Philippians is a joyful letter, but its undercurrent is a sober realization that time is running out. Paul was facing a possible death sentence; the church was bracing itself against the effects of persecution and false doctrine. The city with a famous past and a privileged and proud present was about to hear the good news of a status conferred not by man but by God (3:9), proclaimed by a man who had come to see all human and inherited dignities as so much rubbish in contrast with the surpassing worth of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ (3:8). Paul and Silas began in Philippi with a few women gathering at a prayer-place outside the town (Ac 16:12f). The first Christians there were the jailor and Lydia (cf. Ac 16:40). Paul wrote from prison (1:13). Of the four known imprisonments which the apostle suffered - in Philippi, Jerusalem, Caesarea and Rome - the latter two are the more likely places of writing, although a fifth imprisonment at Ephesus could have taken place and not have been recorded (cf. Ac 19). Paul had been updated on news of the church since the arrival of Epaphroditus and he addresses himself to specific needs as they have been known to him. One of their needs is to preserve unity. Euodia and Syntyche, the quarrelling women, are a symptom of a malaise which could prove fatal for the church. It was a serious thing - and risky - for Paul to call public attention to them. There is also the possibility of the church coming under attack from a hostile world for which the most effective defence is a united church. The 'enemies of the cross' may well have grasped proper doctrine but in their behaviour they deified their appetites, honoured shameful values and concentrated on the world. The call to unity here sounds for believers to live lives that conform to the salvation which Jesus accomplished. The two themes of unity and the reality of the attack upon the church are brought together in the third major theme in Philippians, the expected return of our Lord Jesus.

The provincial capital was Thessalonica, but Philippi had its own importance both past and present. It took its name from the father of Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon, who captured the city from the Thracians in 360 BC. More recently it had been the scene of the decisive battle in which armies loyal to the murdered Julius Caesar, fighting under the joint command of Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) and Mark Antony, defeated the rebel forces of Brutus and Cassius. It was to honour this event that the dignity of being a 'colony' was conferred on the now-enlarged city. As such, Philippi was a miniature Rome with the ius Italicum conferred on her residents by Augustus. So the privileges of Philippians were the same as those living on Italian soil: those of ownership, transfer of land, payment of taxes, local administration and law, etc. As Roman citizens they enjoyed freedom from scourging and arrest and the right of appeal to Caesar, cf. Ac 16:37-8; 25:11. The coins of Philippi bore Latin inscriptions.

Means 'to inaugurate' and the tense used here points to a decisive and deliberate act.

Related to the word Peter used about confirming one's call and election (2 Pet 1:10). It occurs again in Hebrews 6:16 with the idea of giving something a firmer or more enduring basis, or making it more certain in some respect than it was before.

Expresses a clamant longing and need (used, for example, in 2:26, of homesickness).

Occurs twenty times in NT, always referring to knowledge of the things of God, religious, spiritual, theological knowledge. Often it has the idea of seeing right to the heart of the matter, grasping something as it really is, cf. Ro 3:20; (Ro 10:2).

'All intelligence'; 'the consciousness to make a moral decision.' Only occurrence in NT, but a related word is found in He 5:14, where it is translated 'faculties'. The parent verb aisthanomai means 'to perceive', 'to grasp the significance of'.

Including the mental side of recognizing worth, and also the practical side of putting it to the test of experience.

Lit. 'the differing things', implying superior quality, cf. Ro 2:18.

Sometimes said to mean lit. 'judged of in the sunlight', cf. 1 Cor 5:8; 2 Cor 1:12; 2:17; 2 Pe 3:1.

That which 'has turned out'. Paul had endured near lynching and ended up in the Roman prison having narrowly escaped flogging. His whole case was beset by a mockery of justice, for though right was on his side, he could not secure a hearing. He was made the subject of unjust and unprovoked insult and shame, malicious misrepresentation and deadly plot. He was kept imprisoned owing to official craving for popularity, or for money, or because of an over-punctilious façade of legalism (Ac 21:7-26:32). Then there was the storm at sea which threatened his life both because of the elements and because of petty officiousness (Ac 27). Eventually, when he reached Rome, it was far from an ambassadorial entry, coming in the company of the condemned, bound by a chain and destined to drag out at least two years under arrest awaiting the uncertain decision of an earthly king. Paul must have endured the mental turmoil of having appealed to Caesar against his own people. This is Paul's position: imprisoned, chained, unheard and uncertain. Yet he must have recalled the support of the 'son of Paul's sister', Aristarchus, Luke and unexpected allies like the centurion, Julius, and unknown ones who cared for him in his need and faced a strained reputation by walking out to meet his sad procession as it neared Rome (Ac 23:16; 27:1f; 43; 28:15.

The praetorian guard was a picked division of crack imperial troops. Membership was much sought after, since double pay and different conditions of service were enjoyed, and there were good pension prospects as well as special duties. One duty was to mount guard over prisoners awaiting trial before the Caesar himself, and we can imagine a long line of praetorians who took it in turn to be Paul's warders.

'To do the work of a herald'.

A military term. When a praetorian's period of guard duty was over, he was relieved by another. The chain was passed from hand to hand and the new guard was 'set' to keep watch over Paul. Perhaps he smiled at the irony, as he thinks of himself to guard him - for Christ.

This compound word is made of up the elements 'away', 'the head' and 'to watch'; so 'watching something with the head turned away from other objects'.

Possibly a camping metaphor meaning that death for the Christian is the end of what was at best a transitory thing, a camp-life, in which he travels without a fixed resting-place. This is to be exchanged for the 'house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens' (2 Cor 5:1). Only other occurrence in Lk 12:36 in the sense 'to come home'. The noun analysis occurs only at 2 Tim 4:6. It has also been noted that the verb analuō was used in Paul's day to picture a ship being untied from the dock and setting sail for a new destination.

'In one spirit, with one soul'. The soul refers to the sphere of the affections and moral energies; what are priorities and driving forces of life. It is a single description of that complex of heart, mind and will which is our experience of ourselves 'on the inside' day by day.

Lit. 'stampeded'. Found only here in biblical Greek and denotes the uncontrollable stampede of startled horses.

'Sign, omen or proof', 'demonstration'.

Lit. 'bowels'; the inner source of the emotions, equivalent to our use of 'heart' as the seat of feelings.

The feelings themselves, emotions reaching out towards their object.

Competitiveness

Not laws but the consciousness of always being watched was what prevented a Roman's sense of competition from degenerating into selfish ambition. There could be no place for ill-disciplined vainglory. To place personal honour above the interests of the entire community was the behaviour of a barbarian.

'Subsisting', 'to be (in possession of)'. Ta hyparchonta means 'possessions', e.g., Mt 19:21; 1 Cor 13:3.

Occurs nowhere else in biblical Greek, but cf. Mt 23:25, 'extortion'; Heb 10:34, 'plundering'; Mt 11:12; Jn 6:15, 'take by force'; Jn 10:12, 'snatches'. Often occurs with hēgeomai, 'think,' 'consider,' 'regard,' in the sense 'to clutch greedily, 'set store by', 'a prize which must not slip from one's grasp'. Two other possible meanings are 'a position which could be exploited (for self-advantage)' and 'a thing to be grasped for self as a robber grasps after loot'.

In every other NT instance means 'to deprive something of its proper place and use'; Jesus' glory was not lessened but concealed; he did not become less like himself by becoming a man. The emptying or kenosis (not an NT word) is not the shedding of any of his attributes but an emptying of himself entirely into another form. Christ's divine nature is brought undiminished into a new and breath- taking state, cf. Is 53:12.

Only here in the NT but cf. the verb morphoōmai, Gal 4:19, where is refers to the inner development and outward manifestation of the life of Christ in the believer. Cf. English usage; 'in good form' and 'form of'.

'Figure'.

'Unto', 'obedient as far as or right up to the point of'.

So concludes the early hymn or poem. There is debate whether the hymn was composed by Paul or used here as an apt quotation on which he set his apostolic imprimatur.

Can mean radiance as in Rev 21:11 but also a light-bearing body (LXX Ge 1:14, 16); classically, a 'lantern'.

'Hold fast' or 'hold forth'. Classically this word is used of offering food or wine to somebody.

The regulations for this part of the sacrificial system in the OT are not absolutely clear, but we know that the drink offering was the accompaniment of a larger sacrifice, e.g., Nu 15:8ff.

Lit. 'of equal soul', occurs only here in the NT.

Contains the idea 'as a birthright', something possessed by spiritual parentage.

Used of the Lord's deep trouble of spirit in the garden (Mk 14:33), cf. Lk 10:14; 2 Cor 11:28.

Only occurrence in NT but elsewhere used as a gambling term.

A highly offensive term.

This word has an exclusively religious significance which holds together the two aspects of the word 'service' in our usage: 'Christian service' and 'church service', a conjunction of worship and work.

A Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents.

'What things (plural) were to me gain'. Paul has taken his advantages on the credit side item by item, forgetting nothing. When his accountant's eye travels down the list, and the sum total is reckoned, and the line drawn beneath the completed sum, the answer is an uncompromising singular loss.

Only occurrence in NT. Contains as one component morphē, 'form', implying identity of nature and life style.

'Press on', 'persecute', cf. v6. The figure could be of a chariot- race.

'Lay hold of', 'grasp', 'accomplish'.

The verb 'took hold of' or 'seize' suggests that Christ 'arrested' him before he had the chance to arrest any Christians in Damascus.

The adjective which corresponds with the verb in v12, perhaps drawn from the vocabulary of athletics: 'Am perfect' means 'crowned as victor', 'having attained the prize'. 'Mature' means 'fit', 'in training', 'ready for the contest'.

'By the same rule walk', 'to practice a rule of life'. The sentence goes on to auto phronein, to be of the same mind.

Indulgence

In Rome pleasure and excitement had been dulled by excess. Games designed to glorify the Republic served to glorify only the sponsor himself. Cf. also Rom 1:29, Ja 5:5, 2 Pe 3:3.

Roman citizenship

To a Roman, nothing was more sacred or cherished than citizenship. It was what defined him. Public business - res publica - was what 'republic' meant. Only by seeing himself reflected in the gaze of his fellows could a Roman truly know himself a man. The good citizen, in the Republic, was the citizen acknowledged to be good. The Romans recognized no difference between moral excellence and reputation, having the same word, honestas, for both. Citizens were promoted or demoted each according to his worth. Once the raw information had been collated by scribes, it would then be carefully scrutinized by two magistrates. The office of these magistrates, the censorship, was the most prestigious in the Republic and was regarded as the climax of a political career. So sensitive were the duties of a censor that only the most senior and reputable of citizens could be entrusted with them. The maintenance of everything that structured the Republic depended on their judgement. Few Romans doubted that if the census were not conducted adequately, then the entire fabric of their society would fall apart.

Expresses concentrated eagerness and persistence of expectation. Suggests an eye detached from every other object to watch only for him.

'Gentle forbearance', the uncomplaining readiness to accept others as they are and to submit to their demands.

General; its inner thought is that of addressing a request to God.

Points to our lowly status as suppliants.

Will 'garrison'.

'Venerable', 'serious-minded', not lacking a sense of humour and afraid to laugh, but dreading superficiality and flippancy, cf. 1 Tim 3:8, 11; Tit 2:2.

Only occurrence in NT. The noun in 2 Cor 6:8 means 'the circulating of a good opinion', a 'well-speaking', so the adjective describes that which 'speaks well' or 'commends'.

Ponder, give proper weight and value to, and allow the appraisal to influence the way life is to be lived.

'I am initiated'; used in the Greek mystery religions to describe people who had worked their way up through the various lower 'degrees' and had finally been admitted into full possession of 'the mystery' itself. By comparison Paul had made his way up through the degrees of progressive detachment from worldly things. Paul also in this way showed his distinctiveness from Roman culture. The Roman people were restless, never content with what they had, but always striving and fighting for more. They were familiar with struggle.

From the OT Adonai, meaning Lord or Sovereign, a substitute for the self- disclosed name of God, Yahweh, I AM.