Additional Notes §14
§14 Timothy’s Forthcoming Visit (Phil. 2:19–24)
In 2:19–30 we have a section that has been called the “apostolic parousia” or “travelogue.” Paul announces his intention of paying his readers a visit before long (v. 24) but plans to send Timothy in advance of himself.
2:19 / I hope in the Lord Jesus, in which “in the Lord Jesus” may have the same “incorporative” force as similar phrases with “in” have elsewhere in Paul (cf. 1:14, 26). Paul and Timothy, as fellow Christians, participate in the risen life of Christ. Their hopes and plans are formed in the light of their union with Christ; it might almost be said that “the Lord Jesus” constitutes the sphere in which Paul and his colleagues act and think (cf. v. 24, “I am confident in the Lord”).
Paul hopes, then, to send Timothy to them soon—not immediately, it appears, but when the outcome of his trial is clearer (cf. v. 23). But, while his Philippian friends would doubtless be glad to have news of him, he was anxious to have news of them, and would take courage when it arrived. The news that he hoped to receive would reassure him that they were united in heart and purpose, able to repel threats to their Christian faith and life no matter from which quarter they came. Although the future was uncertain, he expected not only to be spared but to live long enough for Timothy to make the journey to Philippi and come back to him with news from there.
Timothy was frequently sent by Paul as his messenger, and this mission need not be identified with one mentioned elsewhere. He sent Timothy to Thessalonica from Athens (1 Thess. 3:1–5) and to Corinth from Ephesus (1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10, 11). The latter mission could have coincided with that recorded in Acts 19:22, when he sent Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia from Ephesus. Those who hold that Philippians was sent from Ephesus might identify the present mission with that of Acts 19:22; but there is no hint in Acts that Paul was at that time in custody or awaiting the outcome of a trial.
It is best to infer that Timothy had joined Paul in Rome and was again available to be sent here or there as Paul’s messenger.
2:20 / When Paul says about Timothy that I have no one else like him he uses a word quite similar to that which he used in verse 2 when he urged his readers to be “one in soul.” Here is a man who is “one in spirit” or “equal in soul” with Paul himself. Paul found Timothy to be an entirely congenial and sympathetic colleague, but here he thinks of one particular aspect of Timothy’s character that strikes a responsive chord in himself: Timothy shares Paul’s feelings in that he takes a genuine interest in the Philippian Christians’ welfare. Paul has encouraged them to look out for “the interests of others”; these words of his will be reinforced by Timothy’s example when he visits them. They probably held a special place in Timothy’s affection, as he had been in Philippi when the gospel was first preached and the church first planted there.
2:21 / Even among the Christians with whom Paul was in touch at the time of writing, there were too many who put their own interests before those of others, or were more concerned about their own interests than about those of Jesus Christ. There were some indeed in Rome at the time who were preaching the gospel “in love” (1:16), but of all those who were available to Paul as messengers none was so free from self-centeredness as Timothy. For Timothy, as for Paul, the cause of Jesus Christ was bound up with the well-being of his people.
2:22 / You know: Timothy had been a member of the group that first came to Philippi with the gospel. There and elsewhere he had proved his worth as the apostle’s aide-de-camp.
Paul himself had special cause to appreciate Timothy’s unselfish nature. The qualities that recommended Timothy to Paul as a suitable companion and trusted representative in his apostolic ministry were qualities that might well have worked for his personal advantage had he decided to exploit them to further his own career. One can only guess the ambitions Timothy might have begun to cherish in his mind when Paul visited his home in Lystra and persuaded him to be his associate and helper. A year or two earlier Paul had been disappointed in another young man, John Mark of Jerusalem, who bade farewell to Barnabas and himself in the course of a missionary journey and went back home (Acts 13:13; 15:38). Timothy was an equally gifted young man, but Paul discerned in him the promise of greater stability, and he was not disappointed in him. Perhaps Timothy was captivated in part by the magnetism of Paul’s powerful friendliness: even so, it was an act of no mean self-denial on his part to leave home and abandon other prospects to share the uncertainties and dangers of Paul’s way of life. Paul greatly valued the devotion of one whom he describes as “my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord” (1 Cor. 4:17). All the service a son could render to a father Timothy performed for Paul; all the affection a father could feel for his son Paul lavished on Timothy, as Timothy has served with me in the work of the gospel. “He has served with me as a slave,” says Paul (in the literal rendering of his words here)—not Paul’s slave, of course, but Christ’s (cf. 1:1).
2:23 / As soon as he knows how things go with him, then, he will send Timothy to visit them. The result of the trial would probably become sufficiently evident some time before judgment was finally pronounced.
2:24 / And Paul is confident enough about the outcome to be confident in the Lord that he himself will soon be at liberty and able to visit them. The phrase in the Lord has much the same force as “in the Lord Jesus” in verse 19. There is no means of knowing whether Paul’s confident hope of seeing them soon was realized or not.
2:19 / The designations “travelogue” and “apostolic parousia” have both been suggested for such a section as Phil. 2:19–30 by R. W. Funk—the former in Language, Hermeneutic and Word of God, pp. 264–74, and the latter in “The Apostolic Parousia: Form and Significance,” in W. R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, and R. R. Niebuhr, eds., Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox, pp. 249–68. In vv. 19–24 three characteristic features of the “apostolic parousia” appear: (a) dispatch of an emissary, with name, credentials, and purpose; (b) benefit accruing to Paul from the sending of the emissary; (c) announcement of personal visit.
I hope in the Lord Jesus (Gk. en kyriō Iēsou): see additional note on 1:14.
2:20 / Timothy is here described as isopsychos, “equal in soul” (cf. the exhortation in v. 2 to the Philippians to be sympsychoi, “together in soul”). In Ps. 55 (LXX 54):13 the psalmist’s “companion” and “close friend” is called isopsychos, rendering Heb. ke’erkî, “my equal” (lit., “according to my valuation”). Erasmus paraphrases the present passage, “I will send him as my alter ego.” G. B. Caird (ad loc.) suggests that there is much to be said for taking isopsychos to mean “in sympathy with your [the Philippians’] outlook.”
Who takes a genuine interest in your welfare: this was no doubt true, but the verb is future (Gk. merimnēsei, “will care”) and refers to practical help that Timothy will willingly give them when he visits them. The adverb genuine (gnēsiōs) reminds one of Paul’s use of the corresponding adjective in 1 Tim. 1:2 where Timothy is addressed as his “true [gnēsios, ‘true born’] son in the faith.” “Timothy is a legitimate son, the sole authorized representative of the apostle” (J.-F. Collange, ad loc.)
2:21 / Everyone looks out for his own interests: (Gk. hoi pantes … ta heautōn zētousin). It is not quite clear who “everyone” refers to; see R. Jewett’s view mentioned in additional note on 1:17. But it would have called for an exceptional share of Timothy’s devotion (both to Paul and to the Philippians) for anyone else to undertake on Paul’s behalf a forty days’ journey on foot to Philippi and another forty days’ journey back. See G. B. Caird (ad loc.).
2:24 / I am confident in the Lord: Gk. pepoitha … en kyriō. Cf. the perfect participle pepoithōs in 1:6, 14, 25. For in the Lord cf. 1:14 and additional note on that verse.
That I myself will come soon: according to G. B. Caird, “he cannot have had much confidence in his release, or would not have needed to send Timothy” (ad loc.). But he sent Timothy from Ephesus to Corinth in advance of himself (1 Cor. 4:17, 19) when there was no prospect of force majeure to prevent his own going there in due course.