Part 13 (1/2)

Lastly, the normal Christian life, thus conditioned, is a life whose mental energies (_logixesthe_) are fully at work, always gravitating towards purposes and actions true, pure, gracious, virtuous, commendable; ”sowing the fruit of righteousness in peace,” at the side of ”the G.o.d of peace.” True, the man may have many things to think of which are either perfectly secular in themselves (he may be a servant, he may be a man of business, he may be a physician, he may be a minister of state); or which are evil in themselves (he may be an investigator, or a judge, of crime). Nevertheless, this will not deflect the true current of the mind. These ”thinkings” will all find place and direction in the ”thought” which remembers that the thinker is the Lord's, and that in his _whole_ life he is to be true to the Lord's glory and the good of man. ”The G.o.d of peace will be with him”

wherever he goes, whatever he does; deep below the surface, but so as to control the whole surface all the while.

Such is the Christian life, where the Christian ”stands firm in the Lord.” It was thus at Philippi. In the early generations of the Church (let the _Apology of Aristides_ alone be adequate witness) it was thus, to a degree and to an extent most memorable, in at least very many Christian circles. It is thus still, in many an individual life.

But is it in any sense whatever thus in the rule and average or even earnest Christian lives? Is it thus in ours?

”Henceforth, let us _live_--not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us, and rose again.” To Him, in Him, by Him, we are bound to live so (Rom. viii. 12, _opheileta_), we are able to live so. Let us ”present ourselves to G.o.d” (Rom. vi. 13), watching and praying, and it shall be.

”Two arms I find to hold Thee fast, Submission meek and reverent faith; Held by Thy hand that hold shall last Through life and over death.

”Not me the dark foe fears at all, But hid in Thee I take the field; Now at my feet the mighty fall, For Thou hast bid them yield.” [11]

[1] So certainly read, not _Euodias_, which would be a man's name, a contraction of Euodia.n.u.s. Euodias as a fact is not found in inscriptions. Euodia on the other hand is a known feminine name; and the words just following (”help these women”) make it practically certain that the two persons just named were both female converts.

(_Euodian_ of course may be the accusative of either _Euodias_ or _Euodia_.)

[2] _Cor Dei in verbis Dei_; Gregory the Great's n.o.ble description of the Bible, in a letter to the courtier Theodoras, begging him to study daily ”the Letter of the heavenly Emperor.”

[3] ”I exhort,” R.V. A slightly tenderer word seems better to represent _parakalein_ in this personal connexion. ”I beseech” (A.V.) is _perhaps_ rather too tender.

[4] ”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 imagined Petrine and Pauline parties], the names being devised and significant [Euodia='_Good-way_,' Orthodoxy; Syntyche='_Combination_,' of Gentiles and Jews on equal terms]. This theory of course regards our Epistle as a fabrication of a later generation, intended as an _eirenicon_. 'What will not men affirm?'” (Note on ver. 2 in _The Cambridge Bible for Schools_).

[5] We know nothing for certain of this person. Lightfoot suggests that it was Epaphroditus, whom St Paul would thus commission not only orally but in writing, as a sort of credential. One curious and most improbable conjecture is that it was _St Paul's wife_. Renan (_Saint Paul_, p. 148) renders here _ma chere epouse_.

[6] Perhaps the bishop of Rome of a later day. So Origen and Eusebius.

But we cannot be certain of the ident.i.ty.

[7] ”Cp. Rev. iii. 5, xiii. 8, xvii. 8, xx. 12, 15, xxi. 27; and Luke x. 20. And see Exod. x.x.xii. 32, 33; Ps. lxix. 28, lx.x.xvii. 6; Isa. iv.

3; Ezek. xiii. 9; Dan. xii. 1. The result of the comparison of these pa.s.sages with this seems to be that St Paul here refers to the Lord's 'knowledge of them that are His' (2 Tim. ii. 19: cp. John x. 27, 28), for time and eternity. All the pa.s.sages in the Revelation, save iii.

5, are clearly in favour of a reference of the phrase to the certainty of the ultimate salvation of all true saints . . . so too Dan. xii. 1 and Luke x. 20. Rev. iii. 5 appears to point in another direction (see Trench on that pa.s.sage). But in view of the other mentions of the 'Book' in the Revelation the language of iii. 5 may well be only a vivid a.s.sertion that the name in question _shall be found_ in an indelible register. . . . Practically, the Apostle here speaks of Clement and the rest as having given ill.u.s.trious proof of their part and lot in that 'life eternal' which is 'to know the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent' (John xvii. 3).--The word '_names_'

powerfully suggests the individuality and speciality of divine love.”

(Note in _The Cambridge Bible for Schools_.)

[8] I think the Apostle has in mind Ps. cxix. 151, where the Septuagint version has _su eggus ei, Kurie_. He is thinking of ”the secret _of the Presence_” (Ps. x.x.xi. 20). We need not shut out the calming thought of the Lord's approaching _Return_; but it does not seem to be the leading thought here.

[9] Bishop Ken.

[10] G. M. Taylor, in _Hymns of Consecration_, 349.

[11] _In the House of the Pilgrimage_.