Excerpt from Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians

It was a decisive moment in the missionary career of the Apostle Paul, when, sum moued by the vision of a man of Macedonia, he sailed from Troas, and crossing the nean Sea, set foot for the first time upon the soil of Europe. Immediately before him as he landed lay the important city of Philippi, which in earlier times had been called Crenides, or fountains, on account of its numerous springs, but was afterward named Philippi in honor of the great Macedonian conqueror who had enlarged and fortified it. From its vicinity to the field of the battle which ended the Roman republic, between Octavius and Antony an the one side, and Brutus and Cassius on the other, it had become a famous historical landmark, and as a Roman colony with the so-called jus Italicum, or privilege of Roman citizenship, it out-ranked all the other cities of Macedonia. But its highest glory was con ferred upon it when Paul entered its gates bearing the message of salvation, and it became the first city of Europe to listen to the gospel from the lips of an apostle.

Paul's first stay in Philippi was very brief, owing to the treatment he received at the hands of the Roman magistrates (acts 16 16 but he left behind a most important result of his short visit in a little band of converts who formed the nucleus of a most remarkable church. On at least two subsequent occasions Paul revisited the place (acts 20 2, most likely making somewhat longer visits than on the first occasion, and possibly he made still another visit after his release from his first Roman imprisonment. The members of the church which he founded there must have consisted chiefly of heathen converts, since there appears to-have been but a small number of Jews residing in Philippi. At the time of his first visit we find mostly women, meeting for prayer by the river side (acts 16 the fact that they possessed no synagogue showing how few in numbers and how poor they were. Between this Philippian Church and the great apostle the most friendly and cordial relations existed from first to last. It was the only church under his charge that never gave him occasion for rebuke or reproof. Its members were never seduced from their steadfast loyalty to him and to his teachings, nor did they ever fall into any such terrible sins as appeared elsewhere, or give heed to doctrinal errors, as even the neighboring church of Thessalonica seems to have done. In the letter before us Paul declares that he had never had occasion for anything but joy and gratitude in all his remembrance of them. From the first day they had maintained with him and with each other the closest kind of fellowship. A slight ripple had indeed beenexcited in the otherwise calm current of their Spiritual life by the dissensions of two women of influ ence, but beyond this nothing had occurred to give the apostle the least anxiety in regard to their unity and harmony. Of course, the same dangers threatened them, that threat ened the other apostolic churches, - dangers from persecuting heathen, from false Jewish teachers, and from the pernicious example of worldly Christians. Against all these threat ening perils the apostle urges them to stand fast in a spirit of loving, unselfish harmony.

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