Commentary on Philippians 4.1–4.23

“Therefore, dearest brothers, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord.” Every virtue in Christians is love and charity, which cannot come about unless they have one essence and stand firm in one, thinking one thing; which is now “stand firm,” he says, “in the Lord, O dearest brothers.” From which it may be understood that he wants them to think one thing when he says “dearest brothers.” For this comes about, that those who think one thing and stand firm in one love one another. In what one? In Christ, namely. For since all have faith equally in Christ, they stand firm in him. If you, O Philippians, do this, you will be my joy and my crown. “I ask Euodia, and I ask Syntyche, to think the same thing in the Lord.” That the women themselves may think one thing in the Lord, that is, believing Christ, may think and understand what the gospel holds concerning Christ. But “I ask,” he says, expressing what will profit them. For I do not command, I do not order, but I ask.

“So I beseech you too, true yokefellow, help those women who labored together with me in the gospel, with Clement and my other helpers, whose names are in the book of life.” We said above that Epaphroditus had promised to come to the Philippians: afterward he showed that he had sent him, when he said, “so I have sent him the more speedily.” So this is added as it were so that he too may have the commission in the letter, and he asks and beseeches him to admonish those women, Euodia and Syntyche, to think the same thing in the Lord. “Help,” he says, “those who labor together with me in the gospel.” How do they labor in the gospel? Either so that they themselves acknowledge, guard, and keep the gospel itself which I proclaim; or so that they themselves proclaim it, assert it, preach it; for women too, speaking in their measure about the gospel, that is, about Christ and the whole mystery, preach the gospel. Then he adds thus: “with Clement and my other helpers, whose names,” he says, “are in the book of life.” For so he records the mystery: that all who have faith concerning Christ, and have faith in him, and speak and instill that faith in Christ to people, are as it were helpers of the evangelists: and since this is so, their names are already in the book with God, because they will be in eternal life. And that this is Epaphroditus, to whom he commits these things, to help the aforementioned women to think one thing, may be understood from his saying, “I beseech you too, true yokefellow”; since he spoke of him above thus: “Yet I thought it necessary to send Epaphroditus, my brother, my fellow soldier.” So there he said “brother,” here he said “true”; above he said “fellow soldier,” here he said “yokefellow.”

“Rejoice; let your moderation be known to all people.” This is what follows: that those who think one thing and have faith in one should rejoice in the Lord and always be dear to one another. “Rejoice,” he says, “in the Lord.” That is too little; “again I say, rejoice.” For when you are joined in heart, you rejoice in the Lord; and when you rejoice in the Lord, you are joined in heart, and stand firm in the Lord. “Let your moderation,” he says, “be known to all people.” For it pertains greatly to the merit of the future life and to the kingdom in the heavens if we live with moderation. For moderation is the knowledge that keeps each one’s measure, neither stretching nor extending beyond itself. For while we are here, let us recognize our lowliness (since we are among things not our own), and keep the measure of our lowliness, and God will lift us up. So let your moderation, he says, be known to all people. Why does he admonish this? That we may please here? No: but so that Christ, having known our lowliness, may raise it and take up our moderation. For what does he add? “The Lord is near.” A great exhortation and a great precept, both from truth and from the force of persuasion. For since judgment is already imminent, and the end of this life is coming upon all, we ought to hasten to live with good morals and great moderation: for the judgment and the coming of the Lord are near.

“Bring nothing to anxiety.” That is, have no care for yourselves, nor think about the world and worldly things or be anxious: for God provides all things necessary for you, both now in this kind of life, and better things in that life which is eternal. “But in every prayer and supplication, with good grace, let your requests be made known before God.” So that every action of a Christian now faithful, good, and perfect, all anxieties set aside (for this is renunciation), may be free for prayers and supplication. Prayers are to ask the Lord; supplication is also to speak when you ask: for this is supplication, prayers when … But what will that supplication be? Asking something, or nothing? What is it that one should ask who, already made faithful, asks God? What supplication or request will he have, since he has renounced all worldly things? He himself advised that we pray and make prayers “with good grace”; so that for all of us supplication in prayers may be thanksgiving, that we give thanks; because by the goodness of God we have obtained so great a gift. For this is what he says, “with good grace.” And he added “good” so that we would not do it unwillingly, but truly give thanks, and then he added “good thanks.” Since supplication in prayers can be about good grace, it can also be about a request. Above, having said “with good grace,” he added: “let your requests,” he says, “be made known before God.” … And let him ask that the heavenly things themselves which are promised be fulfilled. Whoever asks surely asks for such things as it is right for one already faithful to ask. For when we think of what is to be asked, which we wish to be made known before God, they are necessarily such as befit a faithful man who hopes also for heavenly and all divine things. These, he says, that is, your requests, let them be made known before God.

“And the peace of God, which holds all understanding, keep your hearts.” This will be the reward if we pray so, make supplication so, that we pray with good grace; and have our requests so that they are made known before God. If this is so, there will be, he says, the peace of God, which will keep your hearts: which peace of God holds all understanding. This is set down forcefully and keenly: for when the peace of God has come into us, we shall understand God: nothing dissonant, nothing discordant, nothing contentious through arguments, nothing that admits a question, as happens to us in worldly things; but all things are so open when we have the peace of God that all understanding is with us: for it belongs to peace now to rest, now to have security. When God entrusts peace to our hearts, all understanding is now with us. For whoever understands God understands all things: when he understands God, the hearts of him who understands are kept. “Likewise your bodies in Jesus Christ.” See, here too there is a reference to the resurrection: and this too is a reward set down or announced to those who ask so, and pray so with good grace, that they may have the peace of God, and their bodies in Jesus Christ. For he spoke of the heart, of the understanding, that they will be kept when peace is given: now of those themselves, that is, of the body, of the soul; “your bodies,” he says, “in Jesus Christ”: for in his majesty and power are our bodies, which at his coming will rise, live again, receive their deserts: all which will be whole for us if we keep those precepts, thinking one thing in Christ, rejoicing, moderate, having no anxiety, in every prayer and supplication with good grace making our requests known before God.

“For the rest, brothers, whatever is just, whatever holy, whatever lovable, whatever of good report, if there is any virtue, if any praise, think on these things; what you have both learned and received and heard also in me, do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” He has taught what prayers we should have, that is, with good grace, and likewise what requests: then what peace, that is, what benefit is given us by God; that we must act and ask so that our understanding and our hearts may be kept, and all our bodies may be in Christ Jesus. Since these things are so, “for the rest,” he says, “brothers, think on these things.” What is “for the rest”? After you have been corrected, all discord and error now removed, since you think one thing: for the rest think so: whatever things are true, accept and think on these. And what are those true things? What is set down in the gospel, Christ Jesus the Son of God, and the rest we have often said. And when you think true things, it follows that they are chaste: for what is true is not corrupted: for this is chaste: what is not corrupted is true. Then what is truly chaste is also just: for they are justified by sanctification from God. All things that are just, that are chaste, that are true, that are holy, are now also lovable, now also of good report. For who would not love what is holy? Who would not speak and think well of it? These things, then, he says, think on, which pertain to good report: surely they are lovable and have love, and have no discord. For everything lovable has concord: likewise what is of good report has no envy and is in concord. Of all these, the earlier pertain to true virtue itself, the later to the fruit of virtue. For it is of virtue to love the true, the chaste, the just, the holy; the fruit of virtue is the lovable and of good report. Therefore he set down those two which he added: “if there is any virtue, if any praise.” He attended carefully to the force of things. For since all things come about by the grace of God—for he himself, through his Spirit sent into us, both governs and rules, so that nothing in us is ours—so he says, “if there is any virtue.” And again, if the virtue which is in us is not from us but from God, neither is the praise ours: and therefore, “if any praise.” Yet since the virtue or the praise seems to be ours, from there he said: “think,” he says, “on all these things.” What are they, surely? “What you have learned,” namely with me teaching, “and received, and heard, and seen in me.” He put the perfect first, “you have learned.” And from where have you learned? The causes are added: “you have received.” And again, this receiving, from where have you heard and seen? From me, you have seen in me: so that Paul is not only an admonisher but also gives an example of how they should follow the true, how the chaste, how the rest. “These things,” he says, “do.” Above he said, “think on these things”; now he adds, “do these things”; so that these good things may be not only in thought but also in act. Then he added the reward, as above: “and the God of peace will be with you”: a reward most necessary for the Philippians, that there be no discord, that all think one thing, that there be peace in their church: and the God of peace, who is the Father, and his Son Jesus our Lord, giving peace to every soul turned to God; this is what he says, “peace be with you.”

“But I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you have flourished again, so as to think on my behalf, in which you also thought before.” As the Philippians, taught in the gospel by the apostle Paul, had slipped into error, now, admonished, they have returned to their former understanding, so as to believe in the gospel as it is proclaimed. “And you have flourished again,” he says; that is, you have returned to flower: therefore I rejoiced in the Lord, and rejoiced greatly: and this is what he says, “so as to think on my behalf”: that is, that you think as I taught you; for they had begun to think otherwise. And as to his saying, “so as to think on my behalf”: because your understanding and wisdom, which had been one, was not on my behalf: but now when you think as I taught and handed on the gospel, you think on my behalf; that is, it can profit me, since I taught you. And what is that, “in which you also thought before,” now you have flourished again, and thinking the same you now think on my behalf?

“But you were occupied. I do not say it because of want.” If this thought is joined to the preceding, since it was said above, “so as to think also on my behalf,” that is, so that you think about me, the understanding will be that you send what is necessary for me; but you also sent; and so it was said, “but I rejoiced in the Lord that at last you have flourished again,” and the fruit has begun to abound from your working. For so he says afterward, “and you began to think on my behalf”: in which is also that, “in which you also thought before,” that you should send me necessities: and this is what follows. How did they think? Before, they were occupied, before in these works. Which indeed Paul, “not because,” he says, “I say it because of want.” For it is not that I want you to think on my behalf, or in what you thought before, and in which you were occupied, so as to send to me, or that I now want you to send, that I say it because of want. For so he says afterward, “not because I seek abundance in prayer.” So I do not seek this because of need, but so that the fruit may be abundant in your prayer, when you take care and think of all these things on my behalf: for this is to have care; not because I am in need. For “I also abound,” he says; since I am sufficient for myself: for so he adds: “For I have learned to be sufficient in the things in which I am.” This is a new thought: I know, he says, how to be sufficient in the things in which I am: for I have learned to be content with what I have; and to be sufficient to myself in the things in which I am: for this is not to be referred only to expenses, but they ought to show care and thought and prayer on behalf of Paul: so that this is to be referred to all things, “that you may also think on my behalf, in which you also thought.” In general, then, so that either necessities or prayer may be held by the Philippians on behalf of Paul. Then he set down this too, not only regarding fortunes or necessities:

“I know both how to be humbled and how to abound”: and of virtues, I know both how to be humbled and how to abound in all things, in the same way: that is, to show all virtues. “And in all things I have been instructed.” That is, accustomed to all things, both to bear thirst, hunger, cold; and again to be glad in abundance. So too of virtues and of labors: in all things, he says, I have been instructed; both to be filled and to bear hunger I have been instructed, he says, both to be filled with plenty and again to bear hunger. Likewise he repeats the same two: “both to abound and to be in need in all things I can.” By saying “in all things,” we do not refer these to the necessities of our living, but they are to be referred to all things that are in action, labors and virtues. So he said he had been instructed, so that he can both abound and be in need in all things. It is new what he says, “in all things I can be in need”: that is, I endure when I am in need in all things, that is, when I shall be needy.

And so that he may speak truly and nonetheless from the evangelical discipline, he adds: “Through him who strengthens me.” This kind of life must always be held and kept: that we too labor, and that it belong to our training to carry out, complete, bear, and endure all these things; yet so that we believe this, that God has made us strong for all these things. For when he said, “I can be in need in all things, and bear hunger,” he referred his strength back to God: “through him who strengthens me.” So you too, and all who have faith in God, should surely believe, whatever things there are, that they can be made strong both in need and in other labors. For God is never lacking to those who love him, who have faith and hope in him.

“Yet you did well in sharing in my tribulation.” That is, you were sharers or came to my aid in tribulation, as it is a sharing, to be joined in like manner to the mystery: and whoever suffers with another also comes to another’s aid.

“And you also know, Philippians, that in the beginnings of the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the account of giving and receiving except you only.” Here he has explained openly, as was said above, “you shared in my tribulation,” that is, you gave help and support by giving me necessities. Then he adds this: you Philippians alone, he says; and you too know that at the beginning of the gospel, when I set out into Macedonia, I preached the gospel through all the churches; but none, he says, shared with me. And in what did it share? “In the account,” he says, “of giving and receiving”: that is, in expenses, which is what is given and received: for one who gives has an account with him who receives; and one who receives has an account with him who gives, how much he gave and how much the receiver received. Not that the one who received also gave something; but when one gives a gift, there is an account of giving and receiving. For what is there in which Paul would give money? But since the account of giving and receiving lies in money between those who give and those who receive, therefore it is joined so. For money is not received for the gospel, as though the account of giving were in money; far otherwise.

“You only,” he says, “shared.” Then he adds that they gave: “Because to Thessalonica you sent once and twice what was necessary for me.” He has declared most openly what it is that you shared and how there is an account of giving and receiving. You, he says, only, to Thessalonica, once and twice sent what was necessary for me.

“Not because I seek the gift; but I seek abundant fruit in your prayer.” I am not in need, he says, nor do I seek these necessities; but you ought to have so much practice of goodwill that there may be for me the fruit of your goodwill, that you abound in goodwill; that is, that when I have prayer concerning you, there may be for me the fruit of your goodwill. When I either ask God for you or give thanks to God for you, there is for me fruit concerning the prayer that is for you, when I understand that you abound and are benevolent.

“For I have all things and abound.” Therefore, he says, I do not seek the gift; for I have all things: and many have all things but do not abound: for truly we can still want if we do not abound, but only have. One who abounds both has and has more than is necessary. For above he said, “you sent what was necessary for me”; now: these, he says, I have and abound. Then he goes on to show the abundance: “I am filled, having received what you sent by Epaphroditus.” So that what abounds would not be foreign, he says it is theirs too, because they sent it: “I am filled,” he says, “having received what you sent by Epaphroditus, an odor of sweetness, an acceptable sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God.” If above he said he sought nothing else from what is given but abundant fruit, so here too, when he says he is filled and has received what was sent, I do not rejoice and am not filled in the things that were sent; but in this, that you had the will and care to send; which is goodwill, and the fruit of abundance; hence it is an odor of sweetness to me that you are such; and a holy sacrifice, pleasing to God, to do willingly what you do; to take care, to provide what must be provided to another for his needs: this is itself the sacrifice, both holy and acceptable and pleasing to God, goodwill itself.

“But may my God fulfill every desire of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. But to God and our Father be glory to the ages of ages.” Since he said that they are both upright in their very works and good in will, in that they send willingly and take care, and that this is the best sacrifice to God and an odor of sweetness, now, to return thanks, he wishes and makes a vow that God (but let it be the apostle’s God), “my God,” he says, so that it is not common with the others, “may fulfill,” he says, “every desire of yours,” and fulfill it “according to his riches.” That is, when you have sought not the things of the world, but those which God bestows and gives from his riches, that is, things heavenly, things divine; for these are the riches of God. Then he added, “in glory in Christ Jesus,” so that these may be the riches which are in Christ Jesus, that is, eternal life, sanctification. And he added what is always added with reverence and devotion and obedience: “to God,” he says, “be glory,” to God the Father; and “to our God,” he says, namely Jesus Christ, our Father: may eternal glory be to him, that is, “to the ages of ages.” The letter ends. Then, after the admonitions and precepts for living rightly, greetings follow. First he greets himself, or bids others to be greeted in his name. And which others?

“Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus.” “The saints in Christ Jesus,” or “greet in Christ Jesus”? “The brothers who are with me greet you.” Not only I, he says, greet you or bid you greet, but the brothers too greet you. He added, “who are with me.” He wanted this to be taken of the people and of every Christian who was with him. Then another: “all the saints greet you,” whom surely, the faith having been received, he sanctified: “but especially those who are of Caesar’s household”: they especially greet you, who are of Caesar’s household. And he shows the power of the gospel, that many from Caesar’s household believed, who surely should have been proud and thought of nothing but Caesar; and again their humility, that they are both humble and hospitable, and greet all the brothers placed elsewhere. And as to his saying “especially,” it may be understood that they took pains to please in service, and therefore he said, apart from the rest, that they greet.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” He thought of the Philippians in such a way that he did not take them, as in the other letters, as not thinking rightly, nor as led astray by false apostles, but only wrote a letter of exhortation, and ended with a prayer. “The grace,” he says, “of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” For if the spirit is within, they think rightly. What, then, do the prayers of the apostle do? That the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ may be with their spirit in Christ Jesus. Amen.