The apostle comforts the Philippians with the intimation that, if he cannot himself visit them, he will send them Timothy, who was already well known to them all.

I. HIS OBJECT IN SENDING TIMOTHY. It was twofold.

1. To comfort his own heart. "That I also may be of good heart, when I know your state." The apostle had a tender anxiety respecting the best beloved of all the Churches.

2. To give them guidance for Timothy was one who would "naturally care for their state" with an almost instinctive devotion to their interests.

II. HIS REASON FOR SENDING TIMOTHY IN PREFERENCE TO ANY OTHER.

1. They already known Timothy's devotion to the apostle and to the gospel of Christ. "But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child serveth a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the gospel." When the apostle was at Philippi, Timothy - "mine own son in the faith" - was his congenial assistant, obeying his counsel, and imitating his example, in everything that tended to the edification of the Church.

2. There was no other helper with the apostle at the time possessed of the same quick sympathy with their state as Timothy. "For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state: for they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ."

(1) The apostle contrasts Timothy with other preachers or evangelists, who sought their own advantage rather than the honor of Christ. He had had sad experience of alienation, halfheartedness, and selfishness in the very circle of the evangelistic companionship. A man's own things may be different from the things of Christ. The highest life is where our interests are identical with the interests of Christ. God will disappoint all other interests.

(2) He commends the anxious concern of Timothy on their behalf.

(a) It was a concern for their spiritual state.

(b) It was, as the word imports, an anxious care on their behalf, testifying at once to his own personal interest in their welfare and to his profound appreciation of the worth of immortal souls.

(c) It was a concern natural to one inheriting the interests and the affections of his spiritual father.

(d) It was implanted in his soul by the Lord himself; for it was with him as with Titus; "Thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus" (2 Corinthians 8:16). - T.C.

I. EVERY GOOD MINISTER FEELS A TENDER CONCERN FOR THE GOOD OF HIS PEOPLE. Every good minister is —

1. A good man; and therefore has a spirit of benevolence.

2. Has experienced a saving change, and is therefore anxious for the salvation of others.

3. Has grown in grace himself, and is consequently desirous to promote the spiritual good of others.

II. WHY THIS IS TRUE OF EVERY GOOD MINISTER. Because —

1. He realizes that God has committed the flock into his hands, and, for a time, suspended their present and future good upon his care and fidelity.

2. Because his people have committed themselves to his pastoral watch and care.

3. Because he freely and solemnly engages to be their spiritual guide and watchman.

4. Because he knows that his interest is inseparably connected with theirs.

5. Because he views their eternal interests as inseparably connected with the eternal interests of Christ.

(N. Emmons, D. D.)

I. THE MEN WANTED. Those like minded with the apostle, men of earnest, spontaneous, self-denying zeal.

II. THE SCARCITY OF THEM.

1. Manifest.

2. Humiliating.

3. Admonitory.

III. THE REASON OF IT.

1. Selfish aims.

2. Want of love to Christ.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. THE SITUATION OF MANKIND. From a spiritual point of view this is such as to awaken the unaffected concern of good men.

II. THE RARITY OF THOSE WHO CARE FOR THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF OTHERS.

1. They were rare in Paul's time.

2. They are rare now in proportion to the number who require their efforts, although in a less degree than formerly.

III. THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF THIS UNCONCERN.

1. An inordinate and criminal self-love.

2. The prevalence of unbelief.

3. Despondency.

(E. Payson, D. D.)

In this and like passages we may trace signs of one of the apostle's trials, which we hardly estimate at its real measure. His forced inactivity opened to him a new experience. He had to sit still and see what became of his work, with the sense that the world thought him a defeated man. Judged by our rule such a result would appear to be failure in life; and we should expect the attendant feelings to be those of depression and disappointment. We know that it was not so with St. Paul; but moods of feeling come and go even in the strongest, and we may see signs that he was not unmoved. There is an under tone of deep sadness in this Epistle, full as it is of firm confidence and rejoicing. He was at Rome. What had become of his great Epistle? Do we not read between the lines here that the reality was not all he had hoped for? There was energy, zeal, progress; Christ and His servant were spoken of in the household of Nero: Rome was hearing more than ever of the name of Christ. But there was another side to this. How was the solemn adjuration of Romans 12:1 realized. What fruit had come from his lessons of forbearance and cooperation? What a tale does it tell when there in the midst of that great active Church, there was no man like minded, etc. To a faith like St. Paul's these adverse appearances, though they might bring for him as they passed a cry of distress, wore a very different aspect to what they did to the world. They were but parts of his Master's use of him, and if the moment's disloyalty or littleness stung him, the next moment brought back the unfailing joy.

I. THE FAILURE OF LIFE. The contrast between its opening and its close is what mankind has been accustomed to see from the beginning. Examples of it are familiar to us now.

1. In their coarser forms we have evidence of them in the old cries about the cheats and broken promises of life, in the discontent of the successful, and in the falls from goodness to evil.

2. All our lives have failure in them. Every action is an instance how we have come short.

3. We see the failures of life in the ordinary incidents of our experience; when the good die young; when the bright promise is cut short; when men miss their true calling or ignobly shrink from it; where a life of noble labour is wrecked as a ship sinks within sight of port.

4. But the failures which specially touch us are when a man has aimed high, and has shot wide of his mark or short of it; when care, love, and toil have been lavished on an idea or a cause, and the idea will not stand the test, or the cause dwindles into rivalry or strife; when the successful statesman sees his policy bringing forth fruit which he did not plant or look for; when the reformer sees his work taken out of his hand by disciples of meaner and narrower thoughts; still worse when he becomes their dupe and leaves the evils of the world greater than when he assailed them.

5. So it has been with those heroic institutions which have one after another tried some great effort for God's glory. The flock of Francis, the royal-hearted bridegroom of the forgotten poverty of Christ sank down too often into idle mendicants; the flock of Dominic became the ministers of the inquisition; the little company who devoted themselves to the service of Jesus swelled into that mighty order which has furnished the bravest of missionaries, but also the most daring and ambitious of political intriguers.

6. What right have we to wonder when the greatest of God's instruments, His Church, presents in its reality such a contrast to its ideal, when, in spite of all the wonders it has done, it has failed to do all that was expected of it. But what is it but the inevitable incident in the mingled greatness and littleness of human life.

II. FAILURE MEANS HUMILIATION TO OURSELVES, BUT WE KNOW NOT WHAT IT MEANS IN THE COUNSELS OF GOD. There is something wiser even than the world, and that is the counsel of Him who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Paul in prison could not refute the world's accusation of failure nor convince it of the meaning of what he had done, and of what was to follow it. His justification belonged to God his Master, and God kept it in His own hands for this world and the next.

III. HOW SHALL WE THINK THEN ABOUT WHAT WE CALL FAILURE.

1. We cannot take it in at all adequately without being led to think, not hopelessly, scornfully, or indifferently, but humbly of this human life in which it is so severe a part of our discipline. And these lowly thoughts are enforced by the contrast between what we do as moral agents, and what we achieve within the range where simple intelligence works, in mathematics, physics, mechanics, etc. Within that range men can predict without mistake, secure perfection in their skill, and move from one stupendous discovery to another; but all is changed when we pass into that other world whose ruling powers are love, duty, pain, and death. Compare what we achieve in mathematical and physical science with our success in the problems of government. Does not this read the Bible lesson of lowly thinking in the rebuke which it gives to ambition and pride.

2. Shall we then sit with folded hands, idle and hopeless because the chances of failure are so formidable, and like the servant in the parable bury our talent. There can be no failure worse than that. God our Master sends us forth not to make our mark but to work. God accomplishes His purposes in many ways; one of them we know, by the highest of all examples, the way that seems irretrievable disaster. The followers of the Cross have no right to look, in their own day, for the recognition of success; and, besides, we are bad judges of success and failure. Only in after years does the work draw itself up to its true grandeur; only then do we lose sight of partial failures and see it at last for what it is.

3. Don't let us be afraid, in a good cause, of the chances of failure. "Heaven is for those who have failed on earth," says the mocking proverb: and since Calvary no Christian need be ashamed to accept it. But even here, men have that within them which recognizes the heroic aspect of a noble failure. Even here it is better to have failed than not to have tried; to make the mistakes of the good than never to have struck one blow for Christ because so many have struck to little purpose. If the great and saintly life be incomplete, at least there is the great and saintly life. If the great effort has waxed feeble, at least there has been a new beacon of warning. The world would have missed its highest examples, if men had always waited tilt they could make a covenant with success.

(Dean Church.)

I. IT IS A COMMON COMPLAINT AMONGST US THAT WE WANT SYMPATHY.

1. We are lonely, we say; and if not actually solitary, are solitary in heart. The young are too impatient, too imperious in their demand for sympathy; the old are sometimes too tolerant, at least too fond, of isolation.

2. There is much that is fanciful and morbid in the complaint of the young that they have no one like minded. Why cannot that sister make one of her own household the sharer of her troubles and joys? No, that is too tame and commonplace a friendship: nothing but that which is self-made and self-sought has any charms for one who is as yet trying new sources of happiness instead of drinking thankfully of those which God has opened.

II. ST. PAUL GIVES NO ENCOURAGEMENT TO THIS UNGRATEFUL PURSUIT.

1. True, he was a man to whom life without love would have been a daily torture and death. Nor was his a promiscuous love only. Within the universal brotherhood he had his special preferences and close attachments.

2. But his thirst for human love was not the sentimental, purposeless thing it is with many. His best affections were engaged and fixed unalterably. "To me to live is Christ." What he sought in human friendship was not a supreme, nor even subordinate object of affection. He sought sympathy in his work for Christ: the loneliness he bewailed was a loneliness in his care for Christ's people. How this says to us, Away with your little, selfish, earth-born murmurings! So long as your troubles are all selfish they cannot be borne too lonelily.

3. And if sympathy like this be denied you, learn like Paul to be content (Philippians 4:11; Romans 8:31, etc.).

(Dean Vaughan.)

Some preachers think only of their sermon; others think only of themselves: the man who wins the soul is the man who aims at it.

(Dean Hook.)

The following account of a piece of heroism on the part of a young Englishwoman, by which she lost her life, has just reached us from the Cape. On September 23 last, Miss Burton, a governess in the family of Mr. Saul Solomon, resident at Capetown, was out with her little pupils, when the youngest, a girl of five, fell into a reservoir of water. Miss Burton endeavoured vainly to rescue her little charge by means of her parasol, and then jumped in after her. The elder children ran home to raise the alarm, but when help was obtained both the governess and child had disappeared, and it was necessary to use drags for the bodies. Great sympathy was expressed throughout the town for the bereaved parents, and also much admiration for the brave girl who lost her life in attempting to save that of the child entrusted to her.

Epaphroditus, Paul, Philippians, Thessalonians, Timotheus, TimothyPhilippiAnxious, Care, Cherish, Concerned, Feeling, Genuine, Genuinely, Interest, Kindred, Likeminded, Like-minded, Mind, Naturally, Sincerely, Spirit, State, Truly, Welfare1. Paul exhorts them to unity, and to all humbleness of mind, by the example of Christ's humility;
12. to a careful proceeding in the way of salvation, that they be as lights to a wicked world,
16. and comforts to him their apostle, who is now ready to be offered up to God.
19. He hopes to send Timothy to them, and Epaphroditus also.

Philippians 2:19-20

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Notes on the Second Century
Page 94. Line 9. The Book of ---- The reference here is to the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon xiii. 1-5. Page 104. Med. 33. As originally written this Meditation commenced thus: Whether the sufferings of an. Angel would have been meritorious or no I will not dispute: but'---- And the following sentence, which comes after the first, has also been crossedout: So that it was an honour and no injury to be called to it: And so great an honour that it was an ornament to God himself, and an honour even to …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of Meditations

January 17. "It is God which Worketh in You" (Phil. Ii. 13).
"It is God which worketh in you" (Phil. ii. 13). God has not two ways for any of us; but one; not two things for us to do which we may choose between; but one best and highest choice. It is a blessed thing to find and fill the perfect will of God. It is a blessed thing to have our life laid out and our Christian work adjusted to God's plan. Much strength is lost by working at a venture. Much spiritual force is expended in wasted effort, and scattered, indefinite and inconstant attempts at doing good. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

April 28. "For it is God which Worketh in You" (Phil. Ii. 13).
"For it is God which worketh in you" (Phil. ii. 13). Sanctification is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the fruit of the Spirit, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prepared inheritance of all who enter in, the greatest obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is divine holiness, not human self-improvement, nor perfection. It is the inflow into man's being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal and Holy One, bringing His own perfection and working out His own will. How easy, how …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

July 11. "For it is God which Worketh in You" (Phil. Ii. 13).
"For it is God which worketh in you" (Phil. ii. 13). A day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. Let us take His highest thought and will for us in it. Let us look to Him for our desires, ideals, expectations in it. Then shall it bring to us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let Him be our Guide and Way. Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as the Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead our every step. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 30. "In Lowliness of Mind Let Each Esteem Other Better than Themselves" (Phil. Ii. 3).
"In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Phil. ii. 3). When the apostle speaks of "the deep things of God," he means more than deep spiritual truth. There must be something before this. There must be a deep soil and a thorough foundation. Very much of our spiritual teaching fails, because the people to whom we give it are so shallow. Their deeper nature has never been stirred. The beatitudes begin at the bottom of things, the poor in spirit, the mourners, and the hungry …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 28. "He Humbled Himself" (Phil. Ii. 8).
"He humbled Himself" (Phil. ii. 8). One of the hardest things for a lofty and superior nature is to be under authority, to renounce his own will, and to take a place of subjection. But Christ took upon Him the form of a servant, gave up His independence, His right to please Himself, His liberty of choice, and after having from eternal ages known only to command, gave Himself up only to obey. I have seen occasionally the man who was once a wealthy employer a clerk in the same store. It was not an …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

June 6. "He Emptied Himself" (Phil. Ii. 8, R. V. ).
"He emptied Himself" (Phil. ii. 8, R. V.). The first step to the righteousness of the kingdom is "poor in spirit." Then the next is a little deeper, "they that mourn." Because now you must get plastic, you must get broken, you must get like the metal in the fire, which the Master can mould; and so, it is not enough to see your unrighteousness, but deeply to feel it, deeply to regret it, deeply to mourn over it, to own it not a little thing that sin has come into your life. And so God leads a soul …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Palm Sunday
Text: Philippians 2, 5-11. 5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; 10 that …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Work Out Your Own Salvation
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.'--PHIL. ii. 12, 13. 'What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!' Here are, joined together, in the compass of one practical exhortation, the truths which, put asunder, have been the war-cries and shibboleths of contending sects ever since. Faith in a finished salvation, and yet work; God working all in me, and yet I able and bound to work likewise; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Willing Sacrifice
'That I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labour in vain. 17. Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. 18. And in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.'--PHIL. ii. 16-18 (R.V.). We come here to another of the passages in which the Apostle pours out all his heart to his beloved Church. Perhaps there never was a Christian teacher (always excepting Christ) who spoke more about …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Plea for Unity
'If there is therefore any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, 2. Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; 3. Doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; 4. Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.'--PHIL. ii. 1-4 (R.V.). There was much …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Copies of Jesus
'Do all things without murmurings and disputings; 15. That ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, 16. Holding forth the word of life.'--PHIL. ii. 14-16 (R.V.). We are told by some superfine modern moralists, that to regard one's own salvation as the great work of our lives is a kind of selfishness, and no doubt there may be a colour of truth in the charge. At least the meaning …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Paul and Timothy
'But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. 20. For I have no man like-minded, who will care truly for your state. 21. For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. 22. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child serveth a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the gospel. 23. Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me: 24. But I trust in the Lord that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Paul and Epaphroditus
'But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need. 26. Since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick. 27. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28. I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Descent of the Word
'Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, 7. But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 8. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.'--PHIL. ii. 5-8 (R.V.). The purpose of the Apostle in this great passage must ever be kept clearly in view. Our Lord's example is set forth as the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Ascent of Jesus
'Wherefore also God highly exalted Him and gave unto Him the name which is above every name; 10. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; 11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.'--PHIL. ii. 9-11 (R.V.). 'He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,' said Jesus. He is Himself the great example of that law. The Apostle here goes on to complete his picture of the Lord …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

July the Fourth Emptying Oneself
"He emptied Himself." --PHILIPPIANS ii. 1-11. In Mr. Silvester Horne's garden a very suggestive scene was one day to be witnessed. A cricketer of world-wide renown was playing a game with Mr. Horne's little four-year-old son! And the fierce bowler "emptied himself," and served such gentle, dainty little balls that the tiny man at the wickets was not in the least degree afraid! And the Lord of glory "emptied Himself," fashioning Himself to our "low estate," and in His unspeakably gentle approaches …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Your Own Salvation
We have heard it said by hearers that they come to listen to us, and we talk to them upon subjects in which they have no interest. You will not be able to make this complaint to-day, for we shall speak only of "your own salvation;" and nothing can more concern you. It has sometimes been said that preachers frequently select very unpractical themes. No such objection can be raised to-day, for nothing can be more practical than this; nothing more needful than to urge you to see to "your own salvation." …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

The Exaltation of Christ
I ALMOST regret this morning that I have ventured to occupy this pulpit, because I feel utterly unable to preach to you for your profit. I had thought that the quiet and repose of the last fortnight had removed the effects of that terrible catastrophe; but on coming back to the same spot again, and more especially, standing here to address you, I feel somewhat of those same painful emotions which well-nigh prostrated me before. You will therefore excuse me this morning, if I make no allusion to that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

Consolation in Christ
You will remember, my dear friends, that the Holy Spirit, during the present dispensation, is revealed to us as the Comforter. It is the Spirit's business to console and cheer the hearts of God's people. He does convince of sin; he does illuminate and instruct; but still the main part of his business lies in making glad the hearts of the renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that be bowed down. Whatever the Holy Ghost may not be, he is evermore the Comforter to the Church; and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861

The Temper of Christ
PHILIPPIANS ii. 4. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What mind? What sort of mind and temper ought to be in us? St. Paul tells us in this chapter, very plainly and at length, what sort of temper he means; and how it showed itself in Christ; and how it ought to show itself in us. 'All of you,' he tells us, 'be like-minded, having the same love; being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory: but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Mind which was in Christ Jesus. Rev. George Wood.
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." PHILIPPIANS ii. 5. The Saviour left His followers an example that they should tread in His steps; and His example in everything that appertains to His human nature, is not only practicable but essential. We cannot imitate His power, or His wisdom, or His miracles, or His sufferings, or anything in which His Divine nature was manifested or employed; but we can imitate His meekness, His patience, His zeal, His self-denial, His superiority …
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern

How to Keep Passion Week
(Preached before the Queen.) Philippians ii. 5-11. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

2 Cor. Iii. 5
Not that we are sufficient of our selves, to think any things as of our selves: but our Sufficiency is of God. THE Apostle, in this Epistle, was led, by the cunning Management of some evil-minded Persons amongst the Corinthians, to asset his own Apostleship; and his own Right to be their Director and Instructor, as He had been the Founder of their Church, and of their Faith. But lest they should think that He boasted of himself above measure; as if from Him, considered by Himself, came all their …
Benjamin Hoadly—Several Discourses Concerning the Terms of Acceptance with God

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