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But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly; he signifies that he had been much raised in true spiritual (not carnal) joy, that the Lord had by his Spirit wrought in them such enlargedness of heart, as did show itself in their care of him for the sake of Christ. What follows, a learned man writes, may be rendered, that now at last, ye could bring to maturity the care of me; for whom indeed ye had been careful, but had not the ability. The apostle’s phrase is borrowed from trees, which in the winter season keep their sap within the bark, in the spring and summer grow green, and yield their fruit: so was the Philippians’ care of Paul, suffering in Christ’s cause; for the Greek word we translate
flourished again, or revived, is sometimes used actively, and transitively. So in the Seventy, Eze_17:24; with the apocryphal writer, /APC Sir_1:18 11:22 50:11: and so it may be expounded here, not only of reviving, growing green, and budding again, (which is less than the thing is), but of bringing forth fruit. For their care of Paul was in their heart, but by reason of troubles it could not exert itself, or yield fruit, but only in the season, {as Mat_21:34} which the apostle, softening his speech, allegeth as an apology for them: he doth not say there was not any opportunity in respect of himself, but a seasonableness in respect of them; they being destitute of a faculty of bringing forth fruit, Phi_4:17, (which yet they always nourished in their most intimate affections towards him), till the present, when at length they had a seasonableness and an ability given them of God, to the perfecting of that fruit for the apostle. For what we translate
wherein, may, as Phi_3:12, be translated, for where: compare the use of the particle and article, Mat_18:4, with Mat_26:50 Rom_5:12.