The truest guarantee of perseverance. Note— I. ST . PAUL 'S CONFIDENCE THAT THESE PHILIPPIANS WOULD PERSEVERE UNTO THE END . II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH BE RESTS THIS CONFIDENCE . 1 . That it is God ' s work. If we know that God is working in us we can trust him to complete his work. 2 . God ' s work demands man ' s he ' s co-operation. St. Paul recognizes in the zeal which these Philippians displayed in the furtherance of the... read more
Begun, continued, and ridded in God. This phrase describes the first essential condition of the Christian life. I. CHRISTIANS HAVE A GOOD WORK GOING ON WITHIN THEM . 1 . Christianity is first of all internal. What is in us is the matter of chief importance. 2 . A work is going on in the heart of the Christian, creating, developing, training, pruning, purging, building up. 3 . This work is good. It is good for the soul to be brought from death to life,... read more
Personal Christianity. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." These words bring under our notice personal... read more
Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all . It is meet ; rather, just , right. To think this ; to entertain this confidence concerning you. Because I have you in my heart ; or, because you have me in your heart. But the order of the words, and Philippians 1:8 , make the first rendering the more probable. His love for them increases his confidence. Inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel . These words may be taken with the... read more
The communion of saints. I. COMMUNION IN SUFFERING . "In my bonds." These Philippians had to endure hardship in the cause of the gospel. Every Christian has to endure such hardships, either external or internal. Such conflicts are necessary links which unite us to the family of God. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." II. COMMUNION IN MINISTRY . "In the defense and confirmation of the gospel." The little which we can do, each in our own restricted sphere, for the... read more
A double explanation of the origin of this confidence. "Even as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, and because in my bonds and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all partakers with me of my grace." The apostle has found the objective ground of his confidence in the exclusively Divine source of the "good work;" but this confidence is justified at once by his own love to the Philippians and by their spiritual fellowship with him in... read more
For God is my record —rather, witness (comp. Romans 1:9 )— how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ . The word σπλάγχνα , here rendered "bowels," means the heart, liver, etc.. he not the entrails. The expression is remarkable, and is well illustrated by Bengel's striking words, "Paulus non in Pauli, sed Jesu Christi movetur visceribus." "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." He is so united with Christ that he feels with the heart of Christ, he loves with the love... read more
And this I pray . This is the purport of the prayer already mentioned in Philippians 1:4 . The conjunction ἵνα marks the end of St. Paul's prayer, and so its purport. That your love may abound yet more and more . Your love; not love for the apostle only, but the grace of Christian charity. St. Paul finds no fault with the Philippians, but "ignis in apostolo nunquam dicit, Sufficit" (Bengel). He prays for their continued growth in love, but not unintelligent love. In knowledge and in... read more
The things that excel St. Paul prays that his readers may have that finer spiritual perception ( aisthesis ) which is produced by an increase of love in order that they may discern the greater worth of those good things which differ from other good things in being more excellent. The high endowment would not be necessary for the discrimination of the coarser contrasts of good and evil, light and darkness, etc. It is plain, therefore, that different shades of goodness, gradations of... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Philippians 1:6
The grounds of the apostle's thanksgiving. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perfect it till the day of Christ." I. THE SUBJECT OF HIS CONFIDENCE . "A good work," regarded: 1 . In itself. It is the work of grace or salvation in the human soul. 2 . In its development. It has a beginning and an ending. It is God, not man, who begins it; and he who begins it ends it. It is thus a good work, II. THE GROUNDS OF ... read more