If we study carefully the opening thanksgivings and prayers of St. Paul’s Epistles, we may note that he always thanks God for what is strong in the Church to which he writes, and prays God for the supply of that in which it is weak. Here he thanks God for the characteristic enthusiasm and large-heartedness of the Philippians; he prays for their advance in knowledge, perception, judgment — the more intellectual and thoughtful side of the Christian character — in which they, and perhaps the Macedonian Churches generally, were less conspicuous. In the opposite case of the Corinthian Church (see 1 Corinthians 1:4-10), he thanks God for their richness in all utterance and all knowledge, but he bids them “wait” for Him who shall “establish them as blameless,” and exhorts them to unity and humility.
(9-11) In this sentence, the original shows that there is not the three-fold parallelism which our version would suggest. St. Paul’s immediate prayer is that “their love may abound in knowledge and all judgment.” To this is subjoined, as an immediate consequence, “the proving the things that are excellent.” The final result of the knowledge and judgment so applied, is “that they may be sincere and without offence.”