"Puisse la même foi qui consola leur vie
Nous ouvrir les sentiers que leurs pas ont pressés,
Et, dirigeant nos pieds vers la sainte patrie
Où leur bonheur s'accroit de leurs travaux passés,
Nous rendre ces objets de tendresse et d'envie
Qui ne sont pas perdus, mais nous ont devancés."
A. VINET
CHAPTER VII
TIMOTHEUS AND EPAPHRODITUS
PHILIPPIANS ii. 19-30
Epaphroditus—The variety of Scripture—Contrasts in context—Henry Martyn's letter—"The human element"—"His letters I have read"—The two aspects of Scripture—Divine messages in human context—"Together with them"
Ver. 19. +But I hope in the Lord Jesus+, with an expectation conditioned by my union with Him in all things, and with you in Him, +promptly to send to you Timotheus,[1] that I too+, I as well as you, who will of course be gladdened by his presence, +may be of good cheer, getting+, through him, +a knowledge+ (gnous) +of your circumstances+ (ta peri humôn). I send him, and not
Ver. 20. another, +for I have+—at hand, and free to move—+no one equal-souled+ with him,[2] +one who+ (hootis) +will genuinely take anxious care about your circumstances+; the "care" which is not a weary burthen, better cast upon the Lord (iv. 6), but a sacred charge, undertaken in and for Him, and absorbing all the
Ver. 21. thought. +For all of them+ (oi pantes), all from whom I could in this case select, +are bent on+ (xêtousi: cp. Col. iii. 1) +their own interests, not the interests of Jesus Christ+; they plead excuses which indicate a preference of their own ease, or reputation, or affections, to a matter manifestly and wholly HIS.
Ver. 22. +But the test through which he+, Timotheus, +passed+ (tên dokimên autou) you remember (ginôskete, "you recognize," as you look back); you know +that as child with father+ so +he with me+, in closest companionship and sympathy, +did bondservice[3] for the Gospel+, eis to euaggelion, "unto it," for the furtherance
Ver. 23. of its enterprise and message. +So him then+ (touton men oun[4]) +I hope to send, immediately upon+ (hôs an . . . exautês) +my getting a view of+ (apidô) +my circumstances+, my position with regard to my trial