Philippians 1:8

God is my record. — We have a similar adjuration in Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:10. These instances show in what sense St. Paul interpreted such commands as the “swear not at all” of Matthew 5:34.

In the bowels of Jesus Christ. — The use of the word, which we translate (not very happily or correctly) by “bowels,” is common with St. Paul. (See 2 Corinthians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Colossians 3:12; Philemon 1:7; Philemon 1:12; Philemon 1:20.) It corresponds to our use of “heart” as the seat of affection — the word “heart” itself in the New Testament being employed, in a wider sense, to signify the whole inner man. (See Ephesians 1:18 : “the eyes of your heart being enlightened,” and Note there.) But the phrase here is striking and even startling. “I long after you” (says St. Paul) “in the heart of Jesus Christ.” He can say (as in Galatians 2:20), “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Hence the deep yearning of love which he feels for them he knows to be an emanation, faint indeed, but true, from the “heart of Jesus Christ” dwelling in him.