Philippians 1:27-30

(27-30) In these verses St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to unanimous boldness and steadfastness, under some conflict of antagonism or persecution which threatened them at this time. Of the history of the Church at Philippi we have no historical record after the notice of St. Paul’s first visit, and of the violence which he then had to endure (Acts 16:12). But in 2 Corinthians 7:5, written certainly from Macedonia, probably from Philippi, towards the close of the third missionary journey, we find St. Paul saying, “When we were come to Macedonia our flesh had no rest. Without were fightings, within were fears.” (Comp. also 2 Corinthians 8:2 of the same Epistle.) It would seem, therefore, that the subsequent history of the Philippian Church corresponded only too well to the circumstances under which its Christianity first began.