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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philippians 3:15 - 3:15
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15. τέλειοι. Here is an apparent discrepancy with his rejection of the thought of his being “perfected,” just above. But he seems to be taking up here, with a sort of loving irony, a word used by those who favoured some form of “perfectionism.” It is as if he would say, “Are we really perfect Christians, all that Christians should be, in thought and life? Then among the things which should be in us is a holy discontent with our actual holiness. The man in this sense perfect will be the very man to think himself not yet perfected.” We may notice also that τέλειος is an elastic word; it often means “full-grown” as against “infantine”; cp. Heb 5:13-14, νήπιός … ἐστιν· τελείων δέ ἐστιν ἡ στερεὰ τροφή. The τέλειος in this respect would have mature faculty, but would not therefore claim ideal character. The Apostle may thus be using the word with reference at once to a misuse of it, and to a legitimate use.
φρονῶμεν. See notes on φρονεῖν above, Php 1:7, Php 2:2; Php 2:5.
ὁ θεὸς ὑμῖν ἀποκαλύψει. By the action of His Spirit, amidst the discipline of life, shewing more and more the correspondence of the inspired Message with the facts of the soul.—Such words, while they breathe a deep tolerance and patience, imply the Apostle’s commission as a supernaturally inspired messenger of Christ; otherwise he would make an undue claim. Cp. Gal 1:6-12, where the strong assertions of the absolute and unique truth of “his Gospel” are expressly based on its direct conveyance to him διʼ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.