Additional Notes §31
§31 Appreciation of Earlier Gifts (Phil. 4:14–17)
Paul remembers with gratitude the Philippian Christians’ kindness to him in the period immediately following their conversion.
4:14 / If the Philippian readers got the impression that some modern commentators get, that Paul is saying, “Thank you for your gift, but it really wasn’t necessary,” Paul removes any impression of ungraciousness on his part by assuring them again of his grateful appreciation. They had renewed their kindness both by helping him financially and by sharing his troubles. By his troubles he means primarily his current imprisonment; in showing him practical fellowship in that situation they were also showing him practical fellowship in the apostolic ministry that he continued to discharge in spite of his current restrictions.
4:15 / By sending him a gift now they were repeating earlier acts of kindness. They did not need Paul’s reminder of these: but it was encouraging for them to realize that Paul still recalled their kindness with gratitude.
In the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel (lit., “in the beginning of the gospel”): NIV makes it plain that this phrase does not refer to the beginning of Paul’s apostleship but to the beginning of the Philippians’ Christian experience and participation in the gospel enterprise.
At that time, Paul says, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, which might be taken to mean their giving and his receiving. But the phrase may be drawn from the vocabulary of accountancy (cf. 3:7, 8).
The time he has in mind was the difficult period after he set out from Macedonia, more particularly, probably, after he had settled in Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 11:8, 9 he says to the Corinthian Christians, “I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed.” There is probably a further reference to this help in Acts 18:5, where Silas (Silvanus) and Timothy return from Macedonia and join Paul in Corinth, enabling him to “devote himself exclusively to preaching,” instead of spending part of his time in tentmaking as he had done for the first few weeks after his arrival in Corinth. Both in 2 Corinthians 11:8, 9 and in Acts 18:5 “Macedonia” implies pre-eminently Philippi. (The context of the former passage makes it plain that, even if help had not come from Macedonia, Paul would not have asked the Corinthian church for any.)
4:16 / Indeed, he adds, even before he left Macedonia, while he was in Thessalonica (to which he and his companions went immediately after their departure from Philippi), they sent him aid to meet his needs. The question arises whether the phrase again and again refers to the period of his stay in Thessalonica (which is how NIV and most other versions understand it) or to the time after that. The sentence might be rendered: “Both (when I was) in Thessalonica and more than once (in other places) you sent me (something) for my need.” This rendering would cover what he had received from them in Corinth as well as in Thessalonica.
In writing to the Thessalonian Christians, Paul and his associates remind them how they “worked night and day” while they were with them so as to earn their own livelihood and not be chargeable to their converts (1 Thess. 2:9), “nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it” (2 Thess. 3:8). Why is no mention made there of support that Paul at least received from Philippi while he was still in Thessalonica? Perhaps the gift from Philippi was not enough to remove completely the need for manual labor in Thessalonica; it may be, too, that Paul and his friends did not wish to embarrass the Thessalonian Christians by mentioning gifts received from Christians elsewhere. In writing as he did in 2 Corinthians 11:8, 9, Paul felt it necessary to induce in the Corinthian Christians a salutary sense of shame; there was no such necessity with regard to the Thessalonian Christians—quite the contrary.
4:17 / Once more, Paul cannot remain content with thanking the Philippians for their gift. He emphasizes that he is grateful not simply because they sent it to him but also because their sending it is a token of heavenly grace in their lives and, so to speak, a deposit in the bank of heaven that will multiply at compound interest to their advantage. They meant Paul to be the gainer from their generosity, and so indeed he is; but on the spiritual plane the permanent gain will be theirs.
4:14 / It was good of you: Gk. kalōs epoiēsate, “you did well.” Cf. Acts 10:33, kalōs epoiēsas paragenomenos, “it was good of you to come” (NIV) or “thank you for coming.” As in the past tense kalōs poiein conveys the sense of “thank you,” so in the future it expresses a request: “please” (as in 3 John 6, “You will do well, kalōs poiēseis, to send them on their way”).
4:15 / You Philippians: the vocative Philippēsioi has a form based on Latin Philippenses, as was appropriate for citizens of a Roman colony. With this vocative compare “Galatians” in Gal. 3:1 and “Corinthians” in 2 Cor. 6:11, where bewilderment and exhortation are respectively intended; here nothing is intended but affectionate gratitude.
In the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel: M. J. Suggs, “Concerning the Date of Paul’s Macedonian Ministry,” NovT 4 (1960), pp. 60–68, following the literal sense “in the beginning of the gospel,” dates the evangelization of Macedonia in the early 40s, which would have been a fairly early stage of Paul’s apostolic ministry, but there are serious obstacles in the way of accepting this dating.
4:16 / Again and again: Gk. kai hapax kai dis, lit., “both once and twice,” an idiomatic expression for “more than once”; cf. L. Morris, “Kai hapax kai dis,” NovT 1 (1956), pp. 203–8. It occurs also in 1 Thess. 2:18. For the view that the phrase does not have exclusive reference to Paul’s visit to Thessalonica see the same article by L. Morris (p. 208) and R. P. Martin, ad loc.
4:17 / What may be credited to your account: Gk. karpos, “fruit,” perhaps meaning “interest” (if so, Paul continues to use the language of accountancy, and the accompanying participle, pleonazonta, “multiplying” rather than credited, may suggest that the interest is compound).