"Puisse la meme foi qui consola leur vie Nous ouvrir les sentiers que leurs pas ont presses, Et, dirigeant nos pieds vers la sainte patrie Ou leur bonheur s'accroit de leurs travaux passes, Nous rendre ces objets de tendresse et d'envie Qui ne sont pas perdus, mais nous ont devances." A. VINET
PHILIPPIANS ii. 19-30
Epaphroditus--The variety of Scripture--Contrasts in context--Henry Martyn's letter--"The human element"--"His letters I have read"--The two aspects of Scripture--Divine messages in human context--"Together with them"
Ver. 19. +But I hope in the Lord Jesus+, with an expectation conditioned by my union with Him in all things, and with you in Him, +promptly to send to you Timotheus,[1] that I too+, I as well as you, who will of course be gladdened by his presence, +may be of good cheer, getting+, through him, +a knowledge+ (_gnous_) +of your circumstances+ (_ta peri humon_). I send him, and not
Ver. 20. another, +for I have+--at hand, and free to move--+no one equal-souled+ with him,[2] +one who+ (_hootis_) +will genuinely take anxious care about your circumstances+; the "care" which is not a weary burthen, better cast upon the Lord (iv. 6), but a sacred charge, undertaken in and for Him, and absorbing all the
Ver. 21. thought. +For all of them+ (_oi pantes_), all from whom I could in this case select, +are bent on+ (_xetousi_: cp. Col. iii. 1) +their own interests, not the interests of Jesus Christ+; they plead excuses which indicate a preference of their own ease, or reputation, or affections, to a matter manifestly and wholly HIS.
Ver. 22. +But the test through which he+, Timotheus, +passed+ (_ten dokimen autou_) you remember (_ginoskete_, "you recognize," as you look back); you know +that as child with father+ so +he with me+, in closest companionship and sympathy, +did bondservice[3] for the Gospel+, _eis to euaggelion_, "_unto_ it," for the furtherance
Ver. 23. of its enterprise and message. +So him then+ (_touton men oun_[4]) +I hope to send, immediately upon+ (_hos an_ . . . _exautes_) +my getting a view of+ (_apido_) +my circumstances+, my position with regard to my trial
Ver. 24. and its result. +But+ (though I thus allude to external uncertainties) +I feel sure, in the Lord+, in the light of union and communion with Him, +that I too in person shall speedily arrive+, in the track of this my messenger and forerunner.
Ver. 25. +But I count[5] it obligatory+ (_anagkaion_), and not merely a matter for hopes and personal satisfaction, +to send to you+, as I now do, in charge of this Letter, another person, +Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-worker, and fellow-soldier+, a man who has toiled and contended at my very side for the Lord and against the Enemy, +while he is+ also +your missionary and ministrant[6] for my need+. Yes, I feel that I _ought_
Ver. 26. to send him, and to send him _now_; +since he has been suffering from home-sickness for[7] all of you+, (all, without exception; his affection knows no party or partiality,) +and from the distraction+ (_ademonon_) of over-wrought feeling, because you have heard that he
Ver. 27. fell ill[8] (_esthenese_). +And+ so it was; +for he did fall ill, almost fatally+ (_paraplesion thanato_). +But our+ (_ho_) +God pitied him+, sparing him the grief of broken hopes and purposes in the Lord's work on earth, and the grief of being a cause of tears to you; +and not only him but also me, that I might not have[9] sorrow upon sorrow+. For had he died, I should have had a sore bereavement, and the sad consciousness that you, in a loving effort for my benefit, had lost a beloved friend; and all this added to, heaped upon (_epi_ _c. acc._), the antecedent pain of my captivity and the trials which it involves.
Ver. 28. +With the more earnestness therefore I have sent him,[10] that seeing him you may be glad again, and that I may feel less sorrow+, finding my imprisonment, and also my loss of this dear friend's company, softened to my heart by the thought of your joy in