Paul’s Present Situation
The Christians of Philippi were deeply concerned about Paul. They cherished a warm affection for him; they knew that he was now in custody awaiting trial and that his case was due to come up for hearing soon before the supreme tribunal of the empire. How was he faring right now? And what would be the outcome of the hearing when once it took place? How, moreover, would its outcome serve to advance the gospel throughout the Roman world?
Paul knows what is in their minds, and he proceeds to reassure them, to impart to them something of the confidence that fills his own heart as he contemplates the situation.
1:12 That the apostle to the Gentiles should be in chains might well have been regarded as a blow to the advance of the gospel that he was commissioned to proclaim. But no: whatever might be Paul’s own situation, the word of God was not in chains (cf. 2 Tim. 2:9). Indeed, Paul’s presence in Rome as a prisoner awaiting trial had really served to advance the gospel. He was a distinguished prisoner, a Roman citizen exercising his prerogative to have his case heard by the emperor, and he made sure that everyone who came in touch with him knew that it was on account of the gospel that he was under house arrest, and not because of subversive political activity or criminal conduct.
1:13 Throughout the whole palace guard, he says, and to everyone else who has anything to do with my case it has become clear … that I am in chains for Christ—lit., “that my chains are in Christ.” Here we have a further instance of the “incorporative” use of the phrase “in Christ” (see above on verse 1). It is not simply that Paul’s imprisonment is due to his being “a servant of Christ” (GNB); that is true, but in his eyes it is part of his life in Christ, to whom he is united by faith; it is, especially, part of his sharing in the sufferings of Christ (cf. 3:10). Of course, the members of the guard and everyone else to whom he refers would not see it from his point of view, but they could not fail to realize that it was Paul’s being a Christian that had landed him where he now was.
The palace guard is, literally, the “praetorium,” that is, the praetorian guard, the emperor’s bodyguard. The word “praetorium” has a variety of meanings according to the context (cf. Mark 15:16 par. Matt. 27:27 and John 18:28ff. for the praetorium in Jerusalem; Acts 23:35 for the praetorium in Caesarea), but as has been argued in the Introduction, its most probable meaning here is the praetorian guard in Rome. Having made his appeal to the emperor, Paul was the emperor’s prisoner (although he preferred to think of himself as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus”), and while he waited for his case to be heard, he “was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him” (Acts 28:16). It was natural that the soldier (relieved by a comrade every four hours or so) should be a member of the imperial bodyguard. News about this extraordinary prisoner would naturally spread through the praetorian barracks.
In addition to the soldiers, there were others (everyone else) who were interested in Paul—notably the officials charged with preparing his case for the hearing before the emperor. He claims no converts among either group, but he is filled with encouragement because in this way the gospel had become a topic of conversation in the capital, at the heart of the empire.
1:14 Not only that, but all this gave fresh encouragement to the Christians of Rome. When Paul arrived in their city as a prisoner for the gospel’s sake, some of them perhaps wondered how safe it would be for them to be known as those who professed the same faith as he did. According to Luke, the leaders of the Jewish community in Rome judged it best to know nothing about Paul or his case (Acts 28:21). But when the gospel became a talking point because of Paul’s presence in Rome, the Christians exploited the situation and began to bear their public witness with greater confidence and vigor. When Paul says that this is true of most of the brothers, he does not mean that there was a minority that refused to seize this opportunity for evangelization; he means that so many did so that their action characterized the Roman church as a whole. Nothing could have given Paul greater delight.
Additional Notes
1:12 I want you to know is called a “disclosure formula” by J. L. White, The Form and Function of the Body of the Greek Letter, pp. 2–5, etc.; he adduces many examples of the use of such a formula to mark the transition from introductory thanksgiving to the body of the letter. Cf. also J. T. Sanders, “The Transition from Opening Epistolary Thanksgiving to Body in Letters of the Pauline Corpus, “JBL 81 (1962), pp. 348–62. Paul commonly words the formula negatively: “I do not want you to be unaware” (Rom. 1:13, etc.).
1:14 The phrase in the Lord, which some have taken rather with more courageously and fearlessly (so J. B. Lightfoot, ad loc.), is to be taken with the brothers, “the brothers in the Lord” being “Christian brothers” (cf. C. F. D. Moule, IBNTG, p. 108). There may be a slightly different nuance of meaning between in the Lord and “in Christ”; “one becomes in the Lord what one already is in Christ” (M. Bouttier, En Christ, pp. 54–61; cf. C. F, D. Moule, The Origin of Christology, p. 59: “what you are is ‘in Christ’ and what you are to become is ‘in the Lord’ ”).
Speak the word of God: although the genitive of God is absent from P46 and the majority of later witnesses, its attestation is impressively strong.
Various Motives for Gospel Witness
This paragraph is described by Dibelius (ad loc.) as an “excursus”; Paul adds, in passing, to what he has just said that not all of those who have seized the opportunity for gospel witness were moved by equally worthy sentiments. But at least the opportunity has been seized and that is cause for satisfaction.
1:15 Not all the Roman Christians who were preaching the gospel so energetically were animated by a spirit of fellowship with Paul. The house-churches of the city represented a wide variety of Christian outlook. There were Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. There were some (in both categories) who were in entire sympathy with Paul and his policy; there were some who shared the suspicion with which he was viewed by his Judaizing opponents in other places; there were some of a Gnosticizing tendency who reckoned Paul’s understanding of the gospel to be curiously immature and unenlightened. There were others, no doubt, who were not sure where they ought to stand in relation to him. Here, however, Paul seems to have in mind people who preach what he recognizes as the genuine gospel, whatever their motives may be.
Why should some preach the gospel out of envy and rivalry? Perhaps they were envious of Paul’s achievement in carrying the message through so many provinces in such a brief space of time and thought that they could at last gain a march on him now that he was confined. Perhaps they regarded themselves as followers of some other leader, to whom (in their eyes) Paul was a rival; now that Paul was no longer free to move around, their own leader’s cause could make better progress. Was there already a “Cephas” party in Rome as there had been some years earlier in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:12)?
Those, on the other hand, who preached out of goodwill were glad to think, as they did so, that they were sharing in Paul’s ministry; in them Paul welcomed the same spirit of partnership as he praised in the Philippian Christians.
1:16 Paul amplifies his references to the two kinds of preachers, and does so in the form of a chiasmus.* He enlarges first (in v. 16) on those who preached out of goodwill (who were mentioned last in v. 15) and then (in v. 17) on those who preached out of envy and rivalry (who were mentioned first in v. 15). The former were actuated by love for Paul. They recognized that God had sent him to Rome for this very purpose—the defense of the gospel. As in verse 7, his impending opportunity to defend the gospel before Caesar’s tribunal is probably in his mind: it is for this, he says, that I am posted here in Rome. If Paul, despite his restrictions, was promoting the interests of the gospel, those people of goodwill could do no less: they must play their part along with him.
1:17 But what of those whose preaching sprang not from sincere motives but from a spirit of selfish ambition? They were evidently jealous of Paul’s record and prestige as a preacher of the gospel. Anything he could do they could do better; they would let it be seen that they came behind him in no respect. The news of what they were doing, they thought (and hoped), would fill Paul with chagrin and frustration. It was galling enough for Paul to be deprived of his liberty: it would be more galling still for him to learn how those who did not wish him well were forging ahead with their presentation of the gospel.
If we find it difficult to credit that followers of Christ could actually find satisfaction in thus rubbing salt into Paul’s wounds, it may be because we fail to realize how controversial a figure Paul was, even within the Christian fellowship, and how deep and bitter was the opposition maintained by some to his gospel interpretation and missionary policy.
But if they thought Paul would be annoyed or resentful, they mistook their man. If they were more successful than he in propagating the gospel, that was all to the good in Paul’s eyes. His pre-eminent concern was that the saving message might “spread rapidly and be honored” (2 Thess. 3:1). He could treat unfriendly attitudes with relaxed indifference: what did it matter, so long as Christ was being preached?
Additional Notes
1:15 W. Schmithals presents the extraordinary argument that only if the references are to groups in Philippi “are the remarks in vv. 15–17 significant and pertinent, for as a reference to the place where Paul is imprisoned they must have been just as puzzling to the Philippians as they are for us” (Paul and the Gnostics, p. 75). Paul is here giving the Philippians information about his own affairs that they did not possess, and he implies throughout the letter that the Philippian church as a whole supported him in his missionary enterprise.
T. W. Manson suggested that the reference here was to the partisanship in the church of Corinth, which Paul, he believed, had recently left and with which he was currently engaged in correspondence (Studies in the Gospels and Epistles, pp. 161f.). T. Hawthorn has argued that the distinction is between those who preach in a spirit of apocalyptic antagonism to the state and those who in their preaching manifest the same attitude of good will as Paul does in Rom. 13:1–7; the former would certainly stir up trouble for Paul (“Philippians i. 12–19 with special reference to vv. 15. 16. 17,” ExpT 62 [1950–51], pp 316f.).
1:16 The chiasmus is obliterated by the majority of later manuscripts, which (together with D1 and Psi) transpose vv. 16 and 17 (cf. KJV).
1:17 Not sincerely (Gk. ouch hagnōs) is construed by J.-F. Collange (ad loc.) with supposing (oiomenoi): “their judgment is not pure …, i.e., is not free from ulterior motives.” This paraphrase of ouch hagnōs is good, but it goes better with preach Christ (cf. NIV: “the former preach Christ … from false motives”).
Out of selfish ambition (Gk. ex eritheias, in antithesis to ex agapēs, from love, in v. 16). For eritheia, cf. 2:3. The word originally meant doing something for hire or wages, but came to denote a mercenary attitude, and in the NT is always used in a bad sense, of party spirit and the contention to which it leads. R. Jewett links the people referred to here with those described in 2:21 as concerned only with their own affairs; he thinks they were missionaries who held up the “divine man” (theios anēr) as an ideal and felt that the humiliating spectacle of Paul in prison gave the lie to this ideal and endangered their mission (“Conflicting Movements in the Early Church as Reflected in Philippians,” NovT 12 [1970], pp. 362–90).
Supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains: for stir up (Gk. egeirein, read by the principal Alexandrian and ‘Western’ witnesses) the majority of later manuscripts with D2 and Psi read “add” (epipherein); so KJV: “supposing to add affliction to my bonds.” The former is preferable.
Life or Death?
Paul contemplates death or acquittal as the outcome of his impending trial with equal equanimity. His own preference would be to depart this life and be with Christ, but he knows that it is more important for his friends’ sake that he should be spared to be with them a little longer.
1:18 Paul’s reaction to those who are stirring up trouble for him is far removed from the anathema invoked on those agitators who, several years earlier, invaded the churches of Galatia and taught his converts a “different gospel” from that which they had heard from him. True, his ill wishers in Rome were not intruding into a sphere of missionary service that was not their own, and there is no hint of any defect or subversive element in what they preached. Whatever their motives were—whether (on the one hand) their activity was a cloak for ambitions of their own or a cover for diminishing Paul’s standing or (on the other hand) it was the outcome of a pure desire to spread the saving message—the important point was that Christ was being preached. This acknowledgment on Paul’s part sets the preachers in a different category from the type that (as he puts it elsewhere) “preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached” (2 Cor. 11:4). Even so, Paul has mellowed; he shows more of the “meekness and gentleness of Christ” than he had been able to show when he invoked these graces in his remonstrance with disaffected members of the Corinthian church (2 Cor. 10:1). Perhaps his two years of imprisonment in Caesarea, followed by a further spell under house arrest in Rome, had taught him new lessons in patience.
There is a striking similarity between Paul’s attitude here and Luther’s often-quoted words from the preface to the Letter of James in his German New Testament of 1522: “That which does not teach Christ is not apostolic, even if Peter or Paul taught it. Again, that which does preach Christ is apostolic, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate or Herod did it.” What matters is the content of the preaching, not the identity of the preacher.
Paul rejoices, then, and will go on rejoicing, not only in the fact that Christ is being preached more and more, but in all his circumstances and prospects.
1:19 Paul sees the hand of God so manifestly at work in the situation which he has just described that he is left in no doubt that he is in the place where God wishes him to be in the fulfillment of his apostolic commission. With such confidence, he can apply to his own present state the words of Job 13:16, “this will turn out for my deliverance.” When he says that the present state of affairs will work out for his deliverance, he is not thinking so much of immediate acquittal and discharge from custody (cf. GNB) but (like Job) of his vindication in the heavenly court, his final salvation. This is assured whether he receives a favorable or an unfavorable verdict before Caesar’s tribunal (cf. the confidence expressed in 2 Tim. 4:8 in the award of “the Lord, the righteous Judge”).
It is plain, indeed, from the words that follow that his “ultimate destiny is intimately connected with his present dilemma” (R. W. Funk, in Farmer et al., eds., p. 262). He is sure that their spiritual welfare requires his survival in mortal body; he knows that he will remain on earth in order to continue his fruitful work. The prayers of his Philippian friends will contribute to this, together with the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. But this is an expression of confidence, not the assertion of something which he has received by divine revelation or the like. He has in fact been given no revelation about the outcome of his trial.
1:20 Paul’s eager expectation and hope is not for his own safety but for the progress of the gospel, the perseverance of his converts, and the accomplishment of God’s redeeming purpose. This is one of the two Pauline occurrences of the noun (Gk. apokaradokia) here rendered eagerly expect; in Romans 8:19 it is used for the “eager longing” with which all creation waits “for God to reveal his sons.” In that context it is coupled with repeated mentions of the realization of the hope of the ages, “that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Paul’s own eager expectation and hope are caught up into the prospect of that consummation; indeed, Paul knows that his ministry has a special part to play in speeding its arrival. Therefore he hopes and prays that I will in no way be ashamed. Christian hope and being put to shame are mutually exclusive (cf. Rom. 5:5). The only thing that could put Paul to shame would be failure to win his Lord’s approval; that is why he kept “the day of Christ” before him in all that he planned and did. The declaration of the gospel is the duty entrusted to him; he is eager to be faithful to that trust and to do nothing unworthy of it, especially when he stands before Caesar. Personal humiliation is not what Paul fears; he had endured plenty of that already in the service of Christ and was likely to endure more. But he knows that he will in no way be ashamed if Christ be exalted through him, and especially through his demeanor and defense of the gospel in the supreme court.
What he needs is sufficient courage to make known (the gospel) “fearlessly” (as the word is rendered with reference to the same occasion in Eph. 6:19, NIV). To proclaim the gospel courageously is the antithesis of being ashamed of it (cf. Rom. 1:16). Paul’s constant ambition is that in his body—that is, in whatever happens to him on the physical plane, whether life or death—the glory of Christ will be promoted. Should it be for the advancement of Christ’s cause that Paul is sentenced to death and executed, then welcome death! But if it is for the advancement of Christ’s cause that Paul should be acquitted and granted a further lease of mortal life, then welcome life!
1:21 He views either prospect with equanimity. Indeed, if he had nothing but his personal choice to consider, the prospect of death might be preferable: to die could be nothing but sheer gain to anyone for whom to live meant Christ. The NIV rendering, To die is gain, prompts the question: “The gain of what?” The answer could only be, “To gain Christ.” Paul’s existence was life in Christ, with Christ living in him (cf. Gal. 2:20); death would bring no cessation or diminution of that existence but would rather enhance it with the experience of being with Christ (v. 23) in a closer communion than he had known while still in the body. If to live means Christ, it must be exhilaratingly wonderful to be alive; “yet even for such a life, precisely for such a life, to die is gain” (F. W. Beare, ad loc.). If death meant (even temporarily) less of Christ than was enjoyed in mortal life—above all, if it meant (even temporary) annihilation—it would be absurd to speak of it as gain.
Paul no doubt meant that for the man or woman in Christ to die would be gain, whatever form death took. But the death that he has specially in mind for himself in the present situation is execution in consequence of an adverse judgment in the imperial court. If such a death in the service of Christ crowned a life spent in the service of Christ, it would be gain not to Paul alone but to the cause of Christ throughout the world.
1:22 A continuation of mortal life would mean fruitful labor for him, an opportunity to reap more fruit from the work that had been interrupted by his arrest and imprisonment, as well as from the work that he had been doing during his imprisonment. A literal rendering of his words would be, “But if [the outcome for me will be] to live in the flesh, this is the fruit of labor for me,” and this could be understood more ways than one. It could point to fruitful labor in the future (as NIV takes it) or to the fruit of labor already done (as NEB takes it, following J. B. Lightfoot: “what if my living on in the body means that I could reap the fruit of my toil!”).
So, early death and continued life alike had their attractions, and if the choice between the two were left to him, he would find difficulty in making up his mind. The choice, however, did not lie with him.
1:23 I am torn between the two, he says; more literally, “I am hemmed in on both sides.” If he had only his own interest to consider, then it would be better by far for him to depart and be with Christ; and this was his personal desire.
Paul speaks in several of his letters of the resurrection of the believing dead at the time of Christ’s advent (cf. 3:20, 21). He has less to say about the state of the individual believer immediately after death, but what he does say is quite plain. So far as can be judged from his correspondence, he did not grapple with this question until it began to become more probable, as he viewed the situation, that he would die before the advent of Christ than that he would live to witness it. He did not pretend to know when the advent would take place, but a change of perspective can be traced as he grew older: whereas in his earlier letters he tends to identify himself with those who will survive to the coming of the Lord, in his later letters he tends to identify himself with those who will be raised from the dead then.
The change of perspective can be discerned between 1 and 2 Corinthians: in 1 Corinthians 15:52 he says that “the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we [the living] will be changed”; but in 2 Corinthians 4:14 he says that “the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you [the living] in his presence.” This shift in his viewpoint may have been due in part to the critical experience in the province of Asia that he describes in 2 Corinthians 1:8–10. At that time death seemed to be so certain that no way out could be seen, and when a way out was opened up, contrary to all expectation, he greeted the deliverance as an instance of God’s power to raise the dead.
It is against that background that he declares his conviction in 2 Corinthians 5:1–10 that when “the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” With this confidence, he says, we “would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” He claims no revelation as authority for this assurance, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 with regard to the resurrection or in 1 Corinthians 15:51 with regard to the bestowal of immortality on believers who are still alive; but he affirms his hope with a positiveness (“we know … we have …”) that leaves no room for doubt.
It is the same hope that finds expression here. One who enjoys the presence of Christ in this life is not to be deprived of it when this life ends, for Christ is alive on the other side of death and because he lives on, his people live on. “ ‘To die’ and ‘to be with Christ’ are therefore in large measure synonymous. Life with Christ after death is no problem for the apostle; it flows like a pure spring from the victory of Easter” (J.-F. Collange, ad loc.). No wonder, then, that Paul emphasizes how “much rather better” (piling up comparatives) it would be for him to take leave of earthly life.
1:24 Paul, however, was the last man to put his own interests or preferences before the advantage of others. He enjoins on his readers consideration for the good of others in 2:4; the injunction would not have carried much weight if they had not known of the example that he himself set. He knew that it was “more necessary” for his converts, not least for those in Philippi, that he should continue to be available to them on earth—that he should remain in the [mortal] body (Gk. en tē sarki).
1:25 His knowledge that his survival would be for the benefit of his fellow Christians, and his confidence that God would do whatever was necessary for their growth in grace, combined to give him good hope that he would indeed be granted a further spell of life and apostolic activity, for their progress and joy in the faith. His I know here, as in verse 19, is the expression of faith (cf. 2 Cor. 5:1). This is more probable than that he had been given a special divine revelation to this effect (E. Lohmeyer) or had just received word of a favorable verdict in his case (W. Michaelis).
The Philippian Christians already exulted in their association with such a servant of Christ as Paul was: his release and continued ministry would give them greater cause for such exultation.
The much-debated question whether or not Paul was in fact released is perhaps, on balance, to be answered in the affirmative, but it has no bearing on the interpretation of Philippians.
1:26 If Paul should be released and have an opportunity of seeing them again, their joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on Paul’s account. Paul, who rejoiced when he was able to boast about his converts (cf. 2:16; 1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Cor. 7:4; 9:2, 3), had no objection to their boasting about him (cf. 2 Cor. 1:14). Such boasting did not conflict with his resolve to boast in nothing but the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14), for all his relations with his converts were founded on the gospel of Christ crucified, and such boasting was a genuine boasting in Christ Jesus (cf. Phil. 3:3).
The problem of relating Paul’s hope expressed here of visiting his Philippian friends once more to his intention, declared in Romans 15:24, 29, of going on from Rome to Spain has been discussed in the Introduction.
Additional Notes
1:18 What does it matter? renders the question ti gar? (“for what”), which may mean either, “What does it matter? In either case Christ is being preached,” or, “What are we to say? Only this, that Christ is being preached.”
1:19 The quotation from Job 13:16 is exact: touto moi apobēsetai eis sōtērian.
The help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ is, lit., “the … supply (Gk. epichorēgia) of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” NIV takes “of the Spirit” (pneumatos) to be subjective genitive, “that which the Spirit of Jesus Christ supplies.” It might, however, be objective genitive, the Spirit being that which is supplied, as in Gal. 3:5, “Does God give [epichorēgōn] you the Spirit …?” Cf. NEB: “the Spirit of Jesus Christ is given me for support.” If Paul, like Job, is looking forward to vindication in the heavenly court, then the Spirit “appears here in the Johannine role of advocate” (G. B. Caird, ad loc.) Cf. R. W. Funk, “The Apostolic ‘Parousia’: Form and Significance,” in W. R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, and R. R. Niebuhr, eds., Christian History and Interpretation, p. 262, n. 1.
1:20 The sufficient courage that Paul desires is Gk. parrhēsia, “freedom of speech.” W. C. van Unnik (“The Christian’s Freedom of Speech in the New Testament,” BJRL 44 [1961–62], pp. 475f.) suggests the translation “in all openness” here, “because not the courage of the martyr, but Christ Himself will be revealed in all plainness.” By making Christ the subject of the clause (that Christ will be honored in my body), Paul “brings out what is the real power of ‘freedom of speech,’ the fact that not only the gospel is simply proclaimed, but that the Lord of the gospel is revealed.”
The phrase in my body (Gk. en tō sōmati mou) is appropriate, since Paul was thinking of bodily death or life. “Sōma therefore does not signify the whole ‘I’ of Paul, but only that part of him more immediately affected by the outcome of his trial and through which he bears witness to the visible world around him” (R. H. Gundry, “Sōma” in Biblical Theology: With Emphasis on Pauline Anthropology, p. 37). Cf. 1 Cor. 6:20, “honor God with your body”), where Paul is refuting the notion that bodily actions are ethically and religiously indifferent.
1:21 On the Damascus road Christ replaced Torah as the center of Paul’s life and thought; until then he might well have said, “For to me, to live is Torah.” He was now immediately and constantly aware that his own life was summed up in Christ, but he uses similar language of his fellow Christians: “Christ, who is your life” (Col. 3:4).
1:22 But if (Gk. ei de) may introduce the protasis* of a conditional sentence, and so it is taken by NIV, RSV, and probably the majority of versions. In that case the apodosis* may be “then I am not sure which I should choose” (so GNB) or this will mean fruitful labor for me (so NIV, with Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! as an independent clause). On the other hand, ei de might be rendered not “but if” but “but what if” (so NEB: “but what if my living on in the body may serve some good purpose?”). J. B. Lightfoot (ad loc.) proposes this last construction because “it seems to be in keeping with the abruptness of the context, and to present less difficulty than those generally adopted.”
Fruitful labor renders Gk. karpos ergou, “fruit [harvest] of work” (cf “fruit of righteousness” in v. 11). Here the reference is to the result (especially in the lives of his converts and other fellow believers) of Paul’s ministry already accomplished or yet to be accomplished.
I do not know renders Gk. ou gnōrizō. In Paul (and other NT writers) this verb is used transitively (“make known”) and not intransitively (“know”); it is best to take the present occurrence as being no exception to this rule and translate, with RSV and NEB, “I cannot tell” (meaning “I cannot make known”).
1:23 The only other place where Paul uses synechō (“hold together,” “hem in”) is in 2 Cor. 5:14, “the love of Christ shuts us up (synechei hēmas) to this conclusion” (NIV: “Christ’s love compels us”).
I desire: (epithymia). J.-F. Collange (ad loc.) argues that since epithymia has a bad sense almost everywhere else in Paul it should be so understood here also, of a “self-centered desire,” which Paul mentions only to condemn it. But the context alone can determine whether the sense of epithymia is bad or good, and it is as likely to have its good sense here as in 1 Thess. 2:17, where it denotes the great longing of Paul and his companions to see the Thessalonian Christians again.
To depart: Gk. analysai, of a ship weighing anchor or an army striking camp.
And be with Christ, immediately on dying, he implies. Against this O. Cullmann denies that the NT countenances “the view that the dead live even before the parousia beyond time, and thus at once enjoy the fruits of the final fulfillment” (The Early Church, p. 165). It may well be that those believers who, having died, are with Christ, still await the resurrection, as he emphasizes (cf. 3:21); but he does insufficient justice to Paul’s bridging of the hiatus between death and resurrection in 2 Cor. 5:1–10. See A. Schweitzer, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, pp. 90–100, 109–13; L. S. Thornton, Christ and the Church, pp. 137–40; F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Free Spirit, pp. 309–13.
Which is better by far: There is a world of difference between Paul’s attitude and Jonah’s petulant “it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3, 8). G. M. Lee (NovT 12 [1970], p. 361) compares the observation of Libanius (Oration 17.29) that, in certain cases of soul sickness “it is better to depart (this life) than to live” (kreitton apelthein ē zēn), but apart from the comparative kreitton (cf. Paul’s pollō mallon kreisson) the two passages have nothing in common. J. B. Lightfoot (ad loc.) refers to the frequently quoted question of Euripides (fragment 639), tis oiden ei to zēn men esti katthanein / to katthanein de zēn (“Who knows if life be death and death be life?”) and remarks that the poet’s “sublime guess … which was greeted with ignoble ridicule by the comic poets, has become an assured truth in Christ”—but the connection, if any, is a very distant one.
1:24 That I remain in the body: lit., “remain in the flesh” (epimenein [en] tē sarki, where the article may hark back to en sarki in v. 22, “living in the body.” For Paul to remain or to live en tē sarki, in mortal body, is a very different thing from living kata sarka, “according to the flesh”; he contrasts the two phrases in 2 Cor. 10:3. To live or act kata sarka is to live or act according to the standards of unregenerate humanity. J. B. Lightfoot (ad loc.), accepting the omission of en (with Aleph A C, etc.), suggests the translation “to abide by the flesh,” that is, “to cling to this present life, to take it with all its inconveniences.” This is somewhat strained.
1:25 I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you: Gk. menō kai paramenō, where menō is absolute, while paramenō is relative to all of you, the dative pasin hymin being governed by the prefix para.
Your progress and joy in the faith: the phrase in the faith (Gk. genitive tēs pisteōs) qualifies both progress and joy. Joy (whether the noun chara or the verb chairein) is a dominant theme in this letter—the Philippians’ joy (as here; cf. 2:28, 29; 3:1; 4:4), Paul’s joy (cf. verses 4, 18; 2:2; 4:1, 10), and theirs and his together (cf. 2:17, 18).
1:26 … through my being with you again: the noun parousia is used here in the nontechnical sense of “visit” (as in 2:12; cf. also 1 Cor. 16:17; 2 Cor. 7:6, 7; 10:10). It is not used in this letter with reference to the advent of Christ; in fact, the only Pauline letters where it is so used are 1 Corinthians (15:23), 1 Thessalonians (2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23) and 2 Thessalonians (2:1, 8).
Steadfastness Amid Suffering
It is taken for granted throughout the NT, and nowhere more so than in Paul’s letters, that suffering is inevitably incurred by Christian existence in the present world. There was nothing surprising in this: Christ had suffered, and his followers—those who were “in Christ”—could expect nothing else. Paul himself, throughout his career as an apostle, knew what it meant to suffer for Christ’s sake, and he prepared his converts for similar suffering. Indeed, he encouraged them with the assurance that suffering for Christ’s sake proved the genuineness of their faith.
1:27 Meanwhile, Paul’s earnest desire for the Philippian Christians, as for his other converts, is that they conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Since their new existence was based on the gospel of Christ, their conduct should be in line with Christ’s (cf. 2:5). Paul uses a verb here that strictly means “live as citizens” and is closely related to what he says later about their status as “citizens of heaven” (3:20).
A life worthy of the gospel should be a life of harmony. Since they shared a common life in Christ, they should be moved by one spirit, contending as one [person]. Only so could they effectively commend the gospel by word and action. Their witness called for strenuous endeavor and united effort; they had to contend side by side for the faith of the gospel. They themselves had believed the gospel, and the aim of their witness was to bring others to the same belief. In the pursuit of this aim they had to reckon with powerful and unremitting opposition; hence the call for strenuous action.
Paul would welcome the opportunity of paying them a visit and seeing them in action—and sharing in their action too. But if a visit were excluded, then he still hoped to know that they were standing firm together against all opposition and bearing a united witness. It does not sound as if he expected to be executed within the next few weeks: he was prepared for the possibility of execution but expresses himself as one who expected to be around for some time yet.
1:28 The opposition that they had to face came most probably from outside their community. It has been argued indeed by one or two scholars that Paul refers to “opponents who have made their way into the church and had some influence there” (Marxsen, Introduction, p. 62). J.-F. Collange (ad loc.) thinks “more precisely of itinerant Jewish-Christian preachers whom Paul takes to task more violently in 3:2ff.” But the present context (especially vv. 29 and 30) would indicate rather that the Philippian Christians were now facing the same kind of opposition that Paul himself faced when he was among them—opposition from their pagan neighbors, and not least from the authorities.
The presence of opposition, Paul assures them, shows that they are on the right path in their active gospel witness. It is a token of salvation to them, as it is a token of perdition for their opponents: they will be destroyed, but … you will be saved. God is the author of the gospel: those who defend it may therefore expect deliverance and victory from him as surely as those who resist it may expect to incur his judgment. Much the same thought finds fuller expression in 2 Thessalonians 1:5–10.
Contend for the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you, says Paul (using a verb that is specially applied to the shying of a scared horse); face them with united steadfastness, and this is a sign to them that they are in the wrong and can make no headway against you. Paul himself had been a persecutor once and could recall the steadfastness of those whom he attacked. If at the time it had seemed to him to be obstinacy rather than steadfastness, yet after his conversion he could look back and appreciate it for what it really was—evidence of the power of Christ enabling them to maintain their faith unimpaired and evidence that he himself was, albeit in all good conscience, fighting a losing battle against God.
1:29 They had come to believe in Christ through hearing the gospel, and for that they might well be grateful to God. Did they realize that they might well be grateful to him also for granting them the opportunity to suffer for Christ? Did they regard such suffering as a privilege, a special favor for which God was to be thanked? That was how Paul viewed his own sufferings in the service of Christ. The risen Lord said concerning him to Ananias of Damascus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16), and Paul experienced the fulfillment of this prediction. But he embraced his sufferings as his share in the sufferings of Christ (Phil. 3:10); his desire indeed was that his share might be greater so that the share of his fellow believers might be less (2 Cor. 1:3–7; Col. 1:24). Nor was Paul the only one in the apostolic age to appreciate being granted the privilege to suffer for him; it is recorded that the original apostles, after being beaten by sentence of the Sanhedrin, were “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41). If the Philippians could view their own sufferings in this light, their joy would be the greater.
1:30 The encouragement that Paul gave his friends was the more acceptable because it did not come from one who had no personal experience of suffering for Christ’s sake. In the catalogue of apostolic hardships that he draws up in 2 Corinthians 11:23–27, he mentions that three times he was “beaten with rods” (2 Cor. 11:25), once in Philippi (Acts 16:22, 23); and his friends in Philippi could remember it well. That is how he can remind them of the struggle you saw I had. Christian life to him was a conflict, a conflict waged against spiritual enemies (Eph. 6:12), but waged with divine assistance. It is the same word (Gk. agōn) that he used at the end of his career when he spoke of himself as having “fought the good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7). You remember how I suffered imprisonment in your own city, Paul tells them in effect; I am now suffering imprisonment in the city where I am, and in Rome, as then in Philippi, I am a prisoner for Christ’s sake. I am still fighting the same struggle, as you see. And now, I hear, you are fighting it too; it is the same struggle for you and for me. You are sharing in my ministry not only by your gospel witness but also by your endurance of affliction in the cause of the gospel.
We do not know what precise form was taken by the persecution to which the Philippian Christians were currently exposed. Paul had no need to enter into particulars that they knew only too well. What mattered was the spirit in which they accepted persecution.
Additional Notes
1:27 Conduct yourselves: Gk. politeuesthe (imperative), “live as citizens,” then (more generally) “live as members of a community.” The verb was one that would be readily understood by residents in a Roman colony. Polycarp uses it in writing to the Philippian church of his day (5:2): “if we live as citizens [politeusōmetha] in a manner worthy of him” (K. Lake translates: “if we are worthy citizens of his community”). It occurs in only one other place in NT—Acts 23:1 (in telling the Sanhedrin how he has “fulfilled his duty to God … to this day” Paul may have some regard to his life as a member of the people of Israel). Cf. the noun politeuma in 3:20, with exposition and note ad loc. See R. R. Brewer, “The Meaning of politeuesthe in Philippians 1:27,” JBL 73 (1954), pp. 76–83.
Worthy [axiōs] of the gospel of Christ: For the adverb axiōs with politeuesthai, cf. Polycarp (To the Philippians 5:2) quoted in preceding note. It is used with peripatein (“live a life”) in Eph. 4:1 (“worthy of the calling you have received”); Col. 1:10 (“worthy of the Lord”); 1 Thess. 2:12 (“worthy of God”).
I will know: lit., “hear” [Gk. akouō], W. Schmithals (Paul and the Gnostics, p. 69) infers from this that Paul must have heard that all was not well in the Philippian church with regard to concord and worthy behavior and compares his “I hear” in 1 Cor. 11:18 (cf. 1 Cor. 1:11). But there is no comparison between akouō here (present subjunctive in a clause of purpose) and akouō in 1 Cor. 11:18 (present indicative). Paul had recently heard (from Epaphroditus) about the state of the Philippian church; but he had good reason to hope that what he would see for himself (if he could pay them a visit) or hear about them (at a distance) would fill him with satisfaction.
In one spirit: (Gk. en heni pneumati). It is unlikely that the reference here is to the one Spirit of God (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4) in view of the parallel phrase as one [person], lit. “with one soul” (mia psychē). The verb stand firm is repeated (in the imperative) in 4:1, and contending in 4:3. Paul likes to describe gospel witness in military and athletic terms.
For the faith of the gospel: Gk. tē pistei tou euangeliou, which J. B. Lightfoot renders “in concert with the faith of the gospel,” taking the dative as governed by the prefix syn in synathlountes (contending) and understanding the faith as objective, equivalent to “the teaching of the gospel”—an improbable interpretation. M. Dibelius takes the phrase to mean “the faith which is the gospel.” More probably it is either the believing response to the gospel (tou euangeliou being then objective genitive) or the believing response which the gospel urges its hearers to make (tou euangeliou being subjective genitive)—there is no practical difference between these two.
1:28 Without being frightened: Gk. mē ptyromenoi. The verb occurs only here in the Greek Bible. It is found almost always in the passive and, apart from its use in reference to shying horses, means “let oneself be intimidated.”
This is a sign: lit., “which is a proof” (Gk. hētis estin … endeixis). For endeixis cf. Rom. 3:25, 26; 2 Cor. 8:24; but the closest parallel in sense to its present occurrence is endeigma in 2 Thess. 1:5 (where also the reference is to Christians’ endurance of persecution as a proof of coming relief for them and of coming judgment for their persecutors). It is not immediately clear what is the antecedent of the relative pronoun hētis (which is attracted in gender and number to endeixis). NIV takes it to be the Philippians’ not being frightened; G. B. Caird (ad loc.) takes it to be “the unflinching unity of the church in the face of persecution.” These two suggestions are not mutually exclusive; the Philippians’ united and courageous refusal to be intimidated should convey its own message to their opponents.
And that by God: Gk. kai touto apo theou, “and this from God.” What is “this”? The proof (endeixis), says J. B. Lightfoot: “it is a direct indication from God.” This is probably right (so also G. B. Caird).
1:29 It has been granted to you: Gk. hymin echaristhē—as an act of grace (charis). For another instance of the verb charizesthai see 2:9, of God’s granting to Christ the name high over all.
On behalf of Christ: lit., “for Christ’s sake” (to hyper Christou, where the article to anticipates its two following occurrences before the infinitives pisteuein, “believe,” and paschein, “suffer.”
1:30 The same struggle. Gk. ton auton agōna. In 1 Thess. 2:2 Paul and his associates speak of their preaching the gospel at Thessalonica en pollō agōni, “in much conflict” (NIV: “strong opposition”). See V. C. Pfitzner, Paul and the Agon Motif: Traditional Athletic Imagery in the Pauline Literature, NovTSup 16; also E. Güttgemanns, Der leidende Apostel und sein Herr.
