Theopedia

Epistle to the Philippians

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

— Philippians 1:21 (ESV)

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Overview

Philippians is a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the church he had planted at Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia (Acts 16:12), during a Roman imprisonment.1 Along with Ephesians and Colossians, it belongs to the letters Paul wrote “while he was in Nero’s chains,” which Stephen Charnock observed “seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when he was at liberty.”2 Though written from confinement, Philippians returns again and again to joy and confidence in Christ.

Author and Date

The letter names Paul as its author (Phil. 1:1), and its authorship has not been a matter of serious dispute. Internal evidence places its writing during a Roman imprisonment in which Paul awaited a decision on his case, a decision he expected soon and expected favorably (Phil. 1:19-25; 2:23-24), placing the letter’s composition around AD 63.1 The Philippians had partnered with Paul in the gospel from the earliest days of his ministry among them (Phil. 1:5; 4:15-16) and had now sent one of their own, Epaphroditus, to relieve his need as a prisoner.1

Historical and Literary Context

Paul writes to thank the Philippians for the financial gift they had sent him by Epaphroditus’s hand (Phil. 4:10-18), a debt of gratitude Elijah Porter Barrows called “the occasion of this epistle.”1 Around that occasion Paul weaves exhortations to steadfastness under persecution and to a manner of life worthy of the gospel, “not in any very exact order,” as Barrows put it, but with recurring calls to unity and joy.3 The one note of correction in the letter is gentle: Paul urges two women in the congregation, Euodia and Syntyche, to agree in the Lord, a request Barrows judged the closest thing to censure “he bestows upon them” anywhere in the epistle.3 It is in the course of urging that same unity and humility on the whole church that Paul brings in his description of Christ’s self-emptying and exaltation (Phil. 2:5-11), and it is against the same imprisonment that occasioned the letter that he sets his confidence that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21).3

Structure

Philippians moves through four short chapters without a rigidly marked outline, but its main movements are clear:

  1. Thanksgiving and Paul’s circumstances (chap. 1) - Paul thanks God for the Philippians’ partnership in the gospel, reports that his imprisonment has advanced the gospel’s spread, and states his own settled confidence facing life or death (Phil. 1:1-26), before calling the church to stand firm together (Phil. 1:27-30).
  2. The Christ Hymn and the call to humility (chap. 2) - Paul appeals for unity and humility grounded in the pattern of Christ, who emptied himself and was exalted (Phil. 2:1-11), then applies that pattern to the Philippians’ own conduct and commends Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples of it (Phil. 2:12-30).
  3. Righteousness by faith, not law (chap. 3) - Paul renounces his own record of law-keeping as a ground of righteousness in favor of the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, and presses on toward the resurrection (Phil. 3:1-21).
  4. Contentment and joy (chap. 4) - Paul appeals for unity between Euodia and Syntyche, repeats his call to rejoice, and closes by describing the contentment he has learned in Christ and thanking the Philippians for their gift (Phil. 4:1-23).

Major Themes

Joy in Christ regardless of circumstance. Written from prison, Philippians nonetheless returns again and again to rejoicing, a combination Charnock traced to the way suffering itself “raiseth” the spirits of God’s people “to a divine pitch,” so that Paul’s prison epistles carry a higher strain than his letters written at liberty.2

The Christ Hymn as a pattern of humility (Phil. 2:5-11). Urging the Philippians to “count others more significant than” themselves (Phil. 2:3), Paul grounds that humility in Christ himself, who, “being in the form of God, considered it not… to be equal with God, but he emptied himself [ἐαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν], taking the form of a servant… And, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient until death, even death on a cross.”4 Christ’s self-emptying, as Steven Duby observes, is explained by the very participles that follow it, his taking the form of a servant and being made in human likeness, rather than by any loss of divine attributes.4 The passage stands as one of the New Testament’s clearest statements of Christ’s humiliation before his exaltation, treated at greater length in kenosis and hypostatic union. Herman Bavinck points to the same text as a classic locus for that doctrine, noting that even Hebrews views Christ’s humiliation “even more vividly than Paul (e.g., in Phil. 2:6-11).”5

“To live is Christ, to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Facing the possibility of execution, Paul states that death itself holds no terror because it means being “with Christ, which is far better” (Phil. 1:23). John Gill drew from this the apostle’s own settled conviction “that upon his departure out of this world, by death, he should be immediately with Christ, and enjoy communion with him,” a gain that could outweigh even a fruitful continuance in this life.6

Righteousness by faith, not law (chap. 3). Paul counts his own credentials under the law as loss for the sake of gaining Christ, “not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:8-9). Charles Hodge reads the contrast as decisive: “what Paul trusted to, was not his own righteousness, not his own subjective goodness, but a righteousness provided for him and received by faith.”7 The passage is a central text for the doctrine of justification.

Contentment learned through Christ’s strength (Phil. 4:11-13). Paul tells the Philippians, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Phil. 4:11), a contentment Thomas Ridgley described as “a composure of mind, acquiescing in the divine dispensations in every condition of life,” whether in abundance or in need (Phil. 4:12).8 That contentment is not self-generated; Paul locates its source outside himself: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).

Related Doctrines

Further Reading

References

  1. Elijah Porter Barrows, Companion to the Bible (New York: American Tract Society, 1867), 469. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, ed. William Symington, 2 vols. (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1853), vol. 2, “Discourse XII: On the Goodness of God.” ↩ ↩2

  3. Barrows, 470-471. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Steven J. Duby, God in Himself: Scripture, Metaphysics, and the Task of Christian Theology, Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), chap. 3, “Incarnation in Context,” 156-157. ↩ ↩2

  5. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 16, “The Exalted Lord Christ.” ↩

  6. John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal Divinity; or, A System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, 2 vols. (London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by George Keith, 1769), book VII, chap. 3. ↩

  7. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Volume III (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1873), 155-156. ↩

  8. Thomas Ridgley, A Body of Divinity, vol. 4, ed. James P. Wilson (Philadelphia: William W. Woodward, 1814), 50-51. ↩