Part 8 (1/2)

[4] The _touton_ is slightly emphatic by position, for St Paul is about to speak of other persons also, himself and Epaphroditus.

[5] _egesamen_: I render the epistolary past by a present tense, which is the English idiom.

[6] So I render _apostolon_, to represent something of the _sacredness_ attaching by usage to the word. If I read aright, we have here an instance of gentle pleasantry, quite in harmony with the gravity of the Epistle at large. He takes the Philippians' message of love and gift of bounty as a sort of _gospel_ to himself, and so regards their messenger as a _missionary_ to him. So also with the word _leitourgos_: its usual a.s.sociations in New Testament Greek are sacred, or at least solemn; and so St Paul seems to employ it here.

Epaphroditus was no mere agent; he was a ”_ministrant_,” commissioned from a high quarter--the Philippians' love.

[7] _epeide epidothon en_: the epistolary past (_en_) is rendered in accordance with English idiom. _Epipothon_ is perhaps too _heavily_ rendered above; but the phrase is certainly a little stronger than _epepothei_ would have been.

[8] Perhaps it was an attack of Roman fever.

[9] _Ina me_ . . . _scho_: lit., ”that I _may_ not.” But the English idiom asks for ”might.” The Greek puts the past intention into what _was_ its present aspect.

[10] _Epempsa auton_: the epistolary aorist.

[11] Quite literally, ”up to death he drew near.” It is as if St Paul had been about to write, _mechri thanatou esthense_, and then varied the expression by writing _eggise_.

[12] _Paraboleusamenos te psyche_: so read, not _paraboleusamenos_ (which would mean, ”taking evil counsel for his life,” neglecting its interests). _Paraboleusamenos_ is a well-attested reading; the verb is not found elsewhere, but the form is abundantly likely. It would be developed from the adjective _parabolos_, ”reckless,” connected with the verb _paraballesthai_, ”to cast a die.”

[13] _Thoughts for Heart and Life_, by John Ker, D.D. (1888), p. 92.

[14] See Ep. i. _ad. Cor._, - 47: ”Take up the Epistle of the blessed Paul, the Apostle. . . . He wrote to you in the Spirit (_pneumatikos_) about himself, and Cephas, and Apollos.”

”One family we dwell in Him, One Church, above, beneath, Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death.

”One army of the living G.o.d To His command we bow; Part of His host hath cross'd the flood, And part is crossing now.”

C. WESLEY.

_JOY IN THE LORD AND ITS PRESERVING POWER: ”THAT I MAY KNOW HIM”_

O Almighty G.o.d, whom truly to know is everlasting life; Grant us perfectly to know Thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that, following the steps of Thy holy Apostles, we may stedfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect for St Philip and St James.

CHAPTER VIII

JOY IN THE LORD AND ITS PRESERVING POWER ”THAT I MAY KNOW HIM”

PHILIPPIANS iii. 1-11

Doctrinal perils at Philippi--”Be glad in the Lord”--The true Israel--An ideal legalist--Position and experience--The spiritual power of holy joy--Acceptance and holiness--Atoning Cross and Risen Life

With the section just closed the Epistle reaches its middle point and already looks towards its end. We may lawfully think of St Paul as pausing here in his dictation; he returns to it after some considerable interval, with new topics, or rather with one important new topic, in his mind. Hitherto, if we have read him aright, we have seen him occupied, from one side or another, with the thought of Christian Unity at Philippi. That thought has been either explicitly developed, as in the close of the first chapter, and in the opening of the second, and again in the pa.s.sage embracing ii. 14-16; or it has been rather implied than expounded. The Apostle's a.s.surances of love and prayer have been often worded so as to suggest it. The grand pa.s.sage of doctrine, ii.

5-11, has been occasioned directly by it, and is made to bear immediately upon it; the Lord's wonderful self-abnegation (if the word may be tolerated) is revealed and a.s.serted there, not in an isolated way, but as it speaks to the believer of the spirit which should animate _him_, and which will preclude jealousies and separations as nothing else can. And even the paragraph where Timotheus and Epaphroditus are before us is tinged with the same feeling; what the Apostle says about both these dear friends is so said as _to unite_ the sympathies of the Philippians.