Ver. 14. gentle opposite to it. +Do all things without+, apart from (_choris_), in a definite isolation from, +murmurings and disputes+, thoughts and utterances of discontent and self-assertion towards one another, grudgings of others' claims, and contentions for your
Ver. 15. own; +so that you may become+ (_genesthe_), what in full realization you scarcely yet are, +unblamable and simple+ (_akeraioi_, "unadulterated"), single-hearted, because self-forgetting; +God's children+ (_tekna_), shewing what they are by the unmistakable _family-likeness_ of holy love; +blameless+ as such, true to your character; +in the midst of a race+ (_geneas_) +crooked and distorted+, the members of a world whose will always crosses the will of God who is Love; +among whom you are appearing+, like stars which come out in the gloom, +as luminaries+ (_phosteres_), light-bearers, kindled by the Lord of Light, +in the world+; in which you dwell; not of it, but in it, walking up and down "before the sons of men" (Ps. xxxi. 19), that they may see, and seek,
Ver. 16. your blessed Secret; +holding out+ (_epechontes_[3]), as those who offer a boon for acceptance, +the word of life+, the Gospel, with its secret of eternal life in Christ; at once telling and commending His message; +to afford me+, even me (_emoi_), +exultation, in view of+ (_eis_) +Christ's Day+, in anticipation of what I shall feel then; +because not in vain did I run, nor in vain did I toil+.[4] But let me not speak of "toil" as if I sighed over a hard lot, or wished to suffer less on your behalf.
Ver. 17. +Nay, even if I am being poured out as a drink-offering+ (_spendomai_) +on the sacrifice and ritual+ (_leitourgia_) +of your faith+--on you, so to speak, as you in faith offer yourselves a living sacrifice to God[5]--+I rejoice, and I congratulate+ (_sugchairo_) +you all+, on your faith and holiness, for which it was well worth my while to die as your helper and example. +And in+
Ver. 18. +the same way+ (_to de auto_) +do you too rejoice, and congratulate me+,[6] as true partners with me in the martyr-spirit and its joys.
Here let us pause in our paraphrasing version, and sit down as it were to gather up and weigh some of the treasures we have found.
i. We have had before us, in the whole passage, that ever-recurring lesson, Holiness in the Truth, as Truth--"the Truth as it is in Jesus"--is the living secret of Holiness. We have still in our ears the celestial music, infinitely sweet and full, of the great paragraph of the Incarnation, the journey of the Lord of Love from glory to glory by the way of the awful Cross. May we not now give ourselves awhile wholly to reverie, and feast upon the divine poetry at our leisure? Not so; the immediate sequel is--that we are to be holy. We are _to act_ in the light and wonder of so vast an act of love, in the wealth and resource of "so great salvation." We are to set spiritually to work. We are to learn that all-important lesson in religion, the holy and humble energy and independence which come to the man who "knows whom he has believed," and is aware that he possesses "all spiritual blessing" (Eph. i. 3) in Him. We are to rise up and, if need be, walk alone, alone of human help, in the certainty that Christ has died for us, and reigns for us, and in us. Our Paul may be far away in some distant Rome, and we may sorely miss him. But we have at hand Jesus Christ, who "took Bondservant's Form," and obeyed even unto death for us, and who is on the eternal throne for us, and who lives within us by His Spirit. Looking upon Him in the glory of His Person and His Work, we are not only to wonder, not only even to worship; we are to work; to "work out" our spiritual blessings[7] into a life which shall be full of Him, and in which we shall indeed be "saved" ourselves, and help others around us to their salvation. In the "fear and trembling" of those who feel the blissful awfulness of an eternal Presence, we are to set ourselves, with the inexhaustible diligence of hope, to the business of the spiritual life. We are to bring all the treasures of a manifested and possessed Redeemer to bear upon the passing hour, and to let Him be seen in us, "Christ our Life," always formative and empowering.