Philippians 4:5

moderation R.V., "forbearance"; margin, "gentleness"; Wyclif, "patience"; Tyndale and Cranmer, "softenes"; Geneva, "patient mynde"; Rheims, "modestie"; Lat. versions, modestia; Beza, œquitas; Luther, Lindigkeit. The word is full of interest and significance, and is very difficult of translation. Perhaps forbearance, though inadequate, is a fair rendering. It means in effect considerateness, the attitude of thought and will which in remembrance of others forgets self, and willingly yields up the purely personal claims of self. The "self-less" man is the "moderate" man of this passage; the man who is yielding as air in respect of personal feeling or interest, though firm as a rock in respect of moral principle. See an excellent discussion, Trench, Synonyms, § xliii. The editor may be allowed to refer to a small book of his own in further illustration, Thoughts on the Spiritual Life, ch. 3.

be known, &c. Trench (quoted above) shews that the quality here commended is essentially, by usage as well as etymology, a thing having to do with life, action, intercourse. For its existence, so to speak, society is necessary. "Men" must be met and dealt with, and so must "know" it by its practical fruits.

" The Lord is at hand": in the sense of presence, not of coming. Cp. Psalms 119 (LXX. 118):151, "Thou art near, O Lord"; where the Greek is the same. And for the spiritual principle, see Psalms 31:19-20; Psalms 121:5. Not that the deeply calming expectation of the Lord's approaching Return is excluded from thought here; but Psalms 119. decides for the other as the leading truth.