for also in Thessalonica once and even twice ye sent to me for my need.
Paul writes from prison to thank the church at Philippi, and he reaches back years to do it: while he was still in Macedonia, they had already sent help twice. That memory raises a large question — what does it look like when a church takes real responsibility for the person who brought it the gospel?
Start with how little time there was.
As far as we know, Paul was only in Thessalonica for a short time. It may have been just three weeks, though we cannot be sure. But at least twice in that short time, the believers in Philippi sent gifts to him.
What stands out is the timing. They did not wait until they could send something impressive.
Poor as they were, they clearly understood Paul's need and felt it deeply. They sent to him as soon as they could. They did not hold back until they could raise a bigger amount; they sent what they had as they got it. This is typical of the poor who love the Lord.
One writer aims the point straight at readers who have little to give:
I have no doubt that every one of these gifts was a sacrifice — but they were "sacrifices of joy." And they, in their deep poverty, were the only ones making these sacrifices... You do not need wealth to be generous... The apostle gladly accepted the gifts of the Philippian believers, though he would accept nothing from the wealthy Corinthians.
The New Testament has a word for this kind of giving: fellowship. It comes from ordinary business life, and it changes how we read the gift.
The Greek word for it comes from the word used for "partners" in Luke 5:10. James and John were partners with Simon in the fishing business... When Paul was preaching in Thessalonica and the believers in Philippi sent him gifts, they were sharing jointly in the gospel — "fellowship in the gospel."
How they gave mattered as much as what they gave.
Galatians 6:6 says, "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches." In the letter to the Philippians we have a lovely example of how a church cared for the apostle Paul from the very first. He had only just left them when a love-gift reached him at Thessalonica to meet his need... This was no cold, formal matter of putting so much into the money-box each week for workers nobody knew, or giving so much into a ministers' fund. The church carried the worker's need on their heart, and their own messenger delivered the gift.
Years later Paul can still name the city and count the times they gave.
Love never forgets; it stores up acts of service. The apostle kept in his memory every way they had cared for him. God delights in service done to His saints.
Paul at once turns the credit away from himself and onto them.
With them it was no case of "out of sight, out of mind." They had kept him in their hearts while he was away. This touched him deeply — though, as he assures them, "not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit."
The gift arrived in Thessalonica, where believers were living right beside Paul and had not yet learned to do this themselves.
It may well seem strange to us, reading these words, that the Thessalonians were so slow to recognise and claim one of their highest privileges. The same witness records their "work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." So let us not only wonder as we read; let us learn. The lesson is for us. The grace they once lacked was given to them later.
- Partners, not donors. The word for fellowship is the word for business partners. Their money made them joint participants in Paul's work.
- Poverty gave first. They were the poor ones, and they were the only ones giving. Generosity does not wait for wealth.
- Speed over size. They sent as soon as they had something, twice inside a very short stay, instead of waiting to gather a larger sum.
- Personal, not institutional. Their own messenger carried the gift to a man whose need they held on their hearts. It was not coins dropped in a box for strangers.
- Credited, not consumed. Paul remembered every gift. He wanted it counted as fruit to their credit, not as relief for himself.
Not that I seek gift, but I seek fruit abounding to your account.
Paul thanks the church at Philippi for a gift of money, but he turns the thanks around: he wants the fruit that increases to their credit, not the gift in his hands. So what is this "fruit," and when does the credit get paid?
Why mention their gift at all? One writer answers, and meets the suspicion that thanks is a way of asking for more:
For no personal end did he mention their grace. It was not that he wanted more. We know well that, as men have said sarcastically, gratitude is a kind of fishing for fresh favours. There was the very reverse in Paul's case. As he tells them, fruit that might abound to their account was all that his heart really yearned after.
Another writer sets this beside something Paul wrote elsewhere:
In another place Paul wrote, "I seek not what is yours but you" (2 Corinthians 12:14). No one could ever accuse the apostle of covetousness. Paul valued the gift deeply. He rejoiced greatly that their care for him had bloomed again. And we may suppose the gift was much needed. Still, it was not the gift that Paul sought, or that so gladdened his heart. It was the fruit abounding to the account of his dear Philippian brothers.
One writer marks what separates fruit from works:
We must notice the difference between works and fruit. Works make us think of our own doing. Fruit makes us think of another power within. That power draws its strength from the sunshine, the ground and the air, and forms these things into the "precious fruits of the earth." … And the fruit grows, without noise or labour on our part, by an unseen power within.
One translator reads the verse as a banking picture of principal and interest:
Bishop Moule translates this part: "Not that I am in quest of (almost, 'I am hunting for') the gift, the mere sum of money in and for itself. But I am in quest of the interest that is accumulating to your account." In a note he adds: "I venture to render these words as a monetary phrase, relating to principal and interest." He adds that Chrysostom, a Greek, seemed to understand it this way.
When does the account pay out? One writer points to a day still ahead:
Paul again disclaims all personal aims, and he does it with the day of God in view. He would have them know that his own joy and glory in that day would be in proportion to theirs. So for this faithful steward of God's mysteries, receiving their generosity now is a pledge of greater honour in that day for them. Under his training they had learned so well to imitate the ways of God.
The two accounts can run in opposite directions:
Some have large sums to their credit down here. But as regards their account in Heaven they are desperately poor. They have little or no fruit stored up there. They may find that their toil has produced "nothing but leaves."
The fruit has a further aim than the giver's account:
Let us not forget that the fruit was to be "to the glory and praise of God." Our Lord said the same to the disciples: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit." It was in the very matter of giving that the Apostle wrote, "Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." So Paul was justified in seeking an abundance of fruit to their account.
- The account — Paul is not hunting the gift. He is watching a balance grow in the givers' name, "to the glory and praise of God."
- The deposit — not our own doing, but fruit. An unseen power within grows it.
- The interest — read as a banking phrase, Paul wants the interest piling up on their account, not the money in his hand.
- The pay-out — at the day of God. His joy and glory there will be in proportion to theirs.
- The risk — rich down here, near-empty above: toil that produced nothing but leaves.
But I have all things in full supply and abound; I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things [sent] from you, an odour of sweet savour, an acceptable sacrifice, agreeable to God.
Paul is a prisoner in Rome. He thanks the believers at Philippi for the money and supplies they sent, then hands the gift up to God as an offering. What turns help sent to a friend in need into a sacrifice God calls fragrant?
Paul piles up words instead of settling for one. One of them can even be read as a business term.
Notice the variety of words the Apostle uses for how richly his beloved brothers from Philippi supplied him. I think there are five different words here to tell out the bounty and the fullness. The word translated "I have to the full" may mean just what we take it to mean here. Or it may be a technical term used on a receipt, meaning "Received Payment." If "all things" follows, as here, it means "Received Payment in full." But I do not suppose Paul is using it in this technical sense here. And it is not enough for Paul to say, "I have all things to the full." That tells us his cup is full. But he goes on: "and I am running over."
The gift did not arrive by itself. Paul names the man who carried it, and the errand nearly cost him his life.
Epaphroditus brought supplies from Philippi to Paul, who calls him "my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier." While with Paul at Rome he became very ill, "near to death." His sorrow that the Philippian believers had heard of his sickness shows the deep affection between them. He risked his life by his link with Paul, a prisoner.
The words Paul chooses are not new. They already appear elsewhere in Scripture.
The whole thing pictures one of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, perhaps Noah's sacrifice when he came out of the ark. Paul describes the Philippian believers' "sacrifice" with the very same words the Greek Old Testament uses for Noah's: "a fragrant offering." The Greek Old Testament uses those same words for the "pleasing aroma" offerings in Leviticus, as in Lev. 1:17. The same two words appear again in Eph. 5:2, used of our Lord Jesus Christ, who "loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." That is what the gift of these dear Philippian believers was to God. Paul almost forgets that it was given to him. He thinks of it only as given to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And Paul was right, for the Lord said, "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
Not every gift counts as a sacrifice. Something has to be true of the giver first.
But remember: mere giving would not make the gift a sacrifice — giving reluctantly, for example, or only because someone pressed for it. As in the sacrifice of praise, the giver must present the gift through Christ, to God, in the power of the Spirit. Only such gifts can be called "a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God."
What the Philippians sent was money. That is what makes God's verdict on it so striking.
Their gift to him was "a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." What a God is ours, to treat this way the thing tied to this world that Christ Himself calls "unrighteous wealth"! His goodness can take it up and make it fragrant even to Himself.
By the world's measure, a parcel sent to a prisoner counts for little. God uses a different scale.
By the world's standards it may have been small. But it was of immeasurable value to God, because the Spirit of Christ produced it… Nothing that carries the fragrance of Christ can be small or of slight value to God. The widow's "two small copper coins" have reached every place where the fragrance of His name is made known (Luke 21:2-4). To use the language of men, may we not say that God's attention is caught wherever He detects even a faint trace of the fragrance of His Son produced by His grace?
- Received — Paul's first words settle the account: he has all things to the full, and then he is running over. His cup is full before he says anything else.
- Redirected — He does not stop with the senders. He treats their parcel as something handed up to God, not just handed over to him.
- Recognised — The wording comes from the altar. Noah's offering, the "pleasing aroma" offerings in Leviticus, and Christ giving Himself in Ephesians 5:2 all carry it.
- Refined — The difference is not the sum but the source. Giving done reluctantly or under pressure is no sacrifice. The gift goes up through Christ, in the power of the Spirit.
- Rewarded — Even a faint trace of the fragrance of His Son catches God's attention. No gift that carries it is small to Him — a widow's two coins included.