{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"PHP","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Philippians","commonName":"Philippians","introduction":"The INTERNAL EVIDENCE for the authenticity of this Epistle is strong. The style, manner of thought, and doctrine, accord with Paul's. The incidental allusions also establish his authorship. PALEY [HorÃ&brvbr PaulinÃ&brvbr, ch. 7] instances the mention of the object of Epaphroditus' journey to Rome, the Philippian contribution to Paul's wants, Epaphroditus' sickness (Phi 1:7; Phi 2:25-30; Phi 4:10-18), the fact that Timothy had been long with Paul at Philippi (Phi 1:1; Phi 2:19), the reference to his being a prisoner at Rome now for a long time (Phi 1:12-14; Phi 2:17-28), his willingness to die (compare Phi 1:23, with Co2 5:8), the reference to the Philippians having seen his maltreatment at Philippi (Phi 1:29-30; Phi 2:1-2).\n\nThe EXTERNAL EVIDENCE is equally decisive: POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 3; 11]; IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 4.18.4]; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [The Instructor, 1.1, p. 107]; EUSEBIUS [The Epistle of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne, in Ecclesiastical History, 5. 2]; TERTULLIAN [On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 23]; ORIGEN [Against Celsus, 1.3, p. 122]; CYPRIAN [Testimonies against the Jews, 3.39].\n\nPhilippi was the first (that is, the farthest from Rome, and first which met Paul in entering Macedonia) Macedonian city of the district, called Macedonia Prima (so called as lying farthest eastward). The Greek (Act 16:12) should not be translated \"the chief city,\" as English Version, but as above [ALFORD]. Not it, but Thessalonica, was the chief city of the province, and Amphipolis, of the district called Macedonia Prima. It was a Roman \"colony\" (Act 16:12), made so by Augustus, to commemorate his famous victory over Brutus and Cassius. A colony was in fact a portion of Rome itself transplanted to the provinces, an offshoot from Rome, and as it were a portrait of the mother city on a small scale [AULUS GELLIUS, Attic Nights, 16.13]. Its inhabitants were Roman citizens, having the right of voting in the Roman tribes, governed by their own senate and magistrates, and not by the governor of the province, with the Roman law and Latin language.\n\nPaul, with Silas and Timothy, planted the Gospel there (Act 16:12, &c.), in his second missionary journey, A.D. 51. Doubtless he visited it again on his journey from Ephesus into Macedonia (Act 20:1); and Act 20:3, Act 20:6, expressly mentions his third visit on his return from Greece (Corinth) to Syria by way of Macedonia. His sufferings at Philippi (Act 16:19, &c.) strengthened the Christian bond of union between him and his Philippian converts, who also, like him, were exposed to trials for the Gospel's sake (Th1 2:2). They alone sent supplies for his temporal wants, twice shortly after he had left them (Phi 4:15-16), and again a third time shortly before writing this Epistle (Phi 4:10, Phi 4:18; Co2 11:9). This fervent attachment on their part was, perhaps, also in part due to the fact that few Jews were in Philippi, as in other scenes of his labors, to sow the seeds of distrust and suspicion. There was no synagogue, but merely a Jewish Proseucha, or oratory, by the riverside. So that there only do we read of his meeting no opposition from Jews, but only from the masters of the divining damsel, whose gains had been put an end to by her being dispossessed.\n\nThough the Philippian Church was as yet free from Judaizing influence, yet it needed to be forewarned of that danger which might at any time assail it from without (Phi 3:2); even as such evil influences had crept into the Galatian churches. In Phi 4:2-3 we find a trace of the fact recorded in the history (Act 16:13-14), that female converts were among the first to receive the Gospel at Philippi.\n\nAs to the state of the Church, we gather from Co2 8:1-2 that its members were poor, yet most liberal; and from Phi 1:28-30, that they were undergoing persecution. The only blemish referred to in their character was, on the part of some members, a tendency to dissension. Hence arise his admonitions against disputings (Phi 1:27; Phi 2:1-4, Phi 2:12, Phi 2:14; Phi 4:2).\n\nThe OBJECT of the Epistle is general: not only to thank the Philippians for their contribution sent by Epaphroditus, who was now in returning to take back the apostle's letter, but to express his Christian love and sympathy, and to exhort them to a life consonant with that of Christ, and to warn them against existing dissensions and future possible assaults of Judaizers from without. It is remarkable in this Epistle alone, as compared with the others, that, amidst many commendations, there are no express censures of those to whom it is addressed. No doctrinal error, or schism, has as yet sprung up; the only blemish hinted at is, that some of the Philippian Church were somewhat wanting in lowliness of mind, the result of which want was disputation. Two women, Euodias and Syntyche, are mentioned as having erred in this respect (Phi 4:2-3). The Epistle may be divided into three parts: (1) Affectionate address to the Philippians; reference to his own state as a prisoner at Rome, and to theirs, and to his mission of Epaphroditus to them (the first and second chapters). Epaphroditus probably held a leading office in the Philippian Church, perhaps as a presbyter. After Tychicus and Onesimus had departed (A.D. 62), carrying the Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, Paul was cheered in his imprisonment by the arrival of Epaphroditus with the Philippian contribution. That faithful \"brother, companion in labor, and fellow soldier\" (Phi 2:25), had brought on himself by the fatigues of the journey a dangerous sickness (Phi 2:26, Phi 2:30). But now that he was recovered, he \"longed\" (Phi 2:26) to return to his Philippian flock, and in person to relieve their anxiety on his behalf, in respect to his sickness; and the apostle gladly availed himself of the opportunity of writing to them a letter of grateful acknowledgments and Christian exhortations. (2) Caution against Judaizing teachers, supported by reference to his own former and present feeling towards Jewish legalism (Phi. 3:1-21). (3) Admonitions to individuals, and to the Church in general, thanks for their seasonable aid, and concluding benedictions and salutations (Phi. 4:1-23).\n\nThis Epistle was written from Rome during the imprisonment, the beginning of which is related in Act 28:16, Act 28:20, Act 28:30-31. The reference to \"CÃ&brvbrsar's household\" (Phi 4:22), and to the \"palace\" (Phi 1:13, Greek, \"PrÃ&brvbrtorium,\" probably, the barrack of the PrÃ&brvbrtorian bodyguard, attached to the palace of Nero) confirms this. It must have been during his first imprisonment at Rome, for the mention of the PrÃ&brvbrtorium agrees with the fact that it was during his first imprisonment he was in the custody of the PrÃ&brvbrtorian Prefect, and his situation, described in Phi 1:12-14, agrees with his situation in the first two years of his imprisonment (Act 28:30-31). The following reasons show, moreover, that it was written towards the close of that imprisonment: (1) He, in it, expresses his expectation of the immediate decision of his cause (Phi 2:23). (2) Enough time had elapsed for the Philippians to hear of his imprisonment, to send Epaphroditus to him, to hear of Epaphroditus' arrival and sickness, and send back word to Rome of their distress (Phi 2:26). (3) It must have been written after the three other Epistles sent from Rome, namely, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon; for Luke is no longer with him (Phi 2:20); otherwise he would have been specified as saluting them, having formerly labored among them, whereas he is mentioned as with him, Col 4:14; Plm 1:24. Again, in Eph 6:19-20, his freedom to preach is implied: but in Phi 1:13-18, his bondage is dwelt on, and it is implied that, not himself, but others, preached, and made his imprisonment known. Again, in Plm 1:22, he confidently anticipates his release, which contrasts with the more depressed anticipations of this Epistle. (4) A considerable time had elapsed since the beginning of his imprisonment, for \"his bonds\" to have become so widely known, and to have produced such good effects for the Gospel (Phi 1:13). (5) There is evidently an increase in the rigor of his imprisonment implied now, as compared with the early stage of it, as described in Acts 28:1-31; compare Phi 1:29-30; Phi 2:27. History furnishes a probable clue to account for this increase of vigor. In the second year of Paul's imprisonment (A.D. 62), Burrus, the PrÃ&brvbrtorian Prefect, to whose custody he had been committed (Act 28:16, \"the captain of the guard\"), died; and Nero the emperor having divorced Octavia, and married Poppoea, a Jewish proselytess (who then caused her rival, Octavia, to be murdered, and gloated over the head of her victim), exalted Tigellinus, the chief promoter of the marriage, a monster of wickedness, to the PrÃ&brvbrtorian Prefecture. It was then he seems to have been removed from his own house into the PrÃ&brvbrtorium, or barrack of the PrÃ&brvbrtorian guards, attached to the palace, for stricter custody; and hence he writes with less hopeful anticipations as to the result of his trial (Phi 2:17; Phi 3:11). Some of the PrÃ&brvbrtorian guards who had the custody of him before, would then naturally make known his \"bonds,\" in accordance with Phi 1:13; from the smaller PrÃ&brvbrtorian bodyguard at the palace the report would spread to the general permanent PrÃ&brvbrtorian camp, which Tiberius had established north of the city, outside of the walls. He had arrived in Rome, February, 61; the \"two whole years (Act 20:30) in his own hired house\" ended February, 63, so that the date of this Epistle, written shortly after, evidently while the danger was imminent, would be about spring or summer, 63. The providence of God averted the danger. He probably was thought beneath the notice of Tigellinus, who was more intent on court intrigues. The death of Nero's favorite, Pallas, the brother of Felix, this same year, also took out of the way another source of danger.\n\nThe STYLE is abrupt and discontinuous, his fervor of affection leading him to pass rapidly from one theme to another (Phi 2:18, Phi 2:19-24, Phi 2:25-30; Phi 3:1, Phi 3:2-3, Phi 3:4-14, Phi 3:15). In no Epistle does he use so warm expressions of love. In Phi 4:1 he seems at a loss for words sufficient to express all the extent and ardor of his affection for the Philippians: \"My brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.\" The mention of bishops and deacons in Phi 1:1 is due to the late date of the Epistle, at a time when the Church had begun to assume that order which is laid down in the Pastoral Epistles, and which continued the prevalent one in the first and purest age of the Church. \n\n\n\nNext: Philippians Chapter 1\n\n","order":50,"numberOfChapters":4,"sha256":"a0f2788dc04d5d878a20b8aaa4672bc3d3d428a8b2861a9559b9bfcedfa36489","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PHP/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PHP","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":4,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PHP/4.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PHP","chapter":4},"totalNumberOfVerses":98},"chapter":{"number":3,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Beware--Greek, \"Have your eye on\" so as to beware of. Contrast \"mark,\" or \"observe,\" namely, so as to follow Phi 3:17. \n\ndogs--Greek, \"the dogs,\" namely, those impure persons \"of whom I have told you often\" (Phi 3:18-19); \"the abominable\" (compare Rev 21:8, with Rev 22:15; Mat 7:6; Tit 1:15-16): \"dogs\" in filthiness, unchastity, and snarling (Deu 23:18; Psa 59:6, Psa 59:14-15; Pe2 2:22): especially \"enemies of the cross of Christ\" (Phi 3:18; Psa 22:16, Psa 22:20). The Jews regarded the Gentiles as \"dogs\" (Mat 15:26); but by their own unbelief they have ceased to be the true Israel, and are become \"dogs\" (compare Isa 56:10-11). \n\nevil workers-- (Co2 11:13), \"deceitful workers.\" Not simply \"evildoers\" are meant, but men who \"worked,\" indeed, ostensibly for the Gospel, but worked for evil: \"serving not our Lord, but their own belly\" (Phi 3:19; compare Rom 16:18). Translate, \"The evil workmen,\" that is, bad teachers (compare Ti2 2:15). \n\nconcision--Circumcision had now lost its spiritual significance, and was now become to those who rested on it as any ground of justification, a senseless mutilation. Christians have the only true circumcision, namely, that of the heart; legalists have only \"concision,\" that is, the cutting off of the flesh. To make \"cuttings in the flesh\" was expressly prohibited by the law (Lev 21:5): it was a Gentile-heathenish practice (Kg1 18:28); yet this, writes Paul indignantly, is what these legalists are virtually doing in violation of the law. There is a remarkable gradation, says BIRKS [HorÃ&brvbr ApostolicÃ&brvbr] in Paul's language as to circumcision. In his first recorded discourse (Act 13:39), circumcision is not named, but implied as included in the law of Moses which cannot justify. Six or seven years later, in the Epistle to Galatians (Gal 3:3), the first Epistle in which it is named, its spiritual inefficiency is maintained against those Gentiles who, beginning in the Spirit, thought to be perfected in the flesh. Later, in Epistle to Romans (Rom 2:28-29), he goes farther, and claims the substance of it for every believer, assigning the shadow only of it to the unbelieving Jew. In Epistle to Colossians (Col 2:11; Col 3:11), still later, he expounds more fully the true circumcision as the exclusive privilege of the believer. Last of all here, the very name is denied to the legalist, and a term of reproach is substituted, \"concision,\" or flesh-cutting. Once obligatory on all the covenant-people, then reduced to a mere national distinction, it was more and more associated in the apostle's experience with the open hostility of the Jews, and the perverse teaching of false brethren.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["\"We are the (real) circumcision\" (Rom 2:25-29; Col 2:11). \n\nworship God in the Spirit--The oldest manuscripts read, \"worship by the Spirit of God\"; our religious service is rendered by the Spirit (Joh 4:23-24). Legal worship was outward, and consisted in outward acts, restricted to certain times and places. Christian worship is spiritual, flowing from the inworkings of the Holy Spirit, not relating to certain isolated acts, but embracing the whole life (Rom 12:1). In the former, men trusted in something human, whether descent from the theocratic nation, or the righteousness of the law, or mortification of \"the flesh\" (\"Having confidence,\" or \"glorying in the flesh\") [NEANDER] (Rom 1:9). \n\nrejoice in Christ Jesus--\"make our boast in Christ Jesus,\" not in the law: the ground of their boasting. \n\nhave no confidence in the flesh--but in the Spirit.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["\"Although I (emphatical) might have confidence even in the flesh.\" Literally, \"I having,\" but not using, \"confidence in the flesh.\" \n\nI more--have more \"whereof I might have confidence in the flesh.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["In three particulars he shows how he \"might have confidence in the flesh\" (Phi 3:4): (1) His pure Jewish blood. (2) His legal preciseness and high status as such. (3) His zeal for the law. The Greek is literally, \"Being in circumcision an eighth day person,\" that is, not one circumcised in later life as a proselyte, but on the eighth day after birth, as the law directed in the case of Jew-born infants. \n\nof the tribe of Benjamin--son of Rachel, not of the maid-servant [BENGEL]. \n\nHebrew of the Hebrews--neither one or other parent being Gentile. The \"Hebrew,\" wherever he dwelt, retained the language of his fathers. Thus Paul, though settled in Tarsus, a Greek city, calls himself a Hebrew. A \"Grecian\" or Hellenist, on the other hand, in the New Testament, is the term used for a \"Greek-speaking\" Jew [TRENCH]. \n\ntouching the law--that is, as to legal status and strictness. \n\na Pharisee--\"of the straitest sect\" (Act 26:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Concerning--Translate as before and after, \"As touching Zeal\" (compare Act 22:3; Act 26:9). \n\nblameless--Greek, \"having become blameless\" as to ceremonial righteousness: having attained in the eyes of man blameless legal perfection. As to the holiness before God, which is the inner and truest spirit of the law, and which flows from \"the righteousness of God by faith,\" he on the contrary declares (Phi 3:12-14) that he has not attained perfection.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["gain--rather as Greek, \"gains\"; including all possible advantages of outward status, which he had heretofore enjoyed. \n\nI counted--Greek, \"I have counted for Christ's sake loss.\" He no longer uses the plural as in \"gains\"; for he counts them all but one great \"loss\" (Mat 16:26; Luk 9:25).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Yea doubtless--The oldest manuscripts omit \"doubtless\" (Greek, \"ge\"): translate, \"nay more.\" Not only \"have I counted\" those things just mentioned \"loss for Christ's sake, but, moreover, I even DO count ALL things but loss,\" &c. \n\nfor the excellency--Greek, \"On account of the surpassing excellency (the supereminence above them all) of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.\" \n\nmy Lord--believing and loving appropriation of Him (Psa 63:1; Joh 20:28). \n\nfor whom--\"on account of whom.\" \n\nI have suffered the loss--not merely I \"counted\" them \"loss,\" but have actually lost them. \n\nall things--The Greek has the article, referring to the preceding \"all things\"; \"I have suffered the loss of them all.\" \n\ndung--Greek, \"refuse (such as excrements, dregs, dross) cast to the dogs,\" as the derivation expresses. A \"loss\" is of something having value; but \"refuse\" is thrown away as not worthy of being any more touched or looked at. \n\nwin--Translate, to accord with the translation, Phi 3:7, \"gain Christ.\" A man cannot make other things his \"gain\" or chief confidence, and at the same time \"gain Christ.\" He who loses all things, and even himself, on account of Christ, gains Christ: Christ is His, and He is Christ's (Sol 2:16; Sol 6:3; Luk 9:23-24; Co1 3:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["be found in him--\"be found\" at His coming again, living spiritually \"in Him\" as the element of my life. Once lost, I have been \"found,\" and I hope to be perfectly \"found\" by Him (Luk 15:8). \n\nown righteousness . . . of the law-- (Phi 3:6; Rom 10:3, Rom 10:5). \"Of,\" that is, from. \n\nrighteousness . . . of God by faith--Greek, \"which is from God (resting) upon faith.\" Paul was transported from legal bondage into Christian freedom at once, and without any gradual transition. Hence, the bands of Pharisaism were loosed instantaneously; and opposition to Pharisaic Judaism took the place of opposition to the Gospel. Thus God's providence fitly prepared him for the work of overthrowing all idea of legal justification. \"The righteousness of faith,\" in Paul's sense, is the righteousness or perfect holiness of Christ appropriated by faith, as the objective ground of confidence for the believer, and also as a new subjective principle of life. Hence it includes the essence of a new disposition, and may easily pass into the idea of sanctification, though the two ideas are originally distinct. It is not any arbitrary act of God, as if he treated as sinless a man persisting in sin, simply because he believes in Christ; but the objective on the part of God corresponds to the subjective on the part of man, namely, faith. The realization of the archetype of holiness through Christ contains the pledge that this shall be realized in all who are one with Him by faith, and are become the organs of His Spirit. Its germ is imparted to them in believing although the fruit of a life perfectly conformed to the Redeemer, can only be gradually developed in this life [NEANDER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["That I may know him--experimentally. The aim of the \"righteousness\" just mentioned. This verse resumes, and more fully explains, \"the excellency of the knowledge of Christ\" (Phi 3:8). To know HIM is more than merely to know a doctrine about Him. Believers are brought not only to redemption, but to the Redeemer Himself. \n\nthe power of his resurrection--assuring believers of their justification (Rom 4:25; Co1 15:17), and raising them up spiritually with Him, by virtue of their identification with Him in this, as in all the acts of His redeeming work for us (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12; Col 3:1). The power of the Divine Spirit, which raised Him from literal death, is the same which raises believers from spiritual death now (Eph 1:19-20), and shall raise their bodies from literal death hereafter (Rom 8:11). \n\nthe fellowship of his sufferings--by identification with Him in His sufferings and death, by imputation; also, in actually bearing the cross whatever is laid on us, after His example, and so \"filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ\" (Col 1:24); and in the will to bear aught for His sake (Mat 10:38; Mat 16:24; Ti2 2:11). As He bore all our sufferings (Isa 53:4), so we participate in His. \n\nmade conformable unto his death--\"conformed to the likeness of His death,\" namely, by continued sufferings for His sake, and mortifying of the carnal self (Rom 8:29; Co1 15:31; Co2 4:10-12; Gal 2:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["If by any means--not implying uncertainty of the issue, but the earnestness of the struggle of faith (Co1 9:26-27), and the urgent need of jealous self-watchfulness (Co1 10:12). \n\nattain unto the resurrection of the dead--The oldest manuscripts read, \"the resurrection from (out of) the dead,\" namely, the first resurrection; that of believers at Christ's coming (Co1 15:23; Th1 4:15; Rev 20:5-6). The Greek word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. \"The power of Christ's resurrection\" (Rom 1:4), ensures the believer's attainment of the \"resurrection from the (rest of the) dead\" (compare Phi 3:20-21). Compare \"accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead\" (Luk 20:35). \"The resurrection of the just\" (Luk 14:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Translate, \"Not that I,\" &c. (I do not wish to be understood as saying that, &c.). \n\nattained--\"obtained,\" namely, a perfect knowledge of Christ, and of the power of His death, and fellowship of His sufferings, and a conformity to His death. \n\neither were already perfect--\"or am already perfected,\" that is, crowned with the garland of victory, my course completed, and perfection absolutely reached. The image is that of a race course throughout. See Co1 9:24; Heb 12:23. See TRENCH [Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. \n\nI follow after--\"I press on.\" \n\napprehend . . . apprehended--\"If so be that I may lay hold on that (namely, the prize, Phi 3:14) for which also I was laid hold on by Christ\" (namely, at my conversion, Sol 1:4; Co1 13:12). \n\nJesus--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Paul was close to \"apprehending\" the prize (Ti2 4:7-8). Christ the Author, is also the Finisher of His people's \"race.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["I--whatever others count as to themselves. He who counts himself perfect, must deceive himself by calling sin infirmity (Jo1 1:8); at the same time, each must aim at perfection, to be a Christian at all (Mat 5:48). \n\nforgetting those things . . . behind--Looking back is sure to end in going back (Luk 9:62): So Lot's wife (Luk 17:32). If in stemming a current we cease pulling the oar against it, we are carried back. God's word to us is as it was to Israel, \"Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward\" (Exo 14:15). The Bible is our landmark to show us whether we are progressing or retrograding. \n\nreaching forth--with hand and foot, like a runner in a race, and the body bent forward. The Christian is always humbled by the contrast between what he is and what he desires to be. The eye reaches before and draws on the hand, the hand reaches before and draws on the foot [BENGEL]. \n\nunto--towards (Heb 6:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["high calling--literally, \"the calling that is above\" (Gal 4:26; Col 3:1): \"the heavenly calling\" (Heb 3:1). \"The prize\" is \"the crown of righteousness\" (Co1 9:24; Ti2 4:8). Rev 2:10, \"crown of life.\" Pe1 5:4, \"a crown of glory that fadeth not away.\" \"The high,\" or \"heavenly calling,\" is not restricted, as ALFORD thinks, to Paul's own calling as an apostle by the summons of God from heaven; but the common calling of all Christians to salvation in Christ, which coming from heaven invites us to heaven, whither accordingly our minds ought to be uplifted.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["therefore--resuming Phi 3:3. \"As many of us then, as are perfect,\" that is, full grown (no longer \"babes\") in the Christian life (Phi 3:3, \"worshipping God in the Spirit, and having no confidence in the flesh\"), Co1 2:6, fully established in things of God. Here, by \"perfect,\" he means one fully fit for running [BENGEL]; knowing and complying with the laws of the course (Ti2 2:5). Though \"perfect\" in this sense, he was not yet \"made perfect\" (Greek) in the sense intended in Phi 3:12, namely, \"crowned with complete victory,\" and having attained absolute perfection. \n\nthus minded--having the mind which he had described, Phi 3:7-14. \n\notherwise minded--having too high an opinion of yourselves as to your attainment of Christian perfection. \"He who thinks that he has attained everything, hath nothing\" [CHRYSOSTOM]. Probably, too, he refers to those who were tempted to think to attain to perfection by the law (Gal 3:3): who needed the warning (Phi 3:3), \"Beware of the concision,\" though on account of their former piety, Paul hopes confidently (as in Gal 5:10) that God will reveal the path of right-mindedness to them. Paul taught externally God \"reveals\" the truth internally by His Spirit (Mat 11:25; Mat 16:17; Co1 3:6). \n\nunto you--who sincerely strive to do God's will (Joh 7:17; Eph 1:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["The expectation of a new revelation is not to make you less careful in walking according to whatever degree of knowledge of divine things and perfection you have already attained. God makes further revelations to those who walk up to the revelations they already have (Hos 6:3). \n\nrule, let us mind the same thing--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Perhaps partly inserted from Gal 6:16, and Phi 2:2. Translate then, \"Whereunto we have attained, let us walk on (a military term, march in order) in the same (the measure of knowledge already attained).\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["followers--Greek, \"imitators together.\" \n\nof me--as I am an imitator of Christ (Co1 11:1): Imitate me no farther than as I imitate Christ. Or as BENGEL \"My fellow imitators of God\" or \"Christ\"; \"imitators of Christ together with me\" (see on Phi 2:22; Eph 5:1). \n\nmark--for imitation. \n\nwhich walk so as ye have us for an ensample--In English Version of the former clause, the translation of this clause is, \"those who are walking so as ye have an example in us.\" But in BENGEL'S translation, \"inasmuch as,\" or \"since,\" instead of \"as.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["many walk--in such a manner. Follow not evildoers, because they are \"many\" (Exo 23:2). Their numbers are rather a presumption against their being Christ's \"little flock\" (Luk 12:32). \n\noften--There is need of constant warning. \n\nweeping-- (Rom 9:2). A hard tone in speaking of the inconsistencies of professors is the very opposite of Paul's spirit, and David's (Psa 119:136), and Jeremiah's (Jer 13:17). The Lord and His apostles, at the same time, speak more strongly against empty professors (as the Pharisees), than against open scoffers. \n\nenemies of the cross of Christ--in their practice, not in doctrine (Gal 6:14; Heb 6:6; Heb 10:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["destruction--everlasting at Christ's coming. Phi 1:28, \"perdition\"; the opposite word is \"Saviour\" (Phi 3:20). \n\nend--fixed doom. \n\nwhose god is their belly-- (Rom 16:18); hereafter to be destroyed by God (Co1 6:13). In contrast to our \"body\" (Phi 3:21), which our God, the Lord Jesus, shall \"fashion like unto His glorious body.\" Their belly is now pampered, our body now wasted; then the respective states of both shall be reversed. \n\nglory is in their shame--As \"glory\" is often used in the Old Testament for God (Psa 106:20), so here it answers to \"whose God,\" in the parallel clause; and \"shame\" is the Old Testament term contemptuously given to an idol (Jdg 6:32, Margin). Hos 4:7 seems to be referred to by Paul (compare Rom 1:32). There seems no allusion to circumcision, as no longer glorious, but a shame to them (Phi 3:2). The reference of the immediate context is to sensuality, and carnality in general. \n\nmind earthly things-- (Rom 8:5). In contrast to Phi 3:20; Col 3:2.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["our conversation--rather, \"our state\" or \"country\"; our citizenship: our life as citizens. We are but pilgrims on earth; how then should we \"mind earthly things?\" (Phi 3:19; Heb 11:9-10, Heb 11:13-16). Roman citizenship was then highly prized; how much more should the heavenly citizenship (Act 22:28; compare Luk 10:20)? \n\nis--Greek, \"has its existence.\" \n\nin heaven--Greek, \"in the heavens.\" \n\nlook for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ--\"We wait for (so the same Greek is translated, Rom 8:19) the Lord Jesus as a (that is, in the capacity of a) Saviour\" (Heb 9:28). That He is \"the Lord,\" now exalted above every name, assures our expectation (Phi 2:9-11). Our High Priest is gone up into the Holy of Holies not made with hands, there to atone for us; and as the Israelites stood outside the tabernacle, expecting Aaron's return (compare Luk 1:21), so must we look unto the heavens expecting Christ thence.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Greek, \"Who shall transfigure the body of our humiliation (namely, in which our humiliation has place, Co2 4:10; Eph 2:19; Ti2 2:12), that it may be conformed unto the body of His glory (namely, in which His glory is manifested), according to the effectual working whereby,\" &c. Not only shall He come as our \"Saviour,\" but also as our Glorifier. \n\neven--not only to make the body like His own, but \"to subdue all things,\" even death itself, as well as Satan and sin. He gave a sample of the coming transfiguration on the mount (Mat 17:1, &c.). Not a change of identity, but of fashion or form (Psa 17:15; Co1 15:51). Our spiritual resurrection now is the pledge of our bodily resurrection to glory hereafter (Phi 3:20; Rom 8:11). As Christ's glorified body was essentially identical with His body of humiliation; so our resurrection bodies as believers, since they shall be like His, shall be identical essentially with our present bodies, and yet \"spiritual bodies\" (Co1 15:42-44). Our \"hope\" is, that Christ, by His rising from the dead, hath obtained the power, and is become the pattern, of our resurrection (Mic 2:13).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Philippians Chapter 4\n\n"]}],"introduction":"WARNING AGAINST JUDAIZERS: HE HAS GREATER CAUSE THAN THEY TO TRUST IN LEGAL RIGHTEOUSNESS, BUT RENOUNCED IT FOR CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, IN WHICH HE PRESSES AFTER PERFECTION: WARNING AGAINST CARNAL PERSONS: CONTRAST OF THE BELIEVER'S LIFE AND HOPE. (Phi. 3:1-21)\n\nFinally--rather, not with the notion of time, but making a transition to another general subject, \"Furthermore\" [BENGEL and WAHL] as in Th1 4:1. Literally, \"As to what remains,\" &c. It is often used at the conclusion of Epistles for \"finally\" (Eph 6:10; Th2 3:1). But it is not restricted to this meaning, as ALFORD thinks, supposing that Paul used it here intending to close his Epistle, but was led by the mention of the Judaizers into a more lengthened dissertation. \n\nthe same things--concerning \"rejoicing,\" the prevailing feature in this Epistle (Phi 1:18, Phi 1:25; Phi 2:17; Phi 4:4, where, compare the \"again I say,\" with \"the same things\" here). \n\nIn the Lord--marks the true ground of joy, in contrast with \"having confidence in the flesh,\" or in any outward sensible matter of boasting (Phi 3:3). \n\nnot grievous--\"not irksome.\" \n\nfor you it is safe--Spiritual joy is the best safety against error (Phi 3:2; Neh 8:10, end).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PHP/3.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PHP","chapter":3},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PHP/4.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PHP","chapter":4},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PHP/2.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PHP","chapter":2},"numberOfVerses":20}