Philippians 4:15

Note

Thanking the Philippians for the gift they sent by Epaphroditus, Paul looks back over their long partnership. From the time the gospel first reached them, no other church had shared with him in giving and receiving.

From Philippi Paul went on through Thessalonica and Berea to Athens, and then to Corinth (Acts 17–18). The Philippians kept sending help: "even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs again and again" (Philippians 4:16), and in Corinth "the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs" (2 Corinthians 11:9). Paul writes his thanks with care. "I am not saying this out of need" (Philippians 4:11), he says, and "Not that I am seeking a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account" (Philippians 4:17).

Here euangelion is a genitive after archē, "beginning": "in the beginning of the gospel," the time when the gospel first came to Philippi. Wesley reads it so: "When it was first preached at Philippi" Wesley. The gospel has a beginning in history, and every church has a day when the gospel began for it. The verb "partnered," ekoinōnēsen, is from the root of koinōnia, the "partnership in the gospel" of 1:5. "Giving and receiving," logon doseōs kai lēmpseōs, is the language of a ledger, debit and credit, and it is picked up in verse 17 by "credited to your account," where logos is the account itself. On one side of that ledger stood what the Philippians gave; on the other, what Paul had given them, the gospel.

The KJV reads, "in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only." Its "communicated" carries the older sense of sharing in common, not of sending a message. The BSB's "partnered" makes the business partnership plain, and "the early days of the gospel" puts the phrase in time. The LSV has "no assembly communicated with me in regard to giving and receiving except you only."

Matthew Henry writes, "It is a good work to succour and help a good minister in trouble" Matthew Henry, and he notes that Paul "had no design to urge them to give more, but to encourage such kindness as will meet a glorious reward hereafter" Matthew Henry. Wesley divides the phrase between the two partners: giving "On your part," receiving "On mine" Wesley.

Paul's phrase returns a generation later. About AD 96 Clement of Rome asks the Corinthians what Paul wrote to them first, "in the beginning of the gospel" Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 47. Clement's words, en archē tou euangeliou, are the ones Paul uses here, now for the time the gospel first came to Corinth.

In verse 18 Paul calls their gift "a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God" (Philippians 4:18). Those who received the gospel gave of what they had so that the same news could go on to others, and help sent to an apostle in prison was counted as an offering laid before God.