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Php 1:9. Καὶ τοῦτο, and this) He declared, from Php 1:3 and onward, that he prayed for them; he now shows what was his prayer in their behalf.-ἡ ἀγάπη, love) Love makes men docile and [spiritually] sagacious, 2Pe 1:7-8. Hence arose the form used formerly in the assemblies of the Church,[4] and which is vernacular among us: Caritas vestra, your love (charity), in a wider sense.-ὑμῶν, your) Correlative to the love of Paul, Php 1:7-8. A previous [anticipatory] allusion to the love which they had shown to him; ch. Php 4:10; Php 4:18.-ἔτι μᾶλλον, yet more) The fire in the apostle’s mind never says, It is sufficient [past and present attainments are enough].-ἐν ἐπιγνώσει καὶ πάσῃ αἰσθήσει, in all knowledge and perception [judgment]) Knowledge is a very noble species, as sight is in the body: αἰσθήσις, perception, is the genus; for we have also [included under it] spiritual sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, i.e. the senses for investigation, and those for enjoyment,[5] as they are called. So part of the perception [sense] is joy, frequently mentioned in this epistle. And all is an indication that it is the genus; 2Co 8:7, note. In philosophy, the Peripatetics referred all things only to knowledge [which is the principal fault of the modern philosophers also, when they come upon spiritual subjects.-V. g.] The Platonists referred all things to the remaining word, sense, or perception; for example, in lamblicus. Regard is to be had to both in Christianity: each is met with in the Cross, and renders men fit to approve. Here, after love, expressly mentioned, he describes faith and hope in the following verse. Paul everywhere describes Christianity as something vigorous; wherefore the doctrine of the Mystics on Privation is so to be received, as not to be in any respect injurious to that practical ardour of mind.
[4] Or else in sermons.
[5] Sensús investigativi et fruitivi.