1. E7 rig) If it be thought preferable that this word be read four times, we may thus explain it : if therefore exhortation ] in Christ
1 The Greek word Ku.peix'hwis signifies either exhortation or consolation. The Engl. Vers. has taken the latter, Bengel the former.
be any (joy), if the comfort of love be any1 (joy), if the fellow ship of the Spirit be any (joy), if bowels and mercies be any (joy), fulfil ye my joy ; so that the predicate supplied four times may be joined with the subject expressed. See on a similar ellipse, Mark xv. 8, note. Certainly Paul's joy was most present and vivid; even with the common reading, V/ rig — s'/ nva, if any — if any, the joy is still by implication denoted, being about to be fulfilled by harmony, etc. — ovv, therefore) This corresponds to ch. i. 27, in one spirit, with one mind. — vapd'AAyais sv XpiarZ, exhortation [consolation] in Christ) This has as its adjunct, com fort of love ; and fellowship of the Spirit has as adjuncts, bowels and mercies. The four fruits correspond to these four influencing motives in the same order, that, etc., in the follow ing verse, as even the mention of love, put twice [viz. both in ver. 1 and ver. 2], in the second place indicates ; and the opposites of each pair are put away [as unworthy of Christians] in ver. 3 and 4. All things are derived from Christ and the Holy Spirit.
2. To avrb <ppovrtre, be like-minded) The participle that follows depends on this. — ^a-^y^o/, of one mind) viz. that ye be. On this the following participle also depends. — TO lv, the one thing) The previous, that ye be like-minded, implies that the feeling of the mind ought to tend to the same things : the latter expression, being of one mind, implies that the feeling of the mind itself ought to be the same.
3. Mqdev, nothing) viz. mind or think, do. — spifaiav, strife) which has no anxiety to please others. — x,£vobo%iav, desire of vain glory) which is too anxious to please others. — b^sps^ovrng, superior) in point of right and in endowments. That may be done not only externally, but by true humility, raKiivotppoffvvriv, when a man, in the exercise of self-denial, turns away his eyes from his. own privileges and rights, and studiously contemplates the endowments of another, in which he is his superior.
1 ABCG/gr Vulg. and Rec. Text read e? ri Trapapvdiov. Only D(A) corrected reads rtg. — ED.
2 Which both the margin of each Ed. and the Germ. Vers. seem to pre- fer.-E. B.
ABCD(A)G read it rig o-TrAay^vat. And so Lachm. Vulg. has " Siquid (siquis) viscera." fg Rec. Text and Tisch., with less authority, read ef rivet OK'htt.yfcVot,. — ED.