Philippians 1:17

Note

While Paul was in prison the believers around him spoke Christ more boldly, but not all for the same reason. Some preached out of envy and rivalry, others out of goodwill. This verse says what those who preached in love knew.

The two sentences stand in a different order in different texts. In the Textus Receptus, which the KJV follows and by whose numbering this note is filed, verse 16 is about the rivals and verse 17 about those who act in love: "But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel." The BSB, following the older manuscripts, puts love first, so that its verse 16 holds the words about the gospel. Only the order differs.

Paul sets the two groups side by side in verses 15 to 18, and then draws a conclusion no one expected: "What then is the issue? Just this: that in every way, whether by false motives or true, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice" (Philippians 1:18). The rivals were not preaching another gospel; they were preaching Christ, with the wrong heart. The same apostle who said of another gospel "let him be under a curse!" (Galatians 1:8) can rejoice here, because here it is the same Christ who is proclaimed.

The noun euangelion is a genitive after apologia, "defense," and the phrase repeats verse 7, "my defense and confirmation of the gospel." The verb keimai, "I am appointed," means first "I lie" or "I am laid": Paul is set in his place, and the place is God's choice. Those who preach in love are eidotes, "knowing," a perfect participle: they know it already. They do not read his chains as failure but as a post God has given him.

The versions give the word its weight in different ways. The KJV and the LSV have "set": "I am set for the defence of the gospel," "I am set for defense of the good news." The BSB's "appointed" names the act of appointing and so points to the one who appoints.

Wesley catches the picture in keimai: "Literally, I lie; yet still going forward in his work. He remained at Rome as an ambassador in a place where he is employed on an important embassy" Wesley. Matthew Henry grieves over the rivals, "How wretched the temper of those who preached Christ out of envy and contention, and to add affliction to the bonds that oppressed this best of men!", and then adds, "The apostle was easy in the midst of all" Matthew Henry.

About AD 96 the church in Rome wrote to the church in Corinth that through jealousy Peter, and through jealousy and strife Paul, had suffered and borne witness to the death Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 5. They are nearly the words Paul uses in verse 15. Jealousy and strife followed him to the end, and in the middle of it he rejoiced that Christ was proclaimed.

The verse does not hide that people may tell the gospel from mixed motives. It shows also that the gospel's worth lies not in the heart of the one who tells it but in the Christ who is told.