Philippians

Tyndale New Testament Commentary

Ralph P Martin, Ralph Martin

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783593293
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Paul's letter to the Philippians may aptly be seen as a meditation on joy. But Paul's joy, rather than the result of ease and comfort, is a contentedness made pure through suffering. He has 'learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want'. Ralph Martin shows how these themes flow from and emulate Christ's humility, lead to spiritual fellowship among believers, and contribute to spreading the gospel.This classic commentary has been completely retypeset and presented in a fresh, vibrant new large paperback format, with new global branding.

COMMENTARY

1. ADDRESS AND SALUTATION (1:1–2)

1. The apostle opens his letter in the conventional way, according to the pattern of ancient letter-writing which we know from the Jewish literature of both Old Testament (Ezra 7:12; Dan. 4:1) and later writings (2 Baruch 78:2), as well as the surviving papyri. The opening words usually take the form of the names of the writer and recipient and a greeting (cf. Acts 23:25–26).1 It is the specifically Christian features in Paul’s epistles which are important; and in these opening verses a remarkable touch is the frequency with which the divine names are mentioned. The apostle declares unmistakably his Christian faith which is centred in the persons of Godhead.

Another exceptional feature is the description of Paul and Timothy as servants of Christ Jesus. Timothy’s name appears in view of his association with the apostle in his imprisonment, and also because of his special connection with the Philippians (see notes on 2:19–24). There is no hint that the apostle’s junior colleague had any share in the writing of the letter. The reason for the mention of Timothy is more likely to be found in the apostle’s thankfulness that, in his time of need, he could count upon the steadfast loyalty of his ‘son in the faith’ (cf. 2:22); and he joins Timothy’s name to his own as a mark of esteem (cf. ‘my fellow-worker’, Rom. 16:21), and also to pave the way for his announcement of his future plans in chapter 2.

Both men are called servants, lit. ‘slaves’, of Christ Jesus. Deissmann traces this title to the Hellenistic custom of manumission in which the slave was set free by a money payment, and thereby became a devotee of the deity.2 This setting for Paul’s self-designation is supported by Bruce, Getty, and Hawthorne who see a link between Christian leaders as ‘slaves’ and the example of humble service given in 2:6–8. It is more probable, however, that in this context the Pauline expression goes back to the Old Testament. In its Hebrew form, ʿebed Yahweh, the phrase is used of Moses (Exod. 14:31; Num. 12:7; Ps. 105:26) and the prophets (Jer. 25:4; Dan. 9:6, 10; Amos 3:7) to denote their God-given authority as the accredited messengers of the Lord. It was, therefore, a title of dignity. ‘To be a servant, in the religious language of Judaism, meant to be one chosen by God’ (Lohmeyer, on 2:7). The title emphasizes not servitude but instrumentality, that is, God is pleased to work through his servants. Thus, though Paul makes no explicit claim to apostleship in the opening of the letter (probably because his office as an apostle had not been challenged at Philippi and there was a special bond of affection between him and the believers there), in this phrase we may catch the undertone of his authority. Timothy shares the dignity of the title because he will be shortly coming to Philippi (2:23; cf. Acts 19:22) in Paul’s name, and as the apostle’s special envoy.

The epistle is a warm-hearted, pastoral letter but the note of apostolic authority equally runs throughout it. Right at the beginning Paul is making clear that he is addressing his readers in the full consciousness of his position as an apostle, invested with God-given authority (2 Cor. 10:8), yet based on service to the highest authority of all. This high conception of the apostolic status of Paul endorses J. Gresham Machen’s important observation that ‘everywhere in the Epistles … the attitude of Paul toward Christ is not merely the attitude of man to man, or scholar to master; it is the attitude of man toward God’.3 The men of God in the Old Testament derived their authority from Yahweh. Paul, in the same honoured succession, traces back his high calling to Christ Jesus, a sure token of his awareness of the Lord’s divine nature.

To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi is a comprehensive phrase to describe the Christian community which had been formed following the apostolic mission at Philippi (Acts 16:12ff., on which see the Introduction).

Saints, hagioi, is a term which is found only in the plural in the New Testament, except in 4:21 where, however, the word refers to a group. It is applied to all New Testament Christians, not to a select body of spiritual elite. Hagios means ‘holy’, equivalent in the Old Testament to a Hebrew word meaning ‘to separate’. The saints are the separated ones in a double sense; negatively, there is separation from evil, and positively, dedication to God and his service. In the Old Testament, Israel is God’s holy people in precisely these two ways. It is a nation separated from the rest of the ancient world (Num. 23:9; Ps. 147:20) by divine election and calling; and its national life is distinctive as a witness to God because it is called to be ‘a holy nation’ (Exod. 19:5–6; Lev. 19:1–2; Deut. 7:6; 14:2). The church is the successor to the sacred community of Israel (see 1 Pet. 2:9–10), and the ancient call of God to his people, ‘Be holy’, is renewed to those who are in Christ Jesus, to be his people in the days when God’s eschatological purposes are being fulfilled in the creation of ‘the saints of the Most High’ (Dan. 7:18, 22, 27).

The Christians’ calling to a life of ‘sainthood’, i.e. holiness, is in Christ Jesus. Only by our faith-union with Christ in his death and resurrection can this life become a reality. As Barth expresses it: ‘Their holiness is and remains in Christ Jesus. It is in Him they are holy. It is from this point of view that they are to be addressed as such, in no other respect’ (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30).

Paul singles out for special mention the overseers and deacons. These terms, episkopoi, diakonoi, were taken over from contemporary society as well as the religious language of the Old Testament where the twin ideas are oversight and service. In early Christian writing, however, the terms refer to the inner life of the church as an organized fellowship. Some commentators (Gnilka, Hawthorne) argue that the terms describe the holders of ecclesiastical office however rudimentary. Others think more of church leaders who exercised a specific responsibility which was assumed by certain Christians in the local church. There is no definite article in the Greek, and it is noteworthy that there were overseers (in the plural) in the Philippian church.

The duty of the episkopos in the earlier Pauline churches is clearly set out in Acts 20:28. The word is there translated ‘overseers’ and it is clear that the persons so referred to are those who, in Acts 20:17, are called ‘elders of the church’. The responsibility of such leaders is that of nourishing and protecting the ‘flock of God’. In the church at Philippi there were a number of such episkopoi drawn from the rank and file of the church, and although these persons are specially mentioned in the opening salutation, they are not given any prominence in the body of the letter, nor are they referred to at 4:10–20 where Paul expresses his thanks for the Philippians’ gifts. The apostle writes to a whole church, and there is no suggestion of a small group which held ecclesiastical office as in the later 1 Clement 42. The work of an ‘overseer’ is mentioned in the documents of the Qumran sect, notably in the Rule of the Community.

The diakonoi took their name from those who, in the secular world, were responsible for certain welfare duties in the community (e.g. the distribution of gifts and food). The Christian deacon, whose origin is usually traced to the ministry of the Seven in Acts 6, though the actual title ‘deacon’ does not appear there, may be regarded as a person who had certain administrative tasks in the church; but here again no definite office is in view. B. S. Easton quotes 1 Corinthians 12:28 (‘able to help others … administration’) and 16:15–16 (‘the diakonia of the saints’) as a rough parallel to the function of the Philippian deacons.4

It is possible but not provable that these persons are specially referred to in the opening address because they had taken the initiative in collecting and sending the gift of the church by the hands of Epaphroditus (2:25; 4:18), and the financial work of bishops and deacons is later attested in the Pastoral Epistles. Hawthorne has suggested that, with the translation ‘the overseers who serve’, only one group is in view. This suggestion enables him to give a reason for the mention of these leaders at the head of Paul’s letter, namely the overseers are bidden to follow a path of service. But some clear distinction in titles is likely.

2. The salutation in this verse combines Greek (charis, grace) and Hebrew (šālom, peace) words in a Christian phrase. The apostle uses the conventional literary forms of his day, but there is no mistaking the rich Christian content he pours into them. Thus the customary epistolary greeting chairein (cf. Acts 15:23; 23:26) becomes the colourful charis, grace.

Grace is the free, spontaneous, unmerited love of God to sinful humanity, making its appearance in history and reaching its consummate expression in ‘the redemption that came by Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 3:24). Peace is the fruit of such gracious activity in the experience of sinners, and its main characteristic is reconciliation to God through Christ (cf. Rom. 5:1–2).5

2. PAUL’S THANKSGIVING AND CONFIDENCE (1:3–7)

3. Paul’s further use of conventional forms of letter-writing is seen in his practice of expressing thanksgiving in the opening sentences of his epistles. Deissmann comments: ‘St. Paul was therefore adhering to a beautiful secular custom when he so frequently began his letters with thanks to God.’1 The earliest evidence of a parallel to his words I thank my God is in a papyrus letter, written in 168 BC by an angry wife to her husband, begging him to come home. The interest here is twofold: the mention of the prayer which the wife makes continually to the gods for her husband’s safety and prosperity; and her thanksgiving for the health of her husband. Both these features reappear, in a Christian context, in Paul’s letters.2

The preposition epi, introduces the occasion of the thanksgiving, ‘in all my remembrance of you’ (RSV). NIV gives a looser translation ‘every time I remember you’, suggesting the meaning that Paul renders thanks to God whenever he thinks of his Christian friends. Another interpretation, however, is possible.3 This would translate the words as: ‘for all your remembrance of me’ (so Moffatt), and see in the verse the apostle’s thanksgiving to God for the prayerful remembrance which his beloved Philippians have of him in his confinement, with a side-glance at the recent money gift which they had sent him. On this view, Paul expresses his appreciation for the help, both spiritual and material, of the church, and verses 3 and 5 are linked as containing the double occasion of his thanksgiving: ‘for every actual expression of your remembrance of me, and for your partnership in the gospel’. An added advantage of this interpretation of Paul’s enigmatic Greek is that he expresses his thanks for the church’s gift at the opening of the letter, and does not leave saying ‘thank you’ until a final section (4:10–20), a procedure which most readers find strange. The delayed allusion to Paul’s thanks for the gift has been taken to argue that 4:10–20 is a separate ‘note’, but in our view this is denied by verse 3.

4. The continuation of Paul’s thanksgiving is not taken up until verse 5. Hence verse 4 is parenthetic as Lightfoot and Gnilka show. The Philippians have remembered the apostle in his need. For this he praises God, and assures them of his supplication on their behalf, which he makes continually (I … pray is a present participle) and comprehensively (for all of you embraces the whole fellowship of believers: see the Introduction, p. 48); and he prays with joy in his heart. The apostle’s irrepressible and constant joy even in the midst of his sufferings is a distinguishing feature of this epistle.

5. His thought moves on to express the ground of his thanksgiving to God: because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. The meaning of the term partnership in the gospel, koinōnia eis to euangelion, has already been discussed in the Introduction (pp. 50–52). The translation ‘generosity’ (as in Rom. 15:26 [‘contribution’]; 2 Cor. 9:13)4 seems best to cover the apostle’s thought as he reflects upon the way in which the church has supported him from the first day, i.e. the establishment of the church through the preaching of the word, recorded in Acts 16. Their receiving the gospel message and their obedience to it are shown to be genuine by the outworking of the truth in their lives. They had abounded in the grace of unstinting generosity (see 2 Cor. 8:7), and so had proved the sincerity of their love (2 Cor. 8:8) for the Lord and his work. A sidelight in the Philippians’ sacrificial support of Paul’s ministry is seen in 4:3 as well as 2 Cor. 8:1–5; 9:1–5. We today might take the lesson to heart that the sign of our professed love for the gospel is the measure of sacrifice we are prepared to make in order to help its progress.

6. The beginning of the work of God in the lives of the Philippians, hinted at in the phrase ‘from the first day’ (v. 5), calls forth an expression of the apostle’s confidence. He who began a good work in you is an undoubted reference to God whose redeeming grace in the gospel originated the church. Paul makes no personal claim to be the human founder of the church as he does at Corinth (1 Cor. 3:10), but even there he is careful to insist that the only true foundation is Christ himself (1 Cor. 3:11).

It is possible to take a good work as an allusion to the Philippians’ participation in the apostolic ministry by their gifts: ‘their co-operation with and affection for the apostle’, as Lightfoot puts it. 2 Corinthians 8:6 uses almost identical verbs, ‘begin, finish’, for Titus’ administration of the relief fund for the Jerusalem church. So, ‘this “sharing in the gospel” is the good work referred to here’ (Hawthorne).

On the other hand, Paul may be looking beyond the generosity of the Philippians to that work of grace within their lives which first gave them the impulse to contribute to his missionary labours. The good work would then be the action of God at the time of their conversion. This is confirmed by the way in which Paul often refers to the time when God’s grace began to work in the lives of his readers (see 1 Cor. 1:4; Col. 1:5; 1 Thess. 1:5–6; Phlm. 5f. and especially Gal. 3:3 where the two verbs of this verse are used).

God’s redeeming and renewing work will reach its crown and climax at the day of Christ Jesus. This eschatological note makes Hawthorne’s view that verse 6 refers exclusively to the matter of Philippian generosity in aiding the gospel unlikely. Paul is reaching out to see the wider context of their response to God’s grace. He who began the work of redemption will continue to perform it until its completion when the Lord returns. The thought here stresses not only the sovereign initiative of God in salvation (cf. the wording of Acts 16:14, describing the first Philippian convert), but also the sovereign faithfulness of God in Christ. It reveals Paul’s unshakeable confidence that the community at Philippi will be preserved in spite of its sufferings and in the face of assaults which are levelled against it (1:28; 2:15; 3:17ff.). The converse of this confidence is his appeal for unity and steadfastness (4:1). The readers are urged to stand firm (1:27) because of the mighty power of the Lord whose promise (Matt. 16:18) guarantees the preservation of the church in all its trials. ‘The perseverance of the saints rests on the perseverance of God with the saints’ (Motyer).

7. This confidence in God’s gracious work is continued in the apostle’s intimate regard for the Philippians. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you prefaces his assurance that he has continual thought for them, even in his imprisonment.

To feel, phronein, is a favourite expression of Paul in this letter (ten of the occurrences of the verb of the twenty-three references in all Paul’s letters are here). Its range and depth of meaning can be seen by referring to 2:2 (twice), 5; 3:15 (twice), 16 (in the Received Text), 19; 4:2, 10 (twice). It means (in these verses) much more than a mental exercise or emotional reaction, and signifies rather ‘sympathetic interest and concern, expressing as it does the action of the heart as well as the intellect’ (Michael). It is the outworking of thought as it determines motives, and through motives the conduct of the person involved. A word like ‘concern’ based on the highest interests of others seems to cover most of t...

Table of contents

• Tyndale New Testament Commentaries
• Philippians
• CONTENTS
• General preface
• AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
• AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
• Chief Abbreviations
• INTRODUCTION
• ANALYSIS
• COMMENTARY
• 2. PAUL’S THANKSGIVING AND CONFIDENCE (1:3–7)
• 3. AN APOSTOLIC PRAYER (1:8–11)
• 4. PAUL’S GREAT AMBITION AND JOY (1:12–26)
• 5. EXHORTATIONS TO THE COMMUNITY (1:27–2:18)
• 6. FUTURE PLANS (2:19–30)
• 7. WARNINGS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS (3:1–21)
• 8. ENCOURAGEMENTS, APPRECIATIONS, GREETINGS (4:1–23)
• Notes