Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Philippians 1:23

Philippians 1:23. But I am in a strait betwixt the two. The verb is one which the LXX. use (Job 36:8) of ‘those who are holden in cords of affliction,' and the apostle describes himself as thus holden and constrained of (i.e., by) the two things, death or the continuance of life that his work may bear its fruit. Each wish draws him in its own direction.

having the desire, which I have already expressed by saying that ‘to die is gain.'

to depart and be with Christ. He views the world as a place of temporary sojourn, not as a home, and so he uses to describe his departure a significant term which implies that he will be like one who has only been detained here, as a ship is held for a time to its moorings, or a tent in its position by ropes, which it was always intended some day to cast loose and go away. He says ‘be with Christ,' as though he looked forward to the presence with Christ at the moment of his departure. So in another place he speaks (2 Corinthians 5:8) of absence from the body as being equivalent to ‘being at home in the Lord.' And even where the state between death and judgment is spoken of as sleep, we read (1 Thessalonians 4:14) of them that are fallen asleep in (or through) Jesus. All these passages must be taken into account before it is decided that the intermediate state will be a time of unconscious sleep. ‘To fall asleep' is used for death, and ‘to be asleep' is thus equivalent to ‘death;' but the phrases are employed to describe the passage from this world to the next, not as a definition of the nature of our existence in the world to come.

for it is very far better. He cannot forget the greatness of the gain, though his love for the salvation of men may reconcile him to forego it. So, in this further allusion to life with Christ, he intensifies his language by a doubly expressed comparative.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Philippians 1:23

Old Testament

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