Philippians 1:7

The assurance above expressed is supported by the reflexion that it is right to cherish these thoughts—of thankfulness, joy, trust—about you all, since I hold you in my heart.. as being all of you fellow-partakers with me in grace: i.e. the Philippians are so entirely bound up with the Apostle in the cause of the gospel, that it would be wrong and an ill-requital of their devotion to entertain any other thoughts of them. He is conscious of their communion both in his bonds, which they share by sympathy and by the presence of Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25; Philippians 2:30), and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel—the negative and positive sides of his ministry in Rome, where he both vindicates the cause of Christ and demonstrates its saving power: cp. Ephesians 6:19; Ephesians 6:20.