Philippians 1:7

It is meet. — Rather, it is but right, or just; it is but your due.

To think this of you all. — Rather, to be in this mind; to have this feeling on behalf of you all. The word here rendered “to think” is used with especial frequency in this Epistle (see Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:5; Philippians 3:15; Philippians 3:19; Philippians 4:2; Philippians 4:10), as also in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 8:5; Romans 11:20; Romans 12:3; Romans 12:16; Romans 14:16; Romans 15:5). It is variously rendered; but it always refers, not to a single definite opinion, but to an habitual conviction or feeling.

I have you in my heart. — This (and not the marginal reading) is to be taken. The original is, grammatically speaking, ambiguous, but both the order and the context are decisive. Compare, for the sense, 2 Corinthians 3:2, “Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts.”

Both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. — These words are certainly to be connected, as in our version. St. Paul unites his bonds with “the defence and confirmation of the gospel” — that is, with his pleading for it against objections, and establishment of it by positive teaching — on the ground stated in Philippians 1:12, that these, his bonds, had tended “to the furtherance of the gospel.” He accepts the help sent him by the Philippians, in which they had (see Philippians 4:14) “communicated” (in the original the word used is the same as here) “with his affliction,” as a means of fellowship with him in the whole of this work of evangelisation. It is true that in Philippians 1:30 he speaks of the Philippians as having themselves to undergo “the same conflict” as his own; but the expression “in my bonds, &c.,” can hardly be satisfied simply by this kind of fellowship.

Ye all are partakers of my grace. — Here, on the contrary, the marginal reading is preferable. Ye are all partakers with me of the grace — i.e., of the privilege described in Ephesians 3:8. “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” See below, Philippians 1:29; “To you it is given” — that is (in the original), “given as a grace” — not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”