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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 512. Philip
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Literature
Black, H., Edinburgh Sermons (1906), 164.
Brooke, S. A., The Spirit of the Christian Life (1902), 123.
Creighton, M., The Heritage of the Spirit (1896), 129.
Davies, D., Talks with Men, Women and Children, v. (1893) 591.
Drummond, R. B., The Christology of the New Testament (1901), 97.
Edwards, F., These Twelve (1895), 7.
Gladden, W., Where does the Sky Begin? (1904), 286.
Greenhough, J. G., The Apostles of Our Lord (1904), 75.
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Holden, J. S., Redeeming Vision (1908), 63.
Jones, J. D., The Glorious Company of the Apostles (1904), 109.
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Liddon, H. P., University Sermons, ii. (1879) 1.
Lightfoot, J. B., Cambridge Sermons (1890), 129.
Lilley, J. P., Four Apostles (1912), 17.
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1. We know but little about the characters of the companions of Jesus. We reverence them because they were chosen by Him to be His witnesses; but we have little means of comparing their lives with ours, or drawing from their experiences anything that may help ourselves. They are almost as remote from our struggles as the chieftains of the heroic age are remote from the problems of modern warfare. They stand by themselves as examples of the thoroughness and sufficiency of the life in Christ. They stand unapproachable patterns of quiet strength, of unfailing joyousness, of large hopefulness, or perfect trust. They had no room for the doubts, the questionings, the despondencies, the sense of struggle, the feelings of sadness, which overpower the modern mind, and were inevitable as soon as the Church came into conscious antagonism with the society and speculations of the world.
Yet though this is the great lesson to be learned from reflection on the companions of Jesus, further curiosity about them is at least pardonable. We may collect the brief and fragmentary notices of them which occur in the gospel narratives, and so construct some view of the chief characteristics of thought of those among them who have left no written records of themselves. In this attempt our criticism unconsciously follows the example set by pictorial art. It was natural for the painter to use the figures of the Twelve as types of different temperaments. It was natural that a belief in the universality of the gospel message should lead to a pious wish to discover in the earliest disciples signs of varied characters and divergent impulses. It was natural to group round the Person of the Redeemer men of every sort, as Leonardo set the example in his picture of The Last Supper. Though it may be little else than a fancy, it is a fancy which embodies an eternal truth-the truth that Jesus draws all manner of men unto Him, and can satisfy the cravings of all manner of minds.
2. Philip was one of the Twelve; and that is all that we learn about him from the first three Gospels. It is the Fourth Gospel that brings him before us as an individual with his own life and character. There are four occasions on which he comes into notice-first, at his call; next, in connexion with the feeding of the five thousand; thirdly, when certain Greeks came to him and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus”; and lastly, during the discourse in the Upper Room when he said to Jesus, “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” We shall take these occasions in order, and when we have observed Philip's behaviour on each occasion we shall say what manner of man we think he was.
3. But first of all let us notice that he came from Bethsaida in Galilee and that he was probably one of the disciples of John the Baptist.
(1) He came from Bethsaida. “Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter,” says John; and as we read that sentence we are inclined at first glance just to regard it as a geographical note-Philip's postal address, so to speak. But this is more than a geographical note; it is a link in Philip's spiritual history. This is more than the mention of the place of Philip's abode; it gives us the clue and key to Philip's religious development. The important part of the sentence is not that Philip was from Bethsaida, but that Bethsaida was the city of Andrew and Peter. This sentence links Philip with Andrew and Peter. It reveals to us not his mere dwelling but-what is infinitely more important-his friendships, the friendships that shaped and moulded his character, and so led to his new birth and his Apostolic calling. It was Philip's good fortune, it was his happy lot, to live in the same town and to count among his friends those two eminent saints of God, Andrew and Peter, the sons of Jonas.
(2) Again, Philip was probably one of John the Baptist's disciples. He always stands fifth in the list of the Twelve, though in point of time he was fourth to receive the call, which came to him the day after Jesus had enlisted Andrew and Peter (Joh_1:43). It is probable that he, like many of the others, had been a disciple of the Baptist, or at least had felt the stirrings of that prophet's words, and had thus been prepared for a higher service. The work of that God-sent messenger had been avowedly to prepare the way of the Lord, and not the least effective part of it had been done upon these men by impressing them with the conviction that the coming of the Messiah was at hand, and opening their minds for the reception of Him. We can trace his influence in their subsequent thoughts and questionings. His zeal had kindled zeal in them which was not always in accord with Christ's gentler spirit; but his courage and love of righteousness and stern hatred of wrongdoing had infused an element of strength into their character which Jesus was able to temper and subdue to His own finer mind. He “rested from his labours, but his works did follow him”; and it was to him doubtless, along with others, that our Lord referred in the words, “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”