Philippians 1:3-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I thank my God upon every remembrance Or mention, as μνεια equally signifies; of you Whether before the throne of grace, or when conversing with my fellow-Christians. The clause may also be rendered, I thank my God for all your kind remembrance of me, namely, (as he partly at least means,) with respect to the supplies they had sent him. Always in every prayer of mine He never failed, it seems, to pray for the churches when he prayed for himself; making request That God would bestow on you an increase of every spiritual blessing; with joy Joy peculiarly enlivens prayer. As love reigns in the epistle to the Ephesians, so does joy reign in this; the sum of the whole epistle being, I rejoice; rejoice ye. For your fellowship in the gospel That you have united with us in embracing the gospel, and are joint partakers with us of its blessings; and so have fellowship also with all true Christians; from the first day Of my preaching it among you; though soon attended with violent persecution, even with the scourging and imprisonment of myself and my fellow- labourer; and that you have persevered in the profession thereof from the time that you first embraced it. Or, the meaning may be, I thank God for your having received the gospel, from the first day of your receiving it until now. Being confident (and the grounds of his confidence are mentioned in the following verse) that he who hath begun a good work in you Who hath not only done a good work for you, in justifying you, and giving you peace with himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1,) but has wrought a good work in you; in your minds and hearts, by enlightening and quickening, regenerating and renewing you after his image, Titus 3:5: or, in beginning to sanctify you; will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Will carry it on till it come to perfection, and, at the second coming of Christ, issue in glory. Even as it is meet Δικαιον, just, reasonable; for me to think this of you all To have this good opinion and confidence. Why? He does not say, because of an eternal decree, or because the saints must of necessity persevere; but, because I have you in my heart I affectionately remember you; inasmuch as both in my bonds In this my imprisonment; and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel In what I do and suffer for its defence and confirmation; ye all are partakers of my grace That is, you have manifested that you possess the same grace that I myself have, in that you have done and suffered the same things which I have done and suffered. Or, as the clause may mean, because you are sharers in the afflictions which God hath vouch-safed me as a grace or favour. In other words, It is just or reasonable for me to think this concerning you all, (namely, that you will continue in the grace of God,) because you have been and are joint partakers with me, both of grace and of the sufferings by which grace is tried and manifested: or, The sufferings you have endured, and the things you have done, have manifested both the reality and the greatness of your grace; and therefore I cannot doubt of your perseverance. For God To whom I appeal for the truth of what I say; is my record Bears me witness; how greatly I long after you all How vehemently I love you, or long after your prosperity, in spiritual things; in the bowels of Jesus Christ With such a sincere, fervent, and spiritual love as has been wrought in me by Christ, and resembles that love which he bears to his members. In Paul, not Paul lives, but Jesus Christ; therefore he longs for them with the bowels, the tenderness, not of Paul, but of Jesus Christ.