Various · CHAPTER 1.

Verses 3, 4. 'I thank my God,' etc. There is a heartiness in the Apostle's language throughout this deeply interesting letter, which is felt from the outset by the attentive Christian reader. For Paul's remembrance of the saints at Philippi wore still unfadingly the bright colouring of that first love which so manifestly proved itself at the beginning of the Lord's work in that city, and his personal reminiscences had been confirmed by favourable mention made to him from time to time by others of their spiritual well-being. As often therefore as he thought of them, and bare them and their known condition, in the spirit of loving intercession, to the throne of grace, his first and ruling impulse was that of pure thanksgiving for what God had wrought. He prayed also, and that earnestly; for incessant prayer to God is the chief moral condition of all true spiritual progress; but the requests which he addressed to God, reflecting as these did what he felt to be the genuine desires of those on whose behalf he prayed, were such as to cause not anxiety, but joy only, to his soul. For that his spirit was in full accord with theirs at the time of his inditing this Epistle he felt thoroughly assured. The special cause, however, of this joy is declared more explicitly in what follows.