The Pulpit Commentary — Philippians — Section 166

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-TM duty of steadfastness. The apostle grounds this duty upon the heavenly citizenship and the hope of the coming Saviour. Mark- L His E!."DEARING ADDRESS. "My brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast, beloved." The accumulation of epithets marks the intense affec- tion and delight of the apostle in converts so worthy of his concern for their good, The twofold repetition of the term "beloved" in a single sentence marks love a.s the dominant feeling; the other t.erms indicat.e either his anxiety to see them, the joy which their Christi.an kindliness carried to his heart, or the triumph of Divine grace in their conversion which redounded so sigually to his own fina.l victory. II. THE ABIDING ATTITUDE OF ALL TRUE BELIBVERS. "So stand fast in the Lord." It implies: 1. That they are e:,;posed to influences cakulated to mar the integrity of their wal,lc. 'There is a threefold hostility always at work against a believer-the world, the fl.esh, and the devil (Epb. vi 12), t.ending to shake heart or mind. Probably the apostle thought of the spiritual risks that threatened from the side ofJudaistic '.zealotry. 2. The true spring of Christian steadfastness iB in the Lord, as the element of the spi,ritu,al, life. We are said to stand in faith (2 Cor. i. 24) and to stand in grace (Rom. v. 2), but these phrases only represent the methods in which the believer finds his weak- ness linked with the omnipotence of Divine grace. The counsel of the apostle is needful in every age. The caprice of opinion was never more marked than in our time. There is a lifting of anchors that bodes no good, with a drifting any whither, but usually toward intellectWJ.l darkness. Therefore believers must, in the imbroglio of strange beliefs, "'stand fast in the Lord."-T. C. • Vere. 2, 3.-.A wu.ch,ing pe,-son,al appeal. "I exhort Euodias, and I exhort Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord!' L W OllEN HELD A LEADING PLACE IN TBE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OF PHILIPPI. 1. Jt was to women thai the a,postkfirst pre,ached the gospel in that Roman town. (Acts xvi.) They were the first con'l"erts to Christianity in Europe. 2. It was women who first gave lwspitabk rec,r,ption to the aposae in a tuwn which never cl!:ased to show him substantial, ki,ndn&s. 3. It was probably owing to the prominence of Christian women at Philippi that the apostle be.came such a debtor to the 1Mst liberal of al,l the Ohurches. Their 6ympathetic natures would initiate and sustain projects of Christian generosity. 11. 'l'HE TWO WOMEN HERE ADDRESSED WERE EVIDENTLY INFLUENTIAL IIEMDER8 OF THE CHURCH. 1. They wer~ ladies of rank, who displayed an active zeal for tlte w.u.e of Chriat. Their names appear in the ancient inscriptions, 'l'he women of Mace- donia Leld a high social place in that age. 'l'hese good women helped the apostle in Uhristian. labours, "Inasmuch as they laboured with me in the gospel." As women were not allowed to preach (1 Tim. ii. 12), it is evident that their service lV&S of a mure private kind. either in instructing the young or, more probably, in instructing lclllli\e CIJD.verl.s who were not accessible to members of the other sex. The order of l'·:iv,r,esses evid,,ntly arose out of some necessity of this sort, 2. They ltarl dijference3 0lI. IV, 1-23.] 'l'HE EPlS'rLE 'l'O THE PHILIPPIA.NS. 167