2. Prayer as Petition — for Increased Love and "Fruitfulness" (1:9-11)
2. Prayer as Petition —for Increased Love and "Fruitfulness" (1:9-11)
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound1 more and more inknowledge and depth of insight, ι 10so that you may be able to discernwhat is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,11filled with the fruit2 of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ— to the glory and praise of God.3
In articulating his reasons for joy and thanksgiving in vv. 7-8, despite their digressive appearance, Paul has not lost sight of what he is about. His thanksgiving for the Philippians takes place in the context of prayer, as he emphatically reminded them in v. 4. Now he proceeds to give content to his prayer, indicating some specifics regarding the "good work" begun in them which he repeatedly prays that God will bring to completion on the day of Christ.
As with the thanksgiving, the prayer report is also a single (less convoluted, but nonetheless complex) sentence, whose overall concern, as well as the meaning of most of its details, lies close at hand. The connections between the various parts are easily traced:
Paul prays (1) for their love to abound yet more and more;
that (2) this be accompanied by full knowledge and moral insight,
so that (3) they might approve those things that really matter,
so that (4) they might be unsullied and blameless when Christ returns,
as (5) they are now full of the fruit of righteousness,
fruit that is (6) effected by Christ Jesus
and (7) for the glory and praise of God.
Items 1, 2, 3, and 5 thus give the what of his prayer for them; item 4 gives the why, while item 6 offers the means to the (ultimate) end expressed in item 7. The what begins on a familiar note, that their love grow still more and more. It ends on a similar note, that they bear the fruit of righteousness.The middle item (3), though a bit puzzling, is likewise concerned with behavior — that their knowledge (of God) and moral insight (into God's will) also increase so that they may test and approve what really counts. The whole, therefore, is singularly concerned with their behavior, with the ethical life of the believer in Christ.4
As with the thanksgiving, and despite first appearances, the prayer is not "in general," but rather is full of items that anticipate the content of the letter. That their love overflow toward one another is the basic urgency of the exhortation in 1:27-2:18, explicitly expressed in 2:2; that they might be full of the fruit of righteousness is the ultimate reason for Paul's personal testimony in 3:4-14;5 that they might be found so on the day of Christ, a note already struck in v. 6, is a concern that surfaces throughout;6 that their knowledge of God and moral insight into his will might increase finds further expression in the exhortation in 4:8-9 and (probably) in the practical application in 2:3-4; and that they might thereby be in position better to determine what really counts anticipates the long warning in 3:1-21. That all of this is through Christ Jesus and for God's glory is the dominant theological predicate of the letter.
The upshot is a prayer report in which Paul prays in part for the continuation of the very things for which he has just given thanks. Which should surprise us none, since both reports reflect the same basic theological framework — present existence in Christ as both "already" and "not yet." This is where the what and the why join: Paul's prayer for them is that they might live the life of the future in the present, so that they might thereby be blameless at its consummation on the day of Christ. The concern is with present life in Christ; the orientation is toward its consummation — that they live for Christ now, and do so in light of his coming Day.
9 At the beginning of his thanksgiving (v. 4), Paul told the Philippians that he prayed for them on a regular basis, and that he made those prayers with joy. Now, flowing directly7 out of his own longing for them "with the affection of Christ Jesus" (v. 8), he tells them what that prayer consists of.
First, he prays (item 1) that8 "your love may abound more and more." Many years earlier, where an existing love also needed some further prodding, Paul prayed similarly for the Thessalonians that their "love [might] increase and overflow" (1 Thess 3:12).9 In that case he specified the direction of the love for which he prayed: "for each other and for everyone else." The linguistic and contextual similarities between these two prayers suggest a similar direction to the love for which he now prays — that their love for one another abound all the more, a concern that is expressly picked up in 2:2 ("that you have the same love [for one another]").10
"Love" is such a common word to us that it is easy to miss Paul's concern. As used by Paul, and following the lead of the Septuagint,11 "love" first of all points to the character of God, and to God's actions toward his people based on that character. God's love is demonstrated especially in his "forbearance" and "kindness" (1 Cor 13:4), manifested ultimately in the death of Christ for his enemies (Rom 5:6-8). Thus its primary connotation is not "affection," as in the preceding phrase about Christ (v. 8), but rather "a sober kind of love — love in the sense of placing high value on a person or thing,"12 which expresses itself in actively seeking the benefit of the one so loved. And this is what Paul now prays will "abound13 yet more and more" among the Philippian believers. The rest of the prayer, after all, emphasizes "love" not as "affection" but as behavior, behavior that is both "pure" (stemming from right motives) and "blameless" (lacking offense).
On the other hand, both the present tense of the verb 14 and the qualifier "yet more and more"15 indicate that Paul is not by this prayer "getting on their case," as it were, for something they lacked. Quite the opposite. His concern is that they not let behavior motivated by "selfish ambition or vain conceit" (2:3) undermine the very thing that has long characterized them, to which 2 Cor 8:1-6 bears eloquent testimony. The problem is similar to that occasionally experienced by families, where love is sometimes more easily shown toward those on the outside, who are known very little and with whom one does not have constant association. But actively to love on the inside, those with whom one is in constant relationship and where one's own place in the sun is constantly being threatened, that can be another matter. Thus he prays that the love that has long characterized them will continue "still more and more" toward one and all.
Second (item 2), he prays for a similar increase "in knowledge and depth of insight."16 The single preposition controlling both nouns suggests a very close relationship between them. The first word (epignosis) is probably the key. Its primary sense is not so much "knowledge about" something, but rather the kind of "full," or "innate," knowing that comes from experience or personal relationship.17 The second word (aisthêsis), which occurs only here in the NT, is more difficult to pin down.18 In secular Greek it denotes moral understanding based on experience, hence something close to "moral insight." This is the sense which the translators of the LXX picked up, for whom it becomes a near synonym for "wisdom" (sophia) or "insight/understanding" (sunesis). Very likely, therefore, this phrase is something of an abbreviated equivalent of the similar phrase in the (roughly contemporary) prayer in Col 1:9 ("that by means of all of the Spirit's wisdom [sophia] and insight [sunesis]19 you might be filled with the knowledge [epignōsis] of God's will").
Thus, even though the phrase grammatically modifies "that your love may abound more and more," and may indicate the "manner" in which he hopes that love will abound, more likely the grammatical link is with the verb ("I pray") alone, so that conceptually Paul has moved in a new direction with the prayer. This seems to be verified by the clause that follows, which again grammatically should modify the whole of the preceding clause, but in fact seems to be related singularly to the prepositional phrase ("in knowledge and depth of insight"). If this be the case, then Paul is now praying a second thing, that along with an ever-increasing love they may also experience an ever-increasing knowledge (of God and his will) and moral insight. An increased knowledge of God is what is needed in order for them to "walk worthy of the gospel" and in the one Spirit to contend for that gospel as one person (1:27).
10 The opening clause of the prayer, for ever-increasing love accompanied by ever-increasing knowledge and moral insight, is followed by two purpose clauses. The first (item 3) expresses immediate purpose — why they need ever-increasing "knowledge and (moral) insight." The second (item 4) expresses the ultimate purpose of the whole prayer — why they need ever-increasing love and ever-increasing knowledge and insight in order to determine what really counts.
The reason for an overflow of "knowledge and (moral) insight" is so that they will "be able to discern20 what is best," that is, so that the faculty for making proper assessments about what is absolutely essential21 regarding life in Christ will increase as well. For truly Christian life, some things matter, and others do not. In light of the term "fruit of righteousness" in v. 11 and the contrast between "righteousness in terms of Law-keeping" and that which is through faith in Christ in 3:1-11, it is possible that this anticipates the warning and personal testimony of that passage. Especially so, (a) since Paul begins that passage by reminding them that he is once again returning to that oft-repeated subject for their "safety," and (b) in light of what he says elsewhere about circumcision. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for a thing, Paul says; one is no better off with one, or worse off with the other (1 Cor 7:19; Gal 5:6; 6:15). "What counts," he goes on, "is keeping the commandments of God[!]" (1 Cor 7:19), which in Gal 5:6 is interpreted as "faith that manifests itself through love." Whether this part of the present prayer intentionally anticipates 3:1-11 or not, this is the kind of "insight" he prays for them to have, so that they will be able to continue to "discern what counts."22
But if the reason for the penultimate purpose clause is not fully clear, there is no ambiguity as to the ultimate purpose for the preceding concerns — that they might be "pure and blameless until23 the day of Christ."24 This reflects the urgency already voiced in the thanksgiving that they be found "complete" at the coming of Christ.25 The only surprise is the language Paul uses to express concern for their being "blameless." The word translated "pure"26 appears twice in 2 Corinthians to describe Paul's apostleship as absolutely sincere, without the "mixed motives" he ascribes to his opponents (2:17). In 1 Cor 5:7, in a corresponding ethical context, it bears the sense of a pure lump of dough, "unmixed" with leaven. In the present context it most likely refers to purity (sincerity) of motive, in terms of relationships within the community.27 Likewise, aproskopos28 is not Paul's regular word for the idea of "blameless." Ordinarily, as in 2:15 and 3:6, he uses a form of amemp-tos,29 a word denoting behavior that is without observable fault. But aproskopos has to do with being "blameless" in the sense of "not offending" or not causing someone else to stumble.
Thus this choice of words that speak to Paul's desire for the Philippians when they stand before God at the end also seems to reflect the present situation in Philippi. The behavior of some appears to have the latent possibility of "mixed motives," or at least is a potential source of "offense." Paul prays that they may stand blameless on the day of Christ, not having offended others through equivocal behavior.
11 Not one to leave such a prayer hanging on what may sound like a negative note, Paul immediately qualifies: by "pure and blameless until the day of Christ" he means for them to arrive at that day as those "filled30 with the fruit of righteousness" (item 5). At first blush, the metaphor seems strained; ordinarily one "bears" fruit. But the perspective is now from that of the preceding clause. What Paul wants is for them to stand on that day "full of the fruit of righteousness." But to do so they must now be living out such righteousness. Here again, as in v. 6, the "already but not yet" of life in Christ is played out before their eyes.
But to what does "the fruit of righteousness" refer? Here is one of the standard "classroom examples" of the ambiguities of the Greek genitive. Does Paul intend, "filled with the fruit that comes from the righteousness that Christ has provided," thus emphasizing the kind of fruitfulness that has God's gift of right-standing with himself as its source? Or does he intend, "filled with the fruit consisting of the righteousness that marks one who belongs to Christ," thus emphasizing the kind of righteousness that, coming through Christ, has a new kind of content? Although this is not an easy choice, and one's theological proclivities are with the former,31 both the OT background of the language and the grammar of the sentence favor the latter.32
First, Paul's use of "religious language" like this has been altogether conditioned by his lifelong reading of the OT. The phrase itself comes from the LXX (Amos 6:12; Prov 3:9; 11:30), where it refers to the righteous behavior of the righteous person.33 Similarly, in Ps 15:2 (LXX 14:2), those who will be allowed to live on God's holy hill (= dwell in his presence) are they whose "walk is blameless and who do righteousness."
Second, on the matter of grammar: The "that" which in the NIV precedes "through Jesus Christ" reflects (correctly) Paul's use of the Greek definite article which here functions like a relative pronoun. This article is without ambiguity; it modifies "fruit," not "righteousness." Paul's emphasis, therefore, is on "th e fruit, consisting of righteousness," which comes to them through their relationship to Christ. Had the article modified "righteousness," then Paul would have unambiguously meant that righteousness itself, as a gift of right standing with God, came through Christ. But Paul's present emphasis is on Christian behavior, not on how one becomes related to God so as to produce such behavior. After all, it must be noted finally, the whole participial phrase of v. 11a modifies the final clause in v. 10, having to do with their being blameless and without offense at the coming of Christ.
But what does this righteousness look like for which Paul prays? Two observations from our letter give us the clues. (1) The word "righteousness" is probably anticipatory of its usage in 3:6 and 9, where in contrast to "blameless righteousness in keeping with the Law" (including especially circumsci-sion), Paul says that we — he and they together — are the true circumcision, who "serve by the Spirit" (v. 3). The "fruit consisting of true righteousness" has not to do with circumcision, or with any other measurable, religious expression of law-keeping; rather it has to do with boasting in Christ and "serving" by the Spirit, and thus being formed into God's own character, evidenced by the way one lives. When one is "filled with the fruit" of this kind of righteousness, then one's life is characterized by the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), which means in part, and now back to our prayer, to "have one's love overflow" (v. 9).
(2) In our letter the way that love expresses itself (2:2), as righteousness of the kind that "really counts," is by adopting a "cruciform" lifestyle, like that of Christ (2:6-11) and his apostle (3:10-11). Thus it means to go the way of the cross, self-emptying so as to become servant of all in place of "selfish ambition," and in that servanthood, humbling oneself to the point of dying for another in place of "vain conceit" (2:3-8). This is what it means for Paul to "know Christ." All other righteousness, especially "religious righteousness," is refuse in comparison (3:8).
Such righteousness as this, it must be emphasized, comes only "through Jesus Christ" (item 6); it is quite unrelated to being religious, which for Paul is but another form of "boasting in the flesh" (3:4). And in this sense, both dimensions of "righteousness," both of which "come through Jesus Christ," join together: the gift of Christ's righteousness means a life of righteousness, without either of which there is no righteousness at all from Paul's point of view.
Furthermore, such righteousness as this is alone "to the glory and praise of God"34 (item 7). Here is the ultimate goal of all things. In v. 6 Paul reminded the Philippians that "the good work" begun in them was God's doing, as also will be its completion. Now he prays for them — that the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus might increase among them more and more, precisely so that God will receive glory through the work that he is doing in their lives.35 Everything is to that end. Love that reflects God's own love is the only righteousness that "counts," the only righteousness that is to God's glory and to his praise.
It has often been noted that the Lord's Prayer in Matthew serves as a paradigm for prayer in the kingdom ("pray, then, like this"), while Luke's version justifies our praying those very words as well ("when you pray, say"). So with this prayer. On the one hand, case specific though it is, the very things for which Paul prays seem to be ever relevant for those who are care givers in the church — be it pastors, leaders, parents, or what have you. Most people entrusted to our spiritual nurture, as with all of us, need "love to overflow," not to mention our need to have knowledge of God and insight into his will also overflow so that they (we) may give themselves only to what really counts as believers in Christ. Who of them — of us — does not need to be filled with the kind of righteousness that characterizes God and that Christ has modeled? Thus, "when you pray [for your children or grandchildren or students or parishioners or study group] say. ..."
On the other hand, there is paradigm here as well. Here is one who has a keen sense of priorities in Christ, and who is concerned when those in his care grow slack in some areas. That this prayer anticipates so much of the letter itself tells us much about Paul in prayer. Before talking to them about some matters that need an "increase," he talks to God about them — and tells them so. We could learn much here.
1. A few not insignificant MSS (B D Ψ 81 2464 2495) read the aorist περισσεύσρ for Paul's (almost certainly) original present (περισσεύη). Since the aorist is the "normal" tense in the subjunctive, the change from the present to the aorist is frequent in the copying tradition (for this matter in the Gospel of John, see Fee, "John 20,30-31"). Whether tense is "meaningful" here is moot; the present subjunctive was probably used because it goes more naturally with "more and more." Thus, "that your love will keep on growing more and more" (GNB).
2. Perhaps influenced by the LXX of Prov 3:9 and 13:2, the later manuscript tradition (Ψ Maj sy) changed Paul's singular xαρπόν . . . τόν to the plural xαρπών . . . τών.
3. In one of the more puzzling sets of variation in this letter (not to mention the NT), the phrase found in the majority of witnesses, εις δόξαν και επαινον θεοϋ ("unto the glory and praise of God"), is read three other ways: D* εις δόξαν xαί επαινον Χρίστου ("unto the glory and praise of Christ"); F G Ambst εις δόξαν και επαινον έμοί ("unto my glory and praise"); Ρ4 6 είς δόξαν θεοϋ και επαινον έμοί ("for the glory of God and my praise"). The evidence of P4 6 suggests that the variation had a more troubled history than one might guess; nonetheless the corruption is most likely due to the unusual usage — for Paul — of the word έπαινος as directed toward God rather than people. The text of D is a simple change toward the repeated mention of Christ in this passage; the texts of F G and Ρ 4 6 represent independent errors that lean toward the more standard usage of έπαινος — although the text of F G is preferred by Ross ("Unnoticed Points," 70); Hawthorne (14) is ambivalent. Metzger (Textual Commentary, 611) adopts the standard reading on the basis of the external evidence.
4. Thus the prayer comes very close to being a compendium of Pauline ethics, whose purpose is God's glory, whose pattern is Christ, whose principle is love, and whose empowering is the Holy Spirit (see Fee, Presence, 879). Missing here is the empowering dimension of the Spirit (Christ as "pattern" is the point of 2:5-11), although it may well be implied by the language of "fruit" (of righteousness) with its apparent anticipation of 3:2-11, a passage that begins by asserting that "we are the true circumcision who 'serve' by the Spirit of God."
5. However see Silva. 62, who sees the anticipation in the prayer as emphasizing"progressive sanctification" vis-à-vis some form of perfectionism (3:12-14). While one can easily recognize an emphasis on "progression," Paul's concern seems less related to the possibility that some think they have already arrived than to their need to "overflow all the more" in behavior that already characterizes them.
6. See on v. 6 above, p. 88.
7. The present sentence begins with a και ("and"). Since parataxis (sentences beginning with "and") are relatively rare in Paul, one can usually show good reason for such when it happens. In this case it suggests the closest possible tie of the prayer to what has preceded, flowing directly out of v. 8, but also thereby picking up the mention of the fact of his praying for them in v. 4; cf. Silva (57, 62), who sees it as resumptive of v. 4, and O'Brien (73) for what is argued here. On this kind of parataxis in Paul, see Fee, Presence, 45-46, 672 n. 43 (on 1 Thess 1:6; Eph 2:1).
8. Gk. ϊνα. Earlier commentators (e.g., Kennedy) debated as to whether or not this clause expressed purpose. It does not, at least not in any direct sense. This is a common koine idiom, where ϊνα, following τοũτο as in this case, functions like ότι, giving the content of the "this" (cf. Hawthorne, 25).
9. Perhaps surprisingly these are the only two instances in a prayer report he uses this kind of language (in 2 Thess 3:5 he prays that their hearts might be directed "into God's love," but in that case it refers to God's love for the Thessalonians). This motif, however, appears often in his thanksgivings. See 1 Thess 1:3; 2 Thess 1:3; Col 1:4; Phlm 5; Eph 1:15.
10. Otherwise Spicq, Agape, 2.277; Lohmeyer, 31; Hawthorne, 25; O'Brien, 74; who suggest that since there is no expressed object, Paul refers to love in its most comprehensive sense, going in every possible direction, that they thus be people of love as God is. The context of the letter, however, suggests a more focused concern.
11. Gk. άγάπη (agape), a word found only sparsely among Greek writers. It was chosen by the LXX translators to render the Hebrew root 3ΠN, apparently to distinguish it from ερος ("desiring love") and φιλία ("natural sympathy" or "mutual affection"). Thus it is used both of God's love for his people (e.g., Deut 7:7) and in the two love commands (for God [Deut 6:5 and passim] and neighbor [Lev 19:18]). This usage, which thus fills an otherwise empty word full of theological grist, is unquestionably the source of its usage among the early Christians, for whom it became the ultimate theological word both to describe God's character and to articulate the essence of Christian behavior. For useful overviews see the articles by G. Schneider, EDNT, 1.8-12; and W. Günther and W. G. Link, NIDNTT, 2.538-47. Cf. the longer article in TDNT, 1.221-54 (by G. Quell and E. Stauffer), as well as the monographs by James Moffatt and A. Nygren.
12. So V. Warnach, "Love," in Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology (ed. J. B. Bauer; 31967) II.518.
13. Gk. περισσεύη, a favorite Pauline word (26 of 39 NT occurrences), which reflects his own understanding of the lavish nature of life in Christ, effected by the Spirit. At various times he either urges or acknowledges that believers "overflow" in love (1 Thess 3:12; 4:10), building up the church (1 Cor 14:12), the work of the Lord (1 Cor 15:58; cf.2 Cor 9:8), thanksgiving (2 Cor 4:15; 9:12; Col 2:7), faith, speech, knowledge,earnestness, and the grace of giving (2 Cor 8:7), and hope (Rom 15:13). And all of this because God's own grace and love have "overflowed" toward us (Rom 5:15; Eph 1:8).
14. See n. 1 above.
15. Gk. έtι μάλλον και μάλλον. The NIV (cf. RSV, NRSV, JB, NAB) leaves out the έτι as redundant; but cf. the NASB ("still more and more") and NEB ("ever richer and richer").
16. Gk. έν έπιγνώσει xαί πάση αίσθήσει. It has sometimes been pointed out (e.g.,Bonhöffer, Epiktet; Gnilka; Hawthorne) that α'ίσθησις and the phrase τα διαφέροντα that follows are also found in the Greek moral philosophers. So also with the language of 4:8 and 11-12. Whether "dependent" on the philosophers or not, as 4:13 makes abundantly clear (q.v.), this reflects Paul's habit of adapting, and thereby transforming for his own purposes, language well-known to, or used by, his readers. Cf. awthorne, 27.
17. In this regard see esp. 1 Cor 13:12, where the cognate verb occurs. Έπιγνώσις is the kind of "knowledge" of us that God has, and that we will eventually experience when "we see him as he is." The usage in Rom 3:20 is likewise instructive, that "through the Law comes the έπιγνώσις of sin." That is, with the coming of the Law people who were otherwise already sinners came to "know" sin for what it really is. Cf. Phlm 6, where Paul prays that Philemon's active sharing of his faith will be "with the έπιγνώσις [full understanding, NIV] of every good thing that is ours in Christ Jesus." See the fuller discussion in O'Brien, 75-76, who notes Paul's dependence on the OT for this concept, and thus points out: "In the OT, as well as in the writings of Paul, knowledge was not a fixed quantum but rather something that eveloped in the life of people as they were obedient." Cf. Κ. Sullivan, "Epignosis."
18. Cf. the discussion by Delling, TDNT, 1.187-88.
19. For the understanding of the clause reflected in this translation see Fee, Presence, 640-43.
20. Gk. δοκιμάζειν, which always carries the connotation of "proving" — thus "approving" — something by putting it to the test. In this sense only does it mean to"discern."
21. Gk. τα διαφέροντα; cf. Rom 2:18 ("approve of what is superior," NIV). Its proper opposite is adiaphora. "non-essentials." Some earlier commentators (Kennedy,431-32; Vincent, 13 [with a list of others before him]) suggested that the meaning should be to "test things that differ," i.e., what is good and bad. But that does not seem to be the concern in this context and disregards Paul's usage in Rom 2:18. It is not possible, of course, for such "discerning" or "approving" of "what counts" to be without a degree of comparison. But the emphasis here is not on the comparative process, but on their being able to discern that which God has already marked off as essential or "superlative" regarding life in Christ.
22. Other matters may be anticipated here as well. Some items in this letter are less clear to us than others, especially how some (apparently) disparate elements might be related: the nature of the "posturing" that is going on, so that Euodia and Syntyche have to be urged to "have the same mind" (4:2-3); why the sudden (repeated) warning against circumcision in 3:2; who the people are who have left off striving for the heavenly prize because their minds are on earthly things (3:18-19); and why Paul's final exhortation in 4:8-9, still in the context of urging harmony among themselves, urges them in the language of the highest ideals of Hellenism to "think on whatever is true, honorable, upright, pure,lovely, and admirable," and in this matter to imitate what they have seen and heard in Paul himself. Although certainty may forever allude us here, very likely there is a close connection between "thinking on merely earthly things" and thus abandoning one's keen sense of striving for the heavenly prize and the posturing by some in the community that is more closely aligned with "selfish ambition and vain conceit" (2:3) than it is with the pure gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps the present concern over "full knowledge and moral insight so as to approve what really counts" may be related to some of this as well.
23. Gk. εις ήμέραν (cf. 2:16). These are the only two instances of εις with this term in the Pauline corpus. It simply cannot mean "on" (as the NIV translates in 2:16), for which Paul invariably uses the temporal έν (cf. 1 Cor 1:8; 5:5; 2 Cor 1:14; Rom 2:5,16). Since he has already used άχρί in v. 6 to express this reality in terms of "until," and since in Eph 4:30 he uses εις with "the day of redemption," which in that case is almost certainly telic (= " f o r the day of redemption"; see Fee, Presence, 716-17), that is most likely the sense here (contra BAGD). Thus he prays that they might be pure and blameless"for the day of Christ," that is, with the day of Christ in view as their ultimate goal.
24. One might note again the similarity with the prayer in 1 Thess 3:12-13, where an increase and overflow of love is linked to being "blameless . . . when our Lord Jesus comes."
25. On the phrase "day of Christ" and the future orientation that marks so much of this letter see the comments above on v. 6.
26. Gk. ειλικρινείς, the only occurrence of the adjective in Paul (elsewhere in the NT, only in 2 Pet 3:1); but cf. Paul's use of the cognate noun, which bears exactly the same sense (1 Cor 5:8; 2 Cor 1:12; 2:17). See the discussion by H. Goldstein, EDNT, 1.391.
27. Otherwise Kennedy, 422, who thinks it refers to their "openness toward God," while the next word picks up the horizontal dimension.
28. Used elsewhere in Paul only in 1 Cor 10:32, where it clearly carries its primary denotation of "giving no offense."
29. Cf. the disc, below on 2:15 and 3:6.
30. Gk. πεπληρώμενοι, a perfect passive participle that modifies "that you might be." This is an excellent example of the nuance of the Greek perfect, which is not easily carried over into English. It reflects the present state of something that happened in the past; in this clause, which is from the perspective of the future day of Christ, the "past" is the present.
31. Preferred, inter alia, by Beare, Hendriksen, Caird, Collange, Ziesler (Righteousness), O'Brien — although it should be noted that both views end up at the same point; that Paul's concern is with their "righteous" behavior.
32. Although it also needs to be noted that in Paul one cannot have the latter without the former, so in that sense the gift of a right relationship with God is also included in "the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ," even though the concern here is with ensuing behavior.
33. Cf. Jas 3:18 ("the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace"), which both the NIV and NRSV tranlate as "a harvest of righteousness," where again the emphasis is on righteous behavior.
34. On the significant textual variation involved in this phrase, see n. 3 above.
35. Many scholars have pointed out that these words are similar to those that regularly conclude the prayers of Jewish piety (e.g., Ps 21:13; 35:28; Sir 39:10; lQSb 4:25). Such comparisons only indicate how deeply Paul's piety is rooted in his Jewish heritage. O'Brien (82) goes on to argue that these final words are intended to be a doxology that brings the entire thanksgiving to its conclusion. If so, it is not a formal doxology of the kind with which he concludes the letter in 4:20 (q.v.). More likely, this is simply the conclusion of Paul's prayer, whose ultimate concern is that the Philippians live to the glory and praise of God.