Paul’s Sufficiency
Paul now comes to one of his main reasons for writing. If this note (4:10–20) was an integral part of the main letter, he has reserved it to the end to give it prominence—his expression of thanks for the gift that Epaphroditus had brought him from the Philippian church.
4:10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord, meaning “I gave joyful thanks to the Lord” (when I received your gift). Paul is grateful to the Philippian Christians for the gift they have sent, but his rejoicing arises chiefly from the evidence it supplies of their continued eagerness to cooperate with him in the gospel.
Some commentators have found Paul’s wording here very oddly chosen for an expression of thanks: Dibelius speaks of his “thankless thanks.” But his words have to be read in the light of the deep mutual affection existing between him and the Philippian church and in the light of his well-attested financial policy.
The phrase at last might imply, if it stood by itself, that the Philippians had let an inordinately long time elapse since last they sent Paul a gift; but the context shows that no such reflection is intended. It is conceivable, indeed, that in the covering note they sent with this gift they said, “At last we are glad to send you a gift once more,” and that Paul takes them up and says, “At last, as you put it.…” But the long interval was probably due to Paul’s own policy in the matter of accepting gifts from his churches. He makes it plain that, if only now they have renewed their concern for him, it was not that there was any intermission in their care for him but rather that they had no opportunity to show it. And why not? Because Paul himself had deprived them of any such chance.
In Macedonia—especially in Thessalonica—and again in Corinth Paul had learned that, if he accepted material aid for himself from his converts, this was misrepresented by his detractors as evidence that he aimed to live at their expense. (These detractors in Thessalonica appear to have been outside the church; in Corinth they were inside.) Hence, perhaps, he had to request his converts not to send him money for his personal use. Moreover, when he earnestly began to organize the relief fund for the Jerusalem church, he was anxious that all available gifts from his churches should be channeled into that fund, and he knew that even so there were some people who would seize on any pretext to suggest that money intended for it was being diverted to his own pocket. The Macedonian churches, we know, had overstretched their resources in their generous giving to the relief fund (2 Cor. 8:1–5).
But now the relief fund had been completed and the money taken to Jerusalem. During his visit to Jerusalem with representatives of the contributing churches Paul was arrested and, having spent two years in custody in Caesarea, was now living under house arrest in Rome. His situation had changed: his friends in Philippi judged that now, at last, it was opportune to send him a gift once more, and they sent one by the hand of Epaphroditus.
4:11 Paul greatly appreciated the Philippians’ kind thought, but he assures them that he had not been in need of support of this kind. His language may suggest the embarrassment felt by his independent and sensitive spirit at saying “Thank you” for a spontaneous gift even from such well-loved and loving friends as the Christians in Philippi.
Paul’s policy was not to live at the expense of his converts. He agreed that, like other apostles and Christian leaders, he was entitled to be supported by them, but he chose not to avail himself of this right (1 Cor. 9:12; 2 Thess. 3:9). He traveled light; his possessions were restricted to the clothes he wore and perhaps some tools of his trade and the few papyrus and parchment scrolls mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:13. He could survive on very little; in fact, he had schooled himself to do so. I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances, he says, supplying the words that John Bunyan expanded in the shepherd boy’s song:
I am content with that I have,
Little be it or much,
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.
Fullness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage:
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age.
“Be content with what you have” (Heb. 13:5) seems to have been a general precept in the early church. This attitude is the opposite of covetousness, against which both Jesus (cf. Luke 12:15) and his disciples uttered solemn warnings, describing a “greedy person” as “an idolater” (Eph. 5:5).
The word rendered content (Gk. autarkēs) was current in Stoicism to denote the ideal of the totally self-sufficient person. Paul uses it to express his independence of external circumstances. He was constantly conscious of his total dependence on God. He was not so much self-sufficient as “God-sufficient”: “Our competence comes from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).
4:12 Paul had had long experience of having less than sufficient at some times and more than sufficient at other times: it made little difference to him. I have learned the secret of being content, he says, borrowing a term from the vocabulary of the mystery religions (“I have become adept” is F. W. Beare’s rendering), whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. What Paul would have regarded as plenty may be guessed at—anything above the minimum requirements of food and clothing, no doubt. For a man brought up in Paul’s environment, his conversion meant an initiation into a new way of life. One could not be a citizen of Tarsus without possessing substantial means. But for the sake of Christ Paul had “lost all things” (3:8), including (we may be sure) his material heritage; he learned henceforth to live on what he could earn by his part-time “tentmaking” (cf. 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8; Acts 18:3; 20:34).
4:13 He takes no credit to himself for having learned this lesson of contentment: it is thanks to his “enabler” that he can do everything through him who gives him strength. It was, indeed, when he was most conscious of personal weakness that he was most conscious of the power of Christ resting on him. “For Christ’s sake, I delight,” he says, “in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9, 10).
Additional Notes
4:10 I rejoice: the aorist echarēn (“I rejoiced”) refers back to the moment of Paul’s receiving the gift, but his joy persists into the present.
At last: Gk. ēdē pote. See J. H. Michael, “The First and Second Epistles to the Philippians,” ExpT 34 (1922–23), pp. 106–9, for the view that Paul here quotes their words. See also pp. 15–16 above.
You have renewed your concern for me: Gk. anethalete to hyper emou phronein, lit., “you flourished again (intransitive) with regard to your thought for me” or “you caused your thought for me to flourish again” (transitive). This is the only NT instance of anathallein (or indeed of thallein or any compound of it).
You had no opportunity: Gk. ēkaireisthe, imperfect of akaireisthai, “to lack kairos (opportunity)”; this is the only occurrence of this rare verb in the Greek Bible.
4:11 To be content whatever the circumstances: Gk. en hois eimi autarkēs einai. The Stoic emphasis on autarkeia in the sense of self-sufficiency goes back to Socrates who, when asked who was the wealthiest person, replied, “The one who is content with least, for contentment (autarkeia) is nature’s wealth” (Stobaeus, Florilegium 5.43). On Paul’s natural independence of spirit and outlook see C. H. Dodd, “The Mind of Paul, I” in New Testament Studies, pp. 71–73.
4:12 A rhythmical pattern has been detected in vv. 12 and 13, but here at least it is not to be explained in terms of a quotation from some other source.
I have learned the secret: Gk. memyēmai, “I have been initiated” (from the root my in this verb myein is derived mystērion, “mystery”).
4:13 Who gives me strength: lit., “in my strengthener (enabler)” (Gk. en tō endynamounti me), i.e., Christ. With this use of the present participle of endynamoun cf. the aorist participle in 1 Tim. 1:12, “I thank my strengthener (tō endynamōsanti me, ‘him who empowered me’), Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Appreciation of Earlier Gifts
Paul remembers with gratitude the Philippian Christians’ kindness to him in the period immediately following their conversion.
4:14 If the Philippian readers got the impression that some modern commentators get, that Paul is saying, “Thank you for your gift, but it really wasn’t necessary,” Paul removes any impression of ungraciousness on his part by assuring them again of his grateful appreciation. They had renewed their kindness both by helping him financially and by sharing his troubles. By his troubles he means primarily his current imprisonment; in showing him practical fellowship in that situation they were also showing him practical fellowship in the apostolic ministry that he continued to discharge in spite of his current restrictions.
4:15 By sending him a gift now they were repeating earlier acts of kindness. They did not need Paul’s reminder of these: but it was encouraging for them to realize that Paul still recalled their kindness with gratitude.
In the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel (lit., “in the beginning of the gospel”): NIV makes it plain that this phrase does not refer to the beginning of Paul’s apostleship but to the beginning of the Philippians’ Christian experience and participation in the gospel enterprise.
At that time, Paul says, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, which might be taken to mean their giving and his receiving. But the phrase may be drawn from the vocabulary of accountancy (cf. 3:7, 8).
The time he has in mind was the difficult period after he set out from Macedonia, more particularly, probably, after he had settled in Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 11:8, 9 he says to the Corinthian Christians, “I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed.” There is probably a further reference to this help in Acts 18:5, where Silas (Silvanus) and Timothy return from Macedonia and join Paul in Corinth, enabling him to “devote himself exclusively to preaching,” instead of spending part of his time in tentmaking as he had done for the first few weeks after his arrival in Corinth. Both in 2 Corinthians 11:8, 9 and in Acts 18:5 “Macedonia” implies pre-eminently Philippi. (The context of the former passage makes it plain that, even if help had not come from Macedonia, Paul would not have asked the Corinthian church for any.)
4:16 Indeed, he adds, even before he left Macedonia, while he was in Thessalonica (to which he and his companions went immediately after their departure from Philippi), they sent him aid to meet his needs. The question arises whether the phrase again and again refers to the period of his stay in Thessalonica (which is how NIV and most other versions understand it) or to the time after that. The sentence might be rendered: “Both (when I was) in Thessalonica and more than once (in other places) you sent me (something) for my need.” This rendering would cover what he had received from them in Corinth as well as in Thessalonica.
In writing to the Thessalonian Christians, Paul and his associates remind them how they “worked night and day” while they were with them so as to earn their own livelihood and not be chargeable to their converts (1 Thess. 2:9), “nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it” (2 Thess. 3:8). Why is no mention made there of support that Paul at least received from Philippi while he was still in Thessalonica? Perhaps the gift from Philippi was not enough to remove completely the need for manual labor in Thessalonica; it may be, too, that Paul and his friends did not wish to embarrass the Thessalonian Christians by mentioning gifts received from Christians elsewhere. In writing as he did in 2 Corinthians 11:8, 9, Paul felt it necessary to induce in the Corinthian Christians a salutary sense of shame; there was no such necessity with regard to the Thessalonian Christians—quite the contrary.
4:17 Once more, Paul cannot remain content with thanking the Philippians for their gift. He emphasizes that he is grateful not simply because they sent it to him but also because their sending it is a token of heavenly grace in their lives and, so to speak, a deposit in the bank of heaven that will multiply at compound interest to their advantage. They meant Paul to be the gainer from their generosity, and so indeed he is; but on the spiritual plane the permanent gain will be theirs.
Additional Notes
4:14 It was good of you: Gk. kalōs epoiēsate, “you did well.” Cf. Acts 10:33, kalōs epoiēsas paragenomenos, “it was good of you to come” (NIV) or “thank you for coming.” As in the past tense kalōs poiein conveys the sense of “thank you,” so in the future it expresses a request: “please” (as in 3 John 6, “You will do well, kalōs poiēseis, to send them on their way”).
4:15 You Philippians: the vocative Philippēsioi has a form based on Latin Philippenses, as was appropriate for citizens of a Roman colony. With this vocative compare “Galatians” in Gal. 3:1 and “Corinthians” in 2 Cor. 6:11, where bewilderment and exhortation are respectively intended; here nothing is intended but affectionate gratitude.
In the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel: M. J. Suggs, “Concerning the Date of Paul’s Macedonian Ministry,” NovT 4 (1960), pp. 60–68, following the literal sense “in the beginning of the gospel,” dates the evangelization of Macedonia in the early 40s, which would have been a fairly early stage of Paul’s apostolic ministry, but there are serious obstacles in the way of accepting this dating.
4:16 Again and again: Gk. kai hapax kai dis, lit., “both once and twice,” an idiomatic expression for “more than once”; cf. L. Morris, “Kai hapax kai dis,” NovT 1 (1956), pp. 203–8. It occurs also in 1 Thess. 2:18. For the view that the phrase does not have exclusive reference to Paul’s visit to Thessalonica see the same article by L. Morris (p. 208) and R. P. Martin, ad loc.
4:17 What may be credited to your account: Gk. karpos, “fruit,” perhaps meaning “interest” (if so, Paul continues to use the language of accountancy, and the accompanying participle, pleonazonta, “multiplying” rather than credited, may suggest that the interest is compound).
Acknowledgment of Present Gift
Paul gives them his receipt for the gift and promises them every blessing.
4:18 Continuing his “accounting” language, Paul says, I have received full payment. If he knows “what it is to be in need, and … what it is to have plenty” (v. 12), they have given him occasion once again to have even more. With the gifts brought him on their behalf by Epaphroditus he is full to overflowing. He has mentioned Epaphroditus with appreciation already (2:25–30) as the one (he says) “whom you sent to take care of my needs”; the handing over of the Philippians’ gift was one of the ways in which Epaphroditus helped him.
The gift was welcome to Paul. But Paul was engaged in the service of God; the gift was therefore a gift to God as well as to Paul, and it was at least as welcome to God as it was to Paul. Paul now abandons the vocabulary of accounting and takes up the language of worship. Their gift to Paul was a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. The phrase a fragrant offering is found repeatedly in the OT, from the description of Noah’s sacrifice in Genesis 8:21 onward; it is specially common in the directions for the levitical sacrifices (cf. Exod. 29:18, etc.). In the NT it is used figuratively of the self-offering of Christ (Eph. 5:2) and similar language is used of the self-offering of his people to God (Rom. 12:1; 2 Cor. 2:14–16; Heb. 13:16).
4:19 They may rest assured, says Paul, that what they have given to God will be amply repaid by him from the limitless resources of his riches. Paul cannot even think of the divine riches now without linking them with Christ Jesus. he is the mediator through whom all God’s blessings are communicated to men and women. Paul speaks of my God (cf. 1:3) because he had long since experienced his power to meet all his personal needs, and to supply them through Christ. At a time when he was most painfully conscious of his own inadequacy he received the assurance from the risen Lord, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9), and in effect it is that assurance that he now imparts to his friends.
4:20 Paul’s expression of thanks is fittingly concluded with a doxology, which also fittingly concludes the letter as a whole. J. B. Lightfoot, commenting on the doxology in Galatians 1:5, points out that (like the present doxology) it contains no verb and argues that the verb supplied should be the indicative “is,” not the imperative be. “It is an affirmation rather than a wish. Glory is the essential attribute of God.” (He refers to the doxology of 1 Peter 4:11, where the verb “is” appears in the Greek text, as it does also in the later doxology appended to the Lord’s Prayer in Matt. 6:13, KJV.)
Additional Notes
4:18 I have received full payment: this is the sense of Gk. apechō de panta (lit., “and I have everything”); there is abundant evidence that apechō was in contemporary use to mean “Paid in full.” Similarly NIV renders apechousin ton misthon autōn in Matt. 6:2, 5, 16 as “they have received their reward in full”; cf. A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 227: “they can sign the receipt of their reward: their right to receive the reward is realised, precisely as if they had already given a receipt for it.”
4:19 His glorious riches: Gk. en doxē, “in glory.” The phrase probably does not refer to the life to come; it might be rendered (with the adjoining words) “his glorious abundance.” F. W. Beare takes it as an adverbial phrase with the verb “supply” (NIV meet): “my God shall fully supply every need of yours gloriously.”
In Christ Jesus: Gk, en Christō lēsou, which J. B. Lightfoot takes to be incorporative: “through your union with, incorporation in, Christ Jesus.”
