Philippians 4:2

Php_4:2

I beseech Euodias and I beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord

Euodias and Syntyche, or the troublesome tongue

1.

Two women connected with the Church were at enmity. They were estimable women and active in Christian work; but they differed and scandal ensued.

2. The cause of the quarrel may have been--

(1) Some important point of doctrine;

(2) A trifling difference of opinion; or

(3) Some slight act or careless word.

The feminine nature was sensitive, offence was taken, disadvantageous things were whispered of each other; then it became a topic of common conversation, and two parties may have been formed.

3. The apostle in his efforts to check the evil wisely abstained from entering into detail. He knew there were two sides to the question. Hence he entreats them to give up their dissention of their own accord from the love of Christ. Euodias fragrance and Syntyche a talker, may have settled their differences; but they stand as permanent examples of the pettiness of mere bickering, and of the danger that arises from uncontrolled use of the tongue. A man or woman can make the whole of life burdensome to some one else by a malicious tongue,

I. Take a few instances or the harm done.

1. Socially. A woman may drop a word concerning a neighbour, hinting that she is extravagant or self-indulgent, and she is noticed, shunned, chilled, embittered. Or a workman can drop a hint concerning another whom he dislikes, suggesting that he does not know his own, or that he is liable to get into much company, or that his work is flimsy, and the man may lose his place and his family their bread.

2. Domestically. Some little article is misplaced on a Sabbath morning, a sharp word is uttered and the family made miserable for the rest of the day.

3. Ecclesiastically. A trifling act or word has often split up a Church, and a slanderous hint whispered about a ministers doctrine or practice which ruins him for life.

4. Religiously. Perhaps the venom of slander is more intense here than anywhere. Under the appearance of anxiety for truth and justice what injury is often done!

5. Internationally. A little thing can kindle a blaze among the nations. A few words by a wanton statesman may start it. Europe is full of explosive materials and the peaceable ever live in danger of having to suffer.

II. There is a period when a quarrel can be checked, but when once started who can say where it will end? In its earliest stages a fire can be quenched with a pint of water, but when it begins to spread who can set bounds to it? The sin of slander is like a maddened horse or a dry forest on fire. A thoughtless scandalous word goes from one to another gathering as it goes. A snowball rolled in snow gathers garbage and whatever may come in its way, becoming solid by rolling and lasting long after all other snow has melted. So when a gossiping tongue drops a hint a whole area of peace may be destroyed for long.

III. Those who are so keen to detect evil in others are often themselves the most guilty. The most worthy are often selected as the objects of bitter attacks, just as we find the best fruit is that at which the birds have been pecking.

IV. Most slander would be starved if no one fed it, but so many are glad to hear of evil. There are those who seem to have no other business but to pick up and spread evil reports. They rejoice in a piece of scandal as a raven does in carrion.

V. The careless tongue often punishes the possessor. The tongue may run away with us like a mad horse, and who shall drag us from the dangerous precipice (Pro_13:13; Pro_21:23). (F. Hastings.)

Private differences

I. Often occur.

II. Occasion much evil.

III. Require gentle interference.

IV. Are best settled in the Lord. (J. Lyth, D. D)

.

Love and strife

I. The transcendent importance of the grace of love.

1. It is the evidence of our standing fast in the Lord. God is love, and to be without love is to be without God. Serious differences among Christians display the lack of it. Where Christians are unanimous the Church is invincible; where divided the Church falls to pieces.

2. The law of love was laid down by Christ--A new commandment give I unto you, etc. Complete attainment is perhaps scarcely attainable here; but a drop may be kindred to the ocean.

3. To the cultivation of this love the greatest importance is attached. We know that we have passed from death unto life, etc. By this shall ell men know that ye are My disciples, etc. The observers of the early disciples said, How they love one another.

II. The dissention between Euodias and Syntyche.

1. Its ground is not mentioned. Perhaps it was something altogether frivolous, for even mature Christians act sometimes like silly children. Perhaps, however, seeing that they were both active they differed about the best modes of carrying on the Lords work. When people are doing a great work enthusiasm often engenders impatience, and words are uttered that are regretted afterwards.

2. Whatever the ground of their dissention, their wise friend Paul had only one advice to give, Be of the same mind. This did not mean have the same views. In the Lord suggests remembrance of the important matters on which they were agreed--how utterly unsuited quarrelling or coldness was for those who were united in the Lord. Christians should agree to differ, and follow out their separate views lovingly and with mutual helpfulness. As there were at first Peter, John, Thomas, Martha, Mary, so there ever will be. Let us imitate the tolerance and catholicity of Christ.

3. Mark the mode of Pauls interference.

(1) He makes not the slightest reference to the cause of dissention. In most cases reconciliation is more likely to be effected by letting the matter sleep and die.

(2) From his apostleship and relations with the Philippians he might have been much bold in Christ to enjoin them that which was convenient; yet for loves sake he rather beseeches them.

(3) He beseeches them separately, and treats them with exactly the same consideration.

(4) He calls in a common friend to help them to a reconciliation (verse 3), a thoroughly discreet friend of both could do not a little to smooth the way. This is a form of delicate work, and is often shunned; yet none more likely to produce blessed results. (R. Johnstone, LL. B.)

Seek peace

I. The peace breakers--

1. Have still their representatives.

2. Destroy their own happiness.

3. Disturb the Church.

II. The peacemakers.

1. Christ, who gives us one mind and heart.

2. His servants, who gently beseech and point to Him. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Disagreements of Christians

Johnny Morton, a keen burgher, and Andrew Gebbie, a decided anti-burgher in the great Presbyterian controversy, both lived in the same house at opposite ends; and it was the bargain that each should keep his own side of the house well thatched. When the dispute about the principle of their kirks grew hot, and especially the offensive clause of the oath, the two neighbours ceased to speak to each other. But one day they happened to be on the roof at the same time, each repairing the slope on his own side, and when they had worked up to the top, there they were face to face. They couldnt flee: so at last Andrew took off his cap, and, scratching his head, said, Johnny, you and me I think have been very foolish to dispute as we hae done, concerning Christs will about our kirks, until we had clean forgot His will about ourselves; and so we hae fought sae bitterly for what we ca the truth, that it has ended in spite. Whatevers wrang, its perfectly certain that it never can be right to be uncivil, unneighbourly, unkind, and in fac tae hate ane anither. Na, na! thats the deevils wark and no Gods. Noo it strikes me, that may be its wi the kirk as wi this house--yere working on ae side and me on tither; but if we only do our work weel we will meet at the tap at last. Gies your han, auld neighbour! And so they shook hands, and were the best of friends ever after. (E. Foster.)

What is needed by dissentients

What two men want whose ill-temper and mutual distrust are daily becoming worse is a common friend whose hearty affection for both will utterly drive away their evil thoughts. There are people of that kind. Their face, their tone, their gestures, are all conductors of a mysterious but most Divine force that is not to be resisted. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

The method of peacemaking

One sure way of peacemaking is to let the fire of contention alone. Neither fan it, nor stir it, nor add fuel to it, but let it go out of itself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Union in Christ

The union of Christians to Christ their common Head, and the means of the influence which they derive from Him, one to another, may be illustrated by the loadstone; it not only attracts the particles of iron to itself by the magnetic virtue, it unites them one among another. (R. Cecil, M. A.)

Strife among Christians ruinous

Quickly following upon the battle of Chancellorsville, a cry was raised by the rearguard of Stuarts cavalry, The enemy is upon us. Shots began to be fired in all directions, and the whole army was soon in a panic of fright. The First and Third Virginia Regiments, no longer recognizing each other, charged upon each other mutually: while Stuarts mounted men, generally so brave and so steadfast, no longer obeyed the orders of their officers, and galloped off in great disorder. When at last quiet was restored, the number of wounded was seen to be sadly numerous. (M. O. Mackay.)

Strife among Christians often the result of mistake

During one of the wars between the English and French, two war vessels met in fearful encounter. It was too dark to distinguish friends from foes; but each supposed itself engaged with the common enemy. When the darkness lifted, both ships were seen flying the English flag. They saluted each other, and grieved sadly over their disastrous mistake.

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

VI. CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS, Php_4:2-9.

1. To individuals, Php_4:2-3.

2. Beseech—Euodia and Syntyche were two women of prominence in the Church, who unhappily had fallen into dissensions. Nothing more than is here stated is known respecting them or their disagreement. The counsel given to all in Php_2:2, is specifically repeated to them both, showing that they were both in fault, and must each seek a better and a Christian spirit.

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_4:3. And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow.—It is doubtful whom the apostle addresses. On the whole, however, it seems most probable that Epaphroditus, the bearer of the epistle, is intended (so Lightfoot, following Hofmann). Meyer says: “Laying aside arbitrariness and seeing that the address is surrounded by proper names, we can only find in the word for ‘yokefellow’ a proper name, … genuine Syzygus, i.e. thou who art in reality and substantially that which thy name expresses: “fellow-in-yoke, fellow-labourer.” Whose names are in the book of life.—St. Paul had before said the polity of the Christians was a heavenly one. Here he says there is a “burgess list” from which no name of a true citizen is ever by accident omitted—though by any chance he might have omitted to mention his co-workers in his epistle.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Php_4:2-3

Glimpses of Life in the Early Church.

I. The early planting of the gospel involved arduous and united toil.—“Which laboured with me in the gospel” (Php_4:3). Prodigious as were the labours of Paul, he could never have accomplished the work he did but for the willing co-operation of others. There is great art in evoking the sympathy and help of those who can help forward the work of God. Christian work finds scope for all kinds of talents and agencies. Pioneer work is rough work and tests all our powers and resources. The difficulties of the work unite its propagators in heart and hand. There is little good done without strenuous labour, though the results of our toil are not always immediately apparent. Dr. Judson laboured diligently for six years in Burmah before he baptised a convert. At the end of three years he was asked what evidence he had of ultimate success. He replied, “As much as there is a God who will fulfil all His promises.” A hundred churches and thousands of converts already answer his faith.

II. The names of gospel pioneers are not forgotten.—“With Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life” (Php_4:3). Some of these names are recorded in the pages of history and handed down to our day; the rest, though unknown on earth, are registered in the imperishable pages of “the book of life.” Clement, though unknown to fame and unidentified with any other of the same name mentioned in history, is referred to here as recognising the apostle’s cordial recollection of his valuable work. But the unknown on earth are not forgotten in heaven. The work we do for God will live for ever. When Columbus was homeward bound after his brilliant discovery of a new world he was overtaken by a terrific storm. In his indescribable agony that not only his life and that of his crew, but his magnificent discovery must all go down and be lost in the abyss, and that, too, not far from land, he committed to the deep hurried entries of that discovery sealed up in bottles, in the hope that some day they might reach land. We need not be unduly anxious about either our work or our fame; God will take care of both.

III. From the earliest times women have rendered valuable help in the propagation of the gospel.—“Euodias, Syntyche, … women which laboured with me in the gospel” (Php_4:2-3). In the Temple worship the Jewish women were fenced off in a court by themselves. The woman occupied an inferior religious position in Rabbinical teaching. It was a shock to public feeling to see a rabbi talking to a female. Even the disciples were surprised that their Master should be found conversing with a woman on the brink of the Samaritan well. Jesus Christ broke down this middle wall of partition as He had broken down the other. Here, again, He made both one. If in Christ there is no distinction of Jew and Gentile, neither is there of male or female. Women were His faithful and constant attendants; women were the favoured witnesses of His resurrection; women were among the most helpful fellow-workers of the apostles. There was an organised ministry of women deaconesses and widows in the Apostolic Church. “What women those Christians have,” exclaimed the heathen rhetorician, on learning about Anthusa, the mother of Chrysostom. Anthusa at the early age of twenty lost her husband, and thenceforward devoted herself wholly to the education of her son, refusing all offers of further marriage. Her intelligence and piety moulded the boy’s character and shaped the destiny of the man, who in his subsequent eminence never forgot what he owed to maternal influence. It is no exaggeration to say that we owe those rich homilies of Chrysostom, of which interpreters of Scripture still make great use, to the mind and heart of Anthusa.

IV. We learn the apostolic method of reconciling two eminent women in serious disagreement.—

1. He addresses to each an earnest and pointed exhortation to unity. “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord” (Php_4:2). He repeats the entreaty to show that he placed the like obligation on each of them. He does not exhort the one to be reconciled to the other, for they might have doubted who should take the initiative, and they might wonder, from the position of their names and construction of the sentence, to which of them the apostle attached the more blame. But he exhorts them both, the one and the other, to think the same thing—not only to come to a mutual understanding, but to preserve it. The cause of quarrel might be some unworthy question about priority or privilege, even in the prosecution of the good work—vainglory leading to strife. It does not seem to have been any difference in creed or practice (Eadie).

2. He recognises their devoted and impartial labours.—“Those women which laboured with me in the gospel” (Php_4:3). Their work does not appear to have been done from personal friendship, as is often the case; they treated all and helped all alike. They were deeply interested in the spread of the gospel and the increase of the Church, and toiled with such self-sacrificing devotion as to elicit the special commendation of the apostle.

3. He entreated that help might be rendered them in the adjustment of their quarrel.—“And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women” (Php_4:3). A third party is appealed to, to interpose his good offices—an evidence that Paul regarded the harmony of these two women a matter of no small importance. Mediation between two persons at variance is delicate and difficult work, but if judiciously done may help to a reconciliation. Women were the first to receive the gospel at Philippi, and from the first used their influence and opportunities in commending it to their sex. The unseemly misunderstanding between these two women whose labours had been so blessed made it the more necessary that something should be done to heal the breach.

Lessons.—

1. Pioneer work has special hardships and temptations.

2. The best of women may quarrel.

3. It is the wise policy of the Christian statesman to compose and strive to prevent discord and disunion.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Php_4:2. Feminine Disagreement—

I. May occasion much mischief in a Church.

II. All the more dangerous where the parties are eminent in gifts and labours (Php_4:3).

III. Reconciled when truly possessing one mind in Christ.—“Be of the same mind in the Lord.”

IV. The most earnest entreaty should be employed to rectify.—“I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche.”

Php_4:3. Names in the Book.

1. Some observations.—

1. It is a great thing to have a name in the New Testament.—Think of the roll-call in Romans 16 and Hebrews 11.

2. It is a great thing now to have a name in the family Bible, for that generally signifies Christian training and parental prayers.

3. It is a great thing to have a name upon the pages of a church register.—How affecting are these old manuals, with their lists of pious men and women, many of whom have passed into the skies.

4. It is the greatest thing of all to have a name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.—Beyond all fame (Mat_11:11). Beyond all power (Luk_10:20).

II. Some questions.—

1. In how many books is your name written now?

2. How can a human name be written securely in the Lamb’s Book of Life?

3. To backsliders: are you going to return to your name, or do you want it to come back to you?

4. To Christian workers: how many names have you helped to write in the Book of Life?

5. Is there any cheer in thinking how our names will sound when the books are opened in the white light of the throne?—Homiletic Monthly.

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.

VI. SECTION FIFTH.

Concluding exhortations designed to secure co-operation between the philippians and the Apostle.

Php_4:2-20.

(1). Exhortation to unity addressed to individuals

Php_4:2-3.

2I beseech Euodias [Euodia]1, and [I] beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same 3mind in the Lord. (And) [Yea]2 I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those [these] women,3 who labored [strove] with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other4 [others] my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Php_4:2. I beseech Euodia, and I beseech Syntyche, Ἐὐοδίαν παρακαλῶ καὶ Συντύχην παρακαλῶ. From the general exhortation (Php_4:1) the Apostle passes to one addressed to individuals. The relation of the persons being known to the readers, it was unnecessary to describe it. The repeated παρακαλῶ, I exhort (not so correctly beseech) indicates that each of them needed the admonition; they were both in fault. The repetition is not merely ad vehementiam affectus significandam (Erasmus). The names, common also elsewhere, belong to women, as αὐταῖς (Php_4:3) demands; but the persons are otherwise unknown. Grotius incorrectly regards both as men. Hammond regards only the second as a man, and Bauer both as parties. Schwegler regards the first as the Jewish party, the second as the Gentile Christian party; but they did not labor with Paul (συνήθλησάν μοι). The Apostle exhorts:—That they be of the same mind in the Lord (τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν ἐν κυρίῳ). See Php_2:2. On this agreement the Apostle lays special stress; it belongs to the στήκετε ἐν κυρίῳ. They must in some way have been alienated, but on what occasion, in what cause or manner, is not stated or hinted. Hence it cannot be said that, as the expression is borrowed from Php_2:2, the motives for this estrangement must have corresponded to those mentioned in Php_2:3 (Wiesinger, De Wette). With as little reason can it be said that they are deaconesses. [Those who hold that such an order existed in the primitive church generally think that these women belonged to it, and that their variance was the more unworthy on that account.—H.]

Php_4:3. Yea I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow. Ναί, very common as particula offirmantis, but as particula obsecrantis, only elsewhere in Rev_22:20. It indicates the seriousness of the affair to the Apostle that he turns with his entreaties (ἐρωτῶ), to still another (καί σε) besides the women. It is not clear who it is that he invokes in γνήσιε σύζυγε. The substantive, in the N. T. found only here, is plain from its opposite, ἑτεροζυγεῖν (2Co_6:14), as also from the use of ζυγός (figuratively: Mat_9:29-30; Act_15:10; Gal_5:1; literally, 1Ti_6:1; Rev_6:5); hence partner, associate, and the relation of this person to Paul is described as very close, as that of one who draws at the same yoke with himself. It is a stricter connection than that of συνεργός. The epithet γνήσιε describes the nature and character of this person (Php_2:20) as genuine, pure, true. Hence it cannot appear strange that Paul did not address him by name: every one is supposed to know him. It is incorrect to regard σύζυγε as a name (Chrysostom, Meyer, distinctly; Wiesinger with hesitation), as a designation of Epaphroditus (Grotius), or of Timothy (Estius), for these could not have been addressed as in Philippi; or arbitrarily of Silas (Bengel), of the husband of one of two women (the Greek interpreters)‚ or of Paul’s wife (Clemens Alex., Erasmus, et al.) contrary to the history (1Co_7:8) and against the grammar (masculine form). [The noun may be masculine or feminine, but the adj. has properly three terminations, and must be masculine here. Other conjectures, on the supposition that an anonymous person is meant are, that it may have been Luke who appears to have been absent from Rome when the Epistle was written (see on Php_1:1) or Epaphroditus (Lightfoot) at the side of Paul as he wrote, and whom he addressed (παρακαλῶ) at the moment.—H.] Laurent’s view (Neutest. Studien, pp. 134–137) is worthy of notice. In reply to the assertion that the name Syzygus does not occur, he remarks that names are not objects of literature, but products of social or civil life, as for example, Onesimus, Tryphena, and Tryphosa (Rom_16:12). He explains the passage thus: “Thou, who, a genuine Syzygus, hast already by thy birth (γνήσιε) and thy name been called to be a yoke fellow and helper of all laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, lay hold now also of the work together with these two sisters, that they through thy aid may carry it forward with one spirit, not as heretofore, in discord! For Paul does not mean to blame them (as in Php_2:20) but to praise them, and hence would not imply that he has only one γνήσιον σύζυγον in Philippi.” Like Εὐοδία (way of faith), Syntyche and Syzygus appear to him to have been names received after baptism, as in the case of others, whose names are more familiar to us. [The best view after all seems to be that of Meyer, Laurent, and others, that Syzygus or Synzygus (σύνζυγος) is a proper name, borne by one who had been associated with Paul in Christian labors, who was at Philippi when the Apostle wrote the letter, and was well known there as deserving the encomium which this appeal to him implies. Paul nowhere uses this word (σύζυγος) of any one of his official associates, being used in fact nowhere else in the N. T.; it is found here in the midst of other proper names (Php_4:2-3); and the attributive γνήσιε corresponds finely and significantly to the appellative sense of such a name. That such an alliteration is not foreign to Paul’s manner, see Philem., Php_4:10-11. The name, it is true, does not appear anywhere else; but many other names also are found only in single instances, and certainly many names to us must have been in use among the ancients which have not been transmitted at all. Paul himself repeatedly mentions persons in his epistles who are named only once, and a catalogue of names might be made out from the Acts of the Apostles, of those whose whole history for us lies in a single passage. See Meyer’s Brief an die Philipper on Php_4:3.—H.]—Help these women (συλλαμβάνου αὐταῖς) presents the object of the request. The verb (Luk_5:1) signifies ‘to take hold vigorously with,’ ‘to assist one,’ i.e., hero to re-establish harmony, it is not ut habeant, unde se suosque sustentent (Grotius), against the context.—Who strove with me in the gospel, states the motive for helping these women in the work of reconciliation. Hence he adds αἴτινες=ut quæ (see Eph_1:23). Ἐν εὐαγγελίῳ marks the sphere, as in 1Th_3:2, in which they had labored with him (συνήθλησάν μοι). The verb points back to the beginning of Christianity at Philippi, when the women embraced it (Act_16:13), and had exerted themselves to advance it. They had contended at Paul’s side for the gospel, and ought not now to strive against one another, against Christianity and against Paul; they are so useful and deserving in other respects, they should be right also in their relation to each other.—With Clement also, and with my other fellow-laborers (μετὰ καὶ Κλήμεντος καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν συνεργῶν μου), brings to view the fact that various persons at Philippi at that time were harmoniously engaged in behalf of the gospel, men, as Clement and others, as well as (καί-καί) women associated with them. Paul thus exalts the merits of Syntyche and Euodia who labored in such company. Clement was a Philippian; which is evident, but nothing; further, not even that he was a teacher (Meyer). We have no right to suppose him to have been. Clemens Romanus (Catholics), or Flavius Clemens, Domitian’s patruelis (Baur). He does not of course mention the λοιποὶ συνεργοί by name, because it is superfluous, as in the case, of the γνήσιος σύζυγος. [The closer proximity and the nature of the thought connect μετα συνεργῶν μου with συνήθλησαν, rather than with συλλαμβάνου αὐταῖς. The position and influence of the women as co-partners in Christian service with Paul and his associates rendered the spectacle and effects of such strife the more deplorable, and thus enforced the appeal (συλλαμβάνου) to strive the more earnestly to promote harmony between them.—H.]. In his joy on their account he adds:—Whose names are in the book of life, ὦν ὀνόματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς. [We are to refer ω̇͂ν ζωῆς to τῶν λοιπῶν apart from Clement, because the Apostle having named the latter would recognize the others though unnamed by him, as yet having their names written in heaven (Meyer, Ellicott and others). This expression does not of itself decide whether these other fellow-laborers were living: or dead, but certainly it is altogether improbable that Clement was the only one of them who still remained.—H.] The figurative expression was suggested perhaps by Php_3:20, for the registers of the citizens of Israel, out of which one’s name was erased on his decease prepared the way for the expression םֶכֶּר חַיִּים (Exo_32:32; Isa_4:3; Eze_13:9; Psa_69:29; Dan_12:1) which was adopted in the N. T. (Luk_10:20; Act_3:5; Act_13:8; Act_17:8; Act_20:15) in order to mark the certainty of the eternal inheritance, the blessedness which is to be reached by faithful striving. [It is clear from the expression “blotting out of the book,” (Rev_3:5) that the image suggested no idea of absolute predestination. For the use of the phrase in Rabbinical writers see Wetstein here (Lightfoot).—H.] Ἐστί is to be supplied, not the optative (Bengel). It is the joyful certainty, not a wish that Paul has in mind here.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1.The servant of the word of God ought not only to exhort the whole church from the pulpit, but also with a special care for souls to warn individuals.

2. The pastor in his oversight of souls should not stand alone, but be aided by others properly qualified. The lay-element should be cultivated for the service of the church.

3. Goodness at the beginning does not protect one from a fall afterward, nor courageous striving for the gospel from ill-natured arrogance towards others, nor the vanquishing of outward foes from weak indulgence towards one’s self.

4. The unity of the church as a body must extend into the narrowest circle of neighborhood and home.

5. He who will exhort, incite others, must generously recognize what is praiseworthy, and attach himself to the good which already exists.

6. Women are to be highly esteemed in the church for their services; but they should act with men (μετά), and not work independently.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Starke:—There are peace-disturbers enough, but not so many peace-makers. To the work then! and help check those who love contention, and thus make peace!—Even women are to help in extending the kingdom of God with their prayers, gifts, good counsel, etc., and to contend fearlessly for the gospel.

Rieger:—A tried, approved mediator can often by the grace of God adjust many difficulties.

Schleiermacher:—Let us strive with all our powers to extend Christian fellowship, and yet not weaken it.

Heubner:—To have a genuine collengue is not a privilege granted to every one (Php_4:3).

Footnotes:

[1]Php_4:1. [On this change of the name see notes below. The Geneva version has the feminine form of the name instead of the masculine. Stephens’ text has Εὐωδίαν, which means ‘fragrance;’ but the correct reading is Εὐοδίαν, ‘good way,’ according to all the uncial manuscripts.—H.]

[2]Php_4:2. [The common text has καί, but ναί is undoubtedly the correct reading—H.]

[3]Ibid. [Our English version misleads the reader here. In the Greek the first pronoun (αὐταῖς, ‘them’), refers to Euodia and Syntiche, and the second (αἵτινες=‘since they’) assign them to the class of co-laborers with Paul whose toil and conflicts (συνῆθλησαν) they had shared. The translation therefore might be: ‘help them, since they labored,’ etc.—H.]

[4]Ibid. [For this use of ‘other’ (=others) see the note on Php_2:3. Instead of the appositional form it may be rendered: ‘the rest of my co-laborers.’—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.

Chapter 17

PEACE AND JOY.

Php_4:2-7 (R.V.)

DR. LIGHTFOOT has observed that the passages in the Acts of the Apostles which record the Macedonian experiences of Paul have a good deal to say about women. {Acts 16-17} They convey the impression that in Macedonia women had a position and exercised an influence, at least in religious matters, that was not usual in the Greek world. And he has appealed to the remains of ancient Macedonian inscriptions to support the general idea that exceptional respect was accorded to women in that country. Here, at any rate, we have two women of note in the Church at Philippi. They might, very likely, possess social standing and influence. They had been qualified to render, and in point of fact did render, important help in setting forward the cause of Christ in that city. We cannot doubt therefore that they were warm-hearted Christian women, who had deeply felt the power of the gospel, so that, like many of their sisters in later days, they gladly embarked in the service of it. In those days such service on the part of women implied no small effort of faith; and doubtless it had cost them something in the way of cross-bearing. But now, disagreements and estrangement had fallen out between them. Most likely the keen practical energies, which made them serviceable Christians, had brought about collision on some points in which their views differed. And then they had not managed the difference well. Self came in, and coloured and deepened it. Now, one may think, they were in danger of being always ready to differ, and to differ with mutual distrust and dislike.

People cannot always think alike, not even Christians who share the same service. But there is a Christian way of behaving about these inevitable divergences. And, in particular, in such cases we might be expected to show a superiority, in Christ our Lord, to minor differences, not allowing them to trouble the great agreement and the dear affection in which Christ has bound us. Whatever is to be said about a difference, as to its merits, the main thing that has to be said about it often is, "You should not have let it come between you. You should both of you have been big enough and strong enough in Christ, to know how to drop it and forget it. In making so much of it, in allowing it to make so much of itself, you have been children, and naughty children."

What this difference was we do not know; and it is of no consequence. Paul does not address himself to it. He holds both parties to be in the wrong now, and, for his purpose, equally in the wrong; and he addresses entreaty to both, in exactly the same terms, to agree in Christ and be done with it: no longer to allow this thing to mar their own edification and hinder the cause of Christ. Yet, while he is sure that this is the right way, he does not conceal from himself how difficult human nature finds it to come happily out of such a complication. So he appeals to some old comrade at Philippi, whom he calls his "genuine yokefellow," to lend a hand. A Christian bystander, a friend of both parties, might help them out of the difficulty. In this connection the apostles mind goes back to happy days of cordial effort at Philippi, in which these women, and the "yokefellow," and Clement, and others had all been at work, shoulder to shoulder, all rejoicing in the common salvation and the joint service.

In difficulties between Christians, as between other people, wise and loving friendship may perform the most important services. Selfishness shrinks from rendering these; and on the other hand, meddlesomeness, which is a form of egotism combined with coarseness, rushes in only to do harm. Wisdom is needed, mainly the wisdom which consists in loving thoughtfulness. The love which seeketh not her own, and is not easily provoked, is much called for in this ministry of reconciliation.

These good women had little idea, probably, that their names should come down the ages in connection with this disagreement of theirs; and they might have deprecated it if they had thought of it. But let them be remembered with all honour-two saints of God, who loved and laboured for Christ, who bore the cross, and each of whom was so important to the Church, that it was a matter of public interest to have this difficulty removed out of the way of both. As to it, we of later times have not succeeded in keeping Christian activity so free of personal misunderstandings as to be entitled on this account to assume any attitude of superiority. Let us think only with tenderness and affection of those venerable and beloved, those long-remembered mothers in Christ, Euodia and Syntyche.

The commentators have tried to divine something further about this "true yokefellow"; but with no success. As to Clement, some have been willing to identify him with the Clement known to have laboured in the first age at Rome, and who is reported to have been the writer of a. well-known Epistle from the Church at Rome to that at Corinth. He, again, has been by some identified with another Clement, also a Roman, a near relation of the Emperor Domitian, whom we have reason to believe to have been a Christian. Both identifications are probably mistaken; and the Clement now before us was no doubt resident at Philippi, and belonged to a somewhat earlier generation than his Roman namesake. The Roman world was full of Clements, and there is nothing surprising in meeting several Christians who bore the name.

With the "yokefellow" and with Clement, the Apostle recalls other "labourers" who belonged to the fellowship of those gospel days at Philippi. We are not to think that they were all gifted as teachers or preachers; but they were zealous Christians who helped as they could to gather and to confirm the Church. Paul will not give their names; but it must not be thought that the names have ceased to be dear and honourable to him. "They shall not be in my letter," he says, "but they are written in even a better place, in the book of life. They are precious, not to me only, but to my Master." Here, again, if any one had asked Paul how he ventured to speak with so much assurance of the condition of persons whose course was not yet ended, he would no doubt have replied, as in: Php_1:7 "It is meet for me to think thus of them, because I have them in my heart: because both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, they all are partakers with me of grace."

These personal references indicate that the main burden of the Apostles thought in the Epistle has been disposed of, and that it is drawing to a close. Yet he finds it natural to add some closing admonitions. They are brief and pithy; they do not seem to labour with the weight of thought and feeling which pours through the preceding chapter. Yet they are not quite fragmentary. A definite conception of the case to be provided for underlies them, and also a definite conception of the way in which its necessities are to be met.

He had been pouring out his soul on the subject of the true Christian life-the deep sources from which it springs, the great channels in which it runs, the magnificent conditions of Christs kingdom under which it becomes possible and is accomplished. But yet, another order of things crosses all this. It is the incessant detail of human life on earth, with its pettiness and superficiality, and yet with its inevitable hold upon us all. How much we are at the mercy of it! How hard to keep quite true to the grand music of the gospel we believe, amid the multifarious patter of the incidents of life, playing on the surface only, but on the sensitive surface of our being. The case of Euodia and Syntyche was but itself an illustration of the commonest kind, of the liability of believing lives to be swayed and marred in this way. For all these little things claim attention; they assume a magnitude that does not belong to them, and they take a place to which they have no right. Can anything be said to help us to some prevailing mood, in which we shall be likely to take the right attitude toward these elements of life, and, at the same time, to keep due touch with the springs of our spiritual welfare?

The Apostle reverts to the significant "goodbye" which was heard at the beginning of the third chapter. "Rejoice," "Be of good cheer," was the usual farewell salute. He had begun to use it in the third chapter, with an emphasis on the native signification of the word. Now he resumes it more emphatically still, for here he finds the keynote which he wants: "Rejoice in the Lord alway; again I will say it, Rejoice."

If joy be possible, it would seem to need no great persuasion to induce men to embrace it. But, as a matter of fact, Christians fail greatly here. In the Old Testament there are abundant exhortations to Israel to rejoice in the Lord: the Lord being Jehovah, without further distinction or limitation; and the ground of rejoicing being His revealed character, especially His mercy and His truth, and the fact that He is Israels God. Here the Lord is our Lord Jesus, in whom the Father is both known and found. Now, to rejoice in Him is, and should be recognised as being, for believers, the most direct inference from their faith. For if this Lord be what the believer holds Him to be, then there is more in Christ to make him glad, than there can be in anything whatever to make him sorry. This applies even to remembered sin; for where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. If indeed the joy be really in the Lord, it will be found to agree well with humility and penitence, as well as with diligence and patience; for all these things, and whatever should accompany them, come naturally from faith in Christ. But not the less, joy should have its place and its exercise.

If one will think of it, it will be plain that rejoicing in the Lord just denotes this, viz., that the influence of the objects of faith has free play through the soul. It is well that faith should bring our intellective powers under its influence-that we should be brought to a vivid sense of the reality of Christ, and that our minds should work in reference to Him as they do in reference to things which are felt to be real, and which claim to be understood. That is well, even if, as yet, some malign force seems to impede cordial appreciation and personal fellowship. It is well, again, if Christ is felt drawing out personal trust, and with that, genuine affection, so that the heart beats with desire and admiration, even though for the present that can only be under the burden of a perplexed and sorrowful mind. But when the conviction makes way through all the soul, first that Christ is most real, and second that Christ is most good and desirable, and thirdly that Christ is for me, and when the soul surrenders thoroughly to it all, then gladness is the token that faith is playing through the human soul, throughout all its provinces. It is the flag hoisted to signify that Christ is believed and loved indeed. On the other hand, wrong is done to the Lord, and an evil report is brought up upon Him, when those who profess to believe in Him fail to rejoice in Him.

You well may rejoice in the Lord; you ought surely to do it. You ought to give yourselves time to think and feel so as to rejoice; you should be ashamed to fail to rejoice. You do not apprehend aright your position as a believer, you do not take the attitude that befits you, if the Lord believed in, though perhaps He makes you diligent, and patient, and penitent, and thankful, does not also make you heartily glad. Let the elements of this gladness come warm home to your heart and do their work. Then you will realise as, short of this, you never can, how the believer rises above the things that threaten to entangle him, and can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him.

And, in particular, how influential this is to preserve men from being unduly moved and swayed by the passing things of time! These sway us by joy and grief, by hope and fear; and what an inordinate measure of those affections they do beget in us! but let the great joy of the Lord have its place, and then those lesser claimants will have to content themselves with smaller room. A great grief shuts out lesser griefs. When a woman has lost her son, will she grieve greatly for the loss of her purse? So a great joy keeps down the excess of lesser joys. A man that has just won the heart and hand of the woman he loves will not be greatly concerned about winning or losing at some game. He will be about equally glad either way. So he whose heart thrills with the joy of Christ will feel the pleasure and pain of earthly things; but they will not master him, nor run away with him.

According to the Apostle, a believer in the way of his duty, if he cherishes this joy, may ordinarily have a great deal of it. And, as it were, he urges us: "Now do not be moved away from it. Do not be so foolish. Various things will come, all sorts of things, claiming to preoccupy your mind, so that for the present this joy shall fall into the background. They claim it-and far too often they are allowed to succeed. Do not let them. Rejoice in the Lord alway; again I will say, Rejoice."

Always: for many believers rejoice in the Lord sometimes; for example, in hours of undisturbed meditation. But when they go out into the stir of life, to meet experiences which neither greatly gratify nor greatly grieve them, then it seems fit that the new passion should have its turn, and the heart insists on this indulgence. So also when some great hope absorbs the mind, or some great anxiety weighs upon it, the soul seems fascinated with the coming good or ill, and hangs upon the prospect as if nothing else for the present could be minded. Now the Apostle does not say that insensibility is the duty of Christians in these circumstances. Indeed it is because these experiences do interest and impress, that they become an effective instrument of Divine training. But Christ is fit to be rejoiced in, right through all vicissitudes; and common experiences, duly dealt with, ought to throw into relief the reasons why He must still be cause of gladness, whatever may be felt about other things. This maintained joy of the Lord - a rejoicing faith, a rejoicing love, a rejoicing obedience-this is the temper in virtue of which all else of life will fall into its due place, and will assume its just proportion. "Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." {Hab_3:17-18}

So then, "Let your moderation (or forbearance) be known to all men." The word here used expresses a state of mind opposed to the eagerness that overrates the worth of our personal objects, and to the arrogance that insists on our own will about them. Some would render it "considerateness." It is a temper which dictates a gentle and forbearing way of dealing with men. This is the appropriate evidence that the impetuosity of the heart about earthly things has been assuaged by the unseen presence and the influence of Christ. Christ seen, felt, and rejoiced in, is the secret of this moderation. A great vision of faith, and that not a vision which is dreaded, but a vision which is loved, brings the movement of the soul into a happy order. Now, not only so: not only does the love of Christ, unseen and absent, work in this way; but Christ is coming and is near. The hopes connected with Him are soon to be realised, the gladness of fellowship with Him is soon to be complete. The Lord is at hand. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Stablish your hearts. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." {Jam_5:7}

For believers, as we have already seen, the coming of the Lord is, according to the New Testament, the great hope. Then the joy in the Lord is to be complete and crowned. Those who apprehend that glad day as near are not supposed to be capable of yielding up their hearts to the uncontrolled sway of mere earthly interests.

Here, however, a question arises. Paul speaks of the day as near, and calls on his disciples to live under the influence of that belief. He does not merely say that it may be near, but that it is. Yet we now know that the day was then more than eighteen hundred years away. In the light of this fact one asks what we are to make of the statement before us, and what we are to make of the view of Christian life which the statement implies.

Our Lord expressly withheld from His disciples all definite statement of times and seasons in this connection. Yet the Early Church with one consent expected the Lord to come within comparatively few years (what are commonly called few), and language shaped itself in accordance with that impression. We have here, however, more than a mere mode of phrasing. The nearness of Christ is emphasised as the ground on which Christian experience ought to build. Was not this a mistake?

But one may ask in reply, Was it after all untrue that Christs coming was near then, or that it is near now? Even if anticipations in our own day which bring it within a generation are to fail again, as they have always done before, shall we think that the Lord is not near?

There is a nearness which pertains to all future events which are at once very great and important, and also are absolutely certain. Being so great, involving interests so great, and being contemplated in their inevitable certainty, such events can loom large upon the eye, and they can make their influence felt in the present, whatever tale of days may interpose before they actually arrive. If, for instance, one were told of a friend, whom he supposed he might meet at any time, "You shall certainly see him six months hence," the reply might be, "Six months! That is a long time to wait." But if he were told with infallible authority, "Six months hence you shall die," would he then say, "It is a long time"? Would he not feel that it was near? Would not an event so momentous as death, so inclusive of all interests and all issues, prove able to stretch, as it were, across six months, and to come into each day, as part of that days concern? So of the coming of Christ. It is the great event for the individual, the Church, the world. All issues run up to it; all developments are broken off by it; all earthly histories await its decision. To it all earthly movement tends; from it all that lies beyond is dated. It is the great gate of the world to come. Let us think what it means: and suppose that we could be assured that it is still ten thousand years away, shall we say, "How far off it is"? Not if we believe in its certainty, and realise what it means. If we do so our hearts will stir and thrill as we hearken how the surges of the eternal world are beating on the thin barrier of ten thousand years. Come when it may, it comes hasting to us, pressing before it all that lies between, big with the decisions and the fulfilments of Eternity. If we truly believe and rightly estimate it, we shall feel that it is near-even at the door. We shall be aware whenever we look forward that beyond all possible events of earthly history it rises high, catching and holding our gaze, and hurrying toward our individual selves not one whir the less because it aims at others too.

We are apt to ask why the words of warning and encouragement in reference to the future are not connected with the prospect of death, rather than with that of the Lords return; for death certainly is the topic generally selected for such purposes by moralists and preachers of more recent days. The answer may partly be, that the possibility and likelihood of the Lords return, even in the lifetime of themselves and their contemporaries, might render it more natural for the Apostles to fix all but exclusively on that. Yet this will not suffice. For nobody could overlook the fact that some believers were dying, and that death before the Lords return might well be the portion of more. Besides, in particular circumstances, death does come into view in a perfectly easy and natural way, as at Php_1:23; and the bearing of it on what lies nearer is considered. The true answer is that death is not the great expectation of the believer-not death, but victory over death, consummated and conclusively manifested when the Lord comes. This expectation is certainly associated with the solemn prospect of judgment; but not so as to quench the gladness of the hope for those who love the Lord and have trusted in Him. This is our expectation -" the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope." {1Ti_1:1} Death is a great event; but it is negative, privative, and, after all, provisional. True, it seals us up for the coming of the Lord, and so, in many respects, it may be, for many purposes, practically identified with that coming. The sermons which are preached upon it, commonly from Old Testament texts, are, no doubt, well grounded and edifying. But the New Testament, speaking to believers, all but constantly passes on to the day of the Lord as the true focus of the future; and it will be well for us to conform our thinking and our feeling to this model. No one can estimate, who has not made it matter of personal study, how large and how influential a place this topic takes in New Testament teaching.

Meanwhile, no doubt, the vicissitudes and the possibilities of earthly life press upon us. Now the Apostle provides a special additional relief for that. We are not merely prepossessed with a joy that should fortify us against undue disturbance from this source, but we have access in all things to the mind and heart of our Father. We can bring our thoughts and wishes about them all into contact with the deep, true thoughts and with the fatherly love of God. The incidents and the possibilities of life exercise us: they tend to become anxieties, keen and wearing; and anxieties are the materials of disturbance and temptation. "Be anxious about nothing; but in all things by prayer and supplication, with thankfulness, let your requests be made known unto God."

This is the practical way of getting continually to those springs of joy which comfort and establish the heart. The way to be anxious about nothing is to be prayerful about everything.

It is promised that when we pray in faith God hears us, and that he that asketh receiveth. However, this does not mean that whatever appears to us desirable shall certainly be brought to pass in answer to prayer. That would be to sacrifice our own welfare, and also the order of Gods world, to our shortsightedness and vanity. There is great reason to believe indeed that those who live by prayer find many a desire granted, and many a burden lifted, in token of Gods loving interest in them, and the heed He gives to their prayers. But we are not to start from a general principle that we are to get all our own way by praying. Two things we may fix upon: First, the absolute promises of the gospel, the blessings which pertain to eternal life, are given to us through prayer. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." Secondly, concerning all other things we have access to God in prayer, as to One who grudges us no good thing; we are to express our anxieties and our desires, and to receive the assurance that they are lovingly considered by One who knows our frame and understands our troubles. Often the answer comes, even in small things. But, generally, we may in this point have an absolute assurance that we shall either have what we ask, or else something which God sees to be better for us than that.

It is this second article of the doctrine of prayer that is chiefly in view here. The prayer of faith must be a prayer of thanksgiving, because faith knows how much it owes to God. "Thou hast not dealt with us after our sins." At the same time it has supplications and requests, over and above the great petition for life eternal.

For our daily human experience is Gods providence to us. It exercises our thoughts and feelings, and sets a-going contemplations and desires, which may be short-sighted and erring, but, so far, they are the best that we can make of it; or, if not the best, they have the more need to be corrected. Here, then, we are encouraged to pour out our hearts to God. We are to do it with submission: that is one of the best parts of the privilege, for our Father knows best. At the same time, we are to do it with supplication; we not only may, but we should. Our desires should all be made known in this quarter; nowhere will they have a kindlier hearing. So, last of all, we come, not only touching eternal life, but touching each days concerns, into a blessed agreement with God our Father through Christ. It is agreed that He takes loving charge of our anxieties and desires, as One who would withhold no good from us; and it is agreed that we put unreserved confidence in Him, -in which confidence we say, "Abba, Father; not our will, but Thine be done."

The confidence we have that all this is most real and solid, and not merely a deceptive piece of religious acting, comes to us in the channel of the faith and experience which have been fulfilled in Gods children from the first; but it is most emphatically confirmed and made sure to us by Christ. He has taught us to pray. His is the religion in which men pray. Under His influence we come away from ceremonial utterances, and also from the despairing experiments of supplication with which, in other religions, men assail the heavens; and hand in hand with that loving Mediator, we pray. Prayer, when it is real, when it is "in the Holy Spirit," is a wonderfully simple and a wonderfully great thing.

So it comes to pass that the peace of God which passeth all understanding is found. For this great and deep agreement with God in Christ, about all things great and small, is the very entrance into the peace of God Himself, and is the participation of it. In this, as in other aspects, things are daily realised in the history of believers, that pass all understanding, because God in Christ is in the matter. The infinite and eternal life is wedding itself to us and our affairs. It may be understood, finally, that this peace, arising to Christians at the throne of grace, guards their minds and hearts. It guards them against being overcharged, outworn, surprised; it guards them against being carried captive by earthly care. Yet this peace does not disable them for earthly business. Rather, because their main interests are so secure, it gives them calmness and clearness; it supplies them a moral vantage ground from which to dispose of all earthly affairs.

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.

4:2-9 Before closing, Paul addresses a small conflict in the church and writes a few words of encouragement.

4:2 because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement: The Lord’s people are to live together in harmony (see 2:2; 1 Cor 1:10; Eph 4:1-3, 31-32; Col 3:12-15). The nature of the dispute between Euodia and Syntyche is unknown.

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

Php 4:2. Παρακαλῶ, I [beseech], exhort) He uses this word twice, as if exhorting each of them apart face to face, and doing it with the utmost impartiality [implied by repeating the like word to each separately].

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

Php_4:2 f. After this general exhortation, Php_4:1, the apostle, still deeply concerned for the community that is so dear to him, finds it requisite to give a special admonition to and for two meritorious women,[176] through whose disagreement, the details of which are unknown to us, but which probably turned on differences of their working in the church, a scandal had occurred, and the στήκειν ἐν κυρίῳ might more or less be imperilled. Whether they were deaconesses in Philippi (as many conjecture), must remain undecided. Grotius has erroneously considered both names, Hammond and Calmet only the second, to be masculine,[177] and in that case αὐταῖς in Php_4:3 is made to apply to others (viz. ΑἽΤΙΝΕς Κ.Τ.Λ.). For the two feminine names on inscriptions, see Gruter and Muratori. With Tischendorf and Lipsius (Gramm. Unters. p. 31), Συντυχή is to be treated as oxytone. Comp. generally Kühner, I. p. 256. The twice used παρακ.: quasi coram adhortans seorsum utramvis, idque summa cum aequitate, Bengel. An earnestly individualizing ἘΠΙΜΟΝΉ (Bremi, ad Aeschin. p. 400).

τὸ αὐτὸ φρον.] see on Php_2:2.

ἘΝ ΚΥΡ.] characterizes the specifically Christian concord, the moral nature and effort of which are grounded on Christ as their determining vital principle. Paul does not desire a union of minds apart from Christ.

Whether the disunion, which must be assumed, had its deeper root in moral pride on account of services in the cause of the gospel (Schinz), is not clear.

[176] According to Baur, indeed, they are alleged to be two parties rather than two women; and Schwegler (nachapostol. Zeitalt. II. p. 135) makes out that Euodia represents the Jewish-Christian, and Syntyche the Gentile-Christian party, and that γνήσιος σύζυγος applies to Peter! On the basis of Constitutt. ap. vii. 46. 1 (according to which Peter appointed an Euodius, and Paul Ignatius, as Bishop of Antioch), this discovery has been amplified with further caprice by Volkmar in the Theol. Jahrb. 1857, p. 147 ff. But exegetical fiction in connection with the two feminine names has been pushed to the utmost by Hitzig, z. Krit. Paulin. Br. p. 5 ff., according to whom they are supposed to have their origin in Gen_30:9 ff.; he represents our author as having changed Asher and Gad into women in order to represent figuratively two parties, and both of them Gentile-Christian.

[177] Theodore of Mopsuestia quotes the opinion that the two were husband and wife.

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 4:2 . Εὐοδ . κ . τ . λ . This direct reference to a difference of opinion between two women of prominence in the Philippian Church is probably the best comment we have on the slight dissensions which are here and there hinted at throughout the Epistle. For, as Schinz aptly puts it ( op. cit. , p. 37), “in such a pure Church, even slight bickerings would make a great impression”. We find no trace of the cause. It may have turned on the question discussed in chap. Phi 3:15-16 . It may have been accidental friction between two energetic Christian women. But from the whole tone of the Epistle it cannot have gone far. Six Christian bishops named Εὐόδιος are mentioned in the Dict. of Christ. Biogr. The feminine name is also found in Inscrr [15] . Συντύχη . The name occurs both in Greek and Latin Inscrr [16] . , as well as in the Acta Sanctorum (v., 225). Curiously enough, there is no masculine name precisely corresponding to be found except the form Sintichus ( C.I.L. , xii., no. 4703, from Narbo in Gaul. The Inscr. quoted by Lft [17] . is spurious). On the correct accentuation see the elaborate note in W-Sch [18] . , p. 71. Lft [19] . has collected valuable evidence to show the superior position occupied by women in Macedonia. See his Philippians , p. 56, notes 2, 3, where he quotes Inscrr [20] . , in some of which a metronymic takes the place of the patronymic, while others record monuments erected in honour of women by public bodies. We may add, from Heuzey, Voyage Archéol. , p. 423, an Inscr. of Larissa, where a woman’s name occurs among the winners in the horse-races (see Introduction ). For the prominence of women generally in the Pauline Churches, Cf. Rom 16 passim , 1Co 14:34-35 . The repetition of παρακαλῶ perhaps hints that Paul wishes to treat each of them alike. [Hitzig, Zur Kritik Paulin. Brr. , p. 5 ff., exemplifies the pitch of absurdity which N.T. critics reached in a former generation, by supposing that these names represent two heathen-Christian parties, the one Greek, the other Roman.]

[15] scrr. Inscriptions.

[16] scrr. Inscriptions.

[17] Lightfoot.

[18] Sch. Schmiedel’s Ed. of Winer.

[19] Lightfoot.

[20] scrr. Inscriptions.

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

He also calleth on some by name, partly, because they needed private exhortation, and partly also to stir up others, to be more prompt and ready.

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

Euodia and Syntyche were two women who seem to have been at variance; probably deaconesses of the church. He repeats, "I beseech," as if he would admonish each separately, and with the utmost impartiality.

in the Lord--the true element of Christian union; for those "in the Lord" by faith to be at variance, is an utter inconsistency.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche] These were two pious women, as it is generally supposed, who were deaconesses in the Church at Philippi, and who in some points of doctrine and discipline had disagreed. He exhorts them to be of the same mind, that is, to compose their differences; and, if they could not perfectly agree to think and let think, and to avoid all public opposition, as their dissension would strengthen the hands of the common enemy, and stumble those who were weak. But it is more likely that Euodias was a woman, and Syntyche a man, and probably the husband of Euodias; and that it is Syntyche whom the apostle calls true yokefellow in the next verse.

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

2. I exhort Euodias and Syntyche It is an almost universally received opinion that Paul was desirous to settle a quarrel, I know not of what sort, between those two women. While I am not inclined to contend as to this, the words of Paul do not afford ground enough for such a conjecture to satisfy us that it really was so. It appears, from the testimony which he gives in their favor, that they were very excellent women; for he assigns to them so much honor as to call them fellow-soldiers in the gospel . Hence, as their agreement was a matter of great moment , and, on the other hand, there would be great danger attendant on their disagreement, he stirs them up particularly to concord.

We must take notice, however, that, whenever he speaks of agreement, he adds also the bond of it—in the Lord. For every combination will inevitably be accursed, if apart from the Lord, and, on the other hand, nothing is so disjoined, but that it ought to be reunited in Christ.

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.

(2) Euodias.—The name should be Euodia, as is seen by Php_4:3. Of Euodia and Syntyche nothing is known. Many strange attempts have been made to find symbolism in these names. Evidently they were women of note, leaders at Philippi, where, we may remember, the gospel was first preached to women (Act_16:13), and the church first formed in a woman’s house (Act_16:14; Act_16:40). We may note the many female names—Phœbe, Priscilla, Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Julia, the mother of Rufus, the sister of Nereus—in the long list of greetings to the Church of Rome (Romans 16).

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

2. I beseech] R.V., I exhort. But the tenderer English word well represents the general tone here, and the Greek fully admits it as a rendering. See e.g. 2Co_12:8. Observe the repetition of the word.

Euodias … Syntyche] Read certainly Euodia, a feminine name. In the versions of Tyndale and Cranmer the second name appears as “Sintiches,” intended (like Euodias) to be a masculine name. But such a name is nowhere found in Greek inscriptions, nor is Euodias, though this might be contracted from the known name Euodianus. Both Euodia and Syntychê are known feminine names, and the persons here are evidently referred to as women, Php_4:3.—Of these two Christians we know nothing but from this mention. They may have been “deaconesses,” like Phœbe (Rom_16:1); they were certainly (see Php_4:3) active helpers of the Missionary in his days of labour at Philippi. Perhaps their activity, and the reputation it won, had occasioned a temptation to self-esteem and mutual jealousy; a phenomenon unhappily not rare in the modern Church.—Bp Lightfoot (on this verse, and p. 55 of his edition) remarks on the prominence of women in the narrative of the evangelisation of Macedonia; Act_16:13-15; Act_16:40; Act_17:4; Act_17:12. He gives proof that the social position and influence of Macedonian women was higher than in most ancient communities. See above, Introduction, p. 13. The mention here of two women as important persons in the Philippian Church is certainly an interesting coincidence with the Acts.—As a curiosity of interpretation, Ellicott (see also Lightfoot, p. 170) mentions the conjecture of Schwegler that Euodia and Syntyche are really designations of Church-parties, the names being devised and significant. This theory, of course, regards our Epistle as a fabrication of a later generation, intended as an eirenicon. “What will not men affirm?”

of the same mind in the Lord] They must lay aside pique and prejudice, in the power and peace of their common union with Christ.

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.

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche,.... Two women, who were members of this church at Philippi, and who seem to have been at variance; either with each other, on account of some temporal and civil things, as often is the case of the dear children of God, who fall out by the way; and it becomes a very hard and difficult task to reconcile them, though as here entreated in the most tender and importunate manner to agree: or else with the church, having entertained some sentiments in religion different from it; being drawn aside by false teachers from the simplicity of the Gospel, and their steadfastness in the faith; and this may rather be thought to be the meaning, since the apostle would scarcely take notice of a private difference in so public a manner, and since this exhortation follows so closely the former:

that they be of the same mind in the Lord; either that they agree together, and be reconciled to each other, considering the relation they stood in to one another, and to the Lord; or that they become of the same mind, and embrace the same truths, and profess and maintain the same principles the church did; and so the Arabic version renders it, "that ye entertain one and the same opinion concerning the faith of the Lord".

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

2 I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

Ver. 2. I beseech Euodias] A couple of disagreeing sisters, whom the apostle seeketh to reconcile, and it was a wonder if they could resist his rhetoric. Oh that I could but once find you together one (saith Austin of the differences between Jerome and Ruffinus); I would fall down at your feet with much love and many tears; I would beseech you for yourselves, and one another, and for weak Christians’ sake who are offended thereat, you would not suffer these dissensions to spread, &c. Hei mihi qui vos alicubi reperire non possum, &c.

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.

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche - These are doubtless the names of females. The name Syntyche is sometimes the name of a man; but, if these persons are referred to in Phi 4:3, there can be no doubt that they were females. Nothing more is known of them than is here mentioned. It has been commonly supposed that they were deaconesses, who preached the gospel to those of their own sex; but there is no certain evidence of this. All that is known is, that there was some disagreement between them, and the apostle entreats them to be reconciled to each other.

That they be of the same mind - That they be united, or reconciled. Whether the difference related to doctrine, or to something else, we cannot determine from this phrase. The language is such as would properly relate to any difference.

In the Lord - In their Christian walk and plans. They were doubtless professing Christians, and the apostle exhorts them to make the Lord the great object of their affections, and in their regard for him, to bury all their petty differences and animosities.

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

I beg of. St. John Chrysostom, Theodoret, and many others, think that these were two ladies particularly famous in the Church at Philippi, for their virtue and good works. Some critics are of opinion that Syntyche was a man. It is certain, at least, that this name agrees amongst the Greek better with a man than a woman; and perhaps the latter of these two may be the husband of Evodia.

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).

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche: after his general persuasive to perseverance, he doth here particularly by name with great affectionateness importune two women, who had been very useful in that church for the furtherance of the gospel, that they would come to a better understanding of each other, and the interest of religion amongst them, who received the gospel upon Paul’s preaching, Act 16:13.

That they be of the same mind in the Lord; as he had moved all to love, unity, and amity, (as it became disciples of Christ), Phi 2:2; so he doth here especially move them unto unanimity, according to the mind of the Lord, and his way, for the sake of him whose honour is to be preferred to all private concerns, Rom 15:5.

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

I beseech Enodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord; rather, Euodia. It is plain from the next verse that both are female names. The narrative in Acts 16 shows that the female element was more than usually important in the early Philippian Church. These ladies seem to have held a high position in that Church; possibly they may have been deaconesses, like Phoebe at Cenchrea. Their dissensions disturbed the peace of the Church. The repeated "I beseech" is emphatic; it may, perhaps, also imply that both were in fault. St. Paul earnestly begs them to be reconciled, and to be reconciled as Christians, in the Lord, as members of his body, in the consciousness of his presence. Mark how often the words, "in Christ," "in the Lord," occur in this Epistle; how constantly the thought of spiritual union with Christ was present to the apostle"s mind.

Vers. 2, 3. A touching personal appeal.

"I exhort Euodias, and I exhort Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

I WOMEN HELD A LEADING PLACE IN THE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OF PHILIPPI

1. It was to women that the apostle first preached the gospel in that Roman town. (Acts 16) They were the first converts to Christianity in Europe.

2. It was women who first gave hospitable reception to the apostle in a town which never ceased to show him substantial kindness.

3. It was probably owing to the prominence of Christian women at Philippi that the apostle became such a debtor to the most liberal of all the Churches. Their sympathetic natures would initiate and sustain projects of Christian generosity.

II THE TWO WOMEN HERE ADDRESSED WERE EVIDENTLY INFLUENTIAL MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.

1. They were ladies of rank, who disiplayed an active zeal for the cause of Christ. Their names appear in the ancient inscriptions. The women of Macedonia held a high social place in that age. These good women helped the apostle in Christian labors, "Inasmuch as they labored with me in the gospel." As women were not allowed to preach, (1Ti_2:12) it is evident that their service was of a more private kind, either in instructing, the young or, more probably, in instructing female converts who were not accessible to members of the other sex. The order of deaconesses evidently arose out of some necessity of this sort.

2. They had differences of a sort calculated to mar their influence and to shake the faith of converts. The differences were less probably in the way of religious opinion than of methods of religious work. Perhaps a difference of temperament may have put them out of sympathy with each other, and a spirit of rivalry may have led to unseemly dissensions the Church.

3. There is an urgency in the apostolic appeal which displays an anxiety on their account. He says, "I exhort Euodias, and I exhort Syntyche," as if he regarded them both as equally open to censure. He thus addresses his appeal to each individually. He counsels them to find in the Lord the true center of their unity. Let them think as the Lord thinks, do as the Lord does, and submit to his supreme guidance in the sphere of their Christian labors.

4. He appeals to his true yokefellow whoever he or she may have been to use his influence to effect a reconciliation between the two ladies. "Yea, I ask thee to assist them, inasmuch us they labored with me in the gospel." There is no more important, though delicate, service than to promote a better understanding between two Christian people whose paths have disagreeably crossed each other.

5. The importance of the case is roundest from the leading place that the apostle assigns to the two ladies, besides "Clement and other my fellow-workers, whoso names are written in the book of life." They held a distinguished place beside these laborers. If Clement was the well-known author of the Epistle to the Corinthians, they are distinguished by association with his venerable name. If the apostle"s other fellow-workers are unnamed, they are named in the book of life. This suggestive phrase implies that

(1) salvation is an individual thing, for individual names have their record on high;

(2) that their salvation is an event already fore-ordained; and

(3) therefore absolutely certain. T.C.

HOMILIES BY V HUTTON Vers. 2, 3. The healing of dissensions.

A dissension between two women, probably persons of prominence in the Church. Women occupy an important position in the Church at Philippi. (Act_16:13-18) This fact may account somewhat for its orthodoxy, its fervent devotion, and its special temptation to want of unity. This particular dissension is regarded by St. Paul to be of sufficient importance to demand a notice in this Epistle, and to call for his personal interposition.

1. The only method of healing dissension. Persons alienated from one another must be brought to be of one mind in the Lord. No reconciliation is abiding except it be in him who is the Peace-maker.

2. To heal dissension is a work worthy of the highest ministry of the Church. St. Paul calls to his aid their chief pastor, Clement, who was afterwards Bishop of Rome, and others whose names are in the book of life. No error in the Church is worse than the error of uncharitableness and envy.

3. To remove such dissensions is truly to help (ver. 3) those who are the victims of them. Note that even they who labored with St. Paul were not free from human infirmities. They who could stand by him in his work now need all his entreaties and endeavors to bring them into reconciliation. A warning to all Church workers. VW.H.

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

I beseech - He repeats this twice, as if speaking to each face to face, and that with the utmost tenderness.

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

The former verse was an exhortation to constancy; this to concord.

Here observe, 1. The persons exhorted to the duty; two women of eminent note in the church, Euodias and Syntyche, who laboured with him in the gospel, that is, in offices proper to their sex, not in public preaching, but in private teaching of youth, and instructing other women in the principles of religion. Between these two good women it seems there was some difference, a want of love and unanimity; it is but too frequent for persons truly pious, and painful in the work of the Lord, to be at odds among themselves: and such are the fatal consequences of such differences, though between two persons only, that they are looked upon as worthy to be taken notice of by a great apostle.

Observe, 2. The great care and pains which St. Paul takes, timely to compose this petty difference between these two persons: he writes to an emiment minister in the church at Philippi, whom he calls his true yoke-fellow, (because they had faithfully laboured togither in planting a Christian church in that city,) to exert his utmost endeavours in reconciling these two disagreeing parties.

Such as are sensible of the dangerous mischiefs of strife and contention, of discord and division, will account it their duty to look to breaches betimes, to quench such fires at their first kindling, and will call in all the help they can, by engaging the prayers and tears of God’s ministers, and the endeavours of all faithful Christians, in order thereunto: and all this care, God knows, is little enough.

Observe, 3. The charitable thoughts and good opinion which St. Paul had of his fellow-labours at Philippi: he believed their names were in the book of life; that is, he adjudged them truly gracious persons, and in a state of salvation: though none can pass a certain and infallible judgment upon others, yet such as are holy in conversation themselves, and contrite in their utmost endeavours to promote holiness in others, nay, in the judgment of charity, be pronounced persons whose names are in the book of life.

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

2, 3. I beseech Euodias and beseech Syntyche. Two good women of Philippi, who had apparently been estranged. Women were prominent in the founding of the Philippian church; Lydia was the first convert, and her house was a home of the missionaries. Observe the repetition of the word “beseech.” It gives it special emphasis.

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.

2. Εὐοδίαν. So certainly, not Εὐωδίαν, which appears in a very few MSS. not of high authority.

2. Εὐοδίαν … Συντυχὴν. Both are feminine names (the bearers are referred to as women just below, Php 4:3), and both are known in the inscriptions. Lightfoot quotes (from the collections of Gruter and Muratori) e.g. Euhodia, Euodia, Syntyche, Suntyche, Syntiche. In Tindale and ‘Cranmer’ the second name appears as “Sintiches,” intended (like Euodias, shortened from Euodianus) to be masculine. But the inscriptions give neither Euodias nor Syntyches; this last would be at best a very doubtful variant for (the regular) Syntychus.

We know nothing of Euodia and Syntyche outside this passage. They may have been διάκονοι τῆς ἐκκλησίας (Rom 16:1); they had certainly given St Paul active help. Perhaps their high reputation had ensnared them in self-esteem and so led to mutual jealousy.—Lightfoot (Phil., pp. 55–57) points out that “the active zeal of the women [in the Macedonian missions] is a remarkable fact, without a parallel in the Apostle’s history elsewhere, and only to be compared with their prominence at an earlier date in the personal ministry of our Lord”; and that “the extant Macedonian inscriptions seem to assign to the sex a higher social influence than is common among the civilized nations of antiquity.” See above, Introduction, ch. i.

As a curiosity of interpretation Ellicott (see also Lightfoot, p. 170) mentions the conjectures of Schwegler (developed by Volkmar) that the two names are really designations of Church-parties, and were devised with a meaning: “Euodia,” “right-path,” is orthodoxy, i.e. Petrinism; Syntyche, “partner,” symbolizes the incorporation of the Gentiles, Paulinism. Of course this theory views the Epistle as a fabricated eirenicon, belonging to an after-generation.

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.

2-9.] Concluding exhortations to individuals (2, 3), and to all (4-9).

2.] Euodia and Syntyche (both women, cf. αὐταῖς and αἵτινες below) appear to have needed this exhortation on account of some disagreement, both however being faithful, and fellow-workers (perhaps deaconesses, Rom 16:1) with himself in the Gospel. θαυμάζει μὲν τὰς γυναῖκας· αἰνίττεται δὲ ὡς ἔριν τινὰ πρὸς ἀλλήλας ἐχούσας, Thdrt. The repetition of the verb παρακαλῶ not merely signifies ‘vehementiam affectus’ (Erasm.), but hints at the present separation between them.

τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν] see ch. 2:2, note. He adds ἐν κυρίῳ, both to shew them wherein their unanimity must consist, and perhaps to point out to them that their present alienation was not ἐν κυρίῳ.

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

2. Εὐοδίαν—Συντύχην: ‘Euodia—Syntyche.’ Not ‘Euodias,’ as A.V. Both are female names; see αὐταῖς (vs. 3). Both occur in inscriptions, and there are no instances of masculine forms. The activity of the Macedonian women in coöperating with Paul appears from Act 17:4, Act 17:12.

I am a little doubtful, however, as to Lightfoot’s view that a higher social influence was assigned to the female sex in Macedonia than was common among the civilised nations of antiquity. I fail to find any notice of this elsewhere. Lightf.’s inference is drawn wholly from inscriptions which do not appear to be decisive. For example, all the inscriptions which he cites to show that monuments in honor of women were erected by public bodies, distinctly indicate Roman influence. The names are Roman, and perpetuate the memory of different Roman gentes, a point which would naturally be emphasised in a Roman colonia distant from the mother city. His assertion, moreover, that the active zeal of Macedonian women is without a parallel in the apostle’s history elsewhere, seems open to question in the light of the closing salutations of the Epistle to the Romans. Klöpper thinks that the names Euodia and Syntyche represent two women in each of whose houses a separate congregation assembled, the one Jewish-Christian and the other Gentile-Christian. Lipsius thinks this possible. For some of the fanciful interpretations of these two names, see Introd. vi. Theo.Mop. mentions a story he had heard to the effect that they were a married pair, the latter name being Syntyches, and that the husband was the converted jailer of Philippi. The climax is reached by Hitzig (Krit. paulin. Br. 5 ff.), who affirms that Euodia and Syntyche were reproductions of the patriarchs Asher and Gad; their sex having been changed in the transition from one language to the other; and that they represent the Greek and the Roman elements in the church.

παρακαλῶ: ‘I exhort.’ See on παράκλησις (2:1). The repetition of the word emphasises the separate exhortation to each.

τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν: ‘to be of the same mind.’ (See on 2:2.)

ἐν κυρίῳ: With τ. αὐ. φρον. In that accord of which the Lord is the bond: each individually in Christ, and each therefore at one with the other.

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

I beseech Euodias and beseech Syntyche [ευωδιαν παρακαλω και συντυχην παρακαλω] . Euodias is incorrect, the name being feminine, Euodia. According to the Tex. Rec., with the long o, the name means fragrance; but the correct reading is with the short o, the meaning being prosperous journey. Syntyche means happy chance. These were prominent women in the Church, possibly deaconesses. The position of women in Macedonia was exceptional. In Greece, generally, their standing was inferior. The Athenian law prescribed that everything that a man might do by the consent or request of a woman should be null in law. In Macedonia monuments were erected to women by public bodies, and in Macedonian inscriptions records of male proper names are found formed on the mother's name instead of the father 's. Macedonian women were permitted to hold property. In the account of Paul 's labors in Macedonia there are notices of the addition of women of rank to the church in Thessalonica and Beroea. 182 For beseech, render exhort, and notice the repetition of that word with each name, making the exhortation individual and specific.

To be of the same mind [το αυτο φρονειν] . The same expression as in ch Phi 2:2, see note. Compare Rom 12:16. The verb fronew to be minded, occurs eleven times in this epistle, and but seventeen times in the rest of the New Testament.

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