The Philippians were therefore to stand fast in the Lord. This is difficult
when the general tone is lowered; painful also, for one's walk becomes much
more solitary, and the hearts of others are straitened. But the Spirit has
very plainly given us the example, the principle, the character, and the
strength of this walk. With the eye on Christ all is easy; and communion
with Him gives light and certainty; and is worth all the rest which perhaps
we lose.
The apostle nevertheless spoke gently of those persons. They were not like
the false judaising teachers who corrupted the sources of life, and stopped
up the path of communion with God in love. They had lost this life of
communion, or had never had more than the appearance of it. He wept for
them.
I think that the apostle sent his letter by Epaphroditus, who probably also
wrote it from the apostle's dictation; as was done with regard to all the
epistles, except that to the Galatians, which, as he tells us, he wrote
with his own hand. When therefore he says (chap. 4:3), "true [or faithful]
yokefellow," he speaks as I think, of Epaphroditus, and addresses him.
But he notices also two sisters even, who were not of one mind in resisting
the enemy. In every way he desired unity of heart and mind. He entreats
Epaphroditus (if indeed it be he) as the Lord's servant to help those
faithful women who had laboured in concert with Paul to spread the gospel.
Euodias and Syntyche were perhaps of the number-the connection of thought
makes it probable. Their activity, having gone beyond the measure of their
spiritual life, betrayed them into an exercise of self-will which set them
at variance. Nevertheless they were not forgotten, together with Clement
and others, who were fellow-labourers with the apostle himself, whose names
were in the book of life. For love for the Lord remembers all that His
grace does; and this grace has a place for each of His own.
The apostle returns to the practical exhortations addressed to the
faithful, with regard to their ordinary life, that they might walk
according to their heavenly calling. "Rejoice in the Lord." If he even
weeps over many who call themselves Christians, he rejoices always in the
Lord; in Him is that which nothing can alter. This is not an indifference
to sorrow which hinders weeping, but it is a spring of joy which enlarges
when there is distress, because of its immutability, and which becomes even
more pure in the heart the more it becomes the only one; and it is in
itself the only spring that is infinitely pure. When it is our only spring,
we thereby love others. If we love them besides Him, we lose something of
Him. When through exercise of heart we are weaned from all other springs,
His joy remains in all its purity, and our concern for others partakes of
this same purity. Nothing moreover troubles this joy, because Christ never
changes. The better we know Him, the better are we able to enjoy that which
is ever enlarging through knowing Him. But he exhorts Christians to
rejoice: it is a testimony to the worth of Christ, it is their true
portion. Four years in prison chained to a soldier had not hindered his
doing it, nor being able to exhort others more at ease than he.
Now this same thing will make them moderate and meek; their passions will
not be excited by other things if Christ is enjoyed. Moreover He is at
hand. A little while, and all for which men strive will give place to Him
whose presence bridles the will (or rather puts it aside) and fills the
heart. We are not to be moved by things here below until He shall come.
When He comes, we shall be fully occupied with other things.
Not only are the will and the passions to be bridled and silenced, but
anxieties also. We are in relationship with God; in all things He is our
refuge; and events do not disturb Him. He knows the end from the beginning.
He knows everything, He knows it beforehand; events shake neither His
throne, nor His heart; they always accomplish His purposes. But to us He is
love; we are through grace the objects of His tender care. He listens to us
and bows down His ear to hear us. In all things therefore, instead of
disquieting ourselves and weighing everything in our own hearts, we ought
to present our requests to God with prayer, with supplication, with a heart
that makes itself known (for we are human beings) but with the knowledge of
the heart of God (for He loves us perfectly); so that, even while making
our petition to Him, we can already give thanks, because we are sure of the
answer of His grace, be it what it may; and it is our requests that we are
to present to Him. Nor is it a cold commandment to find out His will and
then come: we are to go with our requests. Hence it does not say, you will
have what you ask; but God's peace will keep your hearts. This is trust;
and His peace, the peace of God Himself, shall keep our hearts. It does not
say that our hearts shall keep the peace of God; but, having cast our
burden on Him whose peace nothing can disturb, His peace keeps our hearts.
Our trouble is before Him, and the constant peace of the God of love, who
takes charge of everything and knows all beforehand, quiets our disburdened
hearts, and imparts to us the peace which is in Himself and which is above
all understanding (or at least keeps our hearts by it), even as He Himself
is above all the circumstances that can disquiet us, and above the poor
human heart that is troubled by them. Oh, what grace! that even our
anxieties are a means of our being filled with this marvellous peace, if we
know how to bring them to God, and true He is. May we learn indeed how to
maintain this intercourse with God and its reality, in order that we may
converse with Him and understand His ways with believers!
Moreover, the Christian, although walking (as we have seen) in the midst of
evil and of trial, is to occupy himself with all that is good, and is able
to do it when thus at peace, to live in this atmosphere, so that it shall
pervade his heart, that he shall be habitually where God is to be found.
This is an all-important command. We may be occupied with evil in order to
condemn it; we may be right, but this is not communion with God in that
which is good. But if occupied through His grace with that which is good,
with that which comes from Himself, the God of peace is with us. In trouble
we shall have the peace of God; in our ordinary life, if it be of this
nature, we shall have the God of peace. Paul was the practical example of
this; with regard to their walk, by following him in that which they had
learnt and heard from him and seen in him, they should find that God was
with them.
Nevertheless, although such was his experience, he rejoiced greatly that
their loving care of him had flourished again. He could indeed take refuge
in God; but it was sweet to him in the Lord to have this testimony on their
part. It is evident that he had been in need; but it was the occasion of
more entire trust in God. We can easily gather this from his language; but,
he delicately adds, he would not, by saying that their care of him had now
at last flourished again, imply that they had forgotten him. The care for
him was in their hearts; but they had not had the opportunity of giving
expression to their love. Neither did he speak in regard of want; he had
learnt-for it is practical experience and its blessed result we find
here-to be content under all circumstances, and thus to depend on no one.
He knew how to be abased: he knew how to abound; in every way he was
instructed both to be full and to be hungry, to be in abundance and to
suffer want. He could do all things through Him who strengthened him. Sweet
and precious experience! not only because it gives ability to meet all
circumstances, which is of great price, but because the Lord is known, the
constant, faithful, mighty friend of the heart. It is not 'I can do all
things,' but "I can do all through him who strengtheneth me." It is a
strength which continually flows from a relationship with Christ, a
connection with Him maintained in the heart. Neither is it only 'One can do
all things.' This is true; but Paul had learnt it practically. He knew what
he could be assured of and reckon on-what ground he stood on. Christ had
always been faithful to him, had brought him through so many difficulties
and through so many seasons of prosperity, that he had learnt to trust in
Him, and not in circumstances. And Christ was the same ever. Still the
Philippians had done well, and it was not forgotten. From the first God had
bestowed this grace upon them, and they had supplied the apostle's need,
even when he was not with them. He remembered it with affection, not that
he desired a gift, but fruit to their own account. "But," he says, "I have
all," his heart turning back to the simple expression of his love He was in
abundance, having received by Epaphroditus that which they had sent him, an
acceptable sacrifice of sweet odour, well-pleasing to God.
His heart rested in God; his assurance with regard to the Philippians
expresses it. My God, he says, shall richly supply all your need. He does
not express a wish that God may do so. He had learnt what his God was by
his own experience. My God, he says, He whom I have learnt to know in all
the circumstances through which I have passed, shall fill you with all good
things. And here he returns to His character as he had known Him. God would
do it according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. There he had learnt
to know Him at the beginning; and such he had known Him all along his
varied path, so full of trials here and of joys from above. Accordingly he
thus concludes: "Now unto our God and Father"-for such He was to the
Philippians also-"be glory for ever and ever." He applies his own
experience of that which God was to him, and his experience of the
faithfulness of Christ, to the Philippians. This satisfied his love, and
gave him rest with regard to them. It is a comfort when we think of the
assembly of God.
He sends the greeting of the brethren who were with him, and of the saints
in general, especially those of Caesar's household; for even there God had
found some who through grace had listened to His voice of love.
He ends with the salutation which was a token in all his epistles that they
were from himself.
The present state of the assembly, of the children of God, dispersed anew,
and often as sheep without a shepherd, is a very different condition of
ruin from that in which the apostle wrote; but this only adds more value to
the experience of the apostle which God has been pleased to give us; the
experience of a heart which trusted in God alone, and which applies this
experience to the condition of those who are deprived of the natural
resources that belonged to the organised body, to the body of Christ as God
had formed it on earth. As a whole, the epistle shews proper christian
experience, that is, superiority, as walking in the Spirit, to everything
through which we have to pass. It is remarkable to see that sin is not
mentioned in it, nor flesh, save to say he had no confidence in it.
He had at this time a thorn in the flesh himself, but the proper experience
of the Christian is walking in the Spirit above and out of the reach of all
that may bring the flesh into activity.
The reader will remark that chapter 3 sets the glory before the Christian
and gives the energy of christian life; chapter 2, the self-emptying and
abasement of Christ, and founds thereon the graciousness of the christian
life, and thoughtfulness of others: while the last chapter gives a blessed
superiority to all circumstances.
