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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
P H I L I P P I A N S.
CHAP. II.
The apostle proceeds to further exhortations to several duties, to be
like-minded, and lowly-minded, which he presses from the example of
Christ
(ver. 1-11),
to be diligent and serious in the Christian course
(ver. 12, 13),
and to adorn their Christian profession by several suitable graces,
He then concludes with particular notice and commendation of two good
ministers, Timothy and Epaphroditus, whom he designed to send to them,
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1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels
and mercies,
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in
lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on
the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The apostle proceeds in this chapter where he left off in the last,
with further exhortations to Christian duties. He presses them largely
to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, in conformity to the example
of the Lord Jesus, the great pattern of humility and love. Here we may
observe,
I. The great gospel precept passed upon us; that is, to love one
another. This is the law of Christ’s kingdom, the lesson of his school,
the livery of his family. This he represents
(v. 2)
by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of
one mind. We are of a like mind when we have the same love.
Christians should be one in affection, whether they can be one in
apprehension or no. This is always in their power, and always their
duty, and is the likeliest way to bring them nearer in judgment.
Having the same love. Observe, The same love that we are
required to express to others, others are bound to express to us.
Christian love ought to be mutual love. Love, and you shall be loved.
Being of one accord, and of one mind; not crossing and
thwarting, or driving on separate interests, but unanimously agreeing
in the great things of God and keeping the unity of the Spirit
in other differences. Here observe,
1. The pathetic pressing of the duty. He is very importunate with them,
knowing what an evidence it is of our sincerity, and what a means of
the preservation and edification of the body of Christ. The inducements
to brotherly love are these:–
(1.) “If there is any consolation in Christ. Have you
experienced consolation in Christ? Evidence that experience by loving
one another.” The sweetness we have found in the doctrine of Christ
should sweeten our spirits. Do we expect consolation in Christ? If we
would not be disappointed, we must love one another. If we have not
consolation in Christ, where else can we expect it? Those who have an
interest in Christ have consolation in him, strong and everlasting
consolation
(Heb. vi. 18; 2 Thess. ii. 16),
and therefore ought to love one another.
(2.) “Comfort of love. If there is any comfort in Christian
love, in God’s love to you, in your love to God, or in your brethren’s
love to us, in consideration of all this, be you like-minded. If you
have ever found that comfort, if you would find it, if you indeed
believe that the grace of love is a comfortable grace, abound in it.”
(3.) “Fellowship of the Spirit. If there is such a thing as
communion with God and Christ by the Spirit, such a thing as the
communion of saints, by virtue of their being animated and actuated by
one and the same Spirit, be you like-minded; for Christian love
and like-mindedness will preserve to us our communion with God and with
one another.”
(4.) “Any bowels and mercies, in God and Christ, towards you. If
you expect the benefit of God’s compassions to yourselves, be you
compassionate one to another. If there is such a thing as mercy to be
found among the followers of Christ, if all who are sanctified have a
disposition to holy pity, make it appear this way.” How cogent are
these arguments! One would think them enough to tame the most fierce,
and mollify the hardest, heart.
(5.) Another argument he insinuates is the comfort it would be to him:
Fulfil you my joy. It is the joy of ministers to see people
like-minded and living in love. He had been instrumental in bringing
them to the grace of Christ and the love of God. “Now,” says he, “if
you have found any benefit by your participation of the gospel of
Christ, if you have any comfort in it, or advantage by it, fulfil
the joy of your poor minister, who preached the gospel to you.”
2. He proposes some means to promote it.
(1.) Do nothing through strife and vain glory,
v. 3.
There is no greater enemy to Christian love than pride and passion. If
we do things in contradiction to our brethren, this is doing them
through strife; if we do them through ostentation of ourselves, this is
doing them through vain-glory: both are destructive of Christian love
and kindle unchristian heats. Christ came to slay all enmities;
therefore let there not be among Christians a spirit of opposition.
Christ came to humble us, and therefore let there not be among us a
spirit of pride.
(2.) We must esteem others in lowliness of mind better than
ourselves, be severe upon our own faults and charitable in our
judgments of others, be quick in observing our own defects and
infirmities, but ready to overlook and make favourable allowances for
the defects of others. We must esteem the good which is in others above
that which is in ourselves; for we best know our own unworthiness and
imperfections.
(3.) We must interest ourselves in the concerns of others, not in a way
of curiosity and censoriousness, or as busy-bodies in other men’s
matters, but in Christian love and sympathy: Look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,
v. 4.
A selfish spirit is destructive of Christian love. We must be concerned
not only for our own credit, and ease, and safety, but for those of
others also; and rejoice in the prosperity of others as truly as in our
own. We must love our neighbour as ourselves, and make his case our
own.
II. Here is a gospel pattern proposed to our imitation, and that is the
example of our Lord Jesus Christ: Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus,
v. 5.
Observe, Christians must be of Christ’s mind. We must bear a
resemblance to his life, if we would have the benefit of his death.
If we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his,
Rom. viii. 9.
Now what was the mind of Christ? He was eminently humble, and this is
what we are peculiarly to learn of him. Learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart,
Matt. xi. 29.
If we were lowly-minded, we should be like-minded; and, if we were like
Christ, we should be lowly-minded. We must walk in the same spirit and
in the same steps with the Lord Jesus, who humbled himself to
sufferings and death for us; not only to satisfy God’s justice, and pay
the price of our redemption, but to set us an example, and that we
might follow his steps. Now here we have the two natures and the
two states of our Lord Jesus. It is observable that the apostle, having
occasion to mention the Lord Jesus, and the mind which was in him,
takes the hint to enlarge upon his person, and to give a particular
description of him. It is a pleasing subject, and a gospel minister
needs not think himself out of the way when he is upon it; any fit
occasion should be readily taken.
1. Here are the two natures of Christ: his divine nature and his human
nature.
(1.) Here is his divine nature: Who being in the form of God
(v. 6),
partaking of the divine nature, as the eternal and only begotten Son of
God. This agrees with
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God: it is
of the same import with being the image of the invisible God
(Col. i. 15),
and the brightness of his glory, and express image of his
person,
Heb. i. 3.
He thought it no robbery to be equal with God; did not think
himself guilty of any invasion of what did not belong to him, or
assuming another’s right. He said, I and my Father are one,
John x. 30.
It is the highest degree of robbery for any mere man or mere creature
to pretend to be equal with God, or profess himself one with the
Father. This is for a man to rob God, not in tithes and offerings,
but of the rights of his Godhead,
Some understand being in the form of God—en morphe Theou
hyparchon, of his appearance in a divine majestic glory to the
patriarchs, and the Jews, under the Old Testament, which was often
called the glory, and the Shechinah. The word is used in
such a sense by the LXX. and in the New Testament. He appeared to
the two disciples, en hetera morphe—In another
form,
Mark xvi. 12.
Metemorphothe—he was transfigured before them,
And he thought it no robbery to be equal with God; he did not
greedily catch at, nor covet and affect to appear in that glory;
he laid aside the majesty of his former appearance while he was here on
earth, which is supposed to be the sense of the peculiar expression,
ouk harpagmon hegesato. Vid. Bishop Bull’s Def.
cap. 2 sect. 4 et alibi, and Whitby in loc.
(2.) His human nature: He was made in the likeness of men, and
found in fashion as a man. He was really and truly man, took
part of our flesh and blood, appeared in the nature and habit of
man. And he voluntarily assumed human nature; it was his own act, and
by his own consent. We cannot say that our participation of the human
nature is so. Herein he emptied himself, divested himself of the
honours and glories of the upper world, and of his former appearance,
to clothe himself with the rags of human nature. He was in all
things like to us,
Heb. ii. 17.
2. Here are his two estates, of humiliation and exaltation.
(1.) His estate of humiliation. He not only took upon him the likeness
and fashion of a man, but the form of a servant, that is, a man
of mean estate. He was not only God’s servant whom he had chosen, but
he came to minister to men, and was among them as one who serveth in a
mean and servile state. One would think that the Lord Jesus, if he
would be a man, should have been a prince, and appeared in splendour.
But quite the contrary: He took upon him the form of a servant.
He was brought up meanly, probably working with his supposed father at
his trade. His whole life was a life of humiliation, meanness, poverty,
and disgrace; he had nowhere to lay his head, lived upon alms, was a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, did not appear with
external pomp, or any marks of distinction from other men. This was the
humiliation of his life. But the lowest step of his humiliation was his
dying the death of the cross. He became obedient to death, even the
death of the cross. He not only suffered, but was actually and
voluntarily obedient; he obeyed the law which he brought himself under
as Mediator, and by which he was obliged to die. I have power to lay
down my life, and I have power to take it again: this commandment have
I received of my Father,
John x. 18.
And he was made under the law,
Gal. iv. 4.
There is an emphasis laid upon the manner of his dying, which had in it
all the circumstances possible which are humbling: Even the death of
the cross, a cursed, painful, and shameful death,–a death accursed
by the law (Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree)–full of pain,
the body nailed through the nervous parts (the hands and feet) and
hanging with all its weight upon the cross,–and the death of a
malefactor and a slave, not of a free-man,–exposed as a public
spectacle. Such was the condescension of the blessed Jesus.
(2.) His exaltation: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.
His exaltation was the reward of his humiliation. Because he humbled
himself, God exalted him; and he highly exalted him,
hyperypsose, raised him to an exceeding height. He
exalted his whole person, the human nature as well as the divine; for
he is spoken of as being in the form of God as well as in the fashion
of man. As it respects the divine nature, it could only be the
recognizing of his rights, or the display and appearance of the
glory he had with the Father before the world was
(John xvii. 5),
not any new acquisition of glory; and so the Father himself is said to
be exalted. But the proper exaltation was of his human nature, which
alone seems to be capable of it, though in conjunction with the divine.
His exaltation here is made to consist in honour and power. In honour;
so he had a name above every name, a title of dignity above all
the creatures, men and angels. And in power: Every knee must bow to
him. The whole creation must be in subjection to him: things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, the
inhabitants of heaven and earth, the living and the dead. At the
name of Jesus; not at the sound of the word, but the authority of
Jesus; all should pay a solemn homage. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord–every nation and language should
publicly own the universal empire of the exalted Redeemer, and that
all power in heaven and earth is given to him,
Matt. xxviii. 18.
Observe the vast extent of the kingdom of Christ; it reaches to heaven
and earth, and to all the creatures in each, to angels as well as men,
and to the dead as well as the living.–To the glory of God the
Father. Observe, It is to the glory of God the Father to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord; for it is his will that all men should
honour the Son as they honour the Father,
John v. 23.
Whatever respect is paid to Christ redounds to the honour of the
Father. He who receiveth me receiveth him who sent me,
Matt. x. 40.
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12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in
my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure.
I. He exhorts them to diligence and seriousness in the Christian
course: Work out your own salvation. It is the salvation of our
souls
(1 Pet. i. 9),
and our eternal salvation
(Heb. v. 9),
and contains deliverance from all the evils sin had brought upon us and
exposed us to, and the possession of all good and whatsoever is
necessary to our complete and final happiness. Observe, It concerns us
above all things to secure the welfare of our souls: whatever becomes
of other things, let us take care of our best interests. It is our own
salvation, the salvation of our own souls. It is not for us to judge
other people; we have enough to do to look to ourselves; and, though we
must promote the common salvation
Jude 3)
as much as we can, yet we must upon no account neglect our own. We are
required to work out our salvation, katergazesthe.
The word signifies working thoroughly at a thing, and taking
true pains. Observe, We must be diligent in the use of all the
means which conduce to our salvation. We must not only work at our
salvation, by doing something now and then about it; but we must work
out our salvation, by doing all that is to be done, and persevering
therein to the end. Salvation is the great thing we should mind, and
set our hearts upon; and we cannot attain salvation without the utmost
care and diligence. He adds, With fear and trembling, that is,
with great care and circumspection: “Trembling for fear lest you
miscarry and come short. Be careful to do every thing in religion in
the best manner, and fear lest under all your advantages you should so
much as seem to come short,”
Fear is a great guard and preservative from evil.
II. He urges this from the consideration of their readiness always to
obey the gospel: “As you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence,
v. 12.
You have been always willing to comply with every discovery of the will
of God; and that in my absence as well as presence. You make it to
appear that regard to Christ, and care of your souls, sway more with
you than any mode of showing respect whatsoever.” They were not merely
awed by the apostle’s presence, but did it even much more in his
absence. “And because it is God who worketh in you, do you
work out your salvation. Work, for he worketh.” It should encourage us
to do our utmost, because our labour shall not be in vain. God
is ready to concur with his grace, and assist our faithful endeavours.
Observe, Though we must use our utmost endeavours in working out our
salvation, yet still we must go forth, and go on, in a dependence upon
the grace of God. His grace works in us in a way suitable to our
natures, and in concurrence with our endeavours; and the operations of
God’s grace in us are so far from excusing, that they are intended to
quicken and engage our endeavours. “And work out our salvation with
fear and trembling, for he worketh in you.” All our working
depends upon his working in us. “Do not trifle with God by neglects
and delays, lest you provoke him to withdraw his help, and all your
endeavours prove in vain. Work with fear, for he works of his
good pleasure.”–To will and to do: he gives the whole ability.
It is the grace of God which inclines the will to that which is good:
and then enables us to perform it, and to act according to our
principles. Thou hast wrought all our works in us,
Isa. xxvi. 12.
Of his good pleasure. As there is no strength in us, so there is
no merit in us. As we cannot act without God’s grace, so we cannot
claim it, nor pretend to deserve it. God’s good will to us is the
cause of his good work in us; and he is under no engagements to his
creatures, but those of his gracious promise.
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14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God,
without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the
day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in
vain.
17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of
your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
18 For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
The apostle exhorts them in these verses to adorn their Christian
profession by a suitable temper and behaviour, in several instances.
1. By a cheerful obedience to the commands of God
(v. 14):
“Do all things, do your duty in every branch of it, without
murmurings. Do it, and do not find fault with it. Mind your work,
and do not quarrel with it.” God’s commands were given to be obeyed,
not to be disputed. This greatly adorns our profession, and shows we
serve a good Master, whose service is freedom and whose work is its own
reward.
2. By peaceableness and love one to another. “Do all things without
disputing, wrangling, and debating one another; because the light
of truth and the life of religion are often lost in the heats and mists
of disputation.”
3. By a blameless conversation towards all men
(v. 15):
“That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without
rebuke; that you be not injurious to any in word or deed, and give
no just occasion of offence.” We should endeavour not only to be
harmless, but to be blameless; not only not to do hurt, but not to come
under the just suspicion of it. Blameless and sincere; so some
read it. Blameless before men, sincere towards God. The sons of
God. It becomes those to be blameless and harmless who stand in
such a relation, and are favoured with such a privilege. The children
of God should differ from the sons of men. Without
rebuke—amometa. Momus was a carping deity among the
Greeks, mentioned by Hesiod and Lucian, who did nothing himself, and
found fault with every body and every thing. From him all carpers at
other men, and rigid censurers of their works, were called Momi.
The sense of the expression is, “Walk so circumspectly that Momus
himself may have no occasion to cavil at you, that the severest
censurer may find no fault with you.” We should aim and endeavour, not
only to get to heaven, but to get thither without a blot; and, like
Demetrius, to have a good report of all men, and of the truth,
3 John 12.
In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; that is,
among the heathens, and those who are without. Observe, Where there is
no true religion, little is to be expected but crookedness and
perverseness; and the more crooked and perverse others are among whom
we live, and the more apt to cavil, the more careful we should be to
keep ourselves blameless and harmless. Abraham and Lot must not
strive, because the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelt in the land,
Gen. xiii. 7.
Among whom you shine as lights in the world. Christ is the light
of the world, and good Christians are lights in the world. When God
raises up a good man in any place, he sets up a light in that place. Or
it may be read imperatively: Among whom shine you as lights:
compare
Let your light so shine before men. Christians should endeavour
not only to approve themselves to God, but to recommend themselves to
others, that they may also glorify God. They must shine as well as be
sincere.–Holding forth the word of life,
v. 16.
The gospel is called the word of life because it reveals and proposes
to us eternal life through Jesus Christ. Life and immortality are
brought to light by the gospel,
2 Tim. i. 10.
It is our duty not only to hold fast, but to hold forth the word of
life; not only to hold it fast for our own benefit, but to hold it
forth for the benefit of others, to hold it forth as the candlestick
holds forth the candle, which makes it appear to advantage all around,
or as the luminaries of the heavens, which shed their influence far and
wide. This Paul tells them would be his joy: “That I may rejoice in
the day of Christ; not only rejoice in your stedfastness, but in
your usefulness.” He would have them think his pains well bestowed, and
that he had not run in vain, nor laboured in vain. Observe,
(1.) The work of the ministry requires the putting forth of the whole
man: all that is within us is little enough to be employed in it; as in
running and labouring. Running denotes vehemence and vigour, and
continual pressing forward; labour denotes constancy and close
application.
(2.) It is a great joy to ministers when they perceive that they have
not run in vain, nor laboured in vain; and it will be their
rejoicing in the day of Christ, when their converts will be their
crown. What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even
you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For you
are our glory and joy,
1 Thess. ii. 19, 20.
The apostle not only ran and laboured for them with satisfaction, but
shows that he was ready to suffer for their good
(v. 17):
Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. He could reckon himself
happy if he could promote the honour of Christ, the edification of the
church, and the welfare of the souls of men; though it were not only by
hazarding, but by laying down, his life: he could willingly be a
sacrifice at their altars, to serve the faith of God’s elect. Could
Paul think it worth while to shed his blood for the service of the
church, and shall we think it much to take a little pains? Is not that
worth our labour which he thought worth his life? If I be
offered, or poured out as the wine of the
drink-offerings, spendomai.
2 Tim. iv. 6,
I am now ready to be offered. He could rejoice to seal his
doctrine with his blood
(v. 18):
For the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. It is
the will of God that good Christians should be much in rejoicing; and
those who are happy in good ministers have a great deal of reason to
joy and rejoice with them. If the minister loves the people, and is
willing to spend and be spent for their welfare, the people have reason
to love the minister and to joy and rejoice with him.
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19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto
you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
20 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for
your state.
21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus
Christ’s.
22 But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the
father, he hath served with me in the gospel.
23 Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall
see how it will go with me.
24 But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come
shortly.
25 Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my
brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your
messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
26 For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness,
because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on
him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have
sorrow upon sorrow.
28 I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see
him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and
hold such in reputation:
30 Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not
regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.
Paul takes particular notice of two good ministers; for though he was
himself a great apostle, and laboured more abundantly than they
all, yet he took all occasions to speak with respect of those who
were far his inferiors.
I. He speaks of Timothy, whom he intended to send to the Philippians,
that he might have an account of their state. See Paul’s care of the
churches, and the comfort he had in their well-doing. He was in pain
when he had not heard of them for a good while, and therefore would
send Timothy to enquire, and bring him an account: For I have no man
like-minded, who will naturally care for your state. Timothy was a
non-such. There were, no doubt, many good ministers, who were in care
for the souls of those for whom they preached; but none comparable to
Timothy, a man of an excellent spirit and tender heart. Who will
naturally care for your state. Observe, It is best with us when our
duty becomes in a manner natural to us. Timothy was a genuine son of
blessed Paul, and walked in the same spirit and the same steps.
Naturally, that is, sincerely, and not in pretence only: with a
willing heart and upright view, so agreeably to the make of his mind.
Note,
1. It is the duty of ministers to care for the state of their people
and be concerned for their welfare: I seek not yours, but you,
2 Cor. xii. 14.
2. It is a rare thing to find one who does it naturally: such a one is
remarkable and distinguished among his brethren. All seek their own,
not the things which are Jesus Christ’s,
v. 21.
Did Paul say this in haste, as David said, All men are liars?
Ps. cxvi. 11.
Was there so general a corruption among ministers so early that there
was not one among them who cared for the state of their people? We must
not understand it so: he means the generality; all, that is,
either the most, or all in comparison of Timothy. Note, Seeking our
own interest to the neglect of Jesus Christ is a very great sin, and
very common among Christians and ministers. Many prefer their own
credit, ease, and safety, before truth, holiness, and duty, the things
of their own pleasure and reputation before the things of Christ’s
kingdom and his honour and interest in the world: but Timothy was none
of these.–You know the proof of him,
v. 22.
Timothy was a man who had been tried, and had made full proof of his
ministry
(2 Tim. iv. 5),
and was faithful in all that befel him. All the churches with whom he
had acquaintance knew the proof of him. He was a man as good as he
seemed to be; and served Christ so as to be acceptable to God,
and approved of men,
Rom. xiv. 18.
“You not only know the name of him, and the face of him, but the proof
of him, and have experienced his affection and fidelity in your
service,” that, as a son with a father, he hath served with me in
the gospel. He was Paul’s assistant in many places where he
preached, and served with him in the gospel with all the dutiful
respect which a child pays to a father, and with all the love and
cheerfulness with which a child is serviceable to his father. Their
ministrations together were with great respect on the one side and
great tenderness and kindness on the other–an admirable example to
elder and younger ministers united in the same service. Paul designed
to send him shortly: Him therefore I hope to send presently, as soon
as I shall see how it will go with me,
v. 23.
He was now a prisoner, and did not know what would be the issue; but,
according as it turned, he would dispose of Timothy. Nay, he hoped to
come himself
(v. 24):
But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.
He hoped he should soon be set at liberty, and be able to pay them a
visit. Paul desired his liberty, not that he might take his pleasure,
but that he might do good.–I trust in the Lord. He expresses
his hope and confidence of seeing them, with a humble dependence and
submission to the divine will. See
1 Cor. iv. 19; James iv. 15; and Heb. vi. 3.
II. Concerning Epaphroditus, whom he calls his brother, and
companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, his Christian brother, to
whom he bore a tender affection,–his companion in the work and
sufferings of the gospel, who submitted to the same labours and
hardships with himself,–and their messenger, one who was sent by them
to him, probably to consult him about some affairs relating to their
church, or to bring a present from them for his relief for he adds, and
who ministered to my wants. He seems to be the same who is
called Epaphras,
Col. iv. 12.
He had an earnest desire to come to them, and Paul was willing he
should. It seems,
1. Epaphroditus had been sick: They had heard that he had been
sick,
v. 26.
And indeed he was sick, nigh unto death,
v. 27.
Sickness is a calamity common to men, to good men and ministers. But
why did not the apostle heal him, who was endued with a power of curing
diseases, as well as raising the dead?
Probably because that was intended as a sign to others, and to confirm
the truth of the gospel, and therefore needed not be exercised one
towards another. These signs shall follow those who believe, they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover,
Mark xvi. 17, 18.
And perhaps they had not that power at all times, and at their own
discretion, but only when some great end was to be served by it, and
when God saw fit. It was proper to Christ, who had the Spirit above
measure.
2. The Philippians were exceedingly sorry to hear of his sickness. They
were full of heaviness, as well as he, upon the tidings of it: for he
was one, it seems, for whom they had a particular respect and
affection, and thought fit to choose out to send to the apostle.
3. It pleased God to recover and spare him: But God had mercy on
him,
v. 27.
The apostle owns it is a great mercy to himself, as well as to
Epaphroditus and others. Though the church was blessed at that time
with extraordinary gifts, they could even then ill spare a good
minister. He was sensibly touched with the thoughts of so great a loss:
Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow; that is, “Lest, besides
the sorrow of my own imprisonment, I should have the sorrow of his
death.” Or perhaps some other good ministers had died lately, which had
been a great affliction to him: and, if this had died now, it would
have been a fresh grief to him, and sorrow added to sorrow.
4. Epaphroditus was willing to pay a visit to the Philippians, that he
might be comforted with those who had sorrowed for him when he was
sick: “That when you see him again you may rejoice
(v. 28),
that you may yourselves see how well he has recovered, and what reason
you have for the thankfulness and joy upon his account.” He gave
himself the pleasure of comforting them by the sight of so dear a
friend.
5. Paul recommends him to their esteem and affection: “Receive him
therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in
reputation: account such men valuable, who are zealous and
faithful, and let them be highly loved and regarded. Show your joy and
respect by all the expressions of hearty affection and good opinion.”
It seems he had caught his illness in the work of God: It was for
the work of Christ that he was nigh to death, and to supply their lack
of service to him. The apostle does not blame him for his
indiscretion in hazarding his life, but reckons they ought to love him
the more upon that account. Observe,
(1.) Those who truly love Christ, and are hearty in the interests of
his kingdom, will think it very well worth their while to hazard their
health and life to do him service, and promote the edification of his
church.
(2.) They were to receive him with joy, as newly recovered from
sickness. It is an endearing consideration to have our mercies restored
to us after danger of removal, and should make them the more valued and
improved. What is given us in answer to prayer should be received with
great thankfulness and joy.
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