inquirers into the new faith at Rome addressed them- selves to the apostle, and to those who were known to be in constant personal communication with him. Thus in his bondage he was a cause of the advancement of the Gospel. From his prison, as from a centre, light streamed into Ca?sar's household and far beyond (iv, 22 ; i, 12-19). See Rome.
IV. Effect of the Epistle. — We have no account of the reception of this epistle by the Philippians. Except1.. doubtful traditions that Erastus was their first bishop, and that he with Lydia and Parmenas was martyred in their city, nothing is recorded of them for the next forty- nine years. But about A.D. 107 Philippi was visited by Ignatius, who was conducted through Neapolis and Philippi, and across Macedonia, on his way to martyr- dom at Rome. His visit was speedily fallowed by the arrival of a letter from Polycarp of Smyrna, which ac- companied, in compliance with a characteristic request of the warm-hearted Philippians, a copy of all the let- ters of Ignatius that were in the possession of the Church of Smyrna. It is interesting to compare the Philippians of A.D. 58, as drawn by Paul, with their successors in A.D. 107 as drawn by the disciple of John. Steadfastness in the faith, and a joyful sympathy with sufferers for Christ's sake, seem to have distinguished them at both periods (Phil, i, 5, and Polyc. Ep. i). The character of their religion was the same throughout, practical and emotional rather than speculative : in both epistles there are many practical suggestions, much in- terchange of feeling, and an absence of doctrinal discus- sion. The < >ld Testament is scarcely, if at all, quoted; as if the Philippian Christians had been gathered for the most part directly from the heathen. At each pe- riod false teachers were seeking, apparently in vain, an entrance into the Philippian Church, first Judaizing Christians, seemingly putting out of sight the resurrec- tion and the judgment which afterwards the Gnosticiz- ing Christians openly denied (Phil, iii, and Polyc. vi, vii). At both periods the same tendency to petty in- ternal quarrels seems to prevail (Phil, i, 27; ii, 14; iv,2; and Polyc. ii, iv, v, xii). The student of ecclesiastical history will observe the faintly marked organization of bishops, deacons, and female coadjutors to which Paul re- fers (Phil, i, 1 ; iv, 3), developed afterwards into broad- ly distinguished priests, deacons, widows, and virgins (Polyc. iv, v, vi). Though the Macedonian churches in general were poor, at least as compared with com- mercial Corinth (2 Cor. viii, 2), yet their gold-mines probably exempted the Philippians from the common lot of their neighbors, and at first enabled them to be conspicuously liberal in alms-giving, and afterwards laid them open to strong warnings against the love of money (Phil, iv, 15: 2 Cor. viii, 3 ; and Polyc. iv, vi, xi).
Now though we cannot trace the immediate effect of Paul's epistle on the Philippians, yet no one can doubt that it contributed to form the character of their Church, as it was in the time of Polycarp. It is evident from Polycarp's epistle that the Church, by the grace of God and the guidance of the apostle, had passed through those trials of which Paul warned it, and had not gone back from the high degree of Christian attainments which it reached under Paul's oral and written teaching (Polyc. i, iii, ix, xi). If it had made no great advance in knowl- edge, still unsound teachers were kept at a distance from its members. Their sympathy with martyrs and con- fessors glowed with as warm a flame as ever, whether it was claimed by Ignatius or by Paul. They maintained their ground with meek firmness among the heathen, and still held forth the light of an exemplary though not a perfect Christian life.
V. Scope and Contents of the Epistle. — Paul's aim in writing is plainly this: while acknowledging the alms of the Philippians and the personal services of their messenger, to give them some information respecting his own condition, and some advice respecting theirs. Perhaps the intensity of his feelings and the distraction of his prison prevented the following out his plan with
PHILIPPIANS, EPISTLE TO THE 98 PHILIPPIANS, EPISTLE TO THE
undeviating closeness. For the preparations for the de- parture of Epaphroditus, and the thought thai he would soon arrive among the warm-hearted Philippians, filled Paul with recollections of them, and revived bis old feelings towards those fellow-heirs of bis hope of glory v, ho were so di ep in his hearl (i,7) and bo often iu bis prayers (i, 1).
Full of gratitude for this work of friendly remem- brance and regard, Paul addressed to the Church in Philippi 1 1 * i — epistle, in which, besides expressing his thanks for their kindness, lie pours out a flood of elo- quence and pathetic exhortation, suggested partly by his own circumstances, and partly by whal he had learned of their state as a Church. That state appears to have I-, in "ii the whole very prosperous, as there is much commendation of the Philippians in the epistle, and no censure is expressed in any part of it either of the Church as a whole, nr of any individuals connected with it. At the same time the apostle deemed it necessary t« put them on ihcir guard againsl the evil influences to which they were exposed from Judaizing teachers and faNe professors of Christianity. These cautions he interposes between the exhortations suggested by his own siate. and by the news he had received concerning the Philippians, with which his epistle commences and with which it closes. We may thus divide the epistle into thret pari-. In thejirsi of these (i, ii), alter the usual salutation and an outpouring of warm-hearted af- fection towards the Philippian Church (i, 1-11), the apostle refers to his own condition as a prisoner at liome; and. lest they should be cast down at the thought of the unmerited indignities he had been called upon to suffer, he assures them thai these had turned out rather to the furtherance of that great cause on which his heart uas set, and for which lie was willing to live and labor, though, as respected Ids personal feelings, he would rath- er depart and lie with Christ, which he deemed to be "far heiier" i 12 24 ). He then passes by an easy tran- sition to a hortatory address to the Philippians, calling upon them to maintain steadfastly their profession, to cultivate humanity and brotherly love; to work oul their own salvation with fear and trembling, and con- cluding by an appeal to their regard for his reputation as an apostle, which could not hut he affected by their conduct, and a reference to his reason for sending to them Epaphroditus instead of Timothy, as he had originally (i, •-'■">; ii. 30). In pari second he strenuously cautious them, as already observed, againsl Judaizing teachers, whom lie stigmatizes as "dogs" (in reference. probably, to their impudent, snarling, and quarrelsome habits), " evil-workers," and " the concision ;" by which latter term lie means to intimate, as Theophylacl re- marks i ad loc. i. i hat l he circumcision in which the. lews so much gloried had now ceased to possess any spiritual significance, and was therefore no better than a useless mutilation of the person. On this theme lie enlarges, making refen nee to his own Btanding as a .lew. and in- timating that, if under the Christian dispensation Jew- nl an. I Jewish privileges wen' to go for any- thing, no one could have stronger claims on this ground than he: hut at the same time declaring thai however