Philippians

FAREWELL WORDS

Php 4:20-23 R.V..

These closing words fall into three unconnected parts, a doxology, greetings, and a benediction. As in all his letters, the Apostle follows the natural instinct of making his last words loving words. Even when he had to administer a bitter draught, the last drops in the cup were sweetened, and to the Philippians whom he loved so well, and in whose loyal love he confided so utterly, his parting was tender as an embrace. Taking together the three elements of this farewell, they present to us a soul filled with desire for the glory of God and with loving yearning for all His brethren. We shall best deal with them by simply taking them in order.

I. The Doxology.

It is possibly evoked by the immediately preceding thought of God’s infinite supply of all human need ‘according to his riches in glory ‘; but the glory which is so richly stored in Christ, and is the full storehouse from which our emptiness is to be filled, is not the same as the glory here ascribed to Him. The former is the sum of His divine perfections, the light of His own infinite being: the latter is the praise rendered to Him when we know Him for what He is, and exalt Him in our thankful thoughts and adoration. As this doxology is the last word of this whole letter, we may say that it gathers into one all that precedes it. Our ascription of glory to God is the highest object of all His self-manifestation, and should be the end of all our contemplations of Him and of His acts. The faith that God does ‘all for His glory’ may be and often has been so interpreted as to make his character repellent and hideous, but in reality it is another way of saying that God is love. He desires that all men should be gladdened and elevated by knowing Him as He is. His glory is to give. That to which He has committed the charge of interpreting Him to our dim eyes and disordered natures is not the attributes of sovereign power, or creative wisdom, or administrative providence, or any other elements which men lay hold of in their conceptions of deity. When men make gods they make them in their own image: when God reveals God, the emphasis is put on an altogether different aspect of His nature. It is His self-communicating and paternal love revealed to the heart of a son which will kindle the highest aspiration of praise, and that fatherhood is not found in the fact that God has made us, but in the higher fact that He has redeemed us and has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts. The doxology of our text is a distinctively Christian doxology which Paul conceives can only be uttered by lips which have learned to say ‘Abba, Father,’ ‘and have received the adoption of sons’ through the eternal Son.

Mark, too, that this glad ascription of glory to God is conceived of as sounded forth for ever and ever, or literally through ‘ages and ages, as long as successive epochs shall unfold.’ It is not as if the revelation of the divine character were in the past, and the light of it continued to touch stony lips to music, but it fills in continuous forthcoming every age, and in every age men receive the fulness of God, and in every age redeemed hearts bring back their tribute of praise and love to Him.

II. The Greetings.

The Apostle’s habit of closing all his letters with kindly messages is, of course, more than a habit. It is the natural instinct to which all true hearts have a hundred times yielded. It is remarkable that in this letter there are no individual greetings, but that instead of such there is the emphatic greeting to every saint in Christ Jesus. He will not single out any where all are so near His heart, and He will have no jealousies to be fed by His selection of more favoured persons. It may be too, that the omission of individual messages is partly occasioned by some incipient tendencies to alienation and faction of which we see some traces in His earnest exhortations to stand fast in one spirit, and to be of the same mind, having the same love, and being of one accord, as well as in his exhortation to two Philippian women to be of the same mind in the Lord. The all-embracing word at parting singularly links the end of the letter with its beginning, where we find a remarkable sequence of similar allusions to ‘all’ the Philippian Christians. He has them all in His heart; they are all partakers with Him of grace; He longs after them all.

The designation by which Paul describes the recipients of his greeting carries in it a summons as well as a promise. They are saints, and they are so as being ‘in Christ.’ That name is often used as a clumsy sarcasm, but it goes to the very root of Christian character. The central idea contained in it is that of consecration to God, and that which is often taken to be its whole meaning is but a secondary one, a result of that consecration. The true basis of all real purity of conduct lies in devotion of heart and life to God, and for want of discerning the connection of these two elements the world’s ethics fail in theory and in practice. A ‘saint’ is not a faultless monster, and the persistence of failures and inconsistencies, whilst affording only too sad an occasion for penitence and struggle, afford no occasion for a man’s shrinking from taking to himself the humble claim to be a saint. Both the elements of consecration to God and of real and progressive, though never complete perfection of personal character, are realised only in Christ; in and only in fellowship with Him whose life was unbroken fellowship with the Father, and whose will was completely accordant with the Father’s, do we rise to the height of belonging to God. And only in Him who could challenge a world to convict Him of sin shall we make even a beginning of personal righteousness. If we are in Christ we should be saints to-day however imperfect our holiness, and shall be ‘as the angels of God’ in the day that is coming–nay, rather as the Lord of the Angels, ‘not having spot or blemish or any such thing.’

The New Testament has other names for believers, each of which expresses some great truth in regard to them; for example, the earliest name by which they knew themselves was the simple one of ‘brethren,’ which spoke of their common relation to a Father and pledged them to the sweetness and blessedness of a family. The sarcastic wits of Antioch called them Christians as seeing nothing in them other than what they had many a time seen in the adherents of some founder of a school or a party. They called themselves disciples or believers, revealing by both names their humble attitude and their Lord’s authority, and by the latter disclosing to seeing eyes the central bond which bound them to Him. But the name of Saint declares something more than these in that it speaks of their relation to God, the fulfilment of the Old Testament ideal, and carries in it a prophecy of personal character.

The sharers in Paul’s salutation call for some notice. We do not know who ‘the brethren that are with me’ were. We might have supposed from Paul’s pathetic words that he had no man like-minded with him, that the faithful band whom we find named in the other epistles of the captivity were dispersed. But though there were none ‘like-minded who will care truly for your state,’ there were some recognised as brethren who were closely associated with him, and who, though they had no such warm interest in the Philippians as he had, still had a real affection for them, drawn no doubt from him. Distinct from these was the whole body of the Roman Christians, from the mention of whom we may gather that his imprisonment did not prevent his intercourse with them. Again, distinct from these, though a part of them, were the saints of Csar’s household. He had apparently special opportunities for intercourse with them, and probably his imprisonment brought him through the prtorian guards into association with them, as Csar’s household included all the servants and retainers of Nero.

May we not see in this union of members of the most alien races a striking illustration of the new bond which the Gospel had woven among men? There was a Jew standing in the midst between Macedonian Greeks and proud Roman citizens, including members of that usually most heartless and arrogant of all classes, the lackeys of a profligate court, and they are all clasping one another’s hands in true brotherly love. Society was falling to pieces. We know the tragic spectacle that the empire presented then. Amidst universal decay of all that held men together, here was a new uniting principle; everywhere else dissolution was at work; here was again crystallising. A flower was opening its petals though it grew on a dunghill. What was it that drew slaves and patricians, the Pharisee of Tarsus, rude Lycaonians, the ‘barbarous’ people of Melita, the Areopagite of Athens, the citizens of Rome into one loving family? How came Lydia and her slave girl, Onesimus and his master, the prtorian guard and his prisoner, the courtier in Nero’s golden house and the jailer at Philippi into one great fellowship of love? They were all one in Christ Jesus.

And what lessons the saints in Csar’s household may teach us! Think of the abyss of lust and murder there, of the Emperor by turns a buffoon, a sensualist, and a murderer. A strange place to find saints in that sty of filth! Let no man say that it is impossible for a pure life to be lived in any circumstances, or try to bribe his conscience by insisting on the difficulties of his environment. It may be our duty to stand at our post however foul may be our surroundings and however uncongenial our company, and if we are sure that He has set us there, we may be sure that He is with us there, and that there we can live the life and witness to His name.

III. The Parting Benediction.

The form of the benediction seems to be more correctly given in the Revised Version, which reads ‘with your spirit’ instead of ‘with you all.’ That form reappears in Galatians and in Philemon. What Paul especially desires of his favourite church is that they may possess ‘the grace.’ Grace is love exercising itself to inferiors, and to those who deserve something sadder and darker. The gifts of that one grace are manifold. They comprise all blessings that man can need or receive. This angel comes with her hands and her lap full of good. Her name is shorthand for all that God can bestow or man can ask or think.

And it needs all the names by which Christ is known among men to describe the encyclopdiacal Person who can bestow the encyclopdiacal gift. Here we have them all gathered, as it were, into one great diadem, set on His head where once the crown of thorns was twined. He is Lord, the name which implies at least absolute authority, and is most probably the New Testament translation of the Old Testament name of Jehovah. He is our Lord as supreme over us, and wonderful as it is, as belonging to us. He holds the keys of the storehouse of grace. The river of the water of life flows where He turns it on. He is Jesus–the personal name which He bore in the days of His flesh, and by which men who knew Him only as one of themselves called Him. It is the token of His brotherhood and the guarantee of the sympathy which will ever bestow ‘grace for grace.’ He is the Christ, the Messiah, the name which points back to the Old Testament ideas and declares His office, realising all the rapturous anticipations of prophets, and the longings of psalmists, and more than fulfilling them all by giving Himself to men.

That great gift is to be the companion of every spirit which looks to that Jesus in the reality of His humanity, in the greatness of His office, in the loftiness of His divinity, and finds in each of His names an anchor for its faith and an authoritative claim for its obedience.

Such a wish as this benediction is the truest expression of human friendship; it is the highest desire any of us can form for ourselves or for those dearest to us. Do we keep it clear before us in our intercourse with them so that the end of that intercourse will naturally be such a prayer?

Our human love has its limitations. We can but wish for others the grace which Christ can give, but neither our wishes nor His giving can make the grace ours unless for ourselves we take the great gift that is freely given to us of God. It is no accident that all his letters close thus. This benediction is the last word of God’s revelation to man, the brightness in the clear west, the last strain of the great oratorio. The last word or last book of Scripture is ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.’ Let us take up the solemn Amen in our lips and in our hearts.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Father. App-98.

for ever and ever. App-151.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

20.] The contemplation both of the Christian reward, of which he has been speaking, and of the glorious completion of all Gods dealings at the great day,-and the close of his Epistle,-suggests this ascription of praise.

] But-however rich you may be in good works, however strong I may be by Christ to bear all things,-not to us, but to our God and Father be the glory. On , see note, Eph 3:21.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Php 4:20. , glory) in return for His gift, 2Co 9:15. The doxology flows from the joy that pervades the whole epistle.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Php 4:20

Php 4:20

Now unto our God and Father be the glory for ever and ever.-[The glory belongs to God as our Father. Let us freely and gladly give it to him. Our glory in the end will be to see Jesus the crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, and enjoy the blessings he has in store for the faithful. That will be glory for us.]

‘Amen.-[This word is used for the purpose of adopting as his own what had just been said-so it is, or so shall it be. The word is limited to religious atmosphere, being on human lips an expression of faith that God holds the thing true, or will or can make it true. At the close of public prayers, thanksgivings, benedictions, or doxologies the people used to say, Amen (Neh 8:6), and in the service of the synagogue (Psa 41:13). That this custom passed over from the synagogue to the Christian assemblies we gather from 1Co 14:16, where Paul speaks of the customary, Amen, by the listeners at the close of the thanksgiving.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

unto: Phi 1:11, Psa 72:19, Psa 115:1, Mat 6:9, Mat 6:13, Rom 11:36, Rom 16:27, Gal 1:5, Eph 3:21, 1Ti 1:17, Jud 1:25, Rev 1:6, Rev 4:9-11, Rev 5:12, Rev 7:12, Rev 11:13, Rev 14:7

Amen: Phi 4:23, Mat 6:12, Mat 28:20

Reciprocal: 1Ch 29:10 – our father Luk 11:2 – Our Rom 1:7 – God Gal 1:4 – our 1Ti 6:16 – to whom

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

(Php 4:20.) . -Now to God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. The apostle does not mean by this glorification to conclude; it bursts from the fulness of his heart, as in Rom 11:36; Gal 1:5; Eph 3:21; 1Ti 1:17; 2Ti 4:18. forms one distinctive and complete title, followed sometimes by a genitive, as here and in Gal 1:4. For the meaning of the last intensive phrase, and generally of the whole verse, see under Eph 3:21. The optative may be supplied to , which has the article specifying it as the glory which especially and characteristically is God’s. Rom 11:36; Rom 16:27; Gal 1:5; Eph 3:21; 2Ti 4:18; Heb 13:21; 2Pe 3:18. The last phrase-to the ages of the ages-is an imitation of the Hebrew superlative (Gal 1:5; 1Ti 1:17; 2Ti 4:18), and means a very long and indefinite period-the image taken from the cycles or calendars of time, to represent an immeasurable eternity. God is glorified in the aspect or character of Father, and our Father, implying that those whose wants are supplied by Him, are His children. Rom 8:15. To God, even our Father, the kind and liberal supplier of every want to every child, be eternal glory ascribed. The ascription of praise is the language of spiritual instinct, which cannot be repressed. Let the child realize its relation to the Father who feeds it, clothes it, and keeps it in life, who enlightens and guides it, pardons and purifies it, strengthens and upholds it, and all this in Christ Jesus, and it cannot but in its glowing consciousness cry out-Now to God and our Father be the glory for ever. The Amen is a fitting conclusion. As the lips shut themselves, the heart surveys again the facts and the grounds of praise, and adds-So be it.

The apostle had praised them for their already, and he bids them give another practical manifestation of it-

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Php 4:20. God and Father are the same person; the first refers to His et e r n a 1, self-existent and infinite power. The other to His affectionate relation to the creatures of His care. The term for ever actually covers as long a period as for ever and ever. The words are used for the sake of emphasis, and the significance is that God is worthy of endless glory. For an explanation of amen, see the comments at Rom 16:24, in the first volume of the New Testament Commentary.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Php 4:20. Now unto our God and Father be the glory. This is a more exact rendering of the original. The pronoun goes with both nouns, and the glory is that which essentially belongs to God. It might therefore be well to make the verse a direct statement: To our God . . . is the glory, etc., and hence it is His to bestow on those who have done here what is well-pleasing in His sight.

for ever and ever. Amen. The expression, as will be seen from the literal rendering, is very strong, and implies the endlessness of the glory which belongs, and should be ascribed, unto God.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Note here, 1. The endearing title given to Almighty God, God our Father; the word Father is a title of great honour; the word our is a word of singular comfort. The appropriating positive terms, mine, thine, ours, have a great sweetness in them, and breathe abundance of affection. As Luther used to say, “The comfort of the gospel lay in pronouns possessive, when we can say with believing Thomas, My Lord and my God; with blessed Paul, Who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Learn, That God is a Father in a more peculiar and special manner to all that are interested in his Son Jesus Christ. The word Father implies spiritual generation, that we are begotten by him, and like unto him; it implies vehemency of affection, no bowels comparable unto a father’s; it implies designed benefit by correction, that he exercises in unto profit.

And in the word our is implied, that God is the Father of every believer, the weakest as well as the strongest; we are all the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus: and it points out our duty also, that as there is one God and Father of all, so all believers should be of one heart and of one mind among themselves.

Note, 2. What it is which our apostle attributes and ascribes unto God, namely, glory, and that for ever and ever. Glory, that is, the manifestation of all his glorious excellences and perfections.

Learn hence, That it is the fervent desire of all believers to have the worth and excellences of God everlastingly acknowledged, and in a boundless manner displayed: Unto God be glory for ever and ever.

This word, for ever and ever, is, upon different accounts, the saddest and sweetest word in all the Bible. When applied to sinners, and what they suffer from God as the desert, the due desert, of their sins, then it is a word of the saddest weight, Rev 14:11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever;

They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. 2Th 1:9

‘Tis the word for ever and ever that sets all hell a roaring, and it is the same word that fills heaven with joy and rejoicing. To God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Closing Words

Paul reminded the Philippian brethren that all praise and glory rightly belong to God. In the sermon on the mount, Christ told his disciples, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” ( Mat 5:16 ). The apostle, knowing the truthfulness of his statement, adds the word “Amen”, which Shepherd says means, “so it is”, or “so it shall be” ( Php 4:20 ; Neh 8:6 ; Psa 41:13 ; 1Co 14:15-16 ).

Paul wanted to say hello to all, overlooking none. He loved all of them and expressed that love with prayers for only the best in their lives. Those with Paul, the Roman brethren and even some in Caesar’s service, also wished them well and sent greetings. Paul concluded, as he started, with a prayer that grace continue with all of them. Grace is, after all, our only means of salvation ( Php 4:21-23 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Php 4:20-22. Now unto God and, rather, even our Father Or, To our God and Father, as properly signifies, be glory for ever Which is justly due, and shall certainly be given to him by those of the angelic host who never fell, and by those of mankind who have been or shall be recovered from their fall. The brethren who are with me My dear fellow-labourers, with whom I daily converse; greet you Sincerely wish you peace and prosperity. These are supposed to be those whom he mentions at the close of his epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon. All the other saints Here at Rome; salute you, chiefly they of Cesars household See note on Php 1:13. It is uncertain whether the apostle meant some of the members of Cesars family, or his household servants, or the officers of his court, or his guards. Here Beza remarks, What was this but that God reigned in the midst of hell? The salutation from the brethren, in the emperors family, must have been a great consolation to the Philippians. For when they heard that the gospel had got footing in the palace, they would naturally presage the further progress of it in Rome. And the respect which persons, such as the Christians in Cesars house, here expressed for the Philippians, in sending their salutations to them, must have filled them with joy. And it seems very probable, as Macknight observes, though the apostle has not mentioned it in any of his letters, that, not long after this epistle was written, he obtained a fair hearing, and an honourable release, through the good offices of the Christians in Neros family, as well as on account of the justice of his cause.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Paul closed this section with a doxology in which he praised God for His providential care. God’s care comes to us through His Son, and He often uses His people as His channels of blessing. Nevertheless ultimately God is the provider of His people’s needs. May we ever be mindful of this truth and be grateful to Him!

We cannot read this pericope (Php 4:10-20) thoughtfully without appreciating the apostle Paul’s sensitivity to his Philippian readers. He was careful to balance what he said. He wanted them to understand his genuine gratitude for their gifts on the one hand and his contentment with whatever God sent his way on the other. In our day we tend to go to one of these extremes or the other in dealing with those who give us gifts. We may give these people the impression that we do not appreciate their gift, or we may lead them to conclude that we are greedy. A proper balance must rest on genuine contentment and should communicate both appreciation and faith.

William Dalton identified four elements common in both the prologue (Php 1:3-26) and the epilogue (Php 4:10-20). Paul’s return to these ideas in the epilogue ties the book together and gives it unity.

". . . we seem to have evidence of an inclusion which binds the whole letter into one unit. First of all, the idea of partnership is strongly expressed at the beginning and the end. Thus in Php 1:5 Paul is ’thankful for your partnership (koinonia) in the gospel’; and in Php 4:15 he records that ’no church entered into partnership in giving and receiving except you only.’ This partnership is reiterated in another parallel: in Php 1:7 the Philippians are sharers (sugkoinonous) of grace with Paul; in Php 4:13 they are sharers (sugkoinonesantes) with him in his trouble. At both beginning and end we have the same idea expressed in different ways: the long-standing partnership of the Philippians with Paul: ’from the first day until now’ (Php 1:5), and ’in the beginning of the gospel’ (Php 4:15). And finally the reciprocal attitude of sympathy between Paul and the Philippians is expressed in the same phrase; in Php 1:7 he says ’it is right for me to feel this about you’ (touto phronein huper panton humon), and in Php 4:10, ’You have revived your concern for me’ (to huper emoi phronein)." [Note: William J. Dalton, "The Integrity of Philippians," Biblica 60:1 (1979):101.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)