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Php_4:17. Just as in Php_4:11 Paul anticipated a possible misunderstanding in respect to Php_4:10, so here in reference to the praises contained in Php_4:14 ff. This, he would say, is not the language of material desire, but, etc.
οὐχ ὅτι κ . τ . λ .] as in Php_4:11 : I do not mean by this to convey that my desire is directed towards the gift (the emphasis being laid on τὸ δόμα )—this, namely, taken in and by itself—in which case the article means the donation accruing to him as the case occurred, and the present ἐπιζητῶ denotes the constant and characteristic striving after (Bernhardy, p. 370): it is not my business, etc. The compound verb indicates by ἐπί the direction. Comp. on ἐπιποθῶ , Php_1:8, and on Mat_6:33; Rom_11:7. The view which regards it as strengthening the simple verb (studiose quaero, so Hoelemann and others) is not implied in the context any more than the sense: insuper quaero (Polyb. i. 5. 3); so van Hengel, who indelicately, and notwithstanding the article, explains τὸ δόμα as still more gifts.
ἀλλʼ ἐπιζητῶ ] The repetition of the verb after ἀλλά makes the contrast stand out independently with special emphasis; comp. Rom_8:15; 1Co_2:7; Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 137.
τὸν καρπὸν κ . τ . λ .] This is what Paul desires, towards which his wishes and endeavours are directed: the fruit which abounds to your account; not, therefore, a gain which he wishes to have for himself, but gain for the Philippians. So completely is his ἐπιζητεῖν devoid of any selfish aim,—which, however, would not be the case, if the ἐπιζητῶ τὸ δόμα were true. This applies against Hofmann’s objection, that the καρπός must be something which Paul himself desires to have; the notion of ἐπιζητῶ is anquiro, appeto, and this indeed applies to personal possession in the negative half of the sentence; but then the second half expresses the real state of the case, which does away with the notion of selfishness.
The καρπός itself cannot be the fruit of the gospel (Ewald), or of the labour of the apostle (Weiss); but, in accordance with the context, only the fruit of the δόμα , that is, the blessing which accrues from the gift to the givers; comp. on Php_4:15. By this is meant[193] the divine recompense at the judgment (2Co_9:6), which they will then receive, as if it were the product of their account, for their labour of love (Mat_25:34 ff.). This produce of their δόμα is figuratively conceived as fruit, which is largely placed to the credit of their account, in order to be drawn by them at the day of harvest (comp. also Gal_6:7 ff.). Comp. Php_4:19. In substance it is the treasure in heaven that is meant (Mat_19:21; Mat_6:20), which will be received at the Parousia. Comp. on Col_1:5. The figurative εἰς λόγον ὑμῶν , which here also is not to be understood, with Bengel, Storr, Flatt, Rilliet, and others, as equivalent to εἰς ὑμᾶς , is the completion of the figure in Php_4:15; although there is no need to explain καρπός as interest (Salmasius, Michaelis, who thinks in πλεονάζ . of compound interest, Zachariae, Heinrichs), because it is difficult to see why Paul, if he used this figure, should not have applied to it the proper term ( τόκος ), and because the idea of interest is quite alien to that of the δόμα (a present).
τ . πλεονάζ . εἰς λόγον ὑμῶν ] to be taken together (see above); εἰς states the destination of the πλεομάζ . Van Hengel and de Wette needlessly break up the passage by coupling εἰς λόγ . ὑμ . with ἐπιζητῶ , because πλεονάζειν with εἰς is not used elsewhere by Paul (not even 2Th_1:3). The preposition is in fact not determined by the word in itself, but by its logical reference, and may therefore be any one which the reference requires.
[193] Not the active manifestation of the Christian life (Matthies, Rilliet, Hofmann; comp. Vatablus, Musculus, Piscator, Zanchius; Flatt and Rheinwald mingle together heterogeneous ideas); for only the fruit of the δόμα can be meant, not the δόμα itself as fruit, which is produced in the shape of the love-gift (Hofmann).