Philippians 1:26

That your glorying may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you again.

Glorying ... here is a better translation than "rejoicing" of the KJV, "which is too mild an expression to describe what the Philippians would feel if Paul were restored again to the church."[47]

Although it is evident that Paul here expressed confidence of seeing the Philippians again, it should be remembered that his inspiration did not reveal exactly what would take place upon every future occasion contemplated by the apostle. He made his plans like Christians today make their plans. Therefore, it is best to view this as a confident expectation on Paul's part of seeing the Philippians again, and not as a dogmatic prophecy that he would indeed do so. If indeed it was a prophetic promise of his seeing them, we may be certain that he did so; although, of course, we are far from having a complete record of all that Paul did, or all that he wrote. The sacred New Testament provides only limited glimpses of his glorious life.