Philippians 4:10-20

IV. EPILOGUE 4:10-20

The apostle began this epistle by sharing some personal information about his situation in Rome (Philippians 1:12-26). He now returned from his concerns for the Philippians (Philippians 1:27 to Philippians 4:9) to his own circumstances (Philippians 4:10-20). Notice the somewhat chiastic structure of the epistle. This epilogue balances the prologue (Philippians 1:3-26).

"Nowhere else in all of Paul’s letters nor in all of the letters of antiquity that have survived until the present is there any other acknowledgment of a gift that can compare with this one in terms of such a tactful treatment of so sensitive a matter . . .

"The very structure of this section makes clear what has just been said. It exhibits a nervous alternation back and forth between Paul’s appreciation on the one hand (Philippians 4:10; Philippians 4:14-16; Philippians 4:18-20), and his insistence on his own independence and self-sufficiency on the other (Philippians 4:11-13; Philippians 4:17)." [Note: Hawthorne, p. 195.]

". . . Paul’s point is that his joy lies not in the gifts per se-these he really could do with or without-but in the greater reality that the gifts represent: the tangible evidence, now renewed, of his and their long-term friendship, which for Paul has the still greater significance of renewing their long-term ’partnership/participation’ with him in the gospel." [Note: Fee, Paul’s Letter . . ., pp. 425-26.]