Philippians 1:29,30 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For unto you it is given Εχαρισθη, it is granted as a favour, in the behalf of Christ, on account of his merits and intercession, and for the promotion of his cause and interest, not only to believe on him, (faith itself, as well as Christ and his truth, the objects of it, being the free gift of God,) but also to suffer for his sake This, as well as your faith, and the blessings which you receive by faith, is granted you as a special token of God's love to you, and of your being in the way of salvation. The apostle wished the Philippians to consider their sufferings for Christ as an honour, and an important means of good, and to rejoice in them. Thus it is said of Peter and John, Acts 5:41; They departed from the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Having the same kind of conflict with your adversaries. The word αγωνα, here rendered conflict, is the general name by which the Greeks expressed all the different combats in their games. And because in these contests the contenders struggled long and hard for victory, the word was applied to express any sort of trial or trouble, to which men exposed themselves in the course of their pursuits: which ye saw in me when I was with you, Acts 16:12-19, &c. For the apostle seems principally to allude to the conflict which he sustained at Philippi, on account of the damsel out of whom he had cast the spirit of divination, and whose masters got him scourged, and put in the stocks. Besides this, however, on his second coming to Philippi, after his long residence at Ephesus, he suffered other afflictions, of which the Philippians also were witnesses, 2 Corinthians 7:5. And now hear to be in me It seems the Philippians had received an account from some of the brethren, who had come from Rome to Philippi, of the apostle's present conflict with the unbelieving Jews, the Judaizing teachers, and the heathen magistrates. A similar conflict the Philippians themselves sustained, being persecuted for the gospel, and their bitterest persecutors being their own countrymen.