The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Philippians — John Shaqi
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the PhilippiansRainy, Robert
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Philippians
Rainy, Robert
Bible. Philippians -- Commentaries
You may have whole Churches,
in which men are full of self-congratulation about attainments they make
in the gospel, and gifts they receive by the gospel, and doctrines they
build up about it--but the loving "fellowship unto it" fails. A large
measure of a better spirit had been given to the Philippians from the
first. They were a part of those Macedonian Churches, who "first gave
their own selves" to the Lord and His Apostles, and then also their help
and service. It was an inward fellowship before it was an outward one.
They first gave their own selves, so that their hearts were mastered by
the desire to see the ends of the gospel achieved, and then came service
and sacrifice. Trials and losses had befallen them in this course of
service; but still they are found caring for the gospel, for their
brethren in the gospel, for their father in the gospel, for the cause of
the gospel. This fellowship--this readiness to make common cause with
the gospel, out and out, had begun at the first day; and after trouble
and trial it continued even until now.
The disposition here commended has its importance, very much because it
implies so just a conception of the genius of the gospel, and so hearty
a consent to it. He whose Christianity leads him to band himself with
his fellow-Christians, to get good by their help, and to help them to
get good, and along with them to do good as opportunity arises, is a man
who believes in the work of the gospel as a vital social force; he
believes that Christ is in his members; he believes that there are
attainments to be made, victories won, benefits laid hold of and
appropriated. He is in sympathy with Christ, for he is attracted by the
expectation of great results coming in the line of the gospel; and he is
one who looks not merely on his own things, but rejoices to feel that
his own hope is bound up with a great hope for many and for the world.
Such a man is near the heart of things. He has, in important respects,
got the right notion of Christianity, and Christianity has got the right
hold of him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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