Additional Notes §8
§8 Steadfastness Amid Suffering (Phil. 1:27–30)
It is taken for granted throughout the NT, and nowhere more so than in Paul’s letters, that suffering is inevitably incurred by Christian existence in the present world. There was nothing surprising in this: Christ had suffered, and his followers—those who were “in Christ”—could expect nothing else. Paul himself, throughout his career as an apostle, knew what it meant to suffer for Christ’s sake, and he prepared his converts for similar suffering. Indeed, he encouraged them with the assurance that suffering for Christ’s sake proved the genuineness of their faith.
1:27 / Meanwhile, Paul’s earnest desire for the Philippian Christians, as for his other converts, is that they conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Since their new existence was based on the gospel of Christ, their conduct should be in line with Christ’s (cf. 2:5). Paul uses a verb here that strictly means “live as citizens” and is closely related to what he says later about their status as “citizens of heaven” (3:20).
A life worthy of the gospel should be a life of harmony. Since they shared a common life in Christ, they should be moved by one spirit, contending as one [person]. Only so could they effectively commend the gospel by word and action. Their witness called for strenuous endeavor and united effort; they had to contend side by side for the faith of the gospel. They themselves had believed the gospel, and the aim of their witness was to bring others to the same belief. In the pursuit of this aim they had to reckon with powerful and unremitting opposition; hence the call for strenuous action.
Paul would welcome the opportunity of paying them a visit and seeing them in action—and sharing in their action too. But if a visit were excluded, then he still hoped to know that they were standing firm together against all opposition and bearing a united witness. It does not sound as if he expected to be executed within the next few weeks: he was prepared for the possibility of execution but expresses himself as one who expected to be around for some time yet.
1:28 / The opposition that they had to face came most probably from outside their community. It has been argued indeed by one or two scholars that Paul refers to “opponents who have made their way into the church and had some influence there” (Marxsen, Introduction, p. 62). J.-F. Collange (ad loc.) thinks “more precisely of itinerant Jewish-Christian preachers whom Paul takes to task more violently in 3:2ff.” But the present context (especially vv. 29 and 30) would indicate rather that the Philippian Christians were now facing the same kind of opposition that Paul himself faced when he was among them—opposition from their pagan neighbors, and not least from the authorities.
The presence of opposition, Paul assures them, shows that they are on the right path in their active gospel witness. It is a token of salvation to them, as it is a token of perdition for their opponents: they will be destroyed, but … you will be saved. God is the author of the gospel: those who defend it may therefore expect deliverance and victory from him as surely as those who resist it may expect to incur his judgment. Much the same thought finds fuller expression in 2 Thessalonians 1:5–10.
Contend for the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you, says Paul (using a verb that is specially applied to the shying of a scared horse); face them with united steadfastness, and this is a sign to them that they are in the wrong and can make no headway against you. Paul himself had been a persecutor once and could recall the steadfastness of those whom he attacked. If at the time it had seemed to him to be obstinacy rather than steadfastness, yet after his conversion he could look back and appreciate it for what it really was—evidence of the power of Christ enabling them to maintain their faith unimpaired and evidence that he himself was, albeit in all good conscience, fighting a losing battle against God.
1:29 / They had come to believe in Christ through hearing the gospel, and for that they might well be grateful to God. Did they realize that they might well be grateful to him also for granting them the opportunity to suffer for Christ? Did they regard such suffering as a privilege, a special favor for which God was to be thanked? That was how Paul viewed his own sufferings in the service of Christ. The risen Lord said concerning him to Ananias of Damascus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16), and Paul experienced the fulfillment of this prediction. But he embraced his sufferings as his share in the sufferings of Christ (Phil. 3:10); his desire indeed was that his share might be greater so that the share of his fellow believers might be less (2 Cor. 1:3–7; Col. 1:24). Nor was Paul the only one in the apostolic age to appreciate being granted the privilege to suffer for him; it is recorded that the original apostles, after being beaten by sentence of the Sanhedrin, were “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41). If the Philippians could view their own sufferings in this light, their joy would be the greater.
1:30 / The encouragement that Paul gave his friends was the more acceptable because it did not come from one who had no personal experience of suffering for Christ’s sake. In the catalogue of apostolic hardships that he draws up in 2 Corinthians 11:23–27, he mentions that three times he was “beaten with rods” (2 Cor. 11:25), once in Philippi (Acts 16:22, 23); and his friends in Philippi could remember it well. That is how he can remind them of the struggle you saw I had. Christian life to him was a conflict, a conflict waged against spiritual enemies (Eph. 6:12), but waged with divine assistance. It is the same word (Gk. agōn) that he used at the end of his career when he spoke of himself as having “fought the good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7). You remember how I suffered imprisonment in your own city, Paul tells them in effect; I am now suffering imprisonment in the city where I am, and in Rome, as then in Philippi, I am a prisoner for Christ’s sake. I am still fighting the same struggle, as you see. And now, I hear, you are fighting it too; it is the same struggle for you and for me. You are sharing in my ministry not only by your gospel witness but also by your endurance of affliction in the cause of the gospel.
We do not know what precise form was taken by the persecution to which the Philippian Christians were currently exposed. Paul had no need to enter into particulars that they knew only too well. What mattered was the spirit in which they accepted persecution.
1:27 / Conduct yourselves: Gk. politeuesthe (imperative), “live as citizens,” then (more generally) “live as members of a community.” The verb was one that would be readily understood by residents in a Roman colony. Polycarp uses it in writing to the Philippian church of his day (5:2): “if we live as citizens [politeusōmetha] in a manner worthy of him” (K. Lake translates: “if we are worthy citizens of his community”). It occurs in only one other place in NT—Acts 23:1 (in telling the Sanhedrin how he has “fulfilled his duty to God … to this day” Paul may have some regard to his life as a member of the people of Israel). Cf. the noun politeuma in 3:20, with exposition and note ad loc. See R. R. Brewer, “The Meaning of politeuesthe in Philippians 1:27,” JBL 73 (1954), pp. 76–83.
Worthy [axiōs] of the gospel of Christ: For the adverb axiōs with politeuesthai, cf. Polycarp (To the Philippians 5:2) quoted in preceding note. It is used with peripatein (“live a life”) in Eph. 4:1 (“worthy of the calling you have received”); Col. 1:10 (“worthy of the Lord”); 1 Thess. 2:12 (“worthy of God”).
I will know: lit., “hear” [Gk. akouō], W. Schmithals (Paul and the Gnostics, p. 69) infers from this that Paul must have heard that all was not well in the Philippian church with regard to concord and worthy behavior and compares his “I hear” in 1 Cor. 11:18 (cf. 1 Cor. 1:11). But there is no comparison between akouō here (present subjunctive in a clause of purpose) and akouō in 1 Cor. 11:18 (present indicative). Paul had recently heard (from Epaphroditus) about the state of the Philippian church; but he had good reason to hope that what he would see for himself (if he could pay them a visit) or hear about them (at a distance) would fill him with satisfaction.
In one spirit: (Gk. en heni pneumati). It is unlikely that the reference here is to the one Spirit of God (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4) in view of the parallel phrase as one [person], lit. “with one soul” (mia psychē). The verb stand firm is repeated (in the imperative) in 4:1, and contending in 4:3. Paul likes to describe gospel witness in military and athletic terms.
For the faith of the gospel: Gk. tē pistei tou euangeliou, which J. B. Lightfoot renders “in concert with the faith of the gospel,” taking the dative as governed by the prefix syn in synathlountes (contending) and understanding the faith as objective, equivalent to “the teaching of the gospel”—an improbable interpretation. M. Dibelius takes the phrase to mean “the faith which is the gospel.” More probably it is either the believing response to the gospel (tou euangeliou being then objective genitive) or the believing response which the gospel urges its hearers to make (tou euangeliou being subjective genitive)—there is no practical difference between these two.
1:28 / Without being frightened: Gk. mē ptyromenoi. The verb occurs only here in the Greek Bible. It is found almost always in the passive and, apart from its use in reference to shying horses, means “let oneself be intimidated.”
This is a sign: lit., “which is a proof” (Gk. hētis estin … endeixis). For endeixis cf. Rom. 3:25, 26; 2 Cor. 8:24; but the closest parallel in sense to its present occurrence is endeigma in 2 Thess. 1:5 (where also the reference is to Christians’ endurance of persecution as a proof of coming relief for them and of coming judgment for their persecutors). It is not immediately clear what is the antecedent of the relative pronoun hētis (which is attracted in gender and number to endeixis). NIV takes it to be the Philippians’ not being frightened; G. B. Caird (ad loc.) takes it to be “the unflinching unity of the church in the face of persecution.” These two suggestions are not mutually exclusive; the Philippians’ united and courageous refusal to be intimidated should convey its own message to their opponents.
And that by God: Gk. kai touto apo theou, “and this from God.” What is “this”? The proof (endeixis), says J. B. Lightfoot: “it is a direct indication from God.” This is probably right (so also G. B. Caird).
1:29 / It has been granted to you: Gk. hymin echaristhē—as an act of grace (charis). For another instance of the verb charizesthai see 2:9, of God’s granting to Christ the name high over all.
On behalf of Christ: lit., “for Christ’s sake” (to hyper Christou, where the article to anticipates its two following occurrences before the infinitives pisteuein, “believe,” and paschein, “suffer.”
1:30 / The same struggle. Gk. ton auton agōna. In 1 Thess. 2:2 Paul and his associates speak of their preaching the gospel at Thessalonica en pollō agōni, “in much conflict” (NIV: “strong opposition”). See V. C. Pfitzner, Paul and the Agon Motif: Traditional Athletic Imagery in the Pauline Literature, NovTSup 16; also E. Güttgemanns, Der leidende Apostel und sein Herr.