A Homiletic Analysis of the First Chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians
Pau and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ” the most royal title which human beings an assume, “to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons” the saints take precedence of the bishops and deacons, farasmuch as character is immortal, while office is but temporary
Verses 2, 3. “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” All blessing is with the Absolute: even the chief of the apostles can only bless ministerially, not primarily. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.’ My whole remembrance of you is accompanied witl thanks to God. —
“Remembrance” is a very heaven or hell. Memory is the genius that. ever follows a man persistently as his own shadow, and essentially as his own blood. A man of gladsome recollections can never be absolutely alone. The Philippians were a perpetual joy to the Apostle. Whenever he took an excursion across the mountains and through the valleys of his gone lifetime, he caught sight of the benevolent and loving Philippians, and their very names gladdened him, as a long-absent traveller might be gladdened by the glittering pinnacles of the city of his home.
(2.) Think of the beauty of the circumstance that Paul thanked God for the blessing of kind, loving, helpful men. Man can bless man. Hearts can bring the burning dawn into hearts that have been saddened through a weary night-time. Man serves God by aiding God’s servants.
(3.) The more enlarged and susceptible the heart, the more easily can service be rendered to it. It is easier to win the benediction of.a great and noble heart, than of a withered and sapless bone. Look at Elisha and the woman of Shunem; see how Christ brightened into a fuller-orbed Divinity when He blessed the woman for her one box of nard; and see how Paul prostrated himself before God when he remembered the little kindnesses of the Philipplans.
(4.) Learh how good a thing it is. to serve the great, and inferentially, how sublime a thing it is to live and die in the service of the Greatest. If Paul remembered the benefactions of his friends, he has also placed on record this testimony — ‘“Cod is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love.” In both cases it is a question of memory. The Apostle remembers, and God remembers; so that the deeds of the good are rewarded with immortal honour. [Turn this argument upon the man who never does a good deed! Will God forget him ?]
(5.) Each of us should leave a memory that shall be cherished and blessed. A pleasant recollection of the Philippians would be immortal as the consciousness of the Apostle. A noble and honourable life is not necessarily made up of great efforts — stupendous and exhausting attempts to achieve some dazzling victory, — but of little acts of consideration, well-timed smiles of encouragement and hope, gentle words of sympathy, and generous interpretations of conduct. The sun does not wait until he can blaze forth in the pomp and glory of mid-day: first the herald streak; the shaping off and fringing of the slumberous clouds; the purple beauty; the multiplying and conquering fire; until noon is king, and day has forgotten night! Begin humbly. If we cannot articulate an apostle’s prayer, we may heave a brother’s sigh. Not one of us, how hidden and feeble soever, need live a sterile life.
(6.) Every man must determine for himself whether he will so live that “every remembrance” of him shall induce thankfulness to God, or his name be a burden which memory would willingly cast. off.
(7.) The Apostle stands prominently forth as an illustrious man, while the Philippians are not known to us by more than their general name. The hidden workers are not on that account to deem themselves useless. Where would the oak be but for hidden and invisible agents? How much is the teacher, who guides others to heaven, indebted even for some of his most, effective qualifications to the general influence of those who make his house a home, and whose names are not registered on the scrolls of fame!
Verses 4,5. ‘Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.”
Prayer may be varied according to the different spiritual moods of the suppliant. In some instances prayer may hardly rise beyond a mere duty; in other cases it may become the supreme joy of the heart. In this instance the Apostle assures the Philippians that he experienced the most exquisite joy in remembering them before God in prayer: as if, in the overflowing of his affection, he always made haste to intercede for them, and lingered joyfully in pleading for their growth and happiness. Man cannot always pray in the same mood. Sometimes the intercessor may “rejoice in spirit,” and sometimes he may groan and be troubled. The mood need not impair the sincerity. You may perform the same journey through a thick and troubled atmosphere, as well as through the brightness and calm of the summer light: the path is the same, the goal is the same, the purpose is the same; yet in the one case the soul may sit as a bird with folded wings, and in the other it may be soaring and singing through the streaming glory.
“Your fellowship in the gospel” I take to signify their unanimity, their entireness of accord one with another; and I see no reason why the Apostle himself should not be included in that “fellowship.” This expansion of the idea (which I cannot see to be forbidden, even by the grammar of the passage) would suggest — the centralizing influence of God’s redeeming and sanctifying idea. No agent, no principle, no doctrine has done so much, or can do so much, in the eduction and consolidation of heart-power, as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul thanks God with joy for the “fellowship of the gospel” among the Philippians; 7 ¢, for their mutual accord, their oneness, their brotherhood of spirit and action. This may so far exhaust the grammatical signification of the language; but the fact that the Apostle is joyfully thankful for this unanimity among the Philippians shows that he himself was one with them, and this circumstance brings us into the presence of the sublime idea, that Christianity is the most influential of all heartuniting forces. Men who are one in Christ are united in the highest ranges of their nature. They are not one necessarily in the lower and temporary appetencies of their manhood, but in the vitalities of their being. Death cannot break the seal that binds the friendships of the good. Distance cannot divide the sympathetic. Paul is in Rome; his friends at Philippi: but in the great globe-heart of the Apostle, Rome and Philippi are but different names of the same place. The union of the church is guaranteed by the immortality of the principles on which it is founded. The moral is the immortal.
Verse 6. ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Whether this “good work” relates entirely to the. special act of beneficence which had called forth this epistle, may be fairly disputed. Taken upon this narrow ground, the Apostle’s joyfulness and thankfulness in prayer would be but the refinement. of selfishness. As will appear in the sequel, the Philippians had sent some substantial token of their appreciation of the Apostle’s labours; but to limit this expression of confidence to such a display of affection would be to impoverish and circumscribe the passage. The Apostle lays down a great principle respecting the divine method of working, viz, to begin is to finish; and that principle, wide enough to encompass the universe, will also comprehend every detail and punctilio of christian service. (1) God works by a plan, — His plan is to prepare manhood for the final day, “the day of Jesus Christ” (by which may be signified a period of time, or a perfection of development; the “day” of death and judgment, or the day of completeness in christian manhood). (2) God is not fickle in the prosecution of His purposes; He begins, not that He may conduct an experiment, but that He may perform a design. (3) God has so revealed Himself in history in the education of the individual and the training of society, as to justify the most emphatic expression of “confidence” on the part of His church. The past foretells the future. God hath made His servants masters of the ages, so far as certainty with respect to His own method and purpose of government are concerned. The creature of a day is thus enabled to speak with “confidence” of the outgoings of the Eternal. The past is the only tangible and visible prophet that God hath left in His church. When the world was young, the world needed Elijahs, Ezekiels, and Daniels; but the richer the world becomes in history, the bolder, and louder, and sweeter will be its tone of “confidence.” God cannot publish any amended edition of Himself. You may, therefore, make the past the source of the widest inferences.
Verse 7. “Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.”
The sixth verse was like the peal of a trumpet; the seventh is the low, sweet music of the summer morning. There is an expression here of singular beauty: “I have you in my heart.” Who can measure the circumference of a truly philanthropic heart? Has arithmetic any cunning art by which to calculate the girth of that organ of affection? A man in Rome carrying the Philippian church in his heart! (1) He who carries the world elsewhere than wm his heart will soon wish to cast off his burden. (2) He who carries the good in his heart can never be desolate. Loneliness is an impossibility to the well-stored heart. (8) He whose heart is engaged with the tender offices of affection is the profoundest interpreter and the most efficient servant of mankind. (4) He who enshrines his benefactors in his heart has broken the dominion of selfishness.
In this verse the Apostle recurs to the wider idea of the “fellowship of the gospel,’ which was suggested in connection with the fifth verse, — “Inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.” The Apostle and the Philippians, being one in their faith in Christ, were one also in their love of each other. Being one with the Apostle in Christ, they were one with him in all the vicissitudes of his experience. He refers to himself as in two different situations: in the one he was bound as a prisoner; in the other he was defending and confirming the gospel. In each case the Philippians were “partakers of his grace.” (1) The advocacy of the best of causes may bring a man into social humiliation. (2) Social humiliation does not necessarily involve moral dishonour. (3) While the morally honourable are suffering from social humiliation they will not be abandoned by the “partakers” of the same “orace.” Another proof of the uniting and consolidating force of Christianity.
Verse 8. ‘For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” [All real spiritual love is but a portion of the great love wherewith He hath loved us, which lives and yearns in all who are vitally united to Him. — A/ford.]y
Saints “longing” for saints is a prophecy that all saints are destined to be brought into one assembly. God will satisfy all the desires which He creates; He will feed the soul which He has made hungry; and as He has given us the spirit of true fellowship, so will He supply the means of its full enjoyment. Out of all this comes heaven. The good “longing” for the good; the creature yearning for the Creator; the redeemed sighing for the Redeemer; the dew of the morning trem-HIDDEN SPRINGS. ou
bling with the hope of being taken up by the Infinite Light: what is all this but a premonition of celestial life?
The Apostle, having thus told the Philippians of his praying and his longing, presents a summary of his prayer : —
Verses 9, 10, 11. “And this I pray, that your love may abound’ yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
In one word, the Apostle prayed that the Philippians might grow. It will be found to consist with the first principles of human nature, that moral dwarfs never pray that others may become moral giants. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” A man cannot transcend himself. The loftier and purer a man’s aspirations are, the more noble and divine is the man. Only the firmament can embrace the stars!
(1.) The Apostle prays that “love may abound yet. more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;” that love may abound in “moral tact” (De Wette). True love is intelligent. We are to love God with all our mind. As knowledge is the basis of faith, so also it is the first condition of love.
D (2.) “That ye may approve things that are excellent.” The Apostle prays for an enlargement and quickening of the discriminative faculty, that the Philippians might distinguish between things that differ, and that so distinguishing they might elect the right. A man is known by his verdicts. The poet sees a deeper reading in the leaves of the summer than the thoughtless man, who sees nothing in them but a day’s bread for a day’s work. The artist sees where the clown but looks. Paul wished the faculty of discrimination to be so quickened, that the Philippians might ever see the “excellent,” and instantly approve it. The more we love Christ the more will we be qualified to perceive every charm in moral life. He who truly approves the excellent will constantly defend the excellent, and thus a perfect “fellowship” in the gospel will be established throughout the church.
(3.) “That ye may be sincere and without offence” [without stumbling, — Alford] “till the day of Christ.” The word “sincere” has a double meaning. Take the word from the Greek, and it signifies that which is proved in the sunlight. An article may be held so that the rays of the sun may reveal any defect or flaw in the substance or the manufacture. Christians are to be so true that the solar light of infinite rectitude cannot find any stain or derangement in their character. Take the word from the Latin, and the literal signification is, without waa; the reference being to clarified honey, which is free from all admixture: all is pure, The christian life is to be so refined, so clarified, as to be thoroughly free from all foreign elements.
(4.) “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” The Apostle, beginning at the centre, finds his way to the circumference: beginning with the spiritual, he culminates in the practical “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” ‘Iam the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” See the connection between Christ and fruit. Christ bids His people bring forth “much fruit:” have His people meri, then? The answer is, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” Where is boasting?
This call to practical life shows that Christianity is not a mocking pretence, or a theological dream, or a speculative science, but a sublime, vital, and vitalizing reality.
The doctrines acknowledged in this prayer are, — (1) That christian life is progressive — “more and more.” (2) That God is ready to co-operate with His people for their moral enrichment. (3) That the entire christian manhood is to bear fruit — “being filled,”
Verses 12, 13, 14. ‘ But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
The Philippians looked upon the imprisonment asa calamity; Paul assures them that it was an element of prosperity. This shows how much our estimate of men and things depends upon the angle from which we conduct the examination. Circumstances are often the only lexicons which can determine the meaning of words. While the Philippians were saying “midnight,” the Apostle was saying
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“noon:” “ruin” at Philippi meant “coronation” at Rome. Can the man at the mountain-foot see as far as the man on the mountain-head? Much depends on the plane of vision, as well as upon the optical power. There is a germ of prophecy here — by-and-bye we shall see life from higher standpoints. Here is a light which the student would do well to hold over his darkest problems, viz., It is better to study at Rome than at Philippi; better under the crowned arch of day than a the black bridge of night!
The idea .to be dwelt upon most emphatically is, — That circumstances the most untoward may in reality be advancing the divine kingdom among
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men. The fact is known at Philippi, but the interpretation must come from Rome. This idea may be generalized so as to encompass all God’s government. Thus generalized it would stand, — Not one of the divine purposes can ultimately fail of completion. Every purpose of God that ‘is to take effect in the moral sphere may be thwarted, but the outcome of the ages will show that God’s great plan has been realized in every tittle. God will redeem His promise to His anointed. He will cause all the historic lines to converge in the redemptive idea. We cannot see all that He is doing. We wonder and weep at Philippi; but from the Rome of the heavens He says, “All things fall out unto the furtherance of the gospel.”
(1) God’s providence not to be interpreted in fragments. (2) The moral is higher than the personal: Paul is in prison, but the gospel is free! (3) The bonds of one man may give inspiration to the liberty of another; “many of the brethren waxed confident.” (4) The spread of the gospel depends upon no one man. (5) Even the afflicted Christian has a mission. Paul’s “bonds” were the means of making the gospel more and more known.
Verses 15 to 18. “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one preach Christ of contention” [self-seekingly], “not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds; but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”
(1) Diverse developments of human disposition. (2) The possibility of doing a good deed through a bad motive. (3) The impossibility of entirely concealing motives. (4) The actions of self-seekers turned into the good man’s sources of joy. (5) Man is never so diabolized as when making a good cause the means of grieving and tormenting the church. (6) The mere fact that a man preaches Christ is not a proof of his personal salvation; and if this can be affirmed of preaching, how much more powerfully may it be affirmed of hearing!
This paragraph furnishes matter for a discourse on — two voices on the same subject; or, the voice of selfishness, and the voice of love.
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Verse 19. “For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
(1) Mark the confidence of the declaration — «I know.” Not an angel in heaven could utter a truer note of triumph. Righteousness is a prophetic power. The righteous man can infallibly predict the issue of moral operations. (2) Mark the grownd of this confidence; “this shall turn to my salvation.” What is the “this” referred to? The preaching of Christ. The Apostle’s joy does not arise from the fact that certain persons preached, but from the higher fact that Christ was preached. It was. impossible that the Apostle could rejoice that bad men were working; he rejoiced that a good work was being done. (3) Mark that the extension of the truth as the best guarantee of personal happiness. The Apostle knew that the less comprehended the greater as truly in one department as in another. To him, moral victory meant personal deliverance. A man of less moral grandeur would have started the argument from himself, saying, with selfish vaunt, Let me be free, and then the gospel shall triumph: he would have pivoted the question on himself; but the Apostle knew nothing of such littleness and self-idolatry; he said,fLet Christ be preached, and Christ’s servant shall in due time be free. When it goes well with the master, it goes well with the servant. I believe that the word “salvation” does not relate to the safety of his soul, but to the deliverance of his body; and, accepting the word in that sense, I can overhear the Apostle, as he gathers his chain closer around him, saying, “The truth shall break these links. Some of those men outside are doing other than they set out to do: God will turn their purposes upside down. They thought to harden and fasten these links, whereas they are in very deed breaking them! Let them go on; let Christ be more and more talked about, and more and more understood, and then that prison door shall fall back, and I shall be free as the light!” When the church acts on this great principle, there will be less fuss, less anxiety for the truth, less quaking about little personal interests, less self-protrusion and self-applause. Rightly looked at, no man is so truly serving himself as when he is magnanimously endeavouring to serve others. (4) Mark that the gospel has everything to hope from being allowed to reveal its own credentials, Proclaim it (ministers, missionaries, teachers)! It sounds well from any lips (philosophers, babes and sucklings, unlearned). By whomsoever pronounced, the celestial fire will strike through every syllable, and the place of its proclamation shall be sacred as the Mount of God! (5) Mark that the Apostle associates this result (“my salvation”) with the prayers of the Philippians. Not a man in the church is so far advanced as to be beyond the range of prayer. Intercession embraces all human kind! See how the greatest man in the church may be served by the supplication of the good. A child may help an apostle. (Such is the mystery of moral power.)
Verses 20, 21. ‘‘According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether
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it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.”
(1) “Expectation” and “hope;” these are words which connect the heart with the future. (2) No power can so light up the future, and throw over it the hues of immortal beauty, as childlike trust in God. (3) The man who is living without “expectation” and “hope” is living only half a life; but he who is living on false expectations and false hopes is wasting life. (4) It is right that the body should be turned to moral account. (Christ purchased the whole man.) The passions are not to have their own wild way. The blood is not to be master of the man. (5) The possibility of being ready for either earthly or heavenly life. Paul drew his programme of life from the heart of the Saviour. He lighted his torch at the sun! (6) Vital identification with Christ is the secret of such readiness. ‘For to me to live is Christ,’ — I have one idea; I live Christ; I reproduce the Saviour; I am ever in pursuit of the objects which engage His affections; I and my Saviour are one.
That which a man loves swpremely is that for which he lives (money, fame, pleasure, &c.) The lofty altitude of moral nature to which we have to aspire is to find in Christ our only reason for living. Apart from this, the yearnings, aspirations, and voids of humanity can never be satisfied. (1) LIFE IN CHRIST COMPREHENDS ALL TRUE LIFE (science, art, beauty, music, all that adorns the saint, all that strengthens the worker, all that ‘sustains the sufferer). A life rooted in Christ will bear all manner of fruits, and be beautiful with all the hues of heaven. (Into what base are our liferoots struck?) (2) Lire IN CHRIST CAN SEE THE ULTERIOR PHASE OF WHAT MEN CALL DEATH. “To die is gain.” The eye of true life can see clear through the dispensation of dying, and behold the “oain;” can see straight through the troubled night of the final act of man upon earth, and gladden itself with the sight of the morning glory that falls for ever on the hills of heaven. To die is mystery; to die is speculation; to die is life’s most desperate venture; to die is life’s annihilation; this is the creed of those whose life is not centred in Christ. (Compare this creed with the “gain” which Christianity discloses.)
Verses 22 to 26. “But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.”
(1) The personal weighed with the public, or the difficulties of the veteran philanthropist. (2) Man’s sublimest reason for not wishing immediate translation to glory is that he may be of spiritual service to the world. (3) The next best condition to that of being “with Christ” in heaven, is to be working for Christ’s people on earth. Paul puts two things in apposition, viz., “to be with Christ,” and “to abide with yow:” how could there be hesitation in deciding the choice? Selfishness could not have hesitated. True; but selfishness would never have been called upon to make the election. Benevolence has its difficulties as well as selfishness. Love lifts a finger to the heavens, and points another to the earth. The choice is between “gain” and service; and rightly-estimated service is gain. It is worth all pain and inconvenience to remain out of heaven so long as you can prepare your contemporaries for the skies. You are “with Christ” so long as you are with His work: there is, indeed, a fuller revelation to be made — there is a veil to be passed — yet the union is begun. Our eyes are holden, that we should not know Him; but His breath is our life, and His touch our omnipotence. The Apostle is not a dreamy contemplatist, who is always wishing for some more pleasant conditions of existence. He is a worker, who finds satisfaction in labour, and joy in anticipation. There is a disease in the church for which I can find no appropriate name; it may, however, be described symp-
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tomatically. Persons who are afflicted with it seem to think that religion consists in wishing for heaven. They hold their heads so erectly as not to see the spiritual darkness, the moral lunacy, the social disintegration by which they are surrounded. They are dreamers, contemplatists, transcendentalists; but are they Christians? They are fond of hymns that warble the blessedness of heaven; they revel in texts that describe the rest, the pleasure, the music, the serenity, the fascinations of the celestial state. Let such diseased ones mark how the Apostle conjoins such words as “labour” and “gain,” and how he balances what is “needful” for man with what would be pleasant to himself; and let them be rebuked and stimulated by the joy with which he anticipated restoration to the laborious life of the apostolate. (4) There is only one world in which you can serve man evangelically; do not be in indecent haste to escape the opportunity! When you wish to enter heaven, may you have a strong drawing to the service which is still to be done on earth; may you be “in a strait.” (5) God never leaves the earth entirely destitute of great men. Elijah may deem himself alone, not knowing that there are seven thousand children of truth who have never kissed the world’s dumb god.
Verses 27 to 30. “Only let your conversation” [citizenship] “be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; and in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which” [faith of the gospel] ‘is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake; having the same conflict which ye saw in me” [when I was at Philippi, Acts xvi.], “and now hear to be in me.”
This is a call to a threefold manifestation of spiritual life: (a) to holiness; (6) to unanimity; (c) to courage.
I. To Houiness. — “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.” As if he had said, I have one dominating wish in reference to you, or this is my highest desire on your behalf. It is well to know what God’s princes wish for us. This is a voice from the highest range of christian experience. The noblest desire which one man can cherish for another is that he may be like Jesus? There is but one ideal life in the church. Here, however, is a difficulty; how can the lowest copy the highest 2? Why put an absolutely perfect design before a pupil devoid of culture and devoid of skill? Would it not have been wiser to have set forth a man who excelled in ove moral feature, and to have said, “Copy that”? and then to have presented a second, who exemplified another beauty, and to have said, “Transcribe that”? and so on until all the graces had been gradually acquired? Would not such an arrangement have encouraged desponding man? Instead of this we have set before us as our example, absolute perfection — infinite holiness! Is not this exorbitant? Is it not demanding too much of the crushed and helpless sinner? Let us see. What does moral perfection begin in? It begins in the disposition, in the will, in the heart. If you are urged to escape from polar winter, with its ice, and snow, and frost, and barrenness, to tropical summer, with its warmth, and flowers, and geniality, and luxuriance, is it meant that you are to accomplish the journey at one long: stride, or that it is to be completed step by step, little by little? When a child is required to become perfect as a musician, is it intended that in one day his uncrafty fingers shall liberate the angelstrains that are jailed in the musical instrument? Or is it meant that he shall master the gamut, and grope his way through the scale, and gently touch the unknown notes to ascertain, as if by a whisper, whether they are the strains of which he is in quest, and proceed with all diligence and zeal until the instrument shall tell all its secrets, and shake with many-voiced delight at the touch of his friendly hand? Were you to tell an acorn to become perfect as an oak, would you mean that all the growing was to be completed in a night, or that the development was to proceed gradually, unfolding branch after branch, bud after bud, leaf after leaf, till it became a great cathedral-tree, in which the feathered choristers should pour out their songs in the hearing of God? It is even so with our Saviour. When He tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He means that we are to grow in grace; we are to “press toward the mark;” we are to set our faces towards the holy temple. Not only so. In all our growing and striving Christ himself is with us, and His grace 1s all-sufficient. “Work out your own salvation,” &c. Be it far from me to speak harshly to any man struggling after higher manhood. My own forty days in the wilderness are not yet finished. Satan is still with me, &e.
II. To Unanimmity. — “That ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind serving together for the faith of the gospel.” Monotony is not what is meant by unanimity. What is the root of true unity? We are one in our love and service of Ohrist. Christendom is in reality one, though apparently many. The coat is a coat of many colours, but the heart is one. This is particularly seen in the time of threatened danger. The armies of defence have never come from any particular section of the church. The young sometimes reason thus : — There is so much division in the church — there are so many sects, parties, and divisions, that we have determined, therefore (O unhappy and illogical “therefore”!), to cast off religion altogether. Try this reasoning by analogy. Take it into the question of architecture, and the parallel would be this: — There are so many styles of building, and so many modifications and interpenetrations of those styles, — some houses are round, and some square; some Doric, and some Gothic, — that we are really so perplexed with the varieties, that we have renounced architecture altogether, and have resolved to reside day and night in the open air! Try it again in the matter of clothing, and run the analogy. Try it in the question of patriotism, and the endless shades of political party, &c. Do men give up business because some tradesmen become insolvent? &c. Do you give up housekeeping because some chimneys smoke? &c.
III. To Covracr — *And in nothing terrified. by your adversaries.” “Unto you it is given to suffer.” If a man is not to be terrified by his “adversaries,” by whom is he to be terrified? Timidity is a symptom of moral feebleness. Timidity is an impediment in the path of moral progress. Timidity on the part of one may dishearten the courage of a multitude. Timidity arises from distrust of God. There is not a passage in all God’s word in favour of timidity. “Straight on!” is God’s command, and He will frighten the lions from before your feet. The strong in heart are called to suffer. Suffering is education; suffering is a means of grace. There is a martyrdom of the body; there is a deeper martyrdom of the spirit. Think of the hidden and silent heroism that is going on every day. How many a man, otherwise mighty, fails in suffering! How many a man, too, of noble powers and enlarged culture, for want of strength in a crisis — the courage to utter a decisive word — fails and trembles, and becomes the prey of the mean! The Apostle here teaches that fearlessness in strife is to be associated with magnanimity in endurance.
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS — ( Continued).
CHAPTER ii., 1 — 11.
Verses 1,2. “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind.”
(1.) The “if” is not in this case the sign of doubt or hesitation, but, on the contrary, the sign of the most assured certainty. When persons wish to declare the vastness of an assembly, they sometimes make use of such an expression as — “If there was one man present, there were two thousand;” the “if” being not the word of doubt, but of certainty. As employed by Paul, it is equivalent to — “If there is any water in the sea, or if there is any light in the sun.”
(2.) Consolation, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, bowels and mercies, are expressions which signify much in common. This appeal of the Apostle is a burst of tenderness, Affection delights in repetition. Love amplifies its expressions to the utmost. Love is an eloquent rhetorician; artless, yet full of art. These are expressions full of summer light and beauty, which are revealed only to the eye of the heart.
(3.) Paul having laid his basis in the very heart of Christ, makes an appeal — “Fulfil ye my joy.”
It is right to interject one’s personality as an element in an argument for brotherhood and consolidation in the church. It appears to be an infinite descent from Christ to Paul, but in reality it is no descent; in this argument Christ’s purpose and Paul’s desire are identical. The soul has moods which bring it close to the heart of God. Paul appears before the Philippians more as a saint than as a logician, and in that capacity Christ and the “servant” are one. The Apostle likens his “joy” to a cup that is nearly full, and intimates that unanimity in the church would fill it perfectly — would make it overflow. See the importance even of a single element. An atom may be necessary to perfection. Beauty may depend upon the straightness or curve of a single line.
Verses 3,4. ‘‘Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
(1) There are two ways of doing even the best work; “through strife,” and through love. This was seen in the first chapter, where two classes of preachers are described. (2) Entire sympathy with Christ will always heighten man’s appreciation of man. (38) Christianity is thus the only humanizing and fraternizing religion. (4) Self-seeking is in utter antagonism to the spirit of Christianity.
(5) Christianity never encourages a degrading view of human nature. Man is to be “esteemed” by man. Christians are to recognize each other’s excellencies. Love’s eye is quick to detect virtue in another.
Up to this point, Paul continues his appeal for unanimity. The spirit of this appeal is most suggestive; it is the spirit of profound and tender sympathy with Christ. When history gives up its dead, it will be found that where the rod has conquered its tens, love has conquered its thousands. This anxiety for -entire oneness in the church is in harmony with the spirit of Christ’s intercessory address to the Father. Paul was wont to call for one-mindedness: “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.” Absence of union is a reflection wpon the uniting force. What is the uniting force in a christian church? The love of Christ. Where, then, there is disunion it is plainly to be inferred - that there is either not sufficient of this love, or that this love is unequal to the exigencies of the case. Hence the grandeur and urgency of the appeal — “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ;” as though he had said, “Remember that Christ’s love is on trial; consider that men are looking upon you as they would look upon an experiment, and that not you only, but Christ himself will be deeply involved in the event of failure.” How is it that a discordant church is a reflection upon the moral power of the Saviour? Without Christ the church could not be in exwistence. The world has a right to compare the deeds of the servant with the spirit of the Master, because the connection is moral, and consequently involves responsibility. Take the case on a lower ground. A recently-erected edifice has fallen: how do men treat the fact? They instantly connect it with the architect or the builder. When a chemical experiment has failed, how is it looked upon? Instantly the manipulator is blamed for want of skill, or for want of judgment in the selection of the quality of his materials. So all the practices of the church are carried back to Christ, and He is magnified, or “crucified afresh,” according to their nature.
While Paul is thus appealing for moral concord, and appealing in the spirit of tenderest love, to what conclusion are we to come on the subject of mutual discipline? Are charity and justice to be sundered? Is there not to be a law of right in the church? Is the garment of love to be thrown over the leper? Paul shall answer for himself: ‘Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” “We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.” The tones vary, but the voice is the same. Was Paul inconsistent? Are the pleading of love and the crash of condemnation accordant? It is consistency alone that can afford to be apparently inconsistent. Christ called Herod a fox, and said that Nathanael was without guile. God alone can be warm as summer and chilling as winter. The Apostle is perfectly consistent; the voice is as truly one, as is the voice of the mother when she sings her child to slumber, or shrieks at the approach of the ravenous beast.
Verses 5 toil. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found. in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
This comprehensive passage, I suggest, can be used for purely theological purposes only by accommodation. Looked at in connection with its surroundings, it appears to be rather a practical exhortation than a theological disquisition. Paul is not arguing a doctrinal point; he is not rebutting doctrinal heresy; there is no evidence that the Philippians held incorrect opinions as to the pre-existence, the divinity, or the incarnation of the Saviour. This summary, therefore, is made, not for purely doctrinal or theological purposes, but as the ground-work of a powerful appeal for the cultwation of a right spirit. This being clearly understood, the sphere of practical inference is vividly defined. The Apostle takes for granted that the Philippians are sound in the faith. There is nothing in their theological creed to be rectified. There is a practical point to be attained, and in its attainment it is necessary to keep in view all that has been done, and the-way in which it has been done, by the one Redeeming Life of humanity. Paul’s argument, based upon the Messianic history. may be thrown into some such shape as this : — You, Philippians, have been a great joy to me; I thank my God on every remembrance of you. But my joy is not quite fulfilled: your unanimity is not perfect; I hear of murmurings and disputings among you. I must entreat you in relation to this matter: “Let this mind be in you, that was also in Christ Jesus.” That mind was condescending, unselfish, most loving. Some of you, perhaps, imagine that you are too elevated and dignified to mingle with others: let me assure you that this is a mistake, and quite contrary to the spirit of Jesus. Christ was infinitely elevated, and yet He stooped; He was of reputation among the highest intelligences, yet He “made Himself of no reputation;’ He was “in the form of God,” yet “took upon Him the form of a servant.” He is our exemplar: let this mind be in you that was also in Him, then nothing shall be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each shall esteem other better than themselves. I speak unto you all, bishops and deacons alike, and declare that we are right, and true, and influential only as we are moulded after the example of the self-renouncing and condescending Saviour.
This, I submit, is all that was meant by this epitome of Christ’s history. So far as the argument was strictly concerned, Paul might have paused at the fifth verse, saying, with all possible condensation of meaning, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” All that follows is illustrative, — is thrown in to give breadth, and vividness, and precision, to the words “this mind.” The highest should prove his highness by serving the lowly. There is no elevation too lofty to condescend to the service of the humblest of mankind. This s the great lesson taught by the verses in hand.
That those verses do, by implication and direct statement, teach more, it would be useless to deny. They express many of the fundamental truths of Christianity. They declare in plainest terms the pre-existence of Jesus, and His co-equality with the Father; but they do this in order to invest with commanding attraction and authority a great practical duty. Thus every feature in christian character may be carried back, so to speak, and examined in the light of the whole history of Christ. In other words, the Christian is always representing or misrepresenting CHRIST.
Looked at apart from their special signification and application, these delineations of Christ reveal the true method of rendering moral service to man. Human deliverance and progress will remain a theory only until men come to work upon the method here stated, Great philanthropic programmes must begin at Bethlehem, and comprehend the mysteries of Golgotha, if ever they would ascend from Bethany into the heavens. He who would make life a redemptive mission must go to the very base of society, and begin his work there. Men invariably fail when they begin at the high twig rather than the buried root. To serve man, Christ became man. So in serving others we must identify ourselves with them. Christ was in the darkness, but the darkness was not in Him. This identification of Himself with the human race made Christ accessible to all classes, Man needed for a season — only for a season, as one summer in the year is enough — a visible manifestation of God. So by coming to us, and being like us, and humbling Himself to the death of the cross, He saved us. We, too, in our philanthropic work must go down. Kings are only the blossomings of the great communal tree. “Down to the roots” is the cry of true philanthropy. (2) Christ’s piety was not a mere index-finger. Instead of saying, “That is the way,” He said, “Z am the way.” A man’s whole moral vitality must constitute his redeeming power. Men fail when they say “that” instead of “I;” when they give a pronoun instead of the living substantive of their own sanctified character. Instead of seeing how the world’s misery looks after it has flowed from a secretarial pen, and taken form upon the clean foolscap of a great society, we should lay our own white hand on the gashed and quaking heart of humanity. (3) Does it not degrade a man to have this personal association with human vice and misery? The answer may be given in a question, Was Christ degraded? More; go into the territories of guilt and wretchedness upon any other business than that of Christ, and you will be degraded. A man’s spirit will determine his fate. Benevolence will come forth unpolluted as a sunbeam, beautiful as summer’s purest flower. (4) Condescension is not degradation. How do you teach a child to read? By beginning at the rudimentary line; by joining him at the very earliest pomt of inquiry, and accompanying him patiently through all the introductory processes. So Christ does in the moral education of the race. He speaks in monosyllables as it were. He pronounces words with emphasis, giving each a wide circumference, until every tone penetrates the listener’s ear. (5) Are we to come down to men, or are men to be brought up to us? Both! With Christ as our example, I answer, Be Godlike, and come down to those whom you would save! “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Not only have we a revelation of the true method of rendering moral service to man, but a revelation of the glory which is in reserve for those who adopt this method. Christ had that glory of right; His followers have it of grace. Christ promises co-equality of exaltation to those who “overcome.” They “shall sit with Me on My throne.” (1) God overrules the most improbable means to the accomplishment. of the greatest ends. (2) The true worker is never finally overlooked. “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great.” Why? “Because he hath poured out his soul unto death.” In apparent weakness may be the sublimest mystery of power. A man may be conquering even when in a very passion of suffering.
*,* The foregoing analysis is submitted as a specimen of the manner in which the Author proposes to analyze the whole of the New Testament, should he be encouraged to do so by the religious public. There are already several works devoted to a critical examination of the philology of the sacred text; it is believed that a work which shall disclose the moral idea of the New Testament, and show its application to the life of to-day, would be useful to a large class of readers.