as it is righteous for me to think this as to you all, because ye have *me* in your hearts, and that both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the glad tidings ye are all participators in my grace.
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
Paul writes this from prison in Rome, thanking a group of believers who had just sent him help. Here he says why his confidence in them was right, not just hopeful. They had shared his chains, his defence of the gospel, and the grace that carried him through both.
The occasion behind the words
One writer sets out what lay behind these warm words:
Paul was in prison. The Philippians were very dear to him, and early in his work they had shown their affection by gifts like this one. Now they had sent help to him through Epaphroditus, at a moment when, it seems, he had been in need for some time. A prison, need, the knowledge that the assembly of God was left without his watchful care, and this love from the Philippians that thought of him in his need though he was far away — what could open the apostle's heart better?
Why it was right
Paul calls his confidence about them right. One writer weighs that word, and the emphatic "me":
Now we will see the reason for this confidence. It was not only that love hopes all things: it was the only right and just thing for Paul to think. The "me" is emphatic. Whatever it might be in the eyes of others, for Paul it was the only right thing. And does this "right" apply to more than his confidence? Does it not include the apostle's thankfulness in verse 3, and his joy in verse 4, every time he remembered them?
Whose heart holds whom
The wording can be read two ways. One writer leaves the choice open on purpose:
The answer may be rendered either "Because you have me in your heart," or "Because I have you in my heart." Which did the Spirit of God intend the Philippians to understand? We do not know. But perhaps, since both are true and the words may mean both, the Spirit intended them to understand it in both ways.
Chains are the test
Standing with a preacher while he succeeds is easy. Standing with him in jail is another matter, and that is the real test:
They shared in the confirmation of the gospel, seen in the wonderful results it produced. They shared too in its defence against every enemy, and in the chains that held the ambassador. Many are eager to share in the confirmation, and perhaps in the defence, who are not so eager when chains and suffering come into view. Chains are the test. A readiness to share them proves the work of God within more surely than much learning in Christian doctrine.
They could have drawn the obvious conclusion about a man behind bars. They drew the opposite one:
They were throwing themselves, heart and soul, into the activities and sufferings of the grace of God in the apostle. Did his chains make them ashamed or suspicious? To have a friend in jail was never of good report. Did they begin to say to themselves, He must have been doing something wrong because he is a prisoner? On the contrary, seeing that the apostle Paul had come into the deepest suffering, they looked on it as the highest honour.
Defence and confirmation: two sides of one work
The two words describe one task from two directions:
The defence is the negative, defensive side. The confirmation is the positive, forward-pressing side. The gospel has both sides: not only its defence, but also the direct establishing and advancing of it. The Philippians were fellow-partners in both. And they were fellow-partners of this grace. Grace is favour — free, unearned favour. These saints were favoured with a part in the gospel, and favoured too with a part in Paul's chains.
Partakers of grace
They shared the grace that held Paul up, and they did it by sending money:
Now they had sent him a little money. He calls it fruit acceptable and well-pleasing to God, because they gave it in the interest of Christ's gospel. It was a great thing to say of them: by helping him, the man set apart for the gospel, they shared in his grace. They might not be able to understand all the apostle's teaching, and many of them did not. But their fellowship in sending him money let the apostle connect them with the grace that worked in him to advance Christ's interests on earth.
That shared grace is why their faith held:
They willingly shared in the same grace that sustained him in all these things. They too stood firm for the gospel. What is real will absolutely endure, for it is God's work.
Summary
- Grace given. The grace that held Paul in prison was the grace the Philippians shared — the very same supply, not a lesser one.
- Grace held. That grace showed itself as love. The words can mean Paul holds them or they hold him, and both are true.
- Grace tested. Many will share the gospel's successes. Sharing a friend's chains is the surer proof of God's work within.
- Grace at work. It guards the gospel against attack and drives it forward: defence and confirmation, one task with two sides.
- Grace that lasts. The work is God's, so it endures. Paul's confidence was not optimism but the only just view.