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Php_4:18. Δέ ] The train of thought is: “not the gift do I seek, but the fruit (Php_4:17); and as regards what has been received from you in the present instance, I have everything already, and need nothing further.” That this refers to the desire of the church to know what he possibly still needed (Hofmann), is a very unnecessary assumption.
ἀπέχω δὲ πάντα ] not: habeo autem omnia (Vulgate); not a mere acknowledgment of receipt (Erasmus, Beza, Grotius, Cornelius a Lapide, Heinrichs, and others); nor yet equivalent to περισσεύω (Rheinwald); but, in keeping with the sense of the compound: I have everything away, so that I have nothing left to desire at your hands. Comp. Phm_1:15; Mat_6:2; Mat_6:5; Mat_6:16; Luk_6:24; Callim. ep. 22; Arrian. Epict. iii. 2. 13, iii. 24. 17; Jacobs, ad Anthol. VII. pp. 276, 298. Πάντα , therefore, according to the context ( ἐπιζητῶ τ . δόμα , Php_4:17), is: everything which I could desire, although there is no necessity for introducing specially, with Chrysostom and Oecumenius, τὰ ἐλλειφθέντα ἐν τῷ παρελθόντι χρόνῳ . The emphasis, moreover, is laid, not on πάντα , but on ἀπέχω , in contrast to ἐπιζητεῖν .
καὶ περισσεύω ] and my wants are thus so fully satisfied, that I have over.
πεπλήρωμαι ] forms a climax to περισσ .: I am full, I have abundance. The gift must have been ample; but gratitude sets this forth in all the stronger a light. To πεπλήρ . is attached δεξάμενος κ . τ . λ .
ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας κ . τ . λ .] This apposition to τὰ παρʼ ὑμῶν , expressing a judgment as to the latter (see on Rom_12:1), sets forth, to the honour of the givers, the relation in which the gifts received stand towards God, by whom they are esteemed as a sacrifice well-pleasing to Him. As to ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας , smell of a sweet savour, øÅéçÇ ðÀéç̇çÇ (genitive of quality), which is used of free-will offerings, see on Eph_5:2. It describes the thing according to its effect on God, namely, that it is acceptable to Him; θυσίαν κ . τ . λ ., however, describes it according to what it is.
δεκτὴν , εὐάρεστ .] acceptable, well-pleasing, a vividly asyndetic climax (on the former, comp. Sir_32:7); τῷ Θεῷ , however, applies to the whole apposition ὀσμὴν … εὐαρ . The asyndetic juxtaposition of several epithets is frequent also in classical authors, from Homer onward (Ameis z. Od. iv., Anh.). As to the view, originating in the O. T., which regards works well-pleasing to God as ethical sacrifices, see the expositors on Rom_12:1; 1Pe_2:5; Heb_13:16. Comp. Philo, de vit. Mos. II. p. 151: ἡ γὰρ ἀληθὴς ἱερουργία τίς ἂν εἴη πλὴν ψυχῆς θεοφιλοῦς εὐσέβεια ; passages from the Rabbins in Schoettg. Hor. p. 1006.