Philippians 3:1

Philippians 3:1. Finally, literally ‘as for the rest,' a phrase which St. Paul not unfrequently employs when he is on the point of summing up in some final precepts the teaching of the previous part of an Epistle. This be appears to have intended here, but his thoughts are turned aside, and it is not until Philippians 4:4 that the exhortation of this verse is resumed.

my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. The word ‘rejoice,' which may also be rendered ‘farewell,' is likewise an indication that a conclusion of his letter was in the apostle's mind. No doubt the precept, ‘rejoice in the Lord,' is intimately connected with that previous request (Philippians 2:2), ‘fulfil ye my joy.' There could be neither fulness of joy for the apostle nor for them while party spirit or pride held sway among them. They must first imitate the Lord's humiliation, and then they could rejoice in Him.

To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irk-some. There has been much difference of opinion as to what the apostle refers in these words. Some have supposed them to relate to a previous letter which be had sent to Philippi, of which the tenor was much similar to this which Epaphroditus was to carry. And they have found some support from the use of a plural word concerning St. Paul's writing to Philippi by Polycarp in his Epistle to that church. But the expression there used is not enough alone for us to accept the opinion that the apostle wrote more than this letter to the Philippians. Others have referred the words to the previous sentence, ‘rejoice in the Lord;' but though the Epistle is very full of joy in its tone, we can hardly think that St. Paul would have felt it needful to notice such words as he has just used in such a manner as to say the writing of them was not irksome to him, and was safe for the Philippians to have repeated to them. It seems therefore best to take them as the introduction of what is to follow. He is about to speak against the Judaizing teachers and the mischief which they wrought. Now it is conceivable, though we have no mention of it in the Acts, that at Philippi, as afterwards at Thessalonica, the apostle and his companions had given the people warning against these teachers of error, whose doctrines had already caused so much trouble at Antioch. If this be accepted, then the allusion of the verse before us may be to such previous oral warnings, the need for which may have been suggested to the apostle's mind by a prevalence of Jewish teaching among some who professed Christ in Rome (see chap. Philippians 1:15-16). Or it may be that in ‘the same things' a reference is made to what the apostle had written to other churches. He has found need elsewhere to write strongly against Judaizers; and to repeat such admonitions to the Philippians, even if there be no special immediate need for them, so far as he knows, is no burden to him, and to them it may chance to be a timely warning, and if not that, yet will be recalled, whenever such errors make themselves heard at Philippi.

but for you it is safe. In either of the last-named views the sense of the word ‘safe' is naturally retained. Either, ‘I have told you before, but yet it is safe, and a way of making sure that my oral teaching is not forgotten, if I write it:' or, ‘It may be that there is no present need for what I am going to say, but it is a safe course to warn you against errors which may arise among you.'