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Php_3:20. After Paul has, by way of confirmation and warning, subjoined to his exhortation given in Php_3:17 the deterrent example of the enemies of the cross of Christ in Php_3:18 f., he now sketches by the side of that deterrent delineation—in outlines few, but how clear!—the inviting picture of those whom, in Php_3:17, he had proposed as τύπος .
γάρ ] The train of thought runs thus: “Justly I characterize their whole nature by the words οἱ τὰ ἐπίγεια φρονοῦντες ; for it is the direct opposite of ours; our πολίτευμα , the goal of our aspiration, is not on earth, but in heaven.” γάρ therefore introduces a confirmatory reason, but not for his having said that the earthly mind of the πολλοί necessarily involves such a walk (Hofmann); for he has not said this, and what follows would not be a proof of it. The apostle gives, rather, an experimental proof e contrario, and that for what immediately precedes, not for the remote ὧν τὸ τέλος ἀπώλεια (Weiss).
ἡμῶν ] emphatically placed first; contrast of the persons. These ἡμεῖς , however, are the same as the ἡμᾶς in Php_3:17, consequently Paul himself and the οὕτω περιπατοῦντες .
τὸ πολίτευμα ] the commonwealth, which may bear the sense either of: the state (2Ma_12:7; Polyb. i. 13. 12, ii. 41. 6; Lucian, Prom. 15; Philo, de opif. p. 33 A, de Jos. p. 536 D); or the state-administration (Plat. Legg. 12, p. 945 D; Aristot. Pol. iii. 4; Polyb. iv. 23. 9; Lucian, Dem. enc. 16), or its principles (Dem. 107. 25, 262. 27; Isocr. p. 156 A); or the state-constitution (Plut. Them. 4; Arist. Pol. iii. 4. 1; Polyb. v. 9. 9, iv. 25. 7), see generally Raphel, Polyb. in loc.; Schweigh. Lex. Polyb. p. 486; Schoemann, ad Plut. Cleom. p. 208. Here, in the first sense: our commonwealth, that is, the state to which we belong, is in heaven. By this is meant the Messiah’s kingdom which had not yet appeared, which will only at Christ’s Parousia (comp. ἐξ οὗ κ . τ . λ . which follows) come down from heaven and manifest itself in its glory on earth. It is the state of the heavenly Jerusalem (see on Gal_4:26; comp. Usteri, Lehrbegr. p. 190; Ritschl, altkath. Kirche, p. 59), of which true Christians are citizens (Eph_2:19) even now before the Parousia in a proleptic and ideal sense ( ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι τῆς δόξης , Rom_5:2; comp. Rom_8:24), in order that one day, at the ἐπιφάνεια τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ κυρίου (2Th_2:8), they may be so in complete reality (comp. Heb_12:22 f., Heb_13:14), as κοινωνοί τῆς μελλούσης ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι δόξης (1Pe_5:1; Col_3:4), nay, as συμβασιλεύοντες (2Ti_2:12; comp. Rom_8:17; 1Co_4:8). Hence, according to the necessary psychological relation, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mat_6:21), they φρονοῦσιν , not τὰ ἐπίγεια , but τὰ ἄνω (Col_3:1 f.), which serves to-explain the logical correctness of the γάρ in its relation to οἱ τὰ ἐπίγ . φρον . Others, following the Vulgate (conversatio), render it: our walk, making the sense, “tota vita nostra quasi jam nunc apud Deum naturasque coelestes puriores versatur, longe remota a τοῖς ἐπιγείοις eorumque captatione” (Hoelemann). So Luther (who up till 1528 rendered it “citizenship”), Castalio, Erasmus, Calvin, Grotius, and many others, including Matthies, van Hengel, de Wette; while Rheinwald mixes up interpretations of various kinds. This rendering is not justified by linguistic usage, which indeed vouches for πολιτεύεσθαι (Php_1:27) in this sense, and for πολιτεία (Clem. Cor. I. 54: πολιτεύεσθαι πολιτείαν Θεοῦ , Ep. ad Diogn. 5), but not for πολίτευμα , not even in Eus. H. E. v. prooem. Nor does linguistic usage even permit the interpretation: citizenship. So Luther, in the Postil. Epist. D. 3, post f. pasch.: “Here on earth we are in fact not citizens.…; our citizenship is with Christ in heaven …, there we are to remain for ever citizens and lords;” comp. Beza, Balduin, Erasmus Schmid, Zachariae, Flatt, Wiesinger, Ewald, Weiss, and others. This would be πολιτεία , Act_22:28; Thuc. vi. 104. 3; Dem. 161. 11; Polyb. vi. 2. 12; 3Ma_3:21. Theophylact’s explanation, τὴν πατρίδα (which is used also for heaven by Anaxagoras in Diog. L. ii. 7), must be referred to the correct rendering state (comp. Hammond, Clericus, and others [172]), while Chrysostom gives no decided opinion, but Theodoret ( τὸν οὐρανὸν φανταζόμεθα ) and Oecumenius ( στρατευόμεθα ) appear to follow the rendering conversatio.
ἐξ οὗ καὶ κ . τ . λ .] And what a happy change is before us, in consequence of our thus belonging to the heavenly state! From the heaven (scil. ἣξοντα , comp. 1Th_1:10) we expect, etc. The neuter οὗ , which is certainly to be taken in a strictly local sense (in opposition to Calovius), is not to be referred to πολίτ . (Wolf, Schoettgen, Bengel, Hofmann); but is correctly rendered by the Vulgate: “unde.” Comp. on ἐξ οὗ , Col_2:19, and Bornemann, ad Xen. Anab. i. 2. 20: ἡμέρας τρεῖς , ἐν ᾧ .
καί , also, denotes the relation corresponding to the foregoing (namely, that our πολίτευμα is to be found in heaven), not a second one to be added (Hofmann).
σωτῆρα ] placed first with great emphasis, and that not as the accusative of the object (Hofmann), but—hence without the article—as predicative accusative: as Saviour, namely, from all the sufferings and conflicts involved in our fellowship with the cross of Christ (Php_3:18), not from the ἀπώλεια (Weiss), which, indeed, the ἡμεῖς have not at all to fear. Comp. on the subject-matter, Luk_18:7 f., Luk_21:28; Tit_2:13; 2Ti_4:18.
ἀπεκδεχ .] comp. 1Co_1:7; Tit_2:13. As to the signification of the word: perseveranter expectare, see on Rom_8:19; Gal_5:5.
[172] The Gothic Version has: “unsara báuáins” (that is, building, dwelling).