Philippians 1:12. Now I would have you know, brethren. Having closed his prayer for their progress, the apostle now begins with that personal part of his letter which refers to his own condition. They might have looked on his imprisonment as a great hindrance to the spread of the Gospel, hence his first wish is to dispel such a notion. God has wrought so that what seemed a loss has proved again.

that the things which happened unto me i.e., my being kept a prisoner and chained to a soldier by day and night, and also my two years' long detention in Rome.

have fallen out, have had a result.

rather, not such as at first sight men would have expected.

unto the progress of the gospel. A way has been cleared where all seemed to be densely hedged in. The constant changes of the guard set to live with him gave St. Paul great opportunities of making the Gospel known among the Roman soldiers, while the permission granted to him to receive all who came opened another door, through which Onesimus, we know, was brought to Christ, as we may well believe others were also.

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Old Testament