Philippians 2:15

be Better, with the true reading, become, prove; a gentle intimation that a change was needed.

blameless Secure against truecharges of inconsistency of temper and conduct.

harmless So too R.V. But this can be only a derived rendering. The literal and ordinary meaning of the Greek is "unmixed, unadulterated, pure." The character denoted is simpleas against double;single-hearted in truth and love. It occurs elsewhere, in N.T., only Matthew 10:16; Romans 16:19; but often in secular writers.

the sons of God More exactly, with R.V., children of God. The Greek word rendered "children" points more specially than the other to the nature and characterof the family of God; the family- likeness. The precise phrase "children ofGod," occurs elsewhere (in the Greek) John 1:12; John 11:52; Romans 8:16-17; Romans 8:21; Romans 9:8; 1 John 3:1-2; 1 John 3:10; 1 John 5:2. Here the evident meaning is, "that you may prove the fact of your spiritual sonship to God by your spiritual likeness to Him, which is its one true proof." As a rule, Scripture tends to use the words "Father," "son," "child," as between God and man, to indicate not the connexion of creation but that of new-creation, as here.

without rebuke One Greek adjective; the same word (in the best attested reading here) as that in Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 5:27; Colossians 1:22; passages in this same Roman group of St Paul's Epistles.

This word is closely connected with the preceding words; we may paraphrase, "children of God, blameless as such." There is an implicit reference in the phrase to Deuteronomy 32:5, where the LXX. reads, "They sinned;they were not children to Him, but blameworthychildren; a generation crooked and perverse." The "true Israelites" of Philippi were to be the antithesis of the ancient rebels.

in the midst of&c. A continued allusion to the words (see last note) of Moses; a beautiful inversionof them. "A crooked and distorted generation" is still in view, but it is now not the Lord's Israel, but "they which are without" (Colossians 4:5), whose moral contrariety was both to bring out the power and beauty of grace in the saints, and at length to yield to its blessed charm.

"In the midst of":not in selfish or timid isolation from the duties and difficulties of life. The Gospel has no real sanction for the monastic idea. Cp. John 17:15; and the tenor of the Epistles at large.

ye shine Better, ye appear, ye are seen (R.V.). The Greek verb is used of the rising and setting of the stars, the "phœnomena" of the heavens. Perhaps this is meant to be remembered here. The saints, in the beautiful light of holiness, were to rise star-like upon the dark sky of surrounding sin. See next note.

lights Better, light-bearers, luminaries (luminaria, Latin Versions). The word appears in both secular and Biblical Greek as a designation of the heavenly bodies;see e.g. Genesis 1:14; Genesis 1:16. It occurs again, in N.T., only Revelation 21:11, apparently in the very rare sense of "radiance."

Cp. Isaiah 60:1; Matthew 5:14; Matthew 5:16; Ephesians 5:8.