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PHILIPPIANS CHAPTER 2
Phi_2:1,2 Paul earnestly recommends to the Philippians mutual
love and union,
Phi_2:3 lowliness of mind,
Phi_2:4-8 and that charitable condescension for the good of
others, exemplified in the life and death of Christ,
Phi_2:9-11 for which God had exalted him to be Lord of all.
Phi_2:12,13 He exhorteth them to carefulness in working out their
own salvation,
Phi_2:14,15 to obey the will of God cheerfully and universally,
that so they might distinguish themselves from the
rest of the world by a bright example of virtue,
Phi_2:16-18 and by their steadiness give him, cause to rejoice in
the success of his labours, who would gladly lay down
his life to serve them.
Phi_2:19,20 He hopeth to send Timothy to them shortly, whom he
greatly commendeth,
Phi_2:21-30 as he doth the affection and zeal of Epaphroditus,
whom he sendeth, with this Epistle.
The apostle, reassuming his exhortation in the former chapter to unanimity, Phi_1:27, doth here, by way of inference from what went immediately before, press them in a very affectionate manner, with a kind of rhetorical relation, and obtestation, as it were, adjure them.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ; if any such exhortation, (as the word is rendered, Act_13:15 1Th_2:3 1Ti_4:13), in the name of Christ, might avail with them to cheer him and one another by their loving concord and being unanimous. Or as we, rendering it consolation; ;{ so Rom_15:4 2Co_1:4} If, which he may well suppose, and strongly affirm that he took it for granted, the main body of them had in some measure found by his ministry, what he here moves them to complete, {compare Phi_1:6,7,27} in expectation to find more of what they had experimented, whatever indisposition might have crept upon some by the insinuations of the false apostles; yet, this
consolation in Christ may be considered either:
1. Actively: q.d. If ye would comfort me afflicted, in the concerns of Christ, or if ye have any Christian comfort which doth only proceed from those that are in Christ, (not from moral philosophy), or which is wont to be in those who worship the same Christ, let me his apostle be a partaker thereof. Or:
2. Passively, 2Co_7:4,6 Phm 1:7: If you, being in Christ, find any consolation against your afflictions, forasmuch as you have receivcd it by my ministry, we, being both in suffering circumstances, should be further comforted by a sweet agreement.
If any comfort of love; the Syriac renders it, any speaking to the heart, any solace from good and comfortable words did reach your hearts, Joh_11:19,31 1Co_14:3 1Th_2:11 5:14, cheered with the love of God or Christ, or the brethren: or refreshed with my love to you, Phi_1:8,9; or would that I should be conforted with your love to me, (as he himself and others were with the gracious affections of the Corinthians, 2Co_7:7), which ye ought unfeignedly.
If any fellowship of the Spirit; if ye have any communion with me in the graces of the Spirit, and stand fast in one spirit, Phi_1:27, and would show that you do persevere in the same Spirit, 1Co_12:4, which acts in all the members of the mystical body of Christ, that do in him their Head partake of it.
If any bowels and mercies; if ye are duly affected with any real sympathy and commiseration towards me in my bonds for Christ, such inward affections as were moving in him towards them; Phi_1:8, with Luk_1:78 2Co_7:15 Col_3:12; the latter word emphatically expressing the sense of the metaphor in the former. Then he, having thus pathetically urged these arguments, and closely followed them to embrace the matter proposed, puts them upon.