Philippians 1:22. But if to live in the flesh-if this is the fruit of my work. It is not easy to give with certainty the force of the Greek in this verse. But the rendering here recorded seems best to suit with the context. St. Paul has just spoken of the great gain of dying. Now the thought seems to arise: ‘Yet suppose that the means whereby my labour can bring forth its fruit, is only to be secured by my continuing to live in the flesh, then I should desire that such fruit should be secured.' We know how anxious the apostle's soul was ever for the fruit of his labour. ‘That I may have some fruit among you also' was his constant thought and frequent utterance. We can therefore well see how he would be drawn by this desire to forego for a while the greater gain which death would bring. For though death might be gain to him, the fruit of his apostolic labours might be eternal life to many brethren in Christ. He says ‘to live in the flesh,' thereby to distinguish the unbroken life into its different stages.

then what shall I choose, I wot not. I would fain, he means, choose death; but when I am in doubt whether my labour and its success do not call for my longer stay in the flesh, I dare not make the choice. The other rendering of the whole verse may be thus understood. ‘But suppose that to live in the flesh be my lot,' suppose God appoints me to a longer life in this world, ‘this is the fruit of my work,' a way of bringing my labours to a fruitful issue; I know this, for I must constantly follow on what I have already done, ‘and so what I shall choose I know not,' for God by preserving my life is giving me larger opportunities of work for Him, opportunities which I know not how to refuse.

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Old Testament