Commentary on Philippians

Contents

Reading pages: 1.15–2.5 · 2.6–2.27 · 2.28–2.29 · 3.1–3.21 · 4.1–4.23

1. 1.15Victorinus distinguishes four motives for preaching Christ in Phil 1:15–17: envy and rivalry, good will, love, and hostile contention meant to add to Paul’s sufferings.
2. 1.18Paul is not troubled by those who preach Christ from bad motives, for whether in pretense or truth Christ is proclaimed, and in this he rejoices.
3. 1.19Trusting in the prayers of the Philippians and the help of Christ’s Spirit, Paul is confident that even hostile preaching will turn out for his salvation.
4. 1.20Whether Paul lives on under punishment or dies, Christ will be magnified in his body, since his constancy will preach Christ all the more.
5. 1.21Since Christ is Paul’s life, neither torments while living nor death can harm him, and dying is gain because it brings him to Christ.
6. 1.22Life in the flesh bears fruit in proclaiming Christ, so Paul cannot say whether he would choose death, which brings him to Christ, or continued life.
7. 1.23Torn between the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, and the need to remain for the Philippians’ sake, Paul, like a father, sets aside his own gain.
8. 1.25Paul is confident God will keep him alive to help the Philippians progress in faith and its grace.
9. 1.26Paul hopes to be with the Philippians again and see their joy abound in Christ, whom they love and serve.
10. 1.27The sum of the Christian life is to live worthily of the gospel by Christ’s commands, standing firm in one spirit and striving with one soul for the faith of the gospel.
11. 1.28Not being frightened by opponents marks their destruction and the believers’ salvation, and even this fearlessness is God’s gift.
12. 1.29It is God’s gift through Christ both to believe in him and to suffer for him, sharing the same contest Paul endured in chains and prison, which leads to the crown.
13. 2.1Appealing to their common calling in Christ, the consolation of love, the fellowship of the Spirit, and shared compassion, Paul asks the Philippians to fulfill his joy by being of one mind.
14. 2.5Victorinus analyzes the precepts of Phil 2:2–4, unity of mind and love, no rivalry or vainglory, humility, and care for others, and shows that Christ, who emptied himself for others, is their pattern.
15. 2.6Christ, the form of God, which for Victorinus is the life and understanding of the Father who is Being, equal with God, freely emptied himself, not by losing his power but by taking a true human body and a slave’s lowliness, obedient to the Father even to death on the cross.
16. 2.9Victorinus explains that the Logos, exalted after the cross, received the name above every name; he reads Paul as implying that the name “Son” was given after the passion, while noting that catholic teaching holds the Father and Son always existed, and he explains how the Son’s name is above all others yet equal to the Father’s.
17. 2.12The Philippians must work out their salvation with fear and trembling, yet both the willing and the working are from God, so that human will and divine grace are mixed.
18. 2.14Believers must obey God’s commands willingly, without grumbling or second thoughts, so as to be blameless sons of God shining like stars in a crooked world.
19. 2.16The Philippians’ holding fast to Christ, the word of life, will be Paul’s glory at Christ’s judgment, proving his labor was not in vain.
20. 2.17Paul rejoices to labor, even to die, in service of the Philippians’ faith, and asks them to rejoice with him in mutual care.
21. 2.19Paul, trusting in the Lord, plans to send Timothy soon so that he may be cheered by news of the Philippians.
22. 2.20Paul sends Timothy because he alone shares Paul’s mind and truly cares for the Philippians, while others seek their own interests rather than Christ’s.
23. 2.22Timothy has proved himself by serving with Paul in the gospel like a son with his father, and Paul will send him soon, hoping to come himself as well.
24. 2.25Meanwhile Paul sends Epaphroditus, whom he calls the Philippians’ “apostle” in the sense that anyone sent for the gospel can be called an apostle.
25. 2.26Epaphroditus is sent because he longs for the Philippians and was distressed that they had heard of his illness.
26. 2.27God spared Epaphroditus from mortal illness, a mercy to Paul as well, showing that wishing to live in the world is not sin and that God preserves those useful to the ministry of salvation.
27. 2.28Paul sends Epaphroditus at once so that the Philippians may rejoice to see him and Paul himself may be free of sorrow.
28. 2.29The Philippians should welcome and honor Epaphroditus, who nearly died in Christ’s work while completing the service Paul could not render them.
29. 3.1Paul warns against the “dogs” and evil workers, whom Victorinus identifies with the Jews relying on works and on a circumcision that is mere cutting, while Christians are the true circumcision of the heart, serving God by the Spirit.
30. 3.4Paul could boast in the flesh more than anyone, by circumcision, race, tribe, law, zeal, and blameless legal righteousness, yet counts it all loss for Christ, from whom Christians now have righteousness.
31. 3.8Paul counts all his former advantages as loss and dung to gain Christ and be found in him, having not his own legal righteousness from works but the righteousness from God through faith in Christ.
32. 3.10Faith in Christ means knowing him, sharing his sufferings even to death, and so sharing the power of his resurrection, in which believers come to meet him.
33. 3.12Paul is not yet perfected while he lives, but pursues Christ through sharing his sufferings to the end, so as to go out to meet him at the resurrection, laying hold of Christ as Christ laid hold of him through those sufferings.
34. 3.13Even Paul, after all his sufferings, has not yet laid hold of Christ; he forgets even his good past deeds, lest he claim merit or grow careless, and presses on by the Christian rule toward the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ.
35. 3.15The mature should hold this attitude of forgetting the past and pressing on by grace, and even if they think otherwise on some point, they must hold to and walk by what they have already attained.
36. 3.17Paul urges the Philippians to imitate him and those many who already live as he does, of whom he has often spoken.
37. 3.19With tears Paul warns of the enemies of the cross, whom Victorinus identifies with heretics who either take Christ as a mere man crucified, or deny that he was born in the flesh or crucified; all will end in destruction.
38. 3.20Unlike those who mind earthly things, believers have their citizenship in heaven, from which Christ came in the flesh and from which they await him as Savior and Judge.
39. 3.21At the resurrection Christ will transform the lowly body into the likeness of his glorious, spiritual body by the power of God working through him, and will subject all things to God, to whom, as 1 Cor 15:28 says, the Son himself is subject.
40. 4.1Paul urges the Philippians, his joy and crown, to stand firm in the Lord in love and one mind, and gently asks Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
41. 4.3Victorinus identifies Paul’s “true yokefellow” with Epaphroditus, asked to help Euodia and Syntyche, who labored with Paul and, in their measure, preached the gospel; all who spread faith in Christ are helpers whose names are in the book of life.
42. 4.4United in heart, the Philippians should rejoice in the Lord and let their moderation, a humble keeping within their measure, be known to all, since the Lord and his judgment are near.
43. 4.6Free from worldly anxiety, the faithful should devote themselves to prayer with thanksgiving and ask God only for what befits them, chiefly the promised heavenly things.
44. 4.7Those who pray rightly receive God’s peace, which brings full understanding of God and guards their hearts, and their bodies are kept in Christ for the resurrection.
45. 4.8The Philippians should think on and practice whatever is true, chaste, just, holy, lovely, and of good report, as they learned and saw in Paul, recognizing that virtue and praise are God’s gift, and the God of peace will be with them.
46. 4.10Paul rejoices that the Philippians have flourished again and returned to the understanding of the gospel he taught them, which is to his credit.
47. 4.11Paul’s joy at the Philippians’ gifts is not because he is in want, since he has learned to be content in all circumstances, but because their care and prayer for him bear abundant fruit.
48. 4.12Paul has been trained to be humbled or to abound, to be full or hungry, in every circumstance of need, labor, and virtue.
49. 4.13Paul can endure all things only through God who strengthens him, and all who trust God can likewise be made strong in need and hardship.
50. 4.14The Philippians did well to share in Paul’s affliction by helping him.
51. 4.15From the start of Paul’s mission, the Philippians alone among the churches supported him with material gifts, the “account of giving and receiving.”
52. 4.16The Philippians twice sent Paul what he needed in Thessalonica.
53. 4.17Paul seeks not the gift itself but the fruit of the Philippians’ goodwill, which gives him cause for prayer and thanksgiving on their behalf.
54. 4.18Paul abounds and is filled by the gifts sent through Epaphroditus, rejoicing not in the gifts but in the goodwill behind them, which is a fragrant sacrifice pleasing to God.
55. 4.19Paul prays that his God will fulfill the Philippians’ every desire from his heavenly riches in Christ, and gives glory to God; the greetings follow.
56. 4.21Paul sends greetings to all the saints from the brothers with him and especially from believers in Caesar’s household, a sign of the gospel’s power and of their humility.
57. 4.23Paul closes with a blessing, having written to the Philippians not to correct error but to exhort them.