The Glorious Destiny of the Human Body.—If we are in Christ, He will gather up what is left, He will transfigure it with the splendour of a new life, He will change our body of humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. Sown in the very extreme of physical weakness, it will be raised in a strictly superhuman power; sown a natural body controlled on every side by physical law, it will be a true body still, but a body that belongs to the sphere of spirit. Most difficult indeed it is even to the imagination to understand how this poor body, our companion for so many years—part of our very selves—is to be first wrenched from us at death and then restored to us if we will, transfigured by the majestic glory of the Son of God. Little can we understand this inaccessibility to disease, the radiant beauty, the superiority to material obstacles in moving through space, the spirituality, in short, which awaits without destroying it.
“Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart.
Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne
On lofty steed
Or loftier prow, we dart
O’er wave or field,
Yet breezes laugh to scorn
Our puny speed,
And birds, and clouds in heaven,
And fish like living shafts that pierce the main,
And stars that shoot through freezing air at even.
Who would not follow, might he break his chain?
And thou shalt break it soon.
The grovelling worm
Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free
As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form
And snowy vest. Such grace He won for thee
When from the grave He sprang at dawn of morn,
And led, through bondless air, thy conquering road,
Leaving a glorious track where saints new-born
Might fearless follow to their blest abode.”—H. P. Liddon.
CHAPTER IV.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Brethren beloved and longed for . . . beloved.—By these caressing titles, which, however, are not words of flattery but of sincere love, he works his way into their hearts. The “beloved” repeated at the close of the verse is like the clinging embrace of affection. My joy.—The most delectable joy of St. John was to hear that his children walked in truth. So St. Paul says of his Philippian converts, as he had said of their neighbours of the Thessalonian Church, that they are his joy. And crown.—“The word must be carefully distinguished from ‘diadem.’ It means a chaplet or wreath, and the idea it conveys may be either (1) victory, or (2) merriment, as the wreath was worn equally by the conqueror and by the holiday-maker” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 3. And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow.—It is doubtful whom the apostle addresses. On the whole, however, it seems most probable that Epaphroditus, the bearer of the epistle, is intended (so Lightfoot, following Hofmann). Meyer says: “Laying aside arbitrariness and seeing that the address is surrounded by proper names, we can only find in the word for ‘yokefellow’ a proper name, . . . genuine Syzygus, i.e. thou who art in reality and substantially that which thy name expresses: ‘fellow-in-yoke, fellow-labourer.’ ” Whose names are in the book of life.—St. Paul had before said the polity of the Christians was a heavenly one. Here he says there is a “burgess list” from which no name of a true citizen is ever by accident omitted—though by any chance he might have omitted to mention his co-workers in his epistle.
Ver. 4. Rejoice in the Lord.—R.V. margin, “Farewell.” The word is neither “farewell” alone, nor “rejoice” alone (Lightfoot). That the A.V. and R.V. texts are justified in so translating seems clear from the “always” which follows.
Ver. 5. Let your moderation be known.—This moderation or forbearance is the very opposite of the spirit which will “cavil on the ninth part of a hair” in the way of asserting personal rights.
Ver. 6. Be careful for nothing.—R.V. “in nothing be anxious.” The word suggests the idea of a poor distraught mind on which concerns have fastened themselves, which drag, one in one direction, another in the opposite. Well says Bengel, “Care and prayer are more opposed than water and fire.” In all things, prayer—in nothing, care. By prayer.—The general idea of an expression of dependence. Supplication.—The specific request—the word hinting too at the attitude of the petitioner, e.g. clasping the feet of the person from whom the favour is asked. With thanksgiving.—The preservative against any possible defiance which might otherwise find its way into the tone of the prayer, or on the other hand against a despair which creeps over those who think God “bears long” and forgets to answer.