirit of his Master to be poured out even as a drink-offering on the sacrifice and service of the disciples, faith. The drink-offering was itself the symbol of joy; here a joy which set the offerer of it beyond all selfish calculation. He could pour out his life in the mere joy of the service of others. It was one who, as we know, was the prisoner of Jesus Christ at this time, who could say this; and who could bid them, therefore, rejoice, and rejoice with him, in that very suffering. Here is the first and most perfect witness amongst men merely, to the ability given of God to follow Christ. He does not give it openly as an example, but the Spirit of God, nevertheless, surely would draw our attention to it. It was the simple expression of his own joy, without a thought, one may say, of any peculiar testimony in it. The witness to Christ is that just in the proportion in which he is unconscious of being so. But he now brings forward those of whom he can speak as witnesses.

(4) First of all, we have here Timotheus, true to his name, a man who "honors God;" now, alas, all the more manifest for what he was, in the midst of a departure sad enough to realize in days such as we are contemplating. "All seek their own," the apostle could say, "not the things of Jesus Christ;" and yet he was in the midst of that Roman assembly of whom, in his epistle to them, he had spoken as having a faith which was being proclaimed in the whole world. How short a time this testimony seems to have lasted! But Timotheus is not dragged down by it. We are not made by our circumstances; that is, if there is any vigor in our souls at all. We are manifested by them, which is a very different thing. One can easily look at the condition of things around and make it an excuse for the inexcusableness of our own condition; but God has not ordained for us that we should be down to the level of those around us. All His grace abides for us, none the less. The power of the Spirit is not a mere register of the outside temperature. If men seek their own things, they will excuse themselves by the fact that they are only in keeping with the company around them. If Christ be really before the soul, it will be impossible to do so. This would rather stir up and energize one who thought of Him to serve Him the more earnestly. Thus it was with Timothy, a worthy spiritual child of such a father as Paul was, one who had served as companion with him in the work of the gospel. He had, therefore, in mind to send him immediately to them -another beautiful example as to himself of that self-denying love which wrought in him.

(5) And this goes further, for not only would he send Timothy, but he had thought it necessary already to send back to them Epaphroditus, one who had been their messenger, and minister on their part to his need, whom yet he would dismiss from the place in which his value had been thoroughly felt, in order that he might now give joy to the Philippians. There was a special reason for this on Epaphroditus, part, which shows him as another witness to the attainment of the mind in Christ. He had been sick, nigh unto death, and sick from the work into which he had thrown himself, realizing the responsibility of ministering to one identified with the gospel as the apostle was; a responsibility which, in a sense, was rather that of others, but which lacked through no fault of theirs. It was this lack that he was filling up, and with such energy and zeal that he had hazarded his life in doing this. They were to receive him, therefore, in the Lord, with all joy; and, in fact, the apostle could count so much upon their sympathy with him that he could not be content just with the assurance of his present recovery, but must send him to them, that they might satisfy themselves about it. How beautiful a testimony still to the one who could speak and act thus. How necessarily in all this the character of the man, the heart that was in him, shows itself! Feeling, on the one hand, with no ascetic stoicism, the mercy God had shown to him through Epaphroditus, the mercy He now shows in restoring him, and yet ready to sacrifice what he could realize thus the value of, almost, as one might say, without the need of doing this, merely to make their joy complete. Such, then, are the examples given us, in a way marked by such beautiful simplicity, of the possibility of the attainment of the mind of Christ in those who like ourselves were men, in all the weakness of men, and in all the difficulties, if not more than all the difficulties that encompass us also.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 6

THE MIND OF CHRIST.

Php_2:1-4 (R.V.)

In the verses last considered the Apostle had begun to summon his Philippian friends to Christian duty. But so far his words bear the character only of occasional exhortation, which falls naturally in as he dwells upon his own circumstances and on theirs. Associated as they have been and are, let there be no mistake as to the central bond between him and them. Let the Philippian believers partake increasingly in his own glowing apprehensions of the Christian calling. Let them abound in the loving, steadfast, energetic, expectant life in which men are united who have become acquainted with Christ.

But he thinks fit to press the theme in a more set and deliberate way. For it is no light thing to awaken in mens hearts a right impression of what it is to be a Christian; or, if it has been awakened, to nurse it to due strength. These Christians possessed some insight into the world of truth which held the mind of Paul; they had some experience of evangelical impression: in these things they had a happy fellowship with one another and with their great teacher. But all this must be affirmed and embodied, in the conflict and ministry of Christian life. It must prove strong enough for that. Deeds are the true confession of our faith; they are the verification of our religious experience. And in this practical form we must overcome, not the temptations of other people or other ages, but our own. There is no more dangerous working of unbelief than that in which it never questions the doctrinal theory, but renders our Christianity cold and slack, and leads us to induge a preference for a religion that goes easy. Could we but see as we are seen, we should find this to be a matter of endless lamentation.

Temptations to rivalry and discord were working at Philippi. We are not obliged to think that they had gone very far; but one could see a risk that they might go further. The Apostle has it in his heart to expel this evil, by promoting the principles and dispositions that are opposed to it. And in this work the Philippians themselves must embark with all their might.

It has been remarked already that causes are easily found to account for rivalries and misunderstandings springing up in those primitive Christian congregations. The truth is, however, that in all ages and conditions of the Church these dangers are nigh at hand. Self-seeking and self-exaltation are forms in which sin works most easily, and out of these come rivalry and discord by the very nature of the case. Eager grasping at our own objects leads to disregard of the rights and interests of others; and thence come wars. Danger in this direction was visible to the Apostle.

It may be asked how this should be, if the Philippians were genuine and hearty Christians, such as the Apostles commendations bespeak them? Here a principle comes to light which deserves to be considered. Even those who have cordially embraced Christianity, and who have loyally given effect to it in some of its outstanding applications, are wonderfully prone to stop short. They do not perceive, or they do not care to realise, the bearing of the same principles, which they have already embraced, upon whole regions of human life and human character; they do not seriously lay to heart the duties Christianity imposes or the faults it rebukes in those departments. They are pleased to have won so much ground, and do not think about the Canaanites that still hold their ground. So, in whole regions of life, the carnal mind is allowed to work on, undetected and practically unopposed. This tendency is aided by the facility we have in disguising from ourselves the true character of dispositions and actions, when these do not quite plainly affront Christian rules. Self-assertion and bad temper, for example, can put on the character of honest firmness and hearty zeal. More particularly, when religious principles have led us into certain lines of action, we are apt to take for granted that all is right we do in those lines. Religious zeal leads a man to take trouble and incur responsibility in Church work. Under this notion, then, he readily persuades himself that all his Church work is conscientious and disinterested; yet it may be largely and deeply tainted with the impulses of the fleshly mind. In a measure it might be so here. The Philippians might be generally a company of sincerely Christian people. And yet the churchmanship of some of them might disclose sad tokens of selfishness and bitterness. Therefore they must be called to give heed to the principles and to give effect to the motives that expel those sins.

In all this we may feel ourselves in the region of commonplaces; we know it all so well. But the very point in hand is that for the Apostle these are not commonplaces. He is greatly in earnest about the matter, and his heart is full of it. We do not understand him until we begin to sympathise with his sorrow and his anxiety. This is for him no mere matter of expediencies or of appearances. He is striving for the victory of grace in the souls of his beloved friends; for the glory of Christ; for his own comfort and success as Christs minister. All these are, as it were, at stake upon this question of the life of the Philippian Church proving to be, under the influence of Christ, lowly, loving, and answerable to the gospel.

No one more than Paul appreciates the value of good theological principles; and no one more than he lays stress on the mercy which provides a gracious and a full salvation. But no one more than he is intent upon Christian practice; for if practice is not healed and quickened, then salvation ceases to be real, the promises wither unfulfilled, Christ has failed. We may well feel it to be a great question whether our own sympathy with him on such points is growing and deepening. The Kingdom of God within us must exist in a light and love for which goodness is a necessity, and evil a grief and heart-break. But if it is not so with us, where do we stand?

In four clauses the Apostle appeals to great Christian motives, which are to give strength to his main appeal-"If there be any comfort (or store of cheering counsel) in Christ Jesus, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies or compassions"; in a fifth clause he draws a motive from the regard they might have for his own most-earnest desires-fulfil ye my joy; and then comes the exhortation itself, which is to unity of mind and heart-"that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." This, in turn, is followed by clauses that fix the practical sense of the general exhortation.

It has been made a question whether the Apostle means to say, "If there be among you, Philippians, influences and experiences such as these," or "If there be anywhere in the Church of God." But surely he means both. He appeals to great practical articles of faith and matters of experience. The Church of God believes them and claims a part in them. So does the Church of Philippi, in its degree. But there may be a great deal more in them than the Philippian believers are aware of-more in them as truths and promises; more in them as contemplated and realised by riper Christians, like Paul himself. He appeals, certainly, to what existed for the faith of the Philippians; but also to that "much more" which might open to them if their faith was enlarged.

The "comfort" or cheering counsel "in Christ" is the fulness of gospel help and promise. Great need of this is owned by all believers; and, coming as needed succour to them all, it may well bind them all together in the sense of common need and common help. As it comes from the good Shepherd Himself to all and each, so it is conceived to be ever sounding in the Church, passing from one believer to another, addressed by each to each as common succour and common comfort. Hence, in the next place, there comes into view the mutual ministry of "consolation" which Christians owe to one another, since they "receive" one another, and are to do to one another as Christ has done to them. Here the consolation acquires a special character, from the individual affection and friendship breathed into it by the Christian, who carries it to his neighbour to encourage and cheer him on his way. This love of the Christian to his brother, which comes from God, is itself a means of grace; and therefore the "consolation of love" deserves to be distinctly named.

The "fellowship of the Spirit" {see 2Co_13:13} is the common participation of the Holy Spirit of God in His gracious presence and working. Without this no one could have a real share in Christian benefits. The Spirit reveals to us the Son and the Father, and enables us to abide in the Son and in the Father. He brings us into communion with the mind of God as revealed in His word. He makes real to us the things of the Kingdom of God; and it is He who opens to us their worth and sweetness, especially the lovingkindness which breathes in them all. Through Him we are enabled to exercise Christian affections, desires, and services. It is He, in a word, through whom we are participant in the life of salvation; and in that life He associates together all who share His indwelling. The Apostle supposes that no Christian could ever contemplate without, shall we say, a pang of gratitude, the condescension, the gentleness, and the patience of this ministration. And as all Christians are recipient together of so immense a benefit, they might well feel it as a bond between them all. But more especially, as the Holy Spirit in this dispensation evinces a most Divine love and kindness-for what but love could be the spring of it?-so also the upshot of all His work is the revelation of God in love. For love is at the heart of all Gods promises and benefits; they are never understood until we reach the love that is in them. And God is love. So the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit given to them. Hence this is the leading view of that which the Spirit comes to do: He comes to make us members of a system in which love rules; and He inspires all loving affections and dispositions proper to make us congruous members of so high and good a world.

Therefore, in the fourth place, it is to be supposed that "tender mercies and compassions" in human breasts are abundant where the fellowship of the Spirit is. How abundant they might be; surely also in some measure they must be present; they must abound amid all human infirmities and mistakes. All kinds of gentle, friendly, faithful, wise, and patient dispositions might be expected. They are the fruits of the country in which Christians have come to dwell.

To all these the Apostle appeals. Perhaps a pathos is audible in the form of his appeal. "If there be any." Alas! is there then any? Is there some at least, if not much? For if all these had been duly present to the faith and in the life of the Church, they would have spoken their lesson for themselves, and had not needed Paul to speak for them.

The form of appeal, "Fulfil ye my joy," brings up one more motive-the earnest desires of one who loved them wisely and well, and whom they, whatever their shortcomings, loved in turn. It is worth observing that the motive power here does not lie merely, in the consideration "Would you not like to give me pleasure?" The Philippians knew how Paul had at heart their true welfare and their true dignity. That which, if it came to pass, would so gladden him, must be something great and good for them. If their own judgment of things was cold might it not take fire from the contagion of his? The loving solicitude of a keener-sighted and a more single-hearted Christian, the solicitude which makes his heart throb and his voice tremble as he speaks, has often startled slumbering brethren into a consciousness of their own insensibility, and awakened them to worthier outlooks.

In regard to all these considerations, the main point is to catch sight of the moral and spiritual scenery as the Apostle saw it. Otherwise the words may leave us as dull as they found us. For him there had come into view a wonderful world of love. Love had come forth preparing at great cost and with great pains a new destiny for men. Love had brought Paul and the other believers, one by one, into this higher region. And it proved to be a region in which love was the ground on which they stood, and love the heaven over their heads, and love the air they breathed. And here love was coming to be their own new nature, love responsive to the love of Father, Son, and Spirit, and love going out from those who had been so blessed to bless and gladden others. This was the true, the eternal goodness, the true, the eternal blessedness; and it was theirs. This was what faith embraced in Him "who loved me and gave Himself for me." This was what faith claimed right to be and do. If this was not so, Christianity was reduced to nothing. If a man have not love, he is nothing. {1 Co. 13} "Is there any truth at all in this glorious faith of ours? Do you believe it at all? Have you felt it at all? Fulfil then my joy." Unity of mind and of heart is the thing inculcated. Under the influence of the great objects of faith and of the motive forces of Christianity this was to be expected. Their ways of thinking and their ways of feeling, however different, should be so moulded in Christ as to reach full mutual understanding and full mutual affection. Nor should they rest contented when either of these failed; for that would be contentment with defeat; but Christs followers are to aim at victory.

It is obvious to say here that cases might arise in which turbulent or contentious persons might make it impossible for the rest of the Church, however well disposed, to secure either one accord or one mind. But the Apostle does not suppose that case to have arisen. Nothing had occurred at Philippi which Christian sense and Christian feeling might not arrange. When the case supposed does occur, there are Christian ways of dealing with it. Still more obviously one might say that conscientious differences of opinion, and that even on matters of moment, must inevitably occur sooner or later; and a general admonition to be of one mind does not meet such a case. Perhaps it may be said in reply that the Church and the Christians have hardly conceived how much might be attained in the way of agreement if our Christianity were sincere enough, thorough enough, and affectionate enough. In that case there might be wonderful attainment in finding agreement, and in dismissing questions on which it is not needful to agree. But if we are not to soar so high as this, it may at least be said that, while conscientious diversities of judgment are not to be disguised, they may be dealt with, among believers, in a Christian way, with due emphasising of the truth agreed upon, and with a prevailing determination to speak truth in love. Here again, however, the Apostle recognises no serious difficulty of this kind at Philippi. The difficulties were such as could be got over. There was no good reason why the Philippians should not in their Church life exhibit harmony; it would be so, if Christian influences were cordially admitted into minds and hearts, and if they made a fit estimate of the supreme importance of unity in Christ. The same thing may be said of innumerable cases in later times in which Christians have divided and contended. It is right to say, however, that these considerations are not to be applied without qualification to all kinds and degrees of separation between Christians. It is a cause for sorrow that denominational divisions are so many; and they have often been both cause and consequence of unchristian feeling.. Yet when men part peaceably to follow out their deliberate convictions, to which they cannot give effect together, and when in doing so they do not unchurch or condemn one another, there may be less offence against Christian charity than in cases where a communion, professedly one, is the scene of bitterness and strife. In either ease indeed there is something to regret and probably something to blame; but the former of the two cases is by no means necessarily the worse.

In following out the line of duty and privilege set before them by the Apostle, Christians have to get the better of arrogance and selfishness (Php_2:3-4).

In the Church of Christ no man has a right to do anything from a spirit of strife or vainglory. Strife is the disposition to oppose and thwart our neighbours will, either from mere delight in contest, or in order to assert for our own will a prevalence which will gratify our pride; and this is the animating principle of "faction." "Vainglory" is the disposition to think highly of ourselves, to claim for ourselves a great place, and to assert it as against the claims of others. In the jostle of the world it may perhaps be admitted that forces acting on these lines are not without their use. They compensate one another, and some measure of good emerges from their unlovely energies. But such things are out of place among Christians, for they are right against the spirit of Christianity; and Christianity relies for its equipoise and working progress on principles of quite another kind. Among Christians each is to be lowly-minded, conscious of his own defects and of his ill-desert. And this is to work in the way of our esteeming others to be better than ourselves. For we are conscious of our own inward and deep defect as we cannot be of any other persons. And it is abundantly possible that others may be better than we are and safe for us to give full effect to that possibility. It is said, indeed, that we may possibly have conclusive reason to believe that certain other persons, even in Christs Church, are worse than we are. But, apart from the precariousness of such judgments, it is enough to say it is not for us to proceed on such a judgment or to give effect to it. We all await a higher judgment; until, then it becomes us to take heed to our own spirit and walk in lowliness of mind.

Selfishness ("looking to its own things," Php_2:4), as well as arrogance, needs to be resisted; and this is an even more pervading and inward evil. In dealing with it we are not required to have no eye at all to our own things; for indeed they are our providential charge, and they must be cared for; but we are required to look not only on our own, but every man on the things of others. We have to learn to put ourselves in anothers place, to recognise how things affect him, to sympathise with his natural feelings in reference to them, and to give effect in speech and conduct to the impressions hence arising. So a Christian man is to "love his neighbour as himself"-only with a tenderer sense of obligation and a consciousness of more constraining motive than could be attained by the Israelite of old. Lovingly to do right to a brothers claims and to his welfare should be as cogent a principle of action with us as to care for our own.

Arrogance and selfishness-perhaps disguised in fairer forms-had bred the disturbance at Philippi. The same baleful forces are present everywhere in all the Churches to this day, and have often run riot in the House of God. How shall the ugliness and the hatefulness of the every-day selfishness, the every-day self-assertion, the every-day strifes of Christians, be impresses upon our minds? How are we to be awakened to our true calling in lowliness and in love?

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

2:1-11 In the midst of their persecution, Paul encourages the Philippians to be united and to live a humble life like Christ.

2:1-2 Is there . . . ? These rhetorical questions expect positive answers. Those who have a real experience of Christ should live together in harmony and love.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Php 2:1. Εἴ τις) If it be thought preferable that this word be read four times, we may thus explain it: if therefore exhortation[12] in Christ be any (joy), if the comfort of love be any[13] (joy), if the fellowship of the Spirit be any (joy), if bowels and mercies be any (joy), fulfil ye my joy; so that the predicate supplied four times may be joined with the subject expressed. See on a similar ellipse, Mar 15:8, note. Certainly Paul’s joy was most present and vivid; even with the common reading,[14] ΕἼ ΤΙς—ΕἼ ΤΙΝΑ, if any—if any, the joy is still by implication denoted, being about to be fulfilled by harmony, etc.—οὖν, therefore) This corresponds to ch. Php 1:27, in one spirit, with one mind.—παράκλησις ἐν Χριστῷ, exhortation [consolation] in Christ) This has as its adjunct, comfort of love; and fellowship of the Spirit has as adjuncts, bowels and mercies. The four fruits correspond to these four influencing motives in the same order, that, etc., in the following verse, as even the mention of love, put twice [viz. both in Php 2:1 and Php 2:2], in the second place indicates; and the opposites of each pair are put away [as unworthy of Christians] in Php 2:3-4. All things are derived from Christ and the Holy Spirit.

[12] The Greek word παράκλησις signifies either exhortation or consolation. The Engl. Vers. has taken the latter, Bengel the former

[13] ABCGfg Vulg. and Rec. Text read εἴ τι παραμύθιον. Only D(Δ) corrected reads τις.—ED.

[14] Which both the margin of each Ed. and the Germ. Vers. seem to prefer.—E. B.

ABCD(Δ)G read εἴ τις σπλάγχνα. And so Lachm. Vulg. has “Siquid (siquis) viscera.” fg Rec. Text and Tisch., with less authority, read εἴ τινα σπλάγχνα.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php_2:1. Οὖν] infers from Php_1:30 what is, under these circumstances, the most urgent duty of the readers. If they are engaged in the same conflict as Paul, it is all the more imperatively required of them by the relation of cordial affection, which must bind them to the apostle in this fellowship that they should fulfil his joy, etc. Consequently, although, connecting what he is about to say with what goes immediately before (in opposition to Hofmann), he certainly, after the digression contained from ἥτις in Php_2:28 onwards, leads them back to the exhortation to unanimity already given in Php_2:27, to which is then subjoined in Php_2:3 f. the summons to mutual humility.

εἴ τις κ.τ.λ.] four stimulative elements, the existence of which, assumed by εἰ (comp on Col_3:1), could not but forcibly bring home to the readers the fulfilment of the apostles joy, Php_2:2.[85] With each ἐστί simply is to be supplied (comp. Php_4:8): If there be any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, etc. It must be noticed that these elements fall into two parallel sections, in each of which the first element refers to the objective principle of the Christian life (ἐν Χριστῷ and πνεύματος), and the second to the subjective principle, to the specific disposition of the Christian (ἀγάπης and σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί). Thus the inducements to action, involved in these four elements, are, in equal measure, at once objectively binding and inwardly affecting (πῶς σφοδρῶς, πῶς μετὰ συμπαθείας πολλῆς! Chrysostom).

παρακλ. ἐν Χ.] ἐν Χ. defines the παρακλ. as specifically Christian, having its essence and activity in Christ; so that it issues from living fellowship with Him, being rooted in it, and sustained and determined by it. Thus it is in Christ, that brother exhorteth brother. παράκλησις means exhortation (1Co_14:3; Rom_12:8; Act_4:36; Act_9:31; Act_13:15; Act_15:31), i.e. persuasive and edifying address; the more special interpretation consolatio, admissible in itself, anticipates the correct rendering of the παραμύθιον which follows (in opposition to Vulgate, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Estius, Grotius, Heinrichs, and many others; and recently Hoelemann and Ewald).

εἴ τι παραμ. ἀγάπ.] παραμύθιον (see generally Schaefer ad Bos. p. 492; Lobeck ad Phryn. p. 517; Jacobs ad Ach. Tat. p. 708) corresponds to the fourth clause (σπλάγχνα κ. οἰκτ.), and for this reason, as well as because it must be different from the preceding element,[86] cannot be taken generally with Calovius, Flatt, Matthies, de Wette, Hoelemann, van Hengel, Ewald, Weiss, J. B. Lightfoot, and Hofmann as address, exhortation (Plat. Legg. vi. p. 773 E, xi. p. 880 A), but definitely as comfort (Thuc. v. 103; Theocr. xxiii. 7; Anth. Pal. vii. 195, 1; Wis_3:18; Est_8:15; comp. παραμυθία, Plat. Axioch. p. 375 A; Luc. Nigr. 7; Psa_65:12; Wis_19:12; 1Co_14:3). Ἀγάπης is the genitive of the subject: a consolation, which love gives, which flows from the brotherly love of Christians. In order to make out an allusion to the Trinity in the three first points, dogmatic expositors like Calovius, and also Wolf, have understood ἀγάπης of the love of God (to us).

εἴ τις κοινων. πν.] if any fellowship of the Spirit (i.e. participation in the Spirit) exists; comp. on 2Co_13:13. This is to be explained of the Holy Spirit, not of the animorum conjunctio (Michaelis, Rosenmüller, am Ende, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Hoelemann, Wiesinger, Hofmann, and others; Usteri and Rilliet mix up the two), which is inconsistent with the relation of this third clause to the first (ἐν Χριστῷ), and also with the sequel, in which (Php_2:2) Paul encourages them to fellowship of mind, and cannot therefore place it in Php_2:1 as a motive.

εἴ τινα σπλ. κ. οἰκτ.] if there be any heart and compassion. The former used, as in Php_1:8, as the seat of cordial loving affections generally; the latter, specially as misericordia (see on Rom_9:15), which has its seat and life in the heart. See also on Col_3:12; comp. Luk_1:28; Tittmann, Synon. p. 68 f.

It must further be remarked, with regard to all four points, that the context, by virtue of the exhortation based upon them πληρώσατέ μον τὴν χαράν in Php_2:2, certainly presupposes their existence in the Philippians, but that the general expression (if there is) forms a more moving appeal, and is not to be limited by the addition of in you (Luther, Calvin, and others). Hence the idea is: If there is exhortation in Christ, wherewith one brother animates and incites another to a right tone and attitude; if there is comfort of love, whereby one refresheth the other; if there is fellowship in the Spirit, which inspires right feelings, and confers the consecration of power; if there is a heart and compassion, issuing in sympathy with, and compassion for, the afflicted,manifest all these towards me, in that ye make full my joy (μου τὴν χαράν). Then, namely, I experience practically from you that Christian-brotherly exhortation,[87] and share in your comfort of love, and so ye put to proof, in my case, the fellowship in the Spirit and the cordial sympathy, which makes me not distressed, but glad in my painful position.

There is much that is mistaken in the views of those who defend the reading τις before σπλ. (see van Hengel and Reiche), which cannot be got rid of by the assumption of a constructio ad synesin (in opposition to Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 71. [E. T. 81]). Hofmann is driven by this reading, which he maintains, to the strange misinterpretation of the whole verse as if it contained only protases and apodoses, to be thus divided: εἴ τις οὖν παράκλησις, ἐν Χριστῷ· εἴ τι παραμύθιον, ἀγάπης· εἴ τις κοινωνία πνεύματος, εἴ τις, σπλάγχνα κ. οἰκτιρμοί; this last εἴ τις being a repetition of the previous one with an emphasizing of the εἰ. Accordingly the verse is supposed to mean: If exhortation, let it be exhortation in Christ; if consolation, let it be a consolation of love; if fellowship of the Spirit, if any, let it be cordiality and compassion. A new sentence would then begin with πληρώσατε.[88] Artifices such as this can only serve to recommend the reading ΕἼ ΤΙΝΑ.

[85] Hitzig, z. Krit. Paul. Briefe, p. 18, very erroneously opines that there is here a made excitement, an emphasis in which not so much is felt as is put into the words; and the four times repeated if is to cover the defect,in connection with which an utterly alien parallel is adduced from Tacit. Agric. 46.

[86] Hofmann erroneously makes the quite arbitrary distinction that παρακλ. refers to the will, and παραμ. to the feelings. The will, feelings, and intellect are called into exercise by both. Comp., especially on παραμύθ., Stallbaum, ad Plat. Rep. p. 476 E; Phaed. p. 70 B; Euthyd. p. 272 B; Thuc. viii. 86, 1.

[87] In the application of the general εἴ τις παράκλησις ἐν Χ., the subjects of this παράκλησις must, following the rule of the other elements, be the Philippians; Paul (Wiesinger, comp. Ewald) cannot he conceived as the παρακαλῶν.

[88] From this interpretation of the whole passage he should have been deterred by the forlorn position which is assigned to the εἴ τις before σπλάγχνα as the stone of stumbling, as well as by the purposelessness and even inappropriateness of an oddly emphasized problematical sense of this εἴ τις.If it be thought that the reading εἴ τις σπλ. must be admitted. I would simply suggest the following by way of necessary explanation of the passage:1st, Let the verse be regarded as consisting of a series of four protases, on which the apodosis then follows in ver. 2; 2d, Let ἐν Χριστῷ, ἀγάπης, πνεύματος and σπλάγχνα κ. οἰκτιρμοί be taken uniformly as predicative specifications; 3d, Let κοινωνία be again understood with the last εἴ τις. Paul would accordingly say: If any exhortation is exhortation in Christ, if any comfort is comfort of love, if any fellowship is fellowship of the Spirit, if any (fellowship) is cordiality and compassion (that is, full of cordiality and compassion) fulfil ye, etc. The apostle would thus give to the element of the κοινωνία, besides the objective definition of its nature (πνεύματος, referring to the Holy Spirit), also a subjective one (σπλ. κ. σἰκτιρμ.), and mark the latter specially by the repetition of εἴ τις, sc κοινωνία., as well as designate it the more forcibly by the nominative expression (σπλάγχνα κ. οἰκτ., not another genitive), inasmuch as the latter would set forth the ethical nature of such a κοινωνία (comp. such passages as Rom_7:7; Rom_8:10; Rom_14:17) in the form of a direct predicate. The εἰ, moreover, would remain uniformly the syllogistic εἰ in all the four clauses, and not, as in Hofmanns view, suddenly change into the problematic sense in the fourth clause.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Phi 2:1-4 . EXHORTATION TO UNITY OF SPIRIT AND LOWLINESS.

Phi 2:1 . εἴ τις κ . τ . λ . “If exhortation in Christ, if the appeal of love, if fellowship in the spirit, if compassion and pity have any effect.” οὖν probably refers back to Phi 1:27 . παράκλησις has the two senses of “exhortation” and “consolation”. But the whole context, supported by such passages as Eph 4:1 , 1Co 1:10 , is in favour of the former. No doubt the idea of encouragement and stimulus is implied. This is an exhortation in Christ. That itself must gain for it a favourable reception. παραμ . Only here in N.T. Once in LXX, Wis 3:18 . Almost equiv. to παρκλ ., but having a suggestion of tenderness involved. It springs from his love towards them. κοιν . πνεύματος . The community of believers is the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is the unifying Principle of life. cf. 2Co 13:13 , ἡ κοινωνία τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος . As Gunkel well observes ( Wirkungen d. heil. Geistes bei Paulas 2 , p. 69 ff.), Paul rendered an unspeakable service to the Church by emphasising this conception. By so doing he saved the exuberant spiritual gifts of the Apostolic Age from degenerating into mere unnatural excitement. All these came to be estimated according to their value for the community of believers as a whole. τινα σπλάγχνα . There can be no doubt that an overwhelming weight of authority lies on the side of the reading τις . τινα is simply an emendation. How can τις be accounted for? We had hit upon the conjecture that originally τι may have stood in all the clauses. (So Euth. reads before παράκλησις .) It would be quite natural that from a slight misunderstanding of its meaning it should be changed into τις before παράκλ . and κοινωνία . The τι before σπλάγχνα (found in several minn., including 37) might easily assimilate the following σ . At this stage the type of text found in the leading uncials happened to arise. And so the error was stereotyped, although corrected later by Greek Fathers. Curiously enough this same conjecture has been made by Hpt [84] We do not overlook the difficulties involved, but allow it to stand for want of anything better. σπλάγχνα . See on Phi 1:8 . He appeals to their pity.

[84] Haupt.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:1-11.] Exhortation to unity and humility (1-4), after the example of Christ (5-11).

1.] He introduces in the fervour of his affection (ὅρα πῶς λιπαρῶς, πῶς σφοδρῶς, πῶς μετὰ συμπαθείας πολλῆς, Chr.) four great points of the Christian life and ministry, and by them enforces his exhortation. Mey. observes, that the four fall into two pairs, in each of which we have first the objective principle of Christian life (ἐν χριστῷ and πνεύματος), and next the subjective principle (ἀγάπης and σπλάγχ. κ. οἰκτιρμοί). And thus the awakening of motives by these four points is at the same time (so Chrys. above) powerful and touching.

παράκλησις] here, exhortation, not ‘comfort,’ which follows in παραμύθιον. ἐν χριστῷ specifies the element of the exhortation.

παραμύθ.] better comfort, than ‘persuasion:’ it corresponds (see above) to σπλ. κ. οἰκτιρ. in the other pair: see also reff. παραμυθία, the earlier form, occurs in the same sense 1Co 14:3; Wisd. 19:12.

ἀγάπης is the subjective genitive,—‘consolation furnished by love.’

κοιν. πν.] communion,—fellowship, of the Holy Spirit, cf. ref. 2 Cor.: not, ‘spiritual communion’ (De W., al.). The manuscript evidence in favour of the reading εἴ τις is overwhelming; and in Tischendorf’s language, “nobis servandum erit τις, nisi malumus grammatici quam editoris partes agere.” It is in its favour, that almost all the great mss. have εἴ τι before παραμύθιον. For if εἴ τις had been a mere mechanical repetition of the preceding, why not in one place as well as in the other? And if this were once so, and the former τις got altered back to its proper form, why not this also? The construction may be justified perhaps as analogous to ὄχλου … ἐχόντων, Mar 8:1; see also Luk 2:17; Luk 7:49: though, it must be confessed, it is the harshest example of its kind.

σπλάγχνα, of affectionate emotion in general: οἰκτιρμοί, of the compassionate emotions in particular. So Tittm. p. 68 a:—tenderness and compassion, Conyb.—‘herzliche Liebe und Barmherzigkeit,’ Luth.

I may remark, that the exhortation being addressed to the Philippians, the εἴ τις and εἴ τι are to be taken subjectively—If there be with you any &c.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:1-4. EXHORTATION TO UNANIMITY, LOVE, AND HUMILITY

If therefore there is any power of exhortation in your experience as Christians; if your mutual love affords you any consolation; if you are in true fellowship with the Spirit of God; if there are any tender mercies and compassions in your hearts—I beseech you to complete my joy by your unanimity and your love to each other. Do not act from a spirit of faction or vainglory, but each of you account his brother as better than himself, and study his interests in preference to your own.

1. εἴ τις οὖν παράκλησις ἐν Χριστῷ: ‘if there be any exhortation in Christ.’

The particular connection of οὖν is clearly with 1:27, ἥτις … ἐν ἐμοί being a digression, though not parenthetical. The main element of πολιτεύεσθε is brave standing for the gospel in a spirit of concord. It is this which is taken up and expanded in the opening of this chapter. ‘I have exhorted you to stand fast in one spirit; to strive with one mind for the faith of the gospel, unterrified by your adversaries. Therefore complete my joy by being of one accord and avoiding faction and vainglory.’ Out of this appeal grows, logically, the exhortation to humility, without which such unanimity cannot be maintained. The exhortation opens in the form of an adjuration. The rapid succession and variety of the appeals and the repetition of εἴ τις are peculiarly impressive. Says Chrys.: πῶς λιπαρῶς, σφοδρῶς, μετὰ συμπαθείας πολλῆς! “How earnestly, how vehemently, with how much sympathy!”

This earnestness was largely due to the fact that Paul was disturbed by reports of internal dissensions in the Philippian church. This is indicated not only by his words here, but by his moving appeal to the example of Christ; his admonition to do all things without murmurings and disputings (vs. 14); his entreaty of Euodia and Syntyche (4:2); his exhortation to moderation or forbearance (4:5); and his reference to the peace of God (4:7).

The appeal is upon four grounds. The first and third set forth objective principles of Christian life; the second and fourth, subjective principles. The appeal is not to what was demanded by the readers’ personal relations to Paul. So Chrys. “If ye wish to give me any comfort in my trials, and encouragement in Christ; if you have sympathy with me in my sufferings,” etc. So the Gk. Fathers generally. It is the Christian experience of the Philippians that is appealed to. ‘I exhort you by those feelings of which, as Christians, you are conscious.’

παράκλησις ἐν Χριστῷ: If the fact of your being in Christ has any power to exhort you to brotherly concord. (Comp. 1Co 12:12-27; Eph 4:15, Eph 4:16.)

Παράκλησις from παρακαλεῖν, ‘to call to one’s side’ for help, counsel, etc. Thus παράκλητος, ‘an advocate,’ is one who is called in to plead another’s cause. With this primary sense are associated the ideas of entreaty, exhortation, and consolation. In the sense of ‘entreaty,’ the noun appears in N.T. only in 2Co 8:4, but the verb is common. (See Mat 8:34, Mat 8:14:36; Mar 1:40, etc.) As ‘consolation’ or ‘comfort,’ the noun, Luk 2:25, Luk 2:6:24; 2Co 1:3, 2Co 1:7:4; the verb, 2Co 1:4, 2Co 1:6, 2Co 1:7:6. As ‘exhortation’ or ‘counsel,’ the noun, Act 13:15; Rom 12:8; Heb 13:22; the verb, Act 2:40, Act 2:11:23; Rom 12:8; Tit 2:15. The last sense is the usual one in Paul.

παραμύθιον: ‘persuasion.’ Only here, but the earlier form παραμυθία, 1Co 14:3. Class. ‘address,’ ‘exhortation’ (Plat. Leg. vi. 773 E, ix. 880 A); ‘assuagement’ or ‘abatement’ (Soph. Elec. 130; Plat. Euthyd. 272 B). Hence ‘consolation’ (Plat. Repub. 329 E). See παρακαλεῖν and παραμυθεῖσθαι together, 1Th 2:11. Here, the form which παράκλησις assumes—a friendly, mild persuasion, “not pædagogic or judicial” (Kl.). Paul means, therefore, ‘if love has any persuasive power to move you to concord.’

κοινωνία πνεύματος: ‘fellowship of the Spirit.’ (Comp. Rom 15:30.) For κοινωνία, see on 1:5. The exact phrase only here, and κοιν. with πν. only 2Co 13:13.

Πνεῦμα is the Holy Spirit. The meaning is ‘fellowship with the Holy Spirit,’ not ‘fellowship of spirits among themselves.’ The genitive is the genitive of that of which one partakes. So habitually by Paul (1Co 1:9, 1Co 1:10:16; 2Co 8:4, 2Co 8:13:13; Eph 3:9; Php 3:10). Not ‘the fellowship which the Spirit imparts,’ which would be grammatical, but contrary to N.T. usage. Hence Paul means, ‘if you are partakers of the Holy Spirit and his gifts and influences.’

εἴ τις σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί: ‘if any tender mercies and compassions.’

τις σπλαγχνα with א ABCDFGKLP and nearly all the verss. is overwhelmingly supported agt. τινα in a few minusc., Clem., Chrys., Thdrt., Theoph. But the attested reading is a manifest solecism,—either a transcriber’s error, or a hasty repetition of τις.

For σπλάγχνα, see on 1:8, and comp. Phm 1:7, Phm 1:12, Phm 1:20. The exact phrase σπλ. καὶ οἰκ. only here, but see Jas 5:11; Col 3:12.

Σπλάγχνα is the organ or seat of compassionate emotion: οἰκτιρμοί are the emotions themselves. (See Schmidt, Synon. 143, 4.)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any feeling of inward love.

A most earnest request to remove all those things, whereby that great and special consent and agreement is commonly broken, to wit, contention and pride, whereby it cometh to pass, that they separate themselves one from another.

Any Christian comfort.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The apostle proceeds in this chapter where he left off in the last, with further exhortations to Christian duties. He presses them largely to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, in conformity to the example of the Lord Jesus, the great pattern of humility and love. Here we may observe,

I. The great gospel precept passed upon us; that is, to love one another. This is the law of Christ's kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. This he represents (Phi 2:2) by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. We are of a like mind when we have the same love. Christians should be one in affection, whether they can be one in apprehension or no. This is always in their power, and always their duty, and is the likeliest way to bring them nearer in judgment. Having the same love. Observe, The same love that we are required to express to others, others are bound to express to us. Christian love ought to be mutual love. Love, and you shall be loved. Being of one accord, and of one mind; not crossing and thwarting, or driving on separate interests, but unanimously agreeing in the great things of God and keeping the unity of the Spirit in other differences. Here observe,

1. The pathetic pressing of the duty. He is very importunate with them, knowing what an evidence it is of our sincerity, and what a means of the preservation and edification of the body of Christ. The inducements to brotherly love are these: - (1.) "If there is any consolation in Christ. Have you experienced consolation in Christ? Evidence that experience by loving one another." The sweetness we have found in the doctrine of Christ should sweeten our spirits. Do we expect consolation in Christ? If we would not be disappointed, we must love one another. If we have not consolation in Christ, where else can we expect it? Those who have an interest in Christ have consolation in him, strong and everlasting consolation (Heb 6:18; Th2 2:16), and therefore ought to love one another. (2.) "Comfort of love. If there is any comfort in Christian love, in God's love to you, in your love to God, or in your brethren's love to us, in consideration of all this, be you like-minded. If you have ever found that comfort, if you would find it, if you indeed believe that the grace of love is a comfortable grace, abound in it." (3.) "Fellowship of the Spirit. If there is such a thing as communion with God and Christ by the Spirit, such a thing as the communion of saints, by virtue of their being animated and actuated by one and the same Spirit, be you like-minded; for Christian love and like-mindedness will preserve to us our communion with God and with one another." (4.) "Any bowels and mercies, in God and Christ, towards you. If you expect the benefit of God's compassions to yourselves, be you compassionate one to another. If there is such a thing as mercy to be found among the followers of Christ, if all who are sanctified have a disposition to holy pity, make it appear this way." How cogent are these arguments! One would think them enough to tame the most fierce, and mollify the hardest, heart. (5.) Another argument he insinuates is the comfort it would be to him: Fulfil you my joy. It is the joy of ministers to see people like-minded and living in love. He had been instrumental in bringing them to the grace of Christ and the love of God. "Now," says he, "if you have found any benefit by your participation of the gospel of Christ, if you have any comfort in it, or advantage by it, fulfil the joy of your poor minister, who preached the gospel to you."

2. He proposes some means to promote it. (1.) Do nothing through strife and vain glory, Phi 2:3. There is no greater enemy to Christian love than pride and passion. If we do things in contradiction to our brethren, this is doing them through strife; if we do them through ostentation of ourselves, this is doing them through vain-glory: both are destructive of Christian love and kindle unchristian heats. Christ came to slay all enmities; therefore let there not be among Christians a spirit of opposition. Christ came to humble us, and therefore let there not be among us a spirit of pride. (2.) We must esteem others in lowliness of mind better than ourselves, be severe upon our own faults and charitable in our judgments of others, be quick in observing our own defects and infirmities, but ready to overlook and make favourable allowances for the defects of others. We must esteem the good which is in others above that which is in ourselves; for we best know our own unworthiness and imperfections. (3.) We must interest ourselves in the concerns of others, not in a way of curiosity and censoriousness, or as busy-bodies in other men's matters, but in Christian love and sympathy: Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, Phi 2:4. A selfish spirit is destructive of Christian love. We must be concerned not only for our own credit, and ease, and safety, but for those of others also; and rejoice in the prosperity of others as truly as in our own. We must love our neighbour as ourselves, and make his case our own.

II. Here is a gospel pattern proposed to our imitation, and that is the example of our Lord Jesus Christ: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Phi 2:5. Observe, Christians must be of Christ's mind. We must bear a resemblance to his life, if we would have the benefit of his death. If we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his, Rom 8:9. Now what was the mind of Christ? He was eminently humble, and this is what we are peculiarly to learn of him. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, Mat 11:29. If we were lowly-minded, we should be like-minded; and, if we were like Christ, we should be lowly-minded. We must walk in the same spirit and in the same steps with the Lord Jesus, who humbled himself to sufferings and death for us; not only to satisfy God's justice, and pay the price of our redemption, but to set us an example, and that we might follow his steps. Now here we have the two natures and the two states of our Lord Jesus. It is observable that the apostle, having occasion to mention the Lord Jesus, and the mind which was in him, takes the hint to enlarge upon his person, and to give a particular description of him. It is a pleasing subject, and a gospel minister needs not think himself out of the way when he is upon it; any fit occasion should be readily taken.

1. Here are the two natures of Christ: his divine nature and his human nature. (1.) Here is his divine nature: Who being in the form of God (Phi 2:6), partaking of the divine nature, as the eternal and only begotten Son of God. This agrees with Joh 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God: it is of the same import with being the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), and the brightness of his glory, and express image of his person, Heb 1:3. He thought it no robbery to be equal with God; did not think himself guilty of any invasion of what did not belong to him, or assuming another's right. He said, I and my Father are one, Joh 10:30. It is the highest degree of robbery for any mere man or mere creature to pretend to be equal with God, or profess himself one with the Father. This is for a man to rob God, not in tithes and offerings, but of the rights of his Godhead, Mal 3:8. Some understand being in the form of God - en morphē Theou huparchōn, of his appearance in a divine majestic glory to the patriarchs, and the Jews, under the Old Testament, which was often called the glory, and the Shechinah. The word is used in such a sense by the Septuagint and in the New Testament. He appeared to the two disciples, en hetera morphē - In another form, Mar 16:12. Metemorphōthē - he was transfigured before them, Mat 17:2. And he thought it no robbery to be equal with God; he did not greedily catch at, nor covet and affect to appear in that glory; he laid aside the majesty of his former appearance while he was here on earth, which is supposed to be the sense of the peculiar expression, ouk harpagmon hēgēsato. Vid. Bishop Bull's Def. cap. 2 sect. 4 et alibi, and Whitby in loc. (2.) His human nature: He was made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. He was really and truly man, took part of our flesh and blood, appeared in the nature and habit of man. And he voluntarily assumed human nature; it was his own act, and by his own consent. We cannot say that our participation of the human nature is so. Herein he emptied himself, divested himself of the honours and glories of the upper world, and of his former appearance, to clothe himself with the rags of human nature. He was in all things like to us, Heb 2:17.

2. Here are his two estates, of humiliation and exaltation. (1.) His estate of humiliation. He not only took upon him the likeness and fashion of a man, but the form of a servant, that is, a man of mean estate. He was not only God's servant whom he had chosen, but he came to minister to men, and was among them as one who serveth in a mean and servile state. One would think that the Lord Jesus, if he would be a man, should have been a prince, and appeared in splendour. But quite the contrary: He took upon him the form of a servant. He was brought up meanly, probably working with his supposed father at his trade. His whole life was a life of humiliation, meanness, poverty, and disgrace; he had nowhere to lay his head, lived upon alms, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, did not appear with external pomp, or any marks of distinction from other men. This was the humiliation of his life. But the lowest step of his humiliation was his dying the death of the cross. He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He not only suffered, but was actually and voluntarily obedient; he obeyed the law which he brought himself under as Mediator, and by which he was obliged to die. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: this commandment have I received of my Father, Joh 10:18. And he was made under the law, Gal 4:4. There is an emphasis laid upon the manner of his dying, which had in it all the circumstances possible which are humbling: Even the death of the cross, a cursed, painful, and shameful death, - a death accursed by the law (Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree) - full of pain, the body nailed through the nervous parts (the hands and feet) and hanging with all its weight upon the cross, - and the death of a malefactor and a slave, not of a free-man, - exposed as a public spectacle. Such was the condescension of the blessed Jesus. (2.) His exaltation: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. His exaltation was the reward of his humiliation. Because he humbled himself, God exalted him; and he highly exalted him, huperupsōse, raised him to an exceeding height. He exalted his whole person, the human nature as well as the divine; for he is spoken of as being in the form of God as well as in the fashion of man. As it respects the divine nature, it could only be the recognizing of his rights, or the display and appearance of the glory he had with the Father before the world was (Joh 17:5), not any new acquisition of glory; and so the Father himself is said to be exalted. But the proper exaltation was of his human nature, which alone seems to be capable of it, though in conjunction with the divine. His exaltation here is made to consist in honour and power. In honour; so he had a name above every name, a title of dignity above all the creatures, men and angels. And in power: Every knee must bow to him. The whole creation must be in subjection to him: things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, the inhabitants of heaven and earth, the living and the dead. At the name of Jesus; not at the sound of the word, but the authority of Jesus; all should pay a solemn homage. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord - every nation and language should publicly own the universal empire of the exalted Redeemer, and that all power in heaven and earth is given to him, Mat 28:18. Observe the vast extent of the kingdom of Christ; it reaches to heaven and earth, and to all the creatures in each, to angels as well as men, and to the dead as well as the living. - To the glory of God the Father. Observe, It is to the glory of God the Father to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; for it is his will that all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father, Joh 5:23. Whatever respect is paid to Christ redounds to the honour of the Father. He who receiveth me receiveth him who sent me, Mat 10:40.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

CHAPTER II.

The apostle beseeches them by various considerations, to live

in unity and in the spirit of the Gospel, loving each other;

and each to prefer his brother to himself, 1-4.

He exhorts them to be like-minded with Christ, who, though in

the form of God, and equal with God, made himself of no

reputation, and humbled himself to the death of the cross for

the salvation of man; in consequence of which he was highly

exalted, and had a name above every name; to whose authority

every knee should bow, and whose glory every tongue should

acknowledge, 5-11.

They are exhorted to work out their own salvation through his

power who works in them, that they may be blameless, and that

the apostle's labour may not be in vain, 12-16.

He expresses his readiness to offer his life for the Gospel,

17,18.

Intends to send Timothy to them, of whom he gives a very high

character; yet hopes to see them himself shortly, 19-24.

In the meantime sends Epaphroditus, who had been near death, and

whom he begs them to receive with especial tenderness, 25-30.

NOTES ON CHAP. II.

Verse 1. If there be therefore any consolation] The ει, if, does not express any doubt here, but on the contrary is to be considered as a strong affirmation; as there is consolation in Christ, as there is comfort of love, c.

The word παρακλησις, translated here consolation, is in other places rendered exhortation, and is by several critics understood so here as if he had said: If exhorting you in the name of Christ have any influence with you, c. It is extremely difficult to give the force of these expressions they contain a torrent of most affecting eloquence, the apostle pouring out his whole heart to a people whom with all his heart he loved, and who were worthy of the love even of an apostle.

If any comfort of love] If the followers of Christ, by giving proofs of their ardent love to each other in cases of distress, alleviate the sufferings of the persecuted;

If any fellowship of the Spirit] If there be an intimate relation established among all Christians, by their being made mutual partakers of the holy Ghost;

If any bowels and mercies] If you, as persons whom I have brought to God at the hazard of my life, feel sympathetic tenderness for me now, in a farther state of suffering;

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1 If there is therefore any consolation. There is an extraordinary tenderness in this exhortation, in which he entreats by all means the Philippians mutually to cherish harmony among themselves, lest, in the event of their being torn asunder by intestine contentions, they should expose themselves to the impostures of the false apostles. For when there are disagreements, there is invariably a door opened for Satan to disseminate impious doctrines, while agreement is the best bulwark for repelling them.

As the term παρακλήσεως is often taken to mean exhortation, the commencement of the passage might be explained in this manner: “If an exhortation which is delivered in the name and by the authority of Christ, has any weight with you.” The other meaning, however, corresponds better with the context: “If there is among you any consolation of Christ,” by means of which you may alleviate my griefs, and if you would afford me any consolation and relief, which you assuredly owe me in the exercise of love; if you take into view that fellowship of the Spirit, which ought to make us all one; if any feeling of humanity and mercy resides in you, which might stir you up to alleviate my miseries, fulfill ye my joy, etc. From this we may infer, how great a blessing unity in the Church is, and with what eagerness pastors should endeavor to secure it. We must also at the same time take notice, how he humbles himself by beseechingly imploring their pity, while he might have availed himself of his paternal authority, so as to demand respect from them as his sons. He knew how to exercise authority when it was necessary, but at present he prefers to use entreaties, because he knew that these would be better fitted to gain an entrance into their affections, and because he was aware that he had to do with persons who were docile and compliant. In this manner the pastor must have no hesitation to assume different aspects for the sake of the Church.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(1) If there be therefore any consolation . . .—In the four-fold division of this verse we trace, first, a reference to unity with Christ, and to a spiritual effect following from it; next, a similar reference to communion with the Holy Ghost, and a corresponding spiritual result. (1) “Consolation” is properly encouragement—the stirring up of spiritual activity—ascribed in Act_9:31 to the action of the Holy Spirit, but here viewed as a practical manifestation of the life flowing from union with Christ. Out of it comes naturally the “comfort of love,” that is, as always, the deep and thankful sense of comfort in His love, overflowing into comfort, lovingly given to our brethren. On this “encouragement” in Christ, both received and given out to others, St. Paul dwells at length (2Co_1:3-7). (2) Next, he speaks of “communion of the Spirit” (the very word used in 2Co_13:13), by which, indeed, we are brought into that unity with Christ; and of this, still keeping to the main idea of love, he makes the manifestation to be in “bowels and mercies”—that is, both in strong affection, and in that peculiar form of affection which is directed towards suffering, viz., compassion or pity. The whole passage (like Php_4:8-9) is full of a grave and persuasive eloquence characteristic of this Epistle. No absolute distinction is to be drawn between the two elements of the sentence; but it may be noted that the “consolation in Christ” is exhibited in the action which visibly follows His divine example, “the communion with the Holy Spirit” is shown by the inner emotion, not seen, but felt.

II.

(1-4) In this section the hint given above, in the allusion to “one spirit” and “one soul,” is expanded into a direct exhortation to unity of spirit, as shown both by absence of self-assertion and by presence of a genial sympathy.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ,.... Or "exhortation", as the word is sometimes rendered; that is, either if there is any exhortation of Christ to love and unity, as there is in Joh 13:34, and this is of any weight and value; or if an exhortation hereunto made in the name of Christ, by any of his ministers, messengers, and ambassadors, will be regarded, as it ought to be, then fulfil ye my joy, &c. Phi 2:2, but as the word is frequently translated "consolation", as it is here in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions; the sense may be either, if there is any comfort to be given to them that are in Christ Jesus, as every converted man is, and as the apostle was, and especially to them that are afflicted and persecuted for the sake of Christ, are prisoners in him, and on his account, which was the apostle's case, then he desired they would attend to his following request: or if there was any consolation for them, and they had had any comfort in and from Christ; as all true, solid, strong, and everlasting consolation is only in Christ, and is founded on the greatness of his person, as God our Saviour, on the fulness of his grace, the efficacy of his blood, the perfection of his righteousness and sacrifice, and on the great salvation he is the author of: agreeably the Syriac version renders it, "if therefore ye have any consolation in Christ"; and the Arabic version, "if therefore ye enjoy any consolation from the grace of Christ"; which is displayed in the Gospel, as undoubtedly they did; and since then all this comfort was enjoyed by them, through the Gospel the apostle preached to them, the argument from hence must be strong upon them, to attend to what he desired of them:

if any comfort of love; in it, or from it; as from the love of God the Father, which is everlasting and unchangeable, and must be comforting, when shed abroad in the heart by the Spirit; and from the love of the Son, which is the same, and equally immovable and lasting, and which passeth knowledge; and from the love of the Spirit, in applying the grace of the Father, and of the Son, whereby he becomes a glorifier of them, and a comforter of his people; and from the love of the saints to one another, which renders their communion with each other comfortable, pleasant, and delightful: or the apostle's sense is, if they had so much love for him, as to wish and desire he might be comforted in his present situation, and that they would be willing to make use of any methods to comfort him, then he desires this; and this is all he desires, mutual love, peace, harmony, and agreement among themselves:

if any fellowship of the spirit: of the spirit of one saint with another; if there is such a thing as an union of spirits, an oneness of souls, a tasting of each other's spirits, and a communion with one another, then care should be taken to keep this unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace, Eph 4:3, or if there is any fellowship of the Holy Spirit of God, any communion with him, any such thing as a witnessing of him to, and with our spirits, or as fellowship with the Father and the Son by him, and saints are baptized into one body by one Spirit, and have been made to drink of the same Spirit, Co1 12:13, then it becomes them to be of one mind, and to stand fast in one Spirit, Phi 1:27,

if any bowels and mercies; as there are in God, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, moving towards the saints; or such as become Christians, who, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, ought to put on bowels of mercies to one another; express the most hearty, inward, tender, and compassionate concern for each other's welfare, temporal and spiritual. Thus the apostle premises the most moving and pathetic arguments, leading on to the exhortations and advice, to love, harmony, and unity, given in Phi 2:2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

Ver. 1. If there be therefore] A most passionate obtestation, importing his most vehement desire of their good agreement; whereunto he conjures them, as it were, by all the bonds of love between him and them. Matters of importance must be pressed with utmost vehemence, Col 3:14. Love is charged upon us above all those excellent things there reckoned up.

If any comfort of love] As there is very much, making the saints to enjoy one another’s society with spiritual delight, Psa 16:3, and to communicate with gladness and singleness of heart, Act 2:46. The Lord doth usually and graciously water the holy fellowship of his people with the dews of many sweet and glorious refreshings; so that they have a very heaven upon earth, for kind the same with that above, and differing only in degrees.

If any bowels and mercies] Ipsa suada, credo, si loqui posset, non potuisset, εμφατικοτερως, ubi quot verba, tot tela, &c., saith Dr Morton; that is, persuasion itself could not speak more persuasively, here are so many words, so many weapons, able to pierce and work upon any heart not possessed with an iron sinew.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ - This, with what is said in the remainder of the verse, is designed as a motive for what he exhorts them to in Phi 2:2 - that they would be of the same mind, and would thus fulfill his joy. To urge them to this, he appeals to the tender considerations which religion furnished - and begins by a reference to the consolation which there was in Christ. The meaning here may be this: “I am now persecuted and afflicted. In my trials it will give me the highest joy to learn that you act as becomes Christians. You also are persecuted and afflicted Phi 1:28-30; and, in these circumstances, I entreat that the highest consolation may be sought; and by all that is tender and sacred in the Christian religion, I conjure you, so to live as not to dishonor the gospel. So live as to bring down the highest consolation which can be obtained - the consolation which Christ alone can impart We are not to suppose that Paul doubted whether there was any consolation in Christ but the form of expression here is one that is designed to urge upon them the duty of seeking the highest possible. The consolation in Christ is that which Christ furnishes or imparts. Paul regarded him as the source of all comfort, and earnestly prays that they might so live that he and they might avail themselves in the fullest sense of that unspeakable enjoyment. The idea is, that Christians ought at all times, and especially in affliction, so to act as to secure the highest possible happiness which their Saviour can impart to them. Such an object is worth their highest effort; and if God sees it needful, in order to that, that they should endure much affliction, still it is gain. Religious consolation is always worth all which it costs to secure it.

If any comfort of love - If there be any comfort in the exercise of tender affection. That there is, no one can doubt. Our happiness is almost all centered in love. It is when we love a parent, a wife, a child, a sister, a neighbor, that we have the highest earthly enjoyment. It is in the love of God, of Christ, of Christians, of the souls of people, that the redeemed find their highest happiness. Hatred is a passion full of misery; love an emotion full of joy. By this consideration, Paul appeals to them, and the motive here is drawn from all the joy which mutual love and sympathy are fitted to produce in the soul Paul would have that love exercised in the highest degree, and would have them enjoy all the happiness which its mutual exercise could furnish.

If any fellowship of the Spirit - The word “fellowship - κοινωνία koinōnia - means that which is common to two or more; that of which they partake together; Eph 3:9 note; Phi 1:5 note. The idea here is, that among Christians there was a participation in the influences of the Holy Spirit; that they shared in some degree the feelings, views, and joys of the Sacred Spirit Himself; and that this was a privilege of the highest order. By this fact, Paul now exhorts them to unity, love, and zeal - so to live that they might partake in the highest degree of the consolations of this Spirit.

If any bowels and mercies - If there is any affectionate bond by which you are united to me, and any regard for my sorrows, and any desire to fill up my joys, so live as to impart to me, your spiritual father and friend, the consolation which I seek.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If there be, therefore, any consolation. If you have any desire to comfort me in Christ, or for Christ’s sake. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The apostle, reassuming his exhortation in the former chapter to unanimity, Phi 1:27, doth here, by way of inference from what went immediately before, press them in a very affectionate manner, with a kind of rhetorical relation, and obtestation, as it were, adjure them.

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ; if any such exhortation, (as the word is rendered, Act 13:15; 1Th 2:3; 1Ti 4:13), in the name of Christ, might avail with them to cheer him and one another by their loving concord and being unanimous. Or as we, rendering it consolation; ;{ so Rom 15:4; 2Co 1:4} If, which he may well suppose, and strongly affirm that he took it for granted, the main body of them had in some measure found by his ministry, what he here moves them to complete, {compare Phi 1:6,7,27} in expectation to find more of what they had experimented, whatever indisposition might have crept upon some by the insinuations of the false apostles; yet, this

consolation in Christ may be considered either:

1. Actively: q.d. If ye would comfort me afflicted, in the concerns of Christ, or if ye have any Christian comfort which doth only proceed from those that are in Christ, (not from moral philosophy), or which is wont to be in those who worship the same Christ, let me his apostle be a partaker thereof. Or:

2. Passively, 2Co 7:4,6; Phm 1:7; If you, being in Christ, find any consolation against your afflictions, forasmuch as you have receivcd it by my ministry, we, being both in suffering circumstances, should be further comforted by a sweet agreement.

If any comfort of love; the Syriac renders it, any speaking to the heart, any solace from good and comfortable words did reach your hearts, Joh 11:19,31; 1Co 14:3; 1Th 2:11; 5:14, cheered with the love of God or Christ, or the brethren: or refreshed with my love to you, Phi 1:8,9; or would that I should be conforted with your love to me, (as he himself and others were with the gracious affections of the Corinthians, 2Co 7:7), which ye ought unfeignedly.

If any fellowship of the Spirit; if ye have any communion with me in the graces of the Spirit, and stand fast in one spirit, Phi 1:27, and would show that you do persevere in the same Spirit, 1Co 12:4, which acts in all the members of the mystical body of Christ, that do in him their Head partake of it.

If any bowels and mercies; if ye are duly affected with any real sympathy and commiseration towards me in my bonds for Christ, such inward affections as were moving in him towards them; Phi 1:8, with Luk 1:78; 2Co 7:15; Col 3:12; the latter word emphatically expressing the sense of the metaphor in the former. Then he, having thus pathetically urged these arguments, and closely followed them to embrace the matter proposed, puts them upon.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If there be therefore, any consolation in Christ. Mark the fervor of the apostle. Ora pwv liparwv pwv sfodrwv pwv meta sumpaweiav pollhv (Chrysostom). He appeals to the Christian experience of the Philippians; if these experiences are real, as they are; facts verified in the believer"s consciousness; not talk, not mere forms of speech, then fulfill ye my joy. Consolation; perhaps "exhortation" is the more suitable rendering in this place: if the presence of Christ, if communion with Christ, hath power to stir the heart, to stimulate the emotions, to constrain the will. If any comfort of love; comfort springing out of love. Love is the subjective result of the presence of Christ as an objective reality, and with love comes comfort. (comp. 1Co_14:3 and 1Th_2:11) If any fellowship of the Spirit. If the indwelling of the Holy Ghost be true, a felt reality in the Christian life. Not, as some understand, "If there be any fellowship of spirit among themselves." If any bowels and mercies. Bowels, (see note on Php_1:8) the seat of the feelings of compassion; mercies, those feelings themselves. The pronoun "any," according to the reading of all the best manuscripts, is masculine singular; the word "bowels," being neuter plural ei tiv splagcna . If St. Paul really wrote thus, we must suppose that the warmth of his feelings suddenly led him to substitute splagcna for some other word originally in his thoughts. "Under any circumstances," says Bishop Lightfoot, "the reading ei tiv is a valuable testimony to the scrupulous fidelity of the early transcribers, who copied the text as they found it, even when it contained readings so manifestly difficult.

Vers. 1-4. Exhortation to unity.

I St. PAUL"S ERNEST DESIRE FOR THE UNITY OF THE. PHILIPPIAN CHURCH.

1. He desires that unity because he loves them. His happiness is bound up with their spiritual welfare. "Fulfil ye my joy," he says; he had learned to look upon the things of others; his deepest joy depended, not on his own personal comforts, but on the spiritual progress of those whom he loved. The remembrance of the Philippians, (Php_1:3, 4) the thought of their Christian love, brought joy to his heart. He asks them now to fulfill his joy, to increase, to complete it; and that not by gifts (gifts they had sent again and again), but by living together in holy love, by keeping "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

2. He desires that unity because Christ desires it. He longed for the Philippians "in the bowels of Jesus Christ." His life was Christ, "Christ liveth in me," he said; therefore he loved with the love of Christ, and Christ prayed for the unity of the Church. That unity (the Lord Jesus said) should be the mark and badge of his disciples; (Joh_13:35) it should be the means of leading the world to believe in his mission, in his gospel. (Joh_17:21, Joh_17:23)

3. He shows the earnestness of his desire by dwelling on the thought of unity. He repeats his exhortation again and again. "Mind the same things," he says; have the same motives, the same desires, the same circle of thoughts. Have the same love; set your love on the stone Lord Jesus Christ; regard for his sake with a common love all who are called by his Name. Let your souls be knit together in a similarity of affections, wishes, feelings. Let the central thought, the aim of your lives, be one; the one thing needful, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.

II THE MOTIVES WHICH SHOULD URGE CHRISTIANS TO FOLLOW AFTER UNITY. These are to be found in the inner experiences of the Christian life.

1. The indwelling presence of Christ. That presence stimulates, quickens, encourages. It is the life of the Christian soul; and that life is diffused through all the members of the out body, through all the branches of the one Vine. Their spiritual life is one; unity aids its development; discord checks its growth.

2. The felt comfort of Christian love. Love is the bond of unity; the mutual love of Christians binds together the Christian Church. the truest joy springs out of love. Love comforts, blesses with a holy joy, the heart that entertains its sacred influences. The experience of the blessedness of Christian love should draw Christians nearer to one another in ever closer union.

3. The gift of the Spirit. The one Holy Spirit of God, in whose gifts and graces all in varying degrees participate, (1Co_12:4-12) knits together all the members of Christ into one communion and fellowship. The presence of that one Spirit in each individual Christian constitutes the inner unity of the Church. That inner unity should find its natural expression in outward agreement.

4. The tender feelings of the Christian heart. The life of Christ in the soul, the presence of the blessed Spirit, lead the disciple to imitate his Lord, to learn of him tenderness and compassion. St. Paul asks the Philippians to show their love, their compassion for him by living in unity. If these spiritual truths are real facts to you, he says, verified in your own experience, fulfill ye my joy; be one in spirit and in heart.

III UNITY IMPLIES HUMILITY. It is pride, self-conceit, that leads to strife and debate; avoid party spirit, avoid vain-glory.

1. Party spirit (eriyeia) is one of the works of the flesh. (Gal_5:20) Party spirit arrays men in factions against one another; they think more of their party than of Christ, more of party triumphs than of the progress of the gospel. This evil tendency soon found a place in the Church. Christians began early to say, "I am of Paul, and I of Cephas." "Is Christ divided?" St. Paul asks in indignant sorrow; there is one body in Christ.

2. Humility is essential for preservation of unity. Vain-glory must be wholly excluded f rom the motives and thoughts of the true Christian. Human ambitions are empty and vain; the one true ambition is to please God. We are ambitious (filotimoumeya), says St. Paul, (2Co_5:9) to be well-pleasing unto him. It is vain-glory that distracts the Church and rends the body of Christ. So far as it intrudes itself into the motives, it destroys the truth and inner beauty of the religious life. Humility is a Christian grace, a product of Christianity. The example of Christ has shed a halo round a word which to the heathen spoke of meanness and cowardice. Holy Scripture has taken it and filled it with a new and blessed meaning; it suggests to the Christian the deepest piety, the inmost reality of personal religion. Humility lies at the very basis of the Christian character. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," is the first of the beatitudes. There is no true holiness that is not grounded on humility; for "God giveth grace to the humble." Therefore "let each esteem other better than themselves." The highest saints feel and own themselves to be the chief of sinners. The nearer they draw to the Sun of righteousness, the more clearly they see their own guilt and unworthiness. "He that abaseth himself shall be exalted." Hence the value of St. Paul"s rule to esteem others better than ourselves. We are templed to magnify our own virtues and the faults of others. True wisdom reverses this. We are to consider others, not for self-exaltation, but for self-abasement. We are to look on our own faults to correct them, on the good points in others to imitate them.

3. True humility i mp lies unselfishness. T he Christian must not put himself first; he must not regard his own wishes, his own interest, as the one thing to be thought of. He must consider the feelings of others, their desires, their wants. Only true humility will enable him to do this. But it is a hard lesson; there is need of more than words; there is need of a strength not our own; there is need of the stimulating influence of a great example.

Lessons.

1. Learn to search your heart for the realities of Christian experience; you will find them there, if you are indeed living in fellowship with Christ.

2. Pray for grace to feel real joy in the religious progress of others.

3. Endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4. Be on your guard against party spirit and vain-glory. Strive to be first in humility and self-abasement; it is the secret of Christian joy and Christian growth.

HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY Vers. 1, 2. Christian like-mindness.

It seems strange that the apostle, knowing the difficulty of getting a thousand minds to agree in the reception of intellectual truth, should yet counsel them to seek a unity of opinion. There is nothing strange in the fact when we consider how much the intellect of man is influenced by his moral nature.

I THE NATURE AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LIKE-MINDEDNESS. "That ye be like-minded, having the same love, with accordant souls minding the one thing.

1. It must include a certain intellectual agreement as to matters of doctrine. It is not possible to understand what may have been the diversity of opinion on points of doctrine which made this counsel necessary. The Philippians are not censured for heresy; but the apostle knows that the "men of the concision" are not far off, and the warning to keep to "the sound doctrine" is neither premature nor unnecessary.

2. It includes an agreement as to methods and aims. There were symptoms of jealousy, leading to quarrel, manifest in the conduct of two ladies of this Church, (Php_4:2) and it is difficult to say how far these women, holding an influential place in the little community, may have disturbed its unity.

3. It implies an agreement working along the lines of a common love. Love is a bond bond of perfectness just as hatred separates man from man. It produces that harmony of feeling and interests that leads to unity of service.

II THE TRUE GROUNDS OF THIS LIKE-MINDEDNESS. "If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies." The apostle grounds his appeal to the Philippians upon their undoubted possession of certain spiritual experiences.

1. "Consolation in Christ." What stores of consolation are in Christ! "I will not leave you comfortless.

2. "Comfort of love." Love has comfort in it, especially when it has a sure resting-place.

3. "Fellowship of the Spirit." This fellowship involves "the fellowship of the Father and the Son," and carries with it all the experiences and fruits of the Spirit. (Gal_5:22, Gal_5:23) It involves unity as one of its essential ideas.

4. "Bowels and mercies." A tender and compassionate spirit is helpful to unity.

III THE MINISTER"S JOY PROMOTED BY THE LIKEMINDEDNESS OF HIS FLOCK. "Fulfil ye my joy." As nothing so depresses the mind of a minister as intellectual or social dissensions among the members of his flock, so his joy is fulfilled alike in their unity of thought and in the harmony of their feeling and affection. T.C.

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-4. Altruism.

Paul has been speaking of the gifts of faith and of suffering which the Philippians had received, and now he proceeds to state further the practical outcome of the Christian spirit. It is really an altruism of a more thorough character than that provided by the schools. We have altruism paraded at present as the high outcome of that morality which is independent of God. But there is no consideration of the case of others so broad or so deep as that which is secured by the gospel.

I THE FOUNTAIN-HEAD OF A CONSIDERATE SPIRIT IS THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST. (Ver. 1) We are not asked in this matter to go upon our own charges; God does not, like an austere man, expect to reap where he has never sown. So far from this, he only looks for consideration of conduct towards others from those who have received "comfort in Christ," "consolation of love," "fellowship of the Spirit," and "bowels and mercies." These are the forerunners of the true altruism. And they amount to this, that God has led the way in consideration. His gospel means that in the person of Jesus Christ he has not looked on his own things, but on the things of others. It is Divine altruism. It is the seed of disinterestedness sown in a kindly soil, and it is sure to produce a harvest.

II THE UNITY OF THE PHILIPPIANS WAS THE JOY OF THE APOSTLE. (Ver. 2) He made it a matter of personal comfort to secure unity of mind and of heart among his converts. If we laid the unity of believers thus to heart, how we would use all lawful means to bring it about! Are we not open to the charge sometimes of living too self-containedly, so that when unity is broken we are not inconvenienced and pained by it as a Paul would have been? Christian union should be made by each one of us a personal concern: let us with Paul say honestly, as we urge men to see eye to eye and feel as heart to heart, that in so doing they are fulfilling our dearest joy!

III LOWLINESS OF MIND MUST BE THE ANTIDOTE AND DEATH OF STRIFE AND VAINGLORY. (Ver. 3) Nothing so separates souls and breaks the unity of spirit as vainglorious strife. Competition, be it ever so generous, cannot be tolerated in the Church of God, except it Be competition for the lowest place and the severest service. The competition for the chief seats in society, in the world"s market, in the sphere of power, is always prejudicial to the Christian spirit and the unity which comes from Heaven; But the competition which contemplates the severest service, the lowliest ministrations, the most humiliating role, is wholesome, Christ-like, Divine. Now, this lowliness of mind which esteems others Better than ourselves can be secured only by severe self-scrutiny in the light of God"s Word, above all, in the light of Christ"s perfect life. Then our sins and shortcomings become appalling, and we walk softly before the Lord. On the other hand, no such knowledge of our neighbor"s sins and shortcomings is open to us; we judge him so charitably as to esteem him above ourselves, and so we sit in the independence begotten of humility. No longer do we complain of any lot God gives us; we accept it as better than we deserve; and in the panoply of humility we are safe from all assault.

IV WE CAN THUS MAKE PUBLIC SERVANTS OF OURSELVES IN THE TRUEST SENSE. (Ver. 4) We hear a good deal of "public men," as they are called. They profess to serve the public, but the most of them, while professing to serve the public, are suspected of serving themselves. With some of them the public spirit is doubtless genuine, and they do serve their sovereign and country with singleness of heart. But the gospel is the great means in God"s hand of making men and women the servants of others. Since Jesus came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many, many have learned to make the welfare of others their chief care. And so Christian consideration and charity break forth on the right hand and on the left. Men and women thrust themselves into work for others which can have no selfish aim or selfish issue, and the world becomes "Paradise restored." We are not right in heart until we thus are made public servants by the dynamic force of the Christian spirit. The law of love regulates us and carries us out of the narrow circle of personal interests into the broader one of the common weal. We sacrifice much to serve others. "We stoop," and think nothing of the effort, "to conquer" souls and circumstances in the interest of Christ. We have got unmoored, and are out to sea, where we have room and are in no danger from the lee shore. It is the life of real liberty which we secure when we look no longer on our own things, but have an eye for those of others. R.M.E.

HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 1-11. Exhortation to unanimity and humility.

I HE APPEALS TO PHILIPPIANS BY FOUR COMMON ELEMENTS IN THEIR COMMON CONFLICT TO FULFIL HIS JOY.

1. By the comfort there is in Christ. "If there is therefore any comfort in Chris. The connecting word has reference to the duty which was enjoined in the twenty-seventh verse of the last chapter, and is again enjoined in the second verse of this chapter. But there is also reference to the circumstances under which unity is enjoined. They were enduring the same conflict at Philippi which Paul had once endured at Philippi, and was then enduring in Rome. Under circumstances of common conflict, what had they to fall back upon, and by which they could appeal to each other? It is this which leads to the introduction of the subject of comfort. Some would substitute exhortation for comfort." But "comfort" is certainly the word appropriate to the occasion, and the following of it up in the second clause by a word of similar import only serves to emphasize the tone of the appeal. The form of the appeal is noticeable. It is under a supposition, being simply, "If any comfort in Christ." He knew that he was touching a chord to which there would be a ready response on the part of the Philippians. Any comfort in Christ? Yes; that was the quarter to which he and they in common looked for comfort. As oppressed by the troubles of this life and the question of our destiny, we need to be comforted. All the comfort that philosophy affords amounts to this that such is the constitution of things, that we must bear what we cannot mend, that complaining only makes our case worse. In Christ there is this all-sufficient comfort, that, from his own experience of suffering, he can enter sympathetically into the suffering of each soul, and, while for good ends he may see fit to continue it, he undertakes to support under it and to make it productive of good. As Christians they had a right to expect and to ask of each other a conveyance of the Master"s sympathy with them in their afflictions. Paul extended loving thought, as from the Master, toward the Philippians in their conflict; and it was his desire that they should extend loving thought as from the Master toward him.

2. By The consolation of love. "If any consolation of love." In the previous clause the idea was that they were to take of what was Christ"s and show it to each other. The idea here is that they were to take of their own love and show it to each other for consolation. They had a common hate from the world; the antidote for that was the refreshing influence of mutual love. Paul would have the Philippians in their conflict know, for their consolation, that they were loved by him; and he looks to them to let him know in his conflict, for his consolation, that he was loved by them.

3. By the fellowship of the Spirit. "If any fellowship of the Spirit." They were partakers of a common life of strength, of gladness, of hope in the Spirit. As thus alike favored of the Spirit, they were bound to make it their aim to promote their common life. He was prepared to do his utmost for the Philippians, that in their conflict they should partake more largely of the strong, glad, hopeful life of the Spirit; he locks to them to do their utmost, so that in conflict he shall have reciprocity in the same life.

4. By tender mercies and compassions "If any tender mercies and compassions." The first seems to point to tender feelings confined to the heart; the second to tender feelings going out in compassion to others in their need. Paul was no stranger to tender feeling and compassionate yearning toward the Philippians in their conflict; he wishes to have from them in his conflict reciprocity in the same luxury. "Fulfil ye my joy." What they had a right to ask of him, he, in the exercise of his right, asks of them.

They had given him joy in the past; it was not yet made full. Let them from the common source fill up his joy.

II HE ASKS THEM TO FULFIL HIS JOY BY ATTENTION TO TWO DUTIES.

1. Unanimity. "That ye be of the same mind." This has been explained as thinking, willing, and seeking the same thing.

(1) Unanimity proceeding from loving and being loved alike. "Having the same love." This points to the condition under which unanimity is to be wrought out there must be love on both sides. If there is no love, or love only on one side, then there cannot be the same way of thinking, willing, and striving. But let there be reciprocal love, warmed around the cross of Christ, then, whatever differences there may be to begin with, there will come ultimately to be a seeing eye to eye.

(2) Unanimity appearing in harmony of soul. "Being of one accord, of one mind." It is better to take the two clauses as one and to translate, "With harmony of soul, being of one mind." The latter expression is just the literal meaning of unanimity. And we are here taught that unanimity must not be mere uniformity subscribing to the same creed, observing the same forms of worship. It must be something deep down in the nature, wrought out under the influence of love in the feelings and active impulses. It is what may be seen in a couple who have long and deeply loved each other they come to feel and act alike. It is what can be wrought out without loss of independence. It is like what may be seen in a choir where there are blended many qualities of voice. It is what may be seen in a congregation where there has long been good feeling and harmonious co-operation; there is created an excellent esprit de corps one soul animates the body and determines its movements. It is what will yet, we hope, be exhibited in the Churches, when they have all received a larger baptism of the spirit of love. Many differences will disappear no difference will remain to prevent them uniting and co-operating in the work of the Lord. It is what will only be thoroughly wrought out in the Church above, where the same view of Christ"s work will take hold of all minds, animate all hearts, and call forth loud and harmonious praise.

2. Humility.

(1) Manifestations of self-importance. "Doing nothing through faction or through vain-glory." Faction. It was a false estimate of themselves that threatened to be a dividing element among the Philippians. Controversy may be carried on in a spirit of fairness. Parties may be necessitated by fidelity to principle. Even separations may be justified under certain circumstances: "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." But there can be no doubt that self-assertion is the prolific source of controversy, of party, of division. When men are concerned to have their own opinions established rather than the truth, to have their own party advanced rather than the cause of Christ, their own importance added to rather than the peace of the Church preserved, they are factious. And therefore it is that, in the interest of unity, the apostle warned against self-importance. Vain-glory. The Philippians do not seem to have had external advantages of which to be vain. For the apostle testifies elsewhere that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Nor do we know that their temptation was connected with superior natural endowments. It was rather connected with their spiritual excellences. These the apostle fully acknowledges, he says nothing to their disparagement as a Church, only he seems to evince an anxiety lest disunion should creep in among them through their being vain of their excellences and comparing themselves with one another.

(2) Cure for self-importance. "But in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others." We are to have a lowly estimate of ourselves. If we have external advantages to think of, we have also to think of responsibilities connected with them. If we have superior natural gifts to think of, we have also to think of the use we have made of them. If we have spiritual excellences, we are to be thankful to God for them; but we are not to be vain of them. Instead of being vain, we must think that we are not what we should have been, considering the grace that has abounded toward us; that we have come far short in the working out of the plan of our life. The more narrowly we look into ourselves and our work, the more shall we see that we are only keeping to truth. to reality, when we humble ourselves before God as the chief of sinners. But what of our comparing ourselves with others? The apostle teaches that a true looking to the things of others will lead to our counting others better than ourselves. We have to consider this regarding others that, apart from external advantages, from natural gifts, and from moral character, they are of great price before God as created, planned for, suffered for, loved by, God. We have also this to consider regarding others, that we do not know the disadvantageous influences, compared with others, under which they may have been brought up, and it is possible that, when they fail, we should not have done better if we had been in their position. we have also to consider that, even where we may be more excellent than they in some respects, we are not in a position to know all the excellence that may belong to them. If certainly we compare ourselves with others for the sake of self-exaltation, we are showing our own want of excellence. A true spirit of humility will lead us rather to compare ourselves with others, in points in which they are our superiors, and thus all such comparison must be accounting others better than ourselves. "Unto me," says Paul, "who am less than the least of all saints.

III CHRIST THE GREAT EXAMPLE OF HUMILITY.

1. Humiliation.

(1) Humiliation to humanity. "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men." It is not said of Christ Jesus that he was in fashion as God, i.e. to appearance, God. Nor is it said that He was in the likeness of God, i.e. in nature resembling God. But it is said absolutely that he was in the form of God, i.e. was God. It is more decisive than image of God and impress of God, elsewhere applied to Christ; though these, being used absolutely, testify to his Divinity. Form points to Christ having the manifestation of Divinity which, as it is a glorious manifestation, is expressed by the word "glory." "The glory which I had with thee before the world was." We are referred to the moment when he contemplated his equality with God, i.e. not in its essence, but in respect of his having the glorious effulgence of Divinity. At that moment, what was the mind that was in him? It was not to clutch at and to retain his glorious prerogatives as a prize. On the contrary, he emptied himself, i.e. of these glorious prerogatives, while not ceasing to be God. Emptying himself, the new form that he took was that of a servant, i.e. he actually became a servant. The particular form of servant is pointed to in its being added that he was made in the likeness of man, i.e. had the human qualities, while not mere man. The descent from the form of God to the form of the human servant was immeasurable. From being infinite (beyond conditions), he became finite (was placed under conditions). From having uncreated perfection, He became subject to a human development. From being eternal, he came under the condition of time. From being omnipresent, he came under the condition of space. From being omniscient, he came to know neither the day nor the hour of the end. From being almighty, he came to need power to help him in his weakness. Such was his emptying himself.

(2) Humiliation in humanity. "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross." This part of the humiliation is described as within human observation. He was found in fashion as a man. He was publicly recognized as having the outward marks of a man dress, mode of living, gesture, mode of speaking and acting." This humiliation did not stop with his descent to humanity, but in humanity He found further opportunity, not now of emptying himself which could only be once, but of humbling himself. This, which human eyes witnessed, was his becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross, i.e. the most shameful of all deaths. And there was more than appeared to human eyes. That death of the cross was really God in humanity suffering wrath on account of sin, and that obedience to the death of the cross was the human will completely and cheerfully given up to the Divine will in the direst extremity. This marks the depth of the humiliation the possessor of the Divine glory coming down to be the bearer, not merely of all the shame that man could put upon him, but of the Divine wrath against sin. Such, then, is the exhibition of the mind that was in Christ. He went through infinite self-abasement for our salvation, he looked not merely to his own things; he locked beyond to our things. Nay, did he not put us before himself? He clung not to his Divine position as what could never be parted with; but he emptied himself of position, that he might grasp us in his saving love. Let the same mind be in us. Let; us not clutch at position when, by abasement of ourselves, we can advantage men. Oh, how the factious seeking of place and power is exposed in the intense light of the Divine Son not counting his place and power a prize? How is vain-glory glorying in empty things exposed in the light of the Divine emptying?

2. Exaltation.

(1) His Name. "Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the Name which is above every name." We are here taught that the exaltation of Christ in our nature was the reward of his humiliation. In becoming obedient, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross, he obtained, not only infinite merit for us, but rather for us in himself. And his recompense was that he was exalted, and more than that, highly exalted. This pre-eminent exaltation consisted in there being gifted to him the Name which is above every name, i.e. as appears from the language following, the Name of Jesus. It is a way of honoring men to give them names. This honor does not always correspond to worth. For we are told that what is exalted among men is abomination in the sight of God. And, even when the name represents reality, how confined is it in its import, even at the best! The name of highest import is the Name of Jesus, Savior, as setting forth the great saving work which best illustrates the character of God. Not arbitrarily, then, but righteously, God has surrounded this Name with the highest dignity and with lordship too.

(2) Universal recognition of his Name. "That in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The language, is founded on Isa_45:23, "That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." It is here represented that what is to move and animate the worshippers is, not the sovereignty of God so much praised in the forty-fifth of Isaiah, but, what is brought; also into connection there, the glorious significance of the Name of Jesus. The worshippers are here designated by the external symbol of adoration, as bowing the knee. And they are classified exhaustively, and with a certain indefiniteness, as celestial, terrestrial, and sub-terrestrial. Of these classes not one shall have his knees unbent. They are also represented as confessing with their tongues. Of the classes named not one shall have his tongue unused in confession. To think of involuntary adoration on the part of some, is to mar the language. All are to render to Christ the specially Christian confession they are to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, specially invested with power to complete the work of redemption. They are to render the adoration to Christ to the praise, not of God"s justice, but of God"s fatherhood Dogmatic inference from this passage cannot be drawn with certainty. All that we have to do is to allow the language, in all its majesty, to have its due weight in our minds alongside of other language that is used in Scripture with regard to the last things. R.F.

HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-4. Genuine socialism apostolically urged.

"If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love," etc. Notice

I GENUINE SOCIALISM. Man is a social being, and his normal social condition is unity. Society is one body, and all men are members thereof, all animated by one life, and contributing to the good of the whole. This is the social ideal; but... he alas! sin has created a schism. Instead of unity there is a division everywhere, and the divided parts become antagonistic. The mission of the gospel is to remedy this and to restore to perfect social unity. This unity, we infer from the text, includes three things,

1. Harmony of feeling to one another. "That ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Having noticed this point in the preceding article, we have only to repeat that the harmony can only be realized by all having the one same object of reigning love. Two men, however different in the kind and measure of native talent, in the nature and measure of information, in the degree of culture, in the character of their opinions and beliefs, are indissolubly united in soul if their greatest love is centred in the same object. So of any number. The design of the gospel is to center all men"s love on God in Christ. There is no other way of producing this harmony; no theological system, no ecclesiastical organization, no legislative enactment can do it; it is simply by this love that it can be done.

2. Humility of deportment among one another. "Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." "This verse expresses the negative result of this unity of soul that nothing will be done in strife, that is, factiousness (the word used in Php_1:17), or "vain-glory;" nothing, that is, with the desire either of personal influence or of personal glory. For, he adds, each will esteem other better than himself, or rather, will hold that his neighbor is worthy of higher consideration, and a higher place of dignity than himself (compare the use of the word in Rom_13:1 1Pe_2:13, of temporal dignity), for the idea is of the ascription to others, not of moral superiority, but of higher place and honor. Self-assertion will be entirely overborne. So he teaches us elsewhere that "charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her" (1Co_13:4, 1Co_13:5) (Dr. Barry). The proud, the haughty, the supercilious, are not only the disturbers or" social unity, they are the destroyers of it. According to the law of souls, they loathe and recoil from all arrogance and pretension in others, hence the exhortation, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory.

3. Generous concern one for another. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." This does not mean, of course, that you are to neglect your own things. There are things that every man must attend to for himself his own physical health, intellectual culture, etc., he but it means that we are not to attend to our own things chiefly, and in such a way as to neglect the concerns of others. There is no real antagonism between the interest of self and the interest of others; on the contrary, we can only secure our own individual well-being or happiness by promoting the interests of others. It is only as men become generously engrossed in the interests of others that they can realize their own individual happiness and perfection. The man rises only as he becomes self-oblivious; thus Paul felt, "I am crucified with Christ, never-the-less I live." The ego must be swallowed up in the non-ego the spirit of universal benevolence. This is genuine socialism, and it is here urged by

II APOSTOLIC PERSUASION. "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded." "There are here four influencing motives to inculcate the four Christian duties corresponding respectively that ye be like-minded, having the same love, of one accord, of one mind.

1. "If there be with you, as I assume any consolation in Christ," i.e. any consolation but Ellicott, to avoid tautology, "comfort" following, translates (parakless) "exhortation," Rom_12:8 of which Christ is the source, leading you to console me in my afflictions borne for Christ"s sake, ye ought to grant my request.

2. "If there be any comfort of i.e. flowing from love," the adjunct of consolation in Christ.

3. "If any fellowship of joint participation of the Spirit". (2Co_13:14) As "pagans" meant those who were of one village and drank of one fountain, how much greater is the union which conjoins those who drink of the same Spirit! (1Co_12:4)

4. "If any bowels tender emotions and mercies", ("compassions," 2Co_2:12) the adjuncts of fellowship of the Spirit. The first and third mark the objective sources of the Christian life Christ and the Spirit; the second and fourth, the subjective principle in believers. The opposites of the two pairs into which the four fall are reprobated in vers. 3 and 4" (Fausset). A man like the apostle would not have urged this true socialism with such mighty earnestness had he not been impressed with its importance; and what can be of greater importance than this unity among the race? For this Christ prayed the night before his death, "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. D.T.

HOMILIES BY V HUTTON Vers. 1, 2. Exhortation to unity:

(2) The testimony of our spiritual and moral conscience. St. Paul is now on higher ground, showing how unreal is all Christian profession which does not desire unity.

1. What consolation (or, exhortation) is there in Christ without this desire? What growth in the knowledge of him or in union with him?

2. What comfort of love? How can the royal law of love of the brethren be fulfilled without this?

3. What fellowship of the Holy Spirit? It is the office of the Holy Ghost to bind together. How can we be partakers of him unless he is working in us his peculiar work?

4. What tender mercies and compassions? Even natural loving-kindness prompts the desire for unity.

How much nearer to unity should we be if all who profess to love the Lord Jesus would dwell on these points, rather than on the points about which they differ! VW.H.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Vers. 1, 2. Brotherly union.

St. Paul had already much joy in contemplating the spiritual prosperity of the Philippians. (Php_1:4) One thing only was wanting to make that joy complete. There was some danger lest a spirit of faction should creep in and mar the family unity of the Church, especially among the saints. (Php_4:2) If this danger were averted and harmony established, the joy of the apostle would be full

I BROTHERLY UNION IS THE CROWNING GRACE OF THE CHURCH. Many other graces may be attained before this is realized knowledge as in the Corinthian Church, a faithful martyr spirit as in the Philippian Church. But the chief grace is brotherly love. The idea of the Church is essential to Christianity. The gospel does not simply offer individual salvation and call to isolated missions. It brings men into a family and unites them in close bonds. The ideal Christian is not the lonely hermit, but the large-hearted, sympathetic, social man. Close union, however, is only possible on conditions of deep sympathy. We may differ and yet be at peace while we live apart, with sufficient "elbow-room" for our several crotchets. But Church fellowship necessitates internal harmony for the maintenance of peace. Intellectual unity, unity of thought, is impossible to thinking men. The essential unity is unity of purpose and of sympathy the one mind and the one love. Christians above all men must realize the duties of a democracy how to subordinate private ends to the general good, how to yield individual opinions in obedience to the general voice of the community. Party spirit, personal ambition, self-will, domineering self-assertion in the leaders, and obstructive self-assertion in the rank-and-file, are the dangers that threaten such communities as were founded by the apostles. Only a spirit of love can conquer them.

II GREAT CHRISTIAN MOTIVES URGE US TO BROTHERLY UNION.

1. Our living union with Christ. "Any comfort i.e. practical experience, help, grace of fellowship Christ." Christians are united together through a common union with Christ. Connection with the Head leads to harmonious co-operation of the members of the body.

2. The blessedness of love. It is found to be a joy, a strength, and a comfort. In trouble and persecution especially it is happy and helpful to unite our individual feelings in love one to another.

3. The fellowship of the Spirit. The one Spirit of God that inhabits the whole Church is a mystical bond of union and inspiration of love.

4. Natural affection. "Tender mercies and compassions," which are natural to humanity, are never so well employed as in Christian brotherhood. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If there be therefore any consolation - In the grace of Christ. If any comfort - In the love of God. If any fellowship of the Holy Ghost; if any bowels of mercies - Resulting therefrom; any tender affection towards each other.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Here we have observable, 1. The important duty which the apostle exhorts the Philippians to; and that is, love and unity, unity in judgment and opinion, unity in heart and affection, unity in design and endeavours; so necessary and advantageous is the duty of unity and concord among all the professors of Christianity, that all the cautions and warnings, all the advice and counsel, all the melting entreaties and passionate importunities of the ministers of Christ, are little enough to excite persons to it, and direct them in the practice of it.

Observe, 2. What an heap of arguments the apostle makes use of to excite and quicken the Philippians to the love and practice of this duty: If there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels and mercies.

As if he had said, If ever you have tasted, by means of my ministry, any sweetness and consolation in Christ and his holy religion, if ever you have found any comfort in his love, if ever you have enjoyed any communion with his Spirit, if ye be men, and have any bowels of mercy for yourselves, if ye be Christians, and have any pity for me in my bonds, fulfill ye my joy in this, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind.

O! the tenderness, the gentleness, and meekness of soul which was in St. Paul, and ought to be in every spiritual pastor towards his people, to win them, and prevail upon them to love the truth and peace.

Fulfil ye my joy, says the apostle; as if he had said, Sufferings I have enough already; O! do not you, by your divisions and dissensions, add more: I am already a prisoner, expecting the sentence of death, preparing for the sword of persecution, but none of these things move me; I can rejoice in a dungeon, sing in the stocks, triumph in death, if I can but hear you stand fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel. But, if I hear that you are broken by divisions, my heart is broke; the news of differences and dissensions among you will be heavier to me than my chain, darker than my dungeon, sharper than Nero’s sword. Do not thus add to my sorrow and sufferings; but as you have begun and occasioned joy in me, I beseech you fulfil and complete my joy, by your being of one heart, of one mind, entirely one.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Philippians Chapter 2

But this, too, produced its effects. The apostle desired that their joy should be full, and that unity among the Philippians should be perfect; for his absence had allowed some seeds of disunion and disaffection to germinate. Love had been sweetly and powerfully demonstrated by the gift they had sent to the apostle. Consolation in Christ, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, tender mercies were displayed in it, giving him great joy. Let them then make this joy perfect by the full establishment of this same bond of love among themselves, by being of one accord, of one mind, having the same love for each other, being all like-minded, allowing no rivalship or vain-glory to display itself in any way. Such was the apostle’s desire. Appreciating their love towards himself, he wished their happiness to be complete through the perfecting of that love among themselves: thus would his own joy be perfect. Beautiful and touching affection! It was love in him which, sensible to their love, thought only of them. How delicate the way in which a kindness, which precluded reproof, made a way for what really was one, and which a heart that added charity to brotherly love could not leave unuttered!

Now the means of this union, of the maintenance of this love, was found in the abnegation of self, in humility, in the spirit that humbles itself in order to serve. It was this which perfectly displayed itself in Christ, in contrast with the first Adam. The latter sought to make himself like God by robbery, when he was in the form of a man, and strove to exalt himself at God’s expense; being at the same time disobedient unto death. Christ, on the contrary, when He was in the form of God, emptied Himself, through love, of all His outward glory, of the form of God, and took the form of a man; and, even when He was in the form of a man, still humbled Himself It was a second thing which He did in humbling Himself As God, He emptied Himself; as man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. God has highly exalted Him; for he who exalts himself shall be humbled? but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Perfect love, glorious truth, precious obedience! A man by the just judgment and act of God is exalted to the right hand of the throne of the divine Majesty. What a truth is the Person of Christ! What a truth is this descent and ascension by which He fills all things as Redeemer and Lord of glory! God come down in love, man ascended in righteousness; entire love in coming down, entire obedience by love also. Worthy from all eternity as to His Person to be there, He is now as man exalted by God to His right hand. It is an act of righteousness on God’s part that He is there; and our hearts can take part in it, rejoicing in His glory-rejoicing also that by grace we have part in it as to our own place.

His humiliation is a proof that He is God. God only could leave His first estate in the sovereign rights of His love; it is sin for any creature to do so. It is also a perfect love. But this proof is given, this love accomplished, in the fact that He is man. What a place has He acquired for us in Himself! But it is of Him, not of us who are its fruits, that the apostle thinks. He rejoices in the thought of Christ’s exaltation. God has exalted Him to the highest place, and given Him a name which is above every name, so that everything in heaven and earth, and even in infernal regions, must bow before this exalted man, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

It will be remarked here, that it is the lordship of Christ that is presented in this passage, not His divinity in itself. His divinity is indeed the primary point of departure. All in fact has its origin there-the love, the self-renunciation, the humiliation, the marvellous condescension. Nothing of all this could have been, or would have its value, without the former; but it is of the Lord, complete in His Person in the position which He took as man-it is of Him who humbled Himself, who when He had gone down to the lowest possible place, was exalted by God; it is of Jesus, who could, without exalting Himself, be equal with God, but who emptied Himself, who went down even into death, that the apostle speaks: of Jesus, Lord of all, and who, thus exalted as man, shall be owned as Lord throughout the whole creation to the glory of God the Father. [5]

The apostle’s heart enlarges whenever he speaks of the Lord Jesus; but he turns to the objects of his solicitude; and as he had spoken of the self-renunciation and the humiliation of Christ, as a means of union which would take all occasion from carnal rivalship, he has also been led to speak of the obedience of Christ in contrast with the first Adam and the flesh. He now applies this principle, also, for the instruction of the Philippians: “Wherefore,” he says, “my beloved, as ye have always obeyed.” And here the effect of his absence and removal from the work is introduced-”not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for,” he adds, “it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do.” That is to say, while he was among them he had laboured; now they were themselves engaged with the enemy, without the aid of Paul’s presence and spiritual energy; but God Himself wrought in them, and they ought to work so much the more earnestly in that they found themselves in such a warfare, God Himself being engaged for them as acting in them for this conflict, and they themselves striving in their own persons, directly with the power of the enemy. This was not the moment to boast in their little gifts, on account of the absence of that which had thrown them into the shade, nor to be at strife among themselves. On the other hand, if they were deprived of Paul, they were not deprived of God. God Himself wrought in them. This is the great principle, and the great consolation of the epistle. The Christians, deprived of the important aid of the apostle, are cast more immediately on God. The apostle himself, separated from the assembly, finds his own consolation in God; and commits the assembly in its lack of his personal care, to God Himself, in whom he had himself found this consolation.

It is to be carefully remarked here, that it is the very opposite of an exhortation to our own working in contrast with God’s effectual power. “Your own” is in contrast with Paul in his absence, who had laboured for them, because God did work in them to will and to do. They were to work, because, if Paul was absent, God wrought in them. I have noticed already that salvation, every blessing, is looked at everywhere in this epistle as at the end of the Christian’s course, even the manifestation of their righteousness (chap. 3:9). This passage is an example. There are two ways the Christian is seen in the New Testament. In Christ-here is no progress, no question: he is accepted in Him-a complete, perfect, present state. But he is also a pilgrim upon earth, having to attain the goal: so always in Philippians. This gives occasion to every kind of exhortation, warning and “if.” Thus he learns obedience and dependence-the two characteristics of the new man. But with this he is led to the sure infallible faithfulness of God to bring him through to the end, and bound to reckon on it. See 1 Corinthians Heb 1:8” 1:8, which I cite because they were going on very badly; but passages abound.

Diligence and earnestness ought to characterise the walk of Christians in these circumstances, in which immediate connection with God and personal conflict with the enemy have to be realised.

The apostle returns to the spirit of meekness and peace, in which the fruits of righteousness are sown. “Do all things,” he says, “without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life”: a very striking passage, because it will be found that in every member of the sentence it is an exact statement of what Christ was. Whatever may be the circumstances in which the assembly is found, such, as respects itself, should ever be its state and its walk. Grace sufficient for this is ever there in Christ.

Unity of spirit among themselves by grace, and a walk according to God, in order that they may be as heavenly lights amid the moral darkness of this world-always carrying, and thus holding forth, the word of life: such was the apostle’s desire. They would thus give proof by the constancy and practical effect of their faith, that the apostle had not run or laboured in vain; and they would themselves be his glory in the day of Christ. Oh, if the assembly had continued such! Be that as it may, Christ will be glorified. The apostle thus unites his work and the reward in the day of Christ with the blessing of the assembly. He would not be separated from it in his death. This union of heart and faith is very touching. He presents himself as capable of being poured out (that is to say, his life) upon the sacrifice and service of the Philippians’ faith. They had shewn their devotedness to Christ in thinking even of His servant; and he looks upon all their faith as an offering to the Saviour and to God; looking at them, Christ’s people, as the substance of the offering, the great thing, himself only as a libation-his life poured out upon the offering. Perhaps his life would be poured out in the service of the gospel, to which they consecrated themselves on their part, and be a seal to this offering of theirs, which was dedicated to God by this sacred bond with the apostle. He rejoiced, if it were so, that his life was poured out: it would crown his work for the Gentiles. He desires too that they also in the same spirit should rejoice in the same thing. It was all one thing, their faith and his, and their common service, offered to God, and well-pleasing to Him; and the most exalted proof of it should be the source of the most sacred joy. This world was not the real scene of that which was going on: what we behold here in connection with the divine work is but the outside. The apostle speaks this language of faith, which ever sees things as before God.

Nevertheless his watchful care did not cease, although he committed the Philippians to God. It is always thus. The love and the faith which commit everything to God do not cease to think according to God of that which is dear to Him. Thus in 1 John, chapter 2, the apostle, while saying that the little children in Christ needed not that any one should teach them, yet instructs them with all tenderness and foresight. Here also the apostle, full of holy solicitude for these souls who were dear to Christ, hopes soon to send Timotheus that he may know their state. But the condition of things is evident. He sends Timotheus because he had no one else in whose heart the same feelings towards them flowed forth from the same spring of love. All sought their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. What an exercise for faith! But what an occasion for its exercise!

Still, with regard to Timotheus, these beloved Philippians should receive him with a heart that responded to the apostle’s confidence. They knew how he had served Paul in the gospel The bonds of love in the gospel are but the stronger-God be praised-when all grows cold. And observe, that God carried on His work, when as to the common testimony of the assembly, everything failed through a coldness which oppressed the apostle’s heart; for God does not weary in His work. This bond however does not fail here with the Philippians either. As soon as Paul knew how it would go with himself, he would send Timotheus to them; but, as he had said, he had confidence in the Lord that he himself should come shortly.

But there was also Epaphroditus, who had come from the Philippians to carry their testimonial of affection to the apostle; and who, the faithful instrument and expression of their love, had risked his own life and suffered from dangerous sickness, in order to accomplish their service. This fine testimony of Christian love breaks out here on every side. Epaphroditus so counts upon the love of the Philippians, that he is much troubled, because they had heard he was sick. He reckons on the feeling they had towards him-the place he had in their affections. Would it not be thus with an affectionate son, who knew that his mother had heard such tidings of him? He would hasten to inform her of his recovery, in order to tranquillise a heart whose love he knew. Such is Christian affection, tender and simple, confiding, because pure and unsuspicious, and walking in the light of God-walking with Him and in the affections which Christ had consecrated as man. Divine love, no doubt, goes higher; but brotherly love, which acts before men and as the fruit among men of that divine love, displays itself thus in grace.

The apostle responds to this affection of the Philippians for him who taught them and laboured in the Lord for them (the Holy Ghost also remembers it here), and he sends back Epaphroditus, encouraging and seeking to sustain this feeling in the heart of the Philippians. He takes part in it himself, and brings into it God’s own tender love. Paul would have had sorrow upon sorrow (and he had much already), if the Philippians had lost their beloved servant and messenger by means of the services he had rendered them; but God had spared Epaphroditus and the apostle himself. He would however have them assured of it by the presence of Epaphroditus again among them; and thus the apostle’s own heart freed from all anxiety, would be also relieved. What a picture of mutual love and kind solicitude!

And observe the ways in which God, according to the apostle, takes part in it. What are presented to us here are His compassions, not the counsels of His love, but compassions worthy of God, and affections of which He approves among men. These affections and this value for labourers are sometimes feared; and so much the more so, because the assembly has in fact to disentangle itself from all false dependence on man. But it is in the entire failure of manifested strength and outward organised bond, through the apostle’s absence, that the Spirit of God develops the play of these inward affections and bonds for the instruction of the assembly; as he acknowledges all that remains of the ruins of its primitive position and its outward bonds. He does not create these anew; but he acknowledges that which still exists. It is only the first verse of the epistle which speaks of this-no more was needed; but the inward bonds he develops largely, not as doctrine, but as fact. God Himself, the apostle, his faithful Timotheus, the valued servant of the Philippians, who was so dear to them, and the fellow-labourer of Paul, the servant of the Lord, the Philippians themselves, all have their part in this precious and beautiful chain of love. The graciousness of the Christian life is thus developed in every part of this chapter; the delicacy of his reproof of the spirit of division; his sending Timothy when he can let them know how it went with him, but Epaphroditus at once because they had heard he had been sick. This graciousness, and consideration of others, note, connects itself with a Christ who humbles Himself. A lowly Christ humbling Himself from Godhead-form down to death, is the spring oflowly graciousness; an exalted One sought in glory, the spring of energy which counts all to be dross and dung to win Him.

After all it was in the Lord Himself that they had to rejoice, and the apostle now puts them on their guard against that which had eaten away the life of the assembly, and produced the painful fruits that filled his heart with anguish, and the deplorable consequences of which we see at this day, even as he foretold-consequences which will yet ripen for the judgment of God. Be this as it may, the Lord does not change. “Rejoice,” he says, “in the Lord.” There all is sure.

That which might prevent their thus rejoicing is developed, as well as the true knowledge of Christ, which preserves us from it: not here according to the doctrine and the practice that belong to the high position of the assembly’s union with a glorified Christ as His body, nor according to the unity which flows from it. This is the subject of the Ephesians. Neither is it according to the urgent necessity of cleaving to the Head, because all fulness is in Him. This is the instruction of the epistle to the Colossians. But, in accordance with the general character of the epistle, the subject is here treated in connection with the personal experiences of the Christian, and, in particular, of the apostle. Accordingly-as was seen in his personal combats and sorrow-he finds himself on the road to the full enjoyment of this object whom he has learnt to know, and the state which his heart desires. This ought to be the Christian’s experience, for, if I am united by the Spirit to the Head as a member of the body of Christ, and if by faith I apprehend this union, it is none the less true that my personal experience (although this faith is its basis) is necessarily in connection with the paths which I follow in order to reach the glory this entitles me to. Not that the sentiments awakened by that which I encounter on this path either falsify or contradict my position in Christ, or destroy the certainty of my starting-point. But, while possessing this certainty, and because I possess it, I know that I have not in fact reached the result of this position in glory. Now, in this epistle, we are on the road, we are individualised in our relations with God; for experience is always individual, although our union with each other as members of Christ forms a part of this experience.

Footnotes for Philippians Chapter 2

5: Observe also, that it is not with regard to that which He suffered, as the effect of His submission to the will of God in the position which He took, that Christ is here presented as our pattern. It is in His voluntary humiliation, the fact that in love He took the last-the lowest-place, that we are called to follow Him. Love serves, love humbles itself-readily takes the meanest position (meanest according to the pride of man) in order to serve, and delights in it. Christ acted from love; He chose to serve. Christ chose to take the low place-He who was able to humble Himself-and we?

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1–4. If there be therefore any consolation, etc. The apostle does not doubt that there is consolation, comfort, spiritual fellowship, etc., in Christ, but bases an exhortation on what the Philippians knew to be the case. Bowels and mercies. “Tender mercies and compassion,” as in the Revision.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul advises the believers to have unity and humility and reminds them of Christ's example.

If there is any encouragement in Christ

"If Christ has encouraged you "

if there is any comfort from his love

"if his love has given you any comfort"

if there is any fellowship of the Spirit

"if you have fellowship with the Spirit"

if there are any tender mercies and compassions

"if you have experienced many of God's acts of tender mercy and compassion"

make my joy full

Paul speaks here of joy as if it were a container that can be filled. AT: "cause me to rejoice greatly" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Christ

love

fellowship

Holy Spirit

mercy

compassion

joy

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

1. εἴ τις σπλάγχνα. So אABCD2G2 and all extant uncials. “Of the cursives nearly the same must be said” (Scrivener, Introd. to Crit. of N. T., ii. 386). Three important copies of vulg read si quid viscera instead of si qua viscera. Basil Chrys (in MS.) τις. A few cursives read εἴ τι. Most copies of vulg favour τινα, and so Clem Alex and other fathers, “as edited” (Tisch). “It may be stated that no MS. whatever has been cited for τινα” (Scrivener, l.c.). LTTr Alf Ltft WH εἴ τις, Ell Wordsw τινα. Tisch thinks that the evidence proves τις to have been “tolerable even to Greek ears.” Scriv, on the other hand, after a strong statement of the evidence, says (p. 387) “yet we may believe the evidence to be as false as it is intolerable, and to afford us another proof of the early and … well nigh universal corruption of our copies in some minute particulars.… Probably St Paul wrote τι, … which would readily be corrupted into τις, by reason of the σ following (ΤΙΣΠΛΑΓΧΝΑ) and the τις which had just preceded.”

1. οὖν. The connexion of thought with the preceding sentences is close. He has pressed on them the duty and blessing of concord and co-operation, and now enforces this with a special appeal to them to minister happiness to himself, in Christ, by obedience.

παράκλησις. Vulg. consolatio; Wyclif, “counforte”; other Eng. versions before R.V., “consolation”; R.V. “comfort.” This latter is best. Παράκλησις (with its cognate verb) habitually (not quite invariably; see perhaps Act 20:12, παρεκλήθησαν οὐ μετρίως) denotes rather encouragement than the tenderer “consolation,” and so “comfort” (confortatio) may fairly represent it. Mutual love at Philippi would strengthen St Paul at Rome.

ἐν Χριστῷ. The παράκλησις would get its power from the union with Christ of the Philippians and the Apostle.

παραμύθιον. Vulg. solatium. The word occurs here only in N. T., and once only in O.T. Greek (Wisd. of Sol. 3:18); παραμυθία occurs 1Co 14:3. Παραμύθιον (as also παραμυθία) is classical; e.g. Soph. El. 130 (Electra to the Chorus): ἥκετʼ ἐμῶν καμάτων παραμύθιον. It means the converse which draws the mind aside (παρα-) from care; the ægrimoniæ alloquium of Horace (Epod. xiii. 18). Our “solace” fairly represents it.

κοινωνία πνεύματος. Cp. 2Co 13:14, ἡ κοινωνία τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος. That parallel fairly fixes the reference of πνεῦμα here to “the one and the self-same Spirit” (1Co 12:11), the promised Paraclete, whom all the saints “share” as their common Life-Giver, Strengthener, and Sanctifier, the One Spirit of the One Body. The article is indeed absent here, and some say that in such cases not the Spirit as Person but His gifts or influences are meant. But such presence or absence of the article is a precarious index of reference when the substantive is a great and familiar word; context or parallels must be brought in.

κοινωνία cum gen. habitually means “participation in.” So he appeals here to their and his part together in the Life-Giver as a motive to holy sympathy.

εἴ τις. On the reading see critical note.

σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί. Vulg. viscera miserationis; Wyclif, happily, “inwardnesse of merci doynge”; A.V. “bowels and mercies”; R.V., better, “tender mercies and compassions.” On the word σπλάγχνα see above on Php 1:8. Οἰκτιρμός appears always, with very few exceptions, in the plural in Biblical Greek.—He appeals with pathetic simplicity and directness, last of all, to their human kindness as such.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore. Paul has spoken, in ch. 1 26, of the Philippians' joy in his presence. Their joy is to find expression in duty - in the fulfillment of their obligations as members of the christian commonwealth, by fighting the good fight of faith and cheerfully appropriating the gift of suffering (ch. 1 27 - 29). Ver. 30, alluding to his own conflicts, marks the transition from the thought of their joy to that of his joy. Therefore, since such is your duty and privilege, fulfill my joy, and show yourselves to be true citizens of God 's kingdom by your humility and unity of spirit.

Consolation [παρακλησις] . Rev., comfort. Better, exhortation. See on Luk 6:24. If Christ, by His example, sufferings, and conflicts, exhorts you.

Comfort of love [παραμυθιον] . Rev., consolation. Only here in the New Testament. From para beside, and muqov speech or word. Para has the same force as in paraklhsiv exhortation (see on Luk 6:24); a word which comes to the side of one to stimulate or comfort him; hence an exhortation, an encouragement. So Plato : "Let this, then, be our exhortation concerning marriage" (" Laws, "773). A motive of persuasion or dissuasion. Plato, speaking of the fear of disgrace, or of ill - repute, says." The obedient nature will readily yield to such incentives "(" Laws," 880). Also an assuagement or abatement. So Sophocles : "Offspring of the noble, ye are come as the assuagement of my woes" (" Electra, "130). Plato :" They say that to the rich are many consolations "(" Republic," 329). Plato also calls certain fruits stimulants [παραμυθια] of a sated appetite (" Critias, " 115). Here in the sense of incentive. As related to exhortation, exhortation uses incentive as a ground of appeal. Christ exhorts, appealing to love. Compare ch. 1 9 sqq. See Rom 5:8; 1Co 13:4; 2Co 5:14; Gal 5:13; Eph 5:2; 1Jo 4:16, etc. The two verbs kindred to exhortation and incentive occur together at 1Th 2:11. See on 1Co 14:3. Render here, if any incentive of love.

Fellowship of the Spirit. Communion with the Holy Spirit, whose first fruit is love. Gal 5:22. Participation in His gifts and influences. Compare 2Pe 1:4, and 2Co 13:13.

Bowels and mercies [σπλαγχνα και οικτιρμοι] . For mercies, see on 2Co 1:3, and compare Col 3:12.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.