Prescript
The prescript, or introductory salutation, of an ancient letter regularly contained three elements: (a) the name of the sender or senders; (b) the name of the recipient or recipients, and (c) a word of greeting or good wishes. Examples abound from letters of the New Testament period, in Greek and in Latin, both literary and nonliterary; earlier examples are the extracts from the official correspondence of the Persian court quoted in the book of Ezra; compare Ezra 7:12, “Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law of the God of Heaven: Greetings.” This pattern is followed here, as in all the NT letters: Paul and Timothy are named as the senders and “all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi” as the recipients, and the word of good wishes is “grace and peace.”
1:1 Paul is the sole author of the letter, even if Timothy’s name is conjoined with his in the prescript. Immediately after the prescript he says, “I thank my God” (not, as in Col. 1:3, in a letter where Timothy’s name similarly appears along with Paul’s in the prescript, “we … thank God”). Later in this letter Timothy is referred to by name in the third person (2:19).
Timothy is associated with Paul in the prescript as a gesture of friendship. He was with Paul at the time of writing and may even have taken down the letter at Paul’s dictation. He was well known to the Philippian Christians, having been a member of the missionary team that first brought the gospel to their city (his presence is implied, though not expressly asserted, in the narrative of Acts 16:11–40).
Timothy was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia, the son of a mixed marriage, since his mother was Jewish and his father Greek. He was brought up in the Jewish faith but was not circumcised in infancy. During Barnabas and Paul’s first visit to his home town (Acts 14:8–20) he was converted to Christianity. When Paul passed that way again a year or two later he was impressed by Timothy’s spiritual development, which was attested to by senior Christians in Lystra and Iconium. He decided to enlist Timothy as a junior associate in his apostolic ministry but circumcised him first to regularize his anomalous religious status: as the son of a Jewish mother he was no Gentile Christian but a Jew in everything but circumcision. Both Paul and he knew that his circumcision made no difference to his status in the sight of God, but it was intended to remove what would have been an absolute barrier to any relations on Paul’s part with synagogue authorities (Acts 16:1–3). Timothy willingly joined Paul and served him devotedly as his aide-de-camp—how devotedly can be gathered from Paul’s appreciative words in 2:20–22.
Paul and Timothy are described as servants (lit., “slaves”) of Christ Jesus. In Romans 1:1 Paul introduces himself as “a servant [lit., ‘slave’] of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” In addressing the Philippians Paul had no need to stress his apostolic authority as he did in addressing the churches of Galatia and Corinth: there was no disinclination to recognize his authority in Philippi, as there was in those other churches.
It has been argued that the term “servants” here does not bear the common sense of “slaves” because the Greek word (doulos) is used in LXX (the Greek version of the Old Testament) of someone whom God uses for a special ministry or through whom he speaks, like Moses (Neh. 10:29), Joshua (Josh. 24:29), David (Ps. 89:20 [LXX: 88:21]), Jonah (2 Kings [LXX: 4 Kingdoms] 14:25), each of whom is called “the servant (Gk. doulos) of the LORD.” The readers of Paul’s letters, however, would more readily have taken him to mean that he was the “slave” of Christ in the humble sense that the word normally had among them. No doubt Paul did esteem it a high honor to be the servant of Christ, but he implied by his choice of the word meaning “slave” that he was totally at the disposal of his Master. Yet for that very reason his words and actions carried his Master’s authority, and in his bondservice to that Master he realized perfect freedom.
The recipients of the letter are called saints or “holy people” (those whom God has set apart for himself)—a very common designation for Christians in Paul’s letters (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:2). The designation (Gk. hagios) goes back to OT times: when God made a covenant with the Israelites after delivering them from Egypt, he called them “a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6) and charged them, “be holy, because I am holy” (Lev. 11:45). This charge is carried over into the NT and laid upon the people of the new covenant. The Christian usage may also have been influenced in some degree by Daniel’s description of the elect remnant of the end time as “the saints of the Most High” (Dan. 7:18, 22, 27). It is Daniel’s description that Paul probably has in mind when he says that “the saints will judge the world” (1 Cor. 6:2).
He writes, then, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi—that is, to the whole church in that city. His earlier letters are explicitly addressed to churches in various places (cf. Gal. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1); he varies his wording in his later letters to churches (cf. Rom. 1:7; Col. 1:2; Eph. 1:1). He describes them as being in Christ Jesus. This indicates that those who believe in Christ are united to him: the new corporate life into which they have entered is their share in his resurrection life. The idea is much the same as that which Paul elsewhere expresses by speaking of believers as members of the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12f., 27; Rom. 12:4f.).
Among those to whom the letter is sent special mention is made of the overseers and deacons. The Greek words so translated came later to have the official sense of “bishops” and “deacons” (these English words are in fact derived from the two Greek words). Paul and his colleagues encouraged the development of qualities of leadership in the churches that they planted. Where the rank and file were slow in giving proper recognition to those members who displayed such qualities, they were urged to do so; the potential leaders might indeed be mentioned by name (as in 1 Cor. 16:15–18). There was no one official designation for church leaders in the Pauline churches. In Thessalonica they are called “those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you” (1 Thess. 5:12). It may have been the Philippian Christians themselves who referred to their church leaders as episkopoi, “those who exercise oversight” (the same term is applied to the elders of the Ephesian church in Acts 20:28 to express their responsibility as spiritual shepherds). The deacons (Gk. diakonoi) would be those who performed any service in the church. In the Pastoral Letters their duties are more formalized (cf. 1 Tim. 3:8–13).
The reason for the special mention of the overseers and deacons is uncertain. Many expositors, from Chrysostom on, have suggested that they were specially responsible for sending Epaphroditus with a gift to Paul. F. W. Beare thinks it probable that Paul wished to bring Epaphroditus’s services to the attention of the leaders. E. Best envisages the possibility that Paul had received a letter statedly sent from “the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons,” and took up this form of words in his reply, rather pointedly refraining from giving himself any title but “slave of Christ Jesus.”
When, about fifty years later, Polycarp wrote to the Philippian church, it was still administered by a plurality of leaders, to whom he refers as “elders” (To the Philippians 6:1; 11:1).
1:2 At this stage in the prescript of a Greek letter the writer would normally wish the recipients “joy”; in a Latin letter he would wish them “good health.” Paul inherited the Hebrew (and general Semitic) usage that wished the recipients “peace” (Heb. shālôm), but he regularly amplifies this to “grace and peace.” This may have been a form of words current in benedictions in synagogue or church. In a Jewish apocalyptic work from later in the first century, a letter purporting to have been sent by Baruch to the tribes of Israel deported by the Assyrians is superscribed “Mercy and peace” (2 Baruch 78:2). Peace is the sum total of all blessings, temporal and spiritual, and grace is the source from which they come.
The grace and peace that Paul invokes on his correspondents is almost always derived from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The close coupling of Christ with God in such expressions bears witness to the place Christ occupies in Paul’s thought. As the risen and exalted one he has been invested by God with the designation “Lord”—“the name that is above every name” (2:9)—and wears a heavenly humanity (1 Cor. 15:45–49). God and Christ are entirely at one in the procuring and bestowal of salvation. The unconditioned good will to human beings that has been manifested in the saving work accomplished on the cross is indiscriminately called “God’s grace” (e.g., Rom. 5:15) and “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (e.g., Phil. 4:23). Similarly, the state of life into which that saving work brings believers—peace with God and peace with one another—is indiscriminately called “the peace of God” (4:7) and “the peace of Christ” (Col. 3:15).
Additional Notes
1:1 On Paul’s circumcision of Timothy see M. Hengel, Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity, p. 64.
On the phrase servants of Christ Jesus see K. H. Rengstorf, TDNT, vol. 2, pp. 261–80, s.v. doulos, etc. (especially 276, 277). G. Sass, “Zur Bedeutung von doulos bei Paulus,” ZNW 40 (1941), pp. 24–32, concludes that for Paul this is a title of honor.
On the expression the saints in Christ Jesus (cf. 4:21) see O. E. Evans, Saints in Christ Jesus: A Study of the Christian Life in the New Testament. See also the chapter “The Corporate Christ” in C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology, pp. 47–96.
In the Pastoral Letters the terms episkopos and presbyteros are still used interchangeably, and there were apparently several officers so designated in one church (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17; Titus 1:5, 7); their qualifications are set out in detail. The next occurrence in extant Christian literature of episkopoi and diakonoi coupled together as here is in Didache 15:1. Elsewhere in the Pauline letters the people here called episkopoi are referred to as proîstamenoi, exercising “leadership” (Rom. 12:8; cf. 1 Thess. 5:12), which, however, is not a technical title. See J. B. Lightfoot, “The Christian Ministry,” in Philippians, pp. 181–269; F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 211–13; E. Best, TU 102 = SE 4 (1968), pp. 371–76; B. Holmberg, Paul and Power: The Structure of Authority in the Primitive Church as Reflected in the Pauline Epistles, pp. 100, 101, 116, 117.
Introductory Thanksgiving
The prescript of Paul’s letters is regularly followed by an introductory thanksgiving. Galatians is an exception: there was little cause for thanksgiving in the current situation of the Galatian churches. The priority Paul normally gave to thanksgiving is made explicit in Rom. 1:8: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.” The present thanksgiving reflects “Paul’s sense of close fellowship with his Philippian friends” and is “unusually earnest” (O’Brien, p. 19). As elsewhere, Paul’s giving of thanks is closely interwoven with prayer.
1:3 The indicative I thank is used also in the introductory thanksgiving of Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philemon 4 (the plural “we thank” in Col. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:2; “we ought … to thank” in 2 Thess. 1:3). In 2 Corinthians 1:3 and Ephesians 1:3 (as also in 1 Pet. 1:3) we have the more liturgical form “Praise be to [lit., ‘Blessed be’] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The very thought of his Christian friends in Philippi and other places gives Paul cause for gratitude to God.
1:4 Paul’s introductory thanksgiving is repeatedly linked with the assurance of his constant prayer for the friends to whom he writes (cf. Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; 1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philem. 4). One gets the impression that he could never think of them without praying for them; but over and above that, he prayed for them regularly and systematically both as individuals and as churches.
It is not certain whether the words in all my prayers for all of you should go closely with the following clause (as in NIV) or with the preceding clause I thank my God … for you, in which case they would stand in parallel construction with every time I remember you. The repetition of all and every time/always (one and the same root in Greek) is noteworthy; it is a characteristic feature of Paul’s style throughout his correspondence and not least in this letter. There are four occurrences in verses 3 and 4, which could be brought out in the rendering: “I thank my God for you in all my remembrance of you at all times in all my prayer for you all.”
His statement that he prays for them all with joy introduces a recurring note in this letter (cf. 1:18, 22; 2:2, 17, 18, 28, 29; 3:1; 4:1, 4, 10). In contrast to many of his other churches, the Philippian church gave Paul almost unmixed joy as he contemplated it. Evidently it harbored neither such subversive teaching as had earlier found its way into the churches of Galatia nor such ethical libertinism as was defended by some members of the Corinthian church.
1:5 What calls forth his grateful joy more particularly here is the energetic wholeheartedness with which the Philippian Christians had cooperated with him in the gospel since first he visited their city. While he was with them several of them had “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel” (4:3) and after his departure they continued their active witness. They prayed for him regularly (v. 19); they maintained contact with him through messengers like Epaphroditus (2:25–30); they sent him gifts as opportunity offered—indeed, one of Paul’s reasons for sending them this letter was to thank them for a gift that Epaphroditus had brought from them; here he briefly anticipates his fuller acknowledgement of it in 4:10–20. They participated generously in the Jerusalem relief fund that he organized in his Gentile mission field during the closing years of his Aegean ministry: in 2 Corinthians 8:1–5 he gives warm commendation to the liberal giving of the Macedonian churches (among which the Philippian church, of course, was included).
The fact that their cooperation in the gospel had continued without intermission until now suggests that nothing was happening among the Philippian Christians to cause Paul serious disquiet.
1:6 Their eager partnership in Paul’s gospel ministry was a sure sign of the work of grace that had begun to be accomplished in their lives when they first believed the saving message. Paul voices his conviction that he who began a good work in them, will carry it on (cf. 2:13) until it reaches its consummation at the advent of Christ. Similarly in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, after praying that the readers may be preserved “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul and his companions affirm, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” Salvation is God’s work from first to last; therefore, where it has truly been inaugurated, it will certainly be completed.
The day of Christ Jesus, called “the day of Christ” in verse 10 and in 2:16, is the time of Christ’s expected appearing in glory (cf. 3:20). The expression is taken over from the OT “day of the LORD”—the day when Yahweh, the God of Israel, would vindicate his righteous cause and put down all injustice, wherever it might be found, first and foremost among his own people (cf. Amos 5:18–20). But now, by divine investment, “Jesus Christ is Lord” in the most august sense that the word can bear (2:11); the day of the LORD is therefore the day of Christ Jesus. In a Christian context it is the day when the lives and actions of the people of Christ will be assessed. Each believer’s “work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light” (1 Cor. 3:13); therefore, final judgment must “wait till the Lord comes” and must not be anticipated by those whose knowledge of the unseen motives and personal circumstances of others is at best imperfect (1 Cor. 4:5). Above all, the day of Christ Jesus is the time when the salvation of believers, already inaugurated, will be consummated. Like their Thessalonian brothers and sisters, the Christians of Philippi had learned “to wait for his [God’s] Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead” (1 Thess. 1:10), and to rejoice in the “hope of salvation” because they had been chosen not to endure the divine retribution to be visited on the ungodly at the end time but “to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:8, 9). For believers, then, that day would be light and not darkness (by contrast with the warning of Amos 5:20 that to some it would bring “darkness, not light”).
Additional Notes
1:3 On introductory thanksgivings in Paul’s letters see P. Schubert, Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings, and P. T. O’Brien, Introductory Thanksgivings in the Letters of Paul. Such thanksgivings have been identified in papyrus letters of the same general period: “Paul was therefore adhering to a beautiful secular custom when he so frequently began his letters with thanks to God” (A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 181, n. 5).
The verb here is eucharisteō (as in Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:4; Philem. 4); cf. eucharistoumen in Col. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:2; eucharistein opheilomen in 2 Thess. 1:3; charin echō in 2 Tim. 1:3; eulogētos ho theos in 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3.
The words every time I remember you (Gk. epi pasē tē mneia hymōn) might be rendered “every time you remember me” (if hymōn is subjective, not objective, genitive); cf. Moffatt: “for all your remembrance of me.” P. T. O’Brien thinks it “best to understand the phrase as a reference to the Philippians’ remembrance of Paul by means of their monetary support on several earlier occasions” (Introductory Thanksgivings, p. 23). If this is maintained, then Paul mentions three reasons for this thanksgiving: their remembrance of him, their continuous partnership in the work of the gospel (v. 5), and his confidence that this good work will be carried on to the end (v. 6). On the other hand, in every other place where Paul refers to “remembrance” (mneia) in his introductory thanksgivings, it is he who remembers the readers (Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; 1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philem. 4). In the only other occurrence of mneia in his letters it is indeed his readers’ remembrance of him that is meant, but not in an introductory thanksgiving (1 Thess. 3:6).
1:5 The clause because of your partnership is literally rendered “because of your participation (koinōnia).” It understands “participation” in an active sense, of the Philippians’ sharing in Paul’s gospel ministry, and this is certainly right. However, H. Seesemann, Der Begriff Koinōnia im Neuen Testament, pp. 73f., 79, argues for a more passive sense, of the participation of believers in the saving blessings of the gospel: “your participation in the gospel” is thus a circumlocution for “your faith.”
Interlude
A transition from the thanksgiving of verses 3–6 to the intercession of verses 9–11 is provided by these personal words in which Paul addresses the Philippians directly and speaks of his deep affection for them.
1:7 They have shown themselves so much at one with him that “it is only natural” (Moffatt) that he should feel about them as he does. The grace of apostolic ministry had been divinely granted to Paul (cf. Rom. 1:5), but he rejoices when his converts share it with him. Their “partnership” in his gospel witness meant much to him when he was free to move around; it meant, if anything, even more to him now that he was in chains. It should not be inferred from the NIV rendering that his opportunity for defending and confirming the gospel was greater when he was at liberty than in his present restricted situation. He had come to accept that the interests of the gospel required him to be where he was right then: while he was under house arrest he knew himself to be at the post of divinely appointed duty “for the defense of the gospel” (v. 16) and he looked forward to the rare opportunity of defending and confirming it before the highest officers of state when his case came up for hearing shortly. So long as he was in the place where God intended him to be, the ministry with which he had been entrusted would prosper. This assurance was strengthened in him by the steadfastness with which his Philippian friends showed themselves to be his partners in his imprisonment and in his continued gospel witness.
1:8 In moments of intense emotion Paul was prone to invoke God as his witness (NIV, God can testify; cf. Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 11:11, 31; 1 Thess. 2:5). Here the emotion is deep affection. The calling of God to testify does not suggest that some of the Philippians needed to be assured of this; Paul is never reticent about his love for his converts (cf. 2 Cor. 12:15; Gal. 4:19; 1 Thess. 2:8). But the terms he uses in addressing the Philippians “show a depth not plumbed elsewhere” (O’Brien, p. 29). He longs for all of them with the affection of Christ Jesus—it is an utterly selfless affection. “As it is not Paul, but Jesus Christ, that lives in Paul, so it is not by Paul’s heart, but by the heart of Jesus Christ, that Paul is moved” (Bengel, ad loc.).
The unity of the Philippian church in its relations with Paul is emphasized; they all shared in his ministry and they were all embraced in his heart’s affection.
Additional Notes
1:7 I have you in my heart (Gk. dia to echein me en tē kardia hymas) might equally well be rendered “you have me in your heart” (cf. NEB: “because you hold me in such affection”). Either rendering fits the context; perhaps the word order slightly favors the former.
The grace (Gk. charis) granted to Paul is mentioned again in 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:9; Eph. 3:7, 8, 9 (“this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery”).
The words defending and confirming the gospel (Gk. en tē apologia kai bebaiōsei tou euangeliou) might have a forensic connotation, in view of Paul’s impending appearance in court.
1:8 The phrase how I long for all of you represents the verb epipotheō, which Paul uses repeatedly of longing to see his friends, as in Rom 1:11, 1 Thess. 3:6, 2 Tim. 1:4 (the noun epipothia is used in the same way in Rom. 15:23); cf. Phil. 2:26 (of Epaphroditus’s longing to see his Philippian friends); 2 Cor. 5:2 (of Christians’ “longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling”). Here, however, it is used, without a dependent infinitive, of Paul’s affectionate yearning for his friends (cf. 2 Cor. 9:14, of the deep love which, as Paul hopes, the Jerusalem church will conceive for his Gentile converts at the reception of their gift; also 2 Cor. 7:7, 11, where the noun epipothēsis is used of the Corinthian Christians’ feeling for Paul). See C. Spicq, “Epipothein. Désirer ou chérir?” RB 64 (1957), pp. 184–95; Notes de Lexicographie Néo-Testamentaire, 1 (Fribourg: Editions Universitaires, 1978), pp. 277–79.
With the affection of Christ Jesus, lit. “in the bowels of Christ Jesus,” the bowels (Gk. splanchna) being used, as frequently, of the seat of the emotions (like “heart” in v. 7); cf. 2:1.
Intercessory Prayer
The introductory thanksgiving, which itself included an element of prayer, is now followed by an intercessory prayer (strictly speaking, a prayer report). The subject matter of this prayer is identical with the subject matter of the letter as a whole; here are concentrated the main concerns to which Paul gives fuller expression throughout the letter.
1:9 This is my prayer: which catches up “I pray” in verse 4 (although a different Greek word is now used), may mean “I am praying at this moment” (which was no doubt true in any case) or (more probably) “I pray for you regularly, and this is what I pray for,” that your love may abound more and more. For Paul, “the fruit of the Spirit is love” before all else in the lives of which he takes possession (Gal. 5:22); “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). If such love increases among the Philippian Christians, it will remove those threats to their unity of heart and purpose that arise from occasional clashes of personality and temperament. Paul returns to the subject in 2:2, where he urges his readers to make his “joy complete by … ‘having the same love.’ ”
This love, he trusts, will be accompanied by knowledge and depth of insight. Paul was not blind to the dangers of emotion uncontrolled by intelligence. He was resolved, by his own account, to pray and sing “with my spirit, but … also … with my mind” (1 Cor. 14:15), and he was equally concerned that he and his converts should love in spirit and mind alike.
It is love that fosters the growth of true knowledge and discernment or spiritual perception. “Knowledge,” divorced from love, “puffs up,” whereas “love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). But if love is indispensable, knowledge and depth of insight are necessary. The truth of the gospel is liable to be subverted where ignorance and faulty judgment provide a foothold for the unsound teaching against which the Philippians are put on their guard in chapter 3.
1:10 When so many competing forms of doctrine and ways of life are presented for acceptance (as they certainly were in the eastern Mediterranean world of the first century), true knowledge and depth of insight will enable Christians to discern what is best (for the expression cf. Rom. 2:18). This might mean “to know what is good or expedient” as against “empty subtleties and speculations” (Calvin, ad loc.) or (as the NIV rendering suggests) to discern “the best among the good” (Bengel, ad loc.). Both kinds of discrimination are necessary. Such discernment comes with mature experience. A classic NT text on this is Hebrews 5:14, with its reference to spiritually mature people “who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil.” Without this faculty of discrimination one could not develop “a sense of what is vital” (Moffatt). It is the effect, not of a logical process of moral philosophy, but of growing insight into the character and will of God.
It is important in view of the day of Christ, the day of review and reward for his people (cf. v. 6), that they should be pure and blameless. They cannot be so on that day unless they lead pure and blameless lives here and now. Choosing what is best therefore includes pre-eminently choosing what is ethically best. Similarly the prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that God may keep his people “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” involves his making them “holy in every way” at this present time.
1:11 The fruit of righteousness that Paul desires to see reproduced in the Philippians’ lives is essentially identical with those graces which, according to Galatians 5:22, 23, make up the “fruit (or ‘harvest’) of the Spirit.” These qualities are the spontaneous product of the new life implanted within them, a life based on “the righteousness that comes from God” (3:9). It is because of their union with him by faith that they will display the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ and which was manifested perfectly in his own character and action. There is no room for self-congratulation here.
In such lives God will be glorified. The words to the glory and praise of God are part of the construction of the sentence, but at the same time they serve the purpose of a doxology concluding the period of thanksgiving and prayer.
Additional Notes
1:9 On intercessory prayer in Paul’s letters see G. P. Wiles, Paul’s Intercessory Prayers.
My prayer: Gk. proseuchomai, whereas in v. 4 the noun deēsis is used. The more general sense of prayer is expressed by proseuchomai (with the noun proseuchē); deēsis (with the verb deomai) denotes the petitionary element in prayer. See 4:6.
Knowledge renders Gk. epignōsis (a compound of gnōsis), used in NT only of moral and religious knowledge. GNB adds the adjective “true,” which is probably intended to convey the force of the prefix epi-; “the compound epignōsis has become a technical term for the decisive knowledge of God which is implied in conversion to the Christian faith” (R. Bultmann, TDNT 1, p. 707, s.v. ginōskō, etc.).
Depth of insight renders Gk. aisthēsis (“perception”), not found elsewhere in NT. Here it denotes moral insight; cf. aisthētēria (“sense organs”) in Heb. 5:14 of the moral faculties trained “to distinguish good from evil.”
1:10 Pure renders Gk. eilikrinēs (“unmixed” and therefore pure), here (as in 2 Pet. 3:1) in the moral sense (cf. the noun eilikrineia in 1 Cor. 5:8; 2 Cor. 1:12; 2:17). The adjective rendered blameless is aproskopos, which may have either an intransitive force (“not stumbling”) or a transitive force (“not causing others to stumble”), the reference in the one as in the other being ethical. The force is probably intransitive here; in 1 Cor. 10:32 it is transitive (NIV: “do not cause anyone to stumble”). The only other NT occurrence of the adjective is in Acts 24:16, where it is used of Paul’s “clear conscience” (NIV).
1:11 For fruit or harvest used in an ethical sense cf. Prov. 11:30; Amos 6:12; Eph 5:9; Heb. 12:11; James 3:18. Here the fruit or “harvest” of righteousness (Gk. karpos dikaiosynēs) might conceivably be the fruit which consists in righteousness (dikaiosynēs being construed as genitive of definition), but it is more in accord with the analogy of similar expressions and with Pauline thought to understand it as the fruit which springs from the gift of righteousness or justification that God by his grace bestows on believers. While the participle filled (Gk. peplērōmenoi) is commonly treated as passive, there is a good case for taking it in the middle voice, as in NEB: “reaping the full harvest of righteousness” (cf. G. B. Caird, ad loc.).
There is a curious variant at the end of v. 11, where instead of to the glory and praise of God the “Western” codices F G (with Ambrosiaster) read “for glory and praise to me,” and P46 reads “for the glory of God and praise to me.” The reading “to me” must be understood in the sense of 2:16 (“in order that I may boast on the day of Christ”); even so, it is out of place here, although J.-F. Collange (ad loc.) thinks it “surprising enough in character to be original” (he compares “praise” in a similar eschatological context in 1 Cor. 4:5).
