Bible Commentaries

The Epistle to the Philippians

The Saints of God (for All Saints" Eve)

Philippians 1:1

To-morrow is the day of All Saints. For quite a thousand years the churches of the West have given the first of November to this great commemoration, illuminating the declining and darkening year with the spiritual splendour of the thought of these exalted multitudes who have outsoared our shadows into the light of God. For it is with the holy ones departed that the festival, beyond a doubt, was primarily from the first concerned. It contemplated the saints in that reference of the word which is often its distinctive reference in the Bible, as where the Old Testament seer beholds "the Lord our God coming, and all the saints with him," and where the Christian Apostle hails the same supreme prospect in its clearer and more articulate glory, "the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, with all His saints".

That reference passed into current language and normal use, as we find it largely illustrated in Shakespeare for example and in Milton. And so the noble Collect of our Book, a prayer of the. Reformation age, lifts us up to remember and to emulate the immortals; "Grant that we may follow Thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living".

I. Let us remember that the word saint, when we follow it through the Bible, above all through the New Testament, by no means most frequently connects itself with the holy dead in "those heavenly habitations," where (to use the words of the tenderest supplication of the Prayer Book) "the souls of them that sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual rest and felicity". Rather the word gravitates by Scriptural usage towards the seen and the temporal for its setting. By a saint the Apostle commonly means a being altogether, as to conditions and surroundings, like ourselves. We read of "poor saints," who need pecuniary relief by church collections, of "saints" whose feet, tired and bemired with travel, the pious widow washes; "saints" resident and busy in town and city life, saints of Rome, and specially of Caesar's household, saints of Colossae, of Thessalonica, and, as in the text, saints of Philippi. Not the Garden of God was the place of life for the latter, but the Roman military town, with its vices and superstitions, and its angry rabble, its shops and market, its courthouse, and its inner prison. One of these Philippian saints was a merchant-woman, another was governor of the gaol, another a recent victim of demoniacal possession, still very likely the chattel of the slave-owner. Yet to this whole company St. Paul gives without reserve the glorious name. There and then, in the thick of their Philippian life, they were all the saints of God. II. "The saints who are at Philippi," the ἅγιοι there. What does the word ἅγιος mean? Taking together its etymology and its use, we find it conveying a blended and elevating notion of religious awe, and of a Divine ownership. Kindred to ἅγος, it casts round its bearer the solemn halo or aura of a mysterious presence, a contact with the Eternal. The invisible world has touched the Philippians 1:1-2

How beautiful is the conjunction of the aged Apostle and the young disciple in sacred league and covenant! I wonder how much each owed to the other in the ministry of the Spirit? How far was it Timothy's ministry to keep the old man young, and to warm his soul continually with the kindling influence of youthful enthusiasm? It is a gracious remembrance, that, in these latter days of limitation and suspicion, Paul could drink at the fountain of a young man's love. He had the inexpressible privilege of scenting the perfumes of love's springtime, and feasting upon the first sweet fruits in the garden of a young and grace-filled soul. Beautiful must have been their companionship—youth revering age, and age having no contempt or suspicion of youth, but each ministering to the other of the flowers and fruits of his own season. "Paul and Timothy." It is the union of springtime and autumn; of enthusiasm and experience; of impulse and wisdom; of tender hope and quiet and rich assurance.

I. Servants of Jesus Christ.—The early Apostles gloried in exhibiting the brand-marks of their Lord. Here, in this letter, the first thing the Apostle shows us is the mark of the branding A little while ago I was present at a sheep-shearing in the very heart of the Highlands, and I noticed that when the heavy, burdensome fleece had been shorn from the affrighted sheep, the liberated beast was branded with the owner's initials and went bounding away, prominently exhibiting these signs of its owner's name. And Paul and Timothy had been delivered from a heavy burden: the vesture of oppressive habits had been removed by the power of a crucified Lord, and on their emancipated lives they bore the marks of their owner—the "brands" of the Lord Jesus. Whose I am. They belonged to Him who had redeemed them with a heavy price, and they counted it to be their glory, and their crown of rejoicing, that they were not their own, but the branded "bond-servants" of the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi. The saints are reared in unlikely neighbourhoods. It was at Philippi that the multitude was so hostile and violent. It was at Philippi that Paul had "many stripes" laid upon him, and that he was "thrust into prison," and his feet "made fast in the stocks". One would have thought that in this fierce persecution the little Church would have been destroyed, and that in these scorching antagonisms the early, tender leaves of Christian faith and hope would have withered away. But "He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains"—even in those unlikely places—and He reared His saints amid the threatening decimations of Philippi. For let it be remembered that, though Philippi was the sphere of their living, it did not provide the rootage of their life. The saints were "at Philippi," but they were "in Christ Jesus," and that is the secret of their endurance "when the sun was up" and the hot beams of hostility blazed upon their unoffending heads.

III. With the Bishops and Deacons.—"Honour to whom honour is due." These men had done the work of collecting the help which had been sent to the needy Apostle, and they must receive special and generous recognition. St. Paul was a prince of courtesy. Courtesy is not the creation of effort, it is the product of grace: it is born, not made. Paul was born of grace, and therefore he was gracious, and instinctively his courtesy fitted itself to all the changing requirements of the day.

IV. Grace to You.—Behind graciousness was grace, and the courtesy broadened into a prayer for the supreme gift. Get grace, and all gifts are gained. Grace is the bountiful mother of all the graces.

V. And Peace.—Where grace abides peace will dwell. They are inseparable companions. Grace is the native element in which all our powers awake and work in happy service. Now peace is not the absence of movement: it is the absence of friction. The real symbol of peace is not to be found in some secluded motionless mountain tarn, but in the majestic progress of some quiet brimming river. Peace is not symbolised in the death chamber, but in the rhythmic, smooth movements of the engine-house. When grace reigns, man moves in God in perfect unison, man co-operates with man in fellowship without strain, and "all that is within us praise and bless" God's "holy name". When grace reigns, life loses all its "strain and stress," and, in the absence of friction, "all things work together for good".

—J. H. Jowett, The High Galling, p1.

References.—I:1 —Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p46. I:2.—Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p65. I:3.—W. Wynn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p338. I:3-5.—W. Baird, The Hallowing of our Common Life, p84. I:3-7—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvi. No2154. I:3-8.—J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p9. I:5 , 6.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p139. I:6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No872. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays after Trinity, p308. Spurgeon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p133. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p274. A. Connell, Scottish Review, vol. iii. p161. I:7.—Bishop Creighton, University and Other Sermons, p124. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p34319.—H. P. Liddon, Sermons Preached on Special Occasions, p286. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p328. I:9 , 10.—T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p208. I:9-11.—Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p289. I:9-14.—J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p17. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture— Philippians 1:10

In this very remarkable prayer, St. Paul is guided by a conception of Christianity as it really Philippians 1:20

You have in those words a picture, a portrait of a minister of Jesus Christ. You have a portrait of St.

Paul drawn by the hands of Paul himself. As he dictates the words, he is hardly thinking of himself at all. He is just opening his heart after his manner to those whom he loved in the Church at Philippi, and he tells them what they know well enough, that his earnest expectation and hope was that in nothing he should be ashamed, but that, as always, so now also Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it were by life or by death. Was St. Paul's expectation realised, or was his confidence ultimately disappointed? Did he fail in that position in which God had put him, or did he actually and really magnify Jesus Christ his Lord in his body whether by life or by death?

I. St. Paul's Confidence justified.—I would have you notice first of all that St. Paul's confidence, his expectation, of which he speaks here, was tested, and tested to the uttermost. St. Paul never knew from one day to another which would be his last. That prison door might any moment open, and the executioner enter who would take him to a shameful punishment, a public execution, and I ask you to think again what that must have meant to St. Paul. He faces the alternatives here in this letter. He looks at life and he looks at death. He puts them both into his scales and weighs them. He looks at death. It meant the cessation of all that pain and travail, all that persecution, these bonds and imprisonment. It meant deliverance from that party at Rome and similar parties elsewhere. This on the negative side. Positively, it meant to be with Jesus Christ; and St. Paul, as you see in this letter, is just glancing in at the gate of heaven, and as he does so the whole soul of the man goes out in these words, "I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better". And then he looks at life; and what did life mean? I have said life meant a continuance of all that he was going on with day by day, and year by year. He could hardly suffer more, but he was not likely to suffer less, and that to St. Paul meant life at its best. Do not forget that. St. Paul would not exchange that life for any other that man could give him in the world. As he looks at these two things, life and death, each is so excellent that he says, "I am in a strait betwixt two". "I know not which to choose." And then, as he thinks of the needs of the little Philippian Church, and when he remembers how essential he is as yet for their guidance and help, he says, "I am confident that I shall abide in the flesh for your sakes, and I am content that it should be so." Is not this wonderful? I ask you to think of this living man—with our temptations, our weaknesses, and our trials, and far more, and I ask you to think how he met them as we have it depicted here. St. Paul's confidence was not misplaced, St. Paul's expectation was not disappointed.

II. St. Paul's Secret.—Now as to his secret. Remember, this is the picture in our text, not merely of an Apostle, but of every Christian man and woman. To you he would say, as he said to one of the Churches, "Be ye Ambassador for Him". You and I want to know, we who call ourselves Christians, what St. Paul's secret was, and you have it here in the words adjoining my text, "To me to live is Christ". These words may be peculiarly useful to any of us. There are a great many persons in Christian England who do not see why they personally need what is termed conversion. They do not see, when they look at their own lives, that there is any particular difference between themselves and some who profess to have been truly born again and brought into the service of Christ. Their lives are respectable, their conduct is upright, their standards are Christian, they do not see that there is any particular need of change. These words of the Apostle may be a test to one and to another. Will you say them in your heart as I speak them, "To live is—". What word will you put in there? Remember the alternative of Christ is self. Let me ask you again to say these words in your hearts, and to put in what actually represents the main ambition of your life, "To me to live is—"

Now you know where you are. I can imagine one saying something like this, "Yes, but I want to be honest; I do not want to be a hypocrite. If I take Jesus Christ as the New Testament bids me, I am not sure that I shall continue, and I do not want to fail." Did St Paul fail? We have good reason for knowing that he did not. He never did fail, and his behaviour in these trying conditions was his witness to these soldiers day by day, and they knew and felt the power of it.

III. Can there be any Higher Ambition?—Whether you be a minister of Jesus Christ like St. Paul, or whether you be what we term a layman—man or woman—can there be any higher ambition in life than this set before us, now to magnify Christ in our bodies, whether by life or by death? "Magnify Christ," you say. "How can I magnify Him Who is infinitely great?" You cannot make Christ any greater than He Philippians 1:21

I think the text would read more strongly if we were to omit that intruded "is" in both cases. Let us delete this intrusive verb, and look at the text in this naked English: "For me to live—Christ, and to die—gain". That is nobler poetry, that is a better scansion of the poem. O Death, thy sting? Strike out the "where is". Grave, thy victory? It is a giant's taunt, and terrific and derisive challenge and rebuke.

I. A most curious mind is this of the Apostle Paul. He thinks aloud whilst he is apparently only writing with his hand or with the hand of another man. This is a monologue, this is the soul overheard, caught in its most secret and sacred whispers; what a privilege that we may hear the greatest soul that ever lived in the Christian Church talking! "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain:"I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ—that is what I want, it is far better—nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you; I know that; I am in a strait betwixt the two; to die might be gain, not to me, a poor dying Philippians 1:21

What was the secret of St Paul's life, that secret which made him the greatest of all missionaries to the Gentile world? We have not to go far in our search, for he himself has revealed it in the words of my text The secret of St Paul's life was the power and the presence of a living Christ

I. Christ in Life.—We are Christians in proportion as we possess the spirit of Christ, in proportion as we identify ourselves with Him, in proportion as we are able to say, with something of the bold, transcendent phrase of St. Paul, "To me to live is Christ". With St. Paul this was no mere exaggeration or figure of speech. He had so far lost himself in Christ that he had made a practical surrender of his own personality. You know, in the ordinary affairs of life, how a man will become so absorbed in a great love, a great ambition, a great art, that he can pay no real heed to anything else. His very self seems merged in the idea or the person that has thus entranced him. It was Philippians 1:21

This text describes the Christian metamorphosis, that complete subjection to Christ, involved in discipleship, which displaces, as it were, the original Ego, and puts Him in its place, ranging under Him all the activities which it formerly ruled. "To me to live is Christ," says the Apostle. So completely was his whole life taken up and concerned with his Lord, so entirely was it dictated and determined by Him, that it really was Christ's life. To bring out the nature of this life a little more clearly, there are one or two things to be noticed regarding it.

I. First of all, St. Paul was indebted to Christ for it. If he traced it back he found it went no farther than his journey to Damascus. Wherever he went behind that, even by a step, Christ was not to be found. Now, the question Philippians 1:23

When St. Paul wrote this Epistle to the 2 Corinthians 12:9).

I. What, then, did He mean?—Did he think it was necessary to depart in order to have Christ with him? Oh, no. The word which is here translated "depart" is a peculiar word, and it only occurs in one other place in the New Testament, in Luke 12:36, where it is translated return from the wedding. The allusion is to a ship leaving one coast to make for another on the return voyage, taking up its anchor, loosing its hold, and setting sail for the opposite shore. It describes the position of a man standing upon such a ship looking out to the brighter shore and longing for the ship's cable to be let go, and the anchor taken up, that he may go home. It is "far better".

II. What was it Paul Wanted?—More of his Christ; to see Him as He is; not as he saw Him here, "through a glass, darkly"; he wanted to know as he was known, to know all about his precious Christ, to be with Him without interruption from within or without; to see the hands that were pierced; the brow that was crowned with thorns for him; to hear the voice that had once said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"

III. What was the Ground of St. Paul's Assurance?—For he had not one particle, not a shadow of warrant which may not be the portion of any child of God. He tells us; "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day". ( 2 Timothy 1:12).

—Marcus Rainsford, The Fulness of God, p174.

A Strait Betwixt Two

Philippians 1:23

I. The first thing to be especially marked is the way in which the Apostle regarded death, the death of the body, the passing away of the spirit. As a great gain, a blessing, a thing to be coveted. There are not many Christian people who have found their work in the world, who are beloved and loving, who feel Paul's desire. Death is still, in perhaps the majority of cases, regarded as a calamity, a time of unrelieved gloom, and it is to be feared that we have lost the conception of death which prevailed among the early Christians, and very often concerning those who have gone from us we sorrow even as do others who have no hope.

II. The happy conception of death which Paul cherished, so happy that his soul had a desire and a longing for it, is to be traced to his conception of that which lay beyond. There are two considerations which make death unwelcome to us. One is the enjoyments we have here, the other is the uncertainty of what the future contains; we dread the mysterious, we people an unknown land with tenors. There was nothing negative about Paul's conception; it was not to be out of the hurly-burly, away from sorrow, disappointment, strife, care. It was to be with Christ. What appeared entirely clear to Paul was that it was not a matter of speculation, but of revelation. Death was going to Christ; it was not a departure merely, it was an arrival.

III. It is clear that if departure means being with Christ, all Christian life should be a preparation for it, a progress towards Christ, a discipline to fit us to be with Christ; we have to learn to talk with Him, to be like Him, to be made fit to dwell with Him, to learn the habits of His life.

IV. And another thing becomes clear from this passage, viz, that no joy that any of us may experience in the way of going to Christ can for a moment be compared with the joy of being with Him.

V. Finally, it has become clear through our meditation that everything depends on our relationship to Christ.

—Charles Brown, Light and Life, p205.

Philippians 1:23

Principal Rainy said on this passage: "The prospect of departing in God's good time, to us unknown, should be a great and bright hope before us—the refuge of our hearts in trouble, the retreat into which we go when we would soothe and cheer our souls, a great element of the cheerfulness and patience of our lives—while we assure ourselves that the best of all we find here is by and by to give place to that which is far better."

Dr. Rainy also said: "Do not make dying a separate thing from living; let the one and the other be continuous parts of one unbroken fellowship with Christ, so that you may die at last departing to that which is far better, on the selfsame principles and grounds on which you have gone about any day's or any hour's avocations."

Philippians 1:23

When Luther was living at the Wartburg, and suffering from ill-health, Melanchthon wrote from Wittenberg to Spalatin (July, 1521): "One anxiety remains, with regard to his health. I fear lest he should wear himself out with grief of mind, not for his own sake, but for ours, that is to say, for the Church. For I am not wholly ignorant of what he suffers. You know with what anxious care we must preserve the frail vessel which holds such a treasure. Should we lose him, I doubt not that God's wrath would be implacable. Through him a lamp has been kindled in Israel. If that were to go out, what other hope would remain for us? So leave nothing undone that you may find out what treatment is best in his case, and how help may be given not to him only, but to us also—yes, to us alone. For I know how he desires to depart and to be with Christ.... O would that with this worthless life of mine I could purchase the life of him than whom the world today holds no diviner being."

—Corpus Reformatorum, vol1. cols417 , 418.

De. Dods wrote in1863to his sister Marcia: "I was reading in one of the Puritans (you mind Goodwin) on Sunday and came upon this: "Death parts two old friends (body and soul) but it joins two better friends, the soul and Christ"".

—Early Letters, p291.

Geiler of Kaysersberg quoted the words "cupio dissolvi" as one of the proofs of spiritual progress. "If a little bird," he said, "is kept captive in a room, it stretches out its little neck when it comes near a window, and would like to escape.... If the window is opened even a little, it finds a way to slip out."

When Archbishop Laud was on the scaffold, Sir John Clotworthy asked him what special text of Scripture he found most comfortable. He replied, "Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo". "A good desire," answered the knight, who added, "there must be a foundation for that desire and assurance." Laud rejoined, "No man can express it, it is to be found within". "The Archbishop's last prayer," says Dr. Stoughton, "is the most beautiful thing connected with his history, and reminds us of Shakespeare's words:

Nothing in life

Became him like the leaving it".

"Lord, I am coming as fast as I can, I know I must pass through the Shadow of Death before I can come to see Thee, but it is but umbra mortis, a mere shadow of death, a little darkness upon Nature, but Thou, by Thy merits and passion, hast broke through the jaws of death; so Lord, receive my soul, and have mercy upon me, and bless this kingdom in peace and plenty, and with brotherly love and charity, that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them, for Jesus Christ's sake, if it be Thy will."

References.—I:23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No274 , and vol. xix. No1136. R. Higinbotham, Sermons, p1. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. pp302 , 447. I:27.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No640. J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii. p67. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (2Series), p207. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p409. F. B. Woodward, Selected Sermons, p92. W. Jay, Penny Pulpit, No1708 , p703. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p337. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. pp85 , 548. I:27 , 28.—C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p342. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p38. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture— Philippians , p233. I:28.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p365. I:29 , 30.—J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p43. II:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No348. II:1-4.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture— Philippians , p244. II:1-11.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p125. II:3.—J. S. Boone, Sermons, p245. J. H. Jowett, From Strength to Strength, p3. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p283. II:3 , 4.—J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p56.