Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul does not here refer to himself as the founder of the church at Philippi, though in a sense he was the founder. Paul, however, preferred to give the glory to God, recognizing the Father as the one who actually converted them and brought them to a saving knowledge of the Saviour.

Boice flatly declared that this verse is one "of the three greatest in the Bible,"[16] teaching the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints. This student, however, fails to find any suggestion of such a doctrine in this passage. It should be noted here that Paul's confidence was not in the Philippians but in God. It was the conduct of those Philippians up to that point which inspired Paul with confidence concerning their ultimate destiny. As Hendriksen put it:

Your perseverance in sympathetic participation in the work of the gospel (Philippians 1:5) has convinced me that you are the objects of divine preservation (Philippians 1:6). These two must not be separated[17]

It is true that God did foreordain and predestinate such souls to eternal life; but there was absolutely nothing in God's so doing to compel the Philippians to be such souls! That is not what Paul declared here; but rather his declaration is that the evidence proved the Philippians to be such souls, as attested by their conduct throughout his acquaintance with them, and that God would surely reward them eternally, such a confidence, of course, being contingent upon the fact of the Philippians continuing to be such souls.

Until the day of Jesus Christ ... This can hardly be anything except the final day of the Second Advent of Christ, called in the New Testament "the judgment." That is "the day" toward which all the world moves. It is a gross mistake, however, to read this, as Paul's expecting the Second Coming in the lifetime of his Philippian converts. As Lightfoot said, "It must not be hastily inferred from this that St. Paul confidently expected the Lord's advent during the lifetime of his Philippian converts."[18]

[16] James Montgomery Boice, op. cit., p. 40.

[17] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 51.

[18] J. B. Lightfoot, op. cit., p. 84.