Ver. 16. Holding forth the word of life.—“If we are to look for any metaphor it would most naturally be that of offering food or wine” (Lightfoot). Why it should be at all events wholly unconnected with the preceding image in “lights in the world” one does not quite see. There is nothing objectionable in the thought of a star holding forth its beam to the mariner, or the benighted wayfarer, and it has the advantage of continuity of the metaphor in the verse previous. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ.—As good news of his convert’s fidelity was like a new lease of life to the worn apostle (1 Thess. iii. 8), so his sweetest hope was to be able to stand before his Lord with his children by his side. Have not run . . . laboured.—Athletic terms familiar to St. Paul’s readers.

Ver. 17. If I be offered upon the sacrifice.—R.V. margin, “poured out as a drink-offering.” Whether the reference is the the cup of wine poured over the heathen sacrifice or the drink-offering of the Jewish is doubted, and is of little consequence, since in either case his meaning would be clear enough. And service.—Priestly function (Luke i. 23).

Ver. 20. No man likeminded.—A.V. margin, “so dear unto me,“ evidently because the same word is used in Ps. lv. 13. “Likeminded” with whom? “With me,” says Meyer, that is, “having the same tender feeling towards you as I have.” Who will naturally care.—Not of necessity, nor grudgingly.

Ver. 21. All seek their own.—Interpret how we will, this is a bitter sentence. We are apt to be severe on those who have other engagements when we feel our need of friends.

Ver. 22. Ye know the proof.—The character that shows itself under strain or testing (Acts xvi. 1 and xvii. 14, xix. 22, xx. 3, 4). As a son with the father.—R.V. “as a child serveth.” The older man and the younger had slaved for the Gospel; as for some dear object of desire a father and his son may be seen at work together.

Ver. 24. I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.—The apostle, in personal matters, is on the same footing with the most obscure Christian. When his friends forsake him he must bear it with what fortitude he can. When darkness surrounds him he must wait God’s time—no prophecy lifts the veil.

Ver. 25. Epaphroditus.—Brother, work-mate, comrade-in-arms, Church-messenger, and serving-man. What a designation! St. Paul thinks him worthy of all the honour (ver. 29) that the Church can give, and he himself immortalises him by this unusual estimate of his personal character and worth.

Ver. 26. Was full of heaviness.—The same word is used of our Lord when in Gethsemane—“He began to be very heavy.” Its etymology is an open question, Grimm, following Buttmann, says it means “the uncomfortable feeling of one who is not at home.” If this, the almost universally accepted derivation be the correct one, it is a beautiful idyll we have presented to us. A convalescent, far from home, as his strength returns feels the pangs of home-sickness strengthen and eagerly returns to dispel the misgivings of those made anxious by tidings of his critical illness.

Ver. 27. Nigh unto death.—Or as we say colloquially, “next door to death.” God had mercy on him.—St. Paul speaks after the manner of men, as we could not have dared to say anything else if Epaphroditus had died. The cry of woe so often heard by Christ was “have mercy.” Sorrow upon sorrow.—“He does not parade the apathy of the Stoics, as though he were iron and far removed from human affections” (Calvin).

“When sorrows come they come not single spies,
But in battalions.”