Introduction to Philippians

The commentators introduce the letter in much the same way, and this introduction follows them. What they say of the city, the church and the occasion of the letter is drawn from Acts and from the letter itself, and it is given here in their terms.

The city

Philippi stood in Macedonia, a few miles inland from the port of Neapolis. Poole and Gill record its older names, Crenides, from its springs, and Datus, and say that it took the name it bears from Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander, who enlarged and fortified it. The plain below it was the field of the battle of 42 BC in which Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, and in Paul’s time it was a Roman colony (Acts 16:12). Poole adds, against a writer of his own day, that there is no evidence it was then the chief city of Macedonia; Luke calls it “the chief city of that part of Macedonia.”

The church

Paul came to Philippi on his second journey, called over from Asia by the vision of a man of Macedonia saying, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us” (Acts 16:9). The church began small: Lydia, a seller of purple from Thyatira, was converted at the place of prayer by the river, and the jailer and his household after the night in which Paul and Silas, beaten and set in the stocks, sang hymns in the prison (Acts 16:13–34). Henry draws the lesson that small beginnings are not to be despised: the church grew, and it was kind to Paul when no other church was. Twice at Thessalonica, and again in Rome, it sent him help (Phil 4:15–18).

The occasion

The commentators take the letter to have been written while Paul was a prisoner at Rome, and Poole adds, “probably the first, not second time.” They point to his bonds, to his knowing that they had become known “in all the palace,” and to the greetings of “they that are of Caesar’s household” (1:13; 4:22). Henry dates the letter to AD 62; Gill reports that Hammond put it in 59 and Lightfoot in 60.

The occasion, as Gill and Poole tell it, was a gift. Hearing that Paul was in prison, the Philippians sent Epaphroditus to him with a present for his support. Epaphroditus fell sick, nearly to death, and recovered; and Paul sent him home with this letter (2:25–30; 4:18).

The argument

Poole and Gill sum up the letter in nearly the same terms. Paul writes to tell the Philippians how his bonds have served the gospel and how he is upheld in them; to encourage them under their own sufferings; to urge them to unity and humility, after the pattern of Christ, who “made himself of no reputation” (2:5–11); to warn them against the teachers who would join the law to the gospel, and works to grace, in the matter of salvation (3:2–11); to press them on to a heavenly life (3:12–21); and to thank them for their gift (4:10–20). Poole notes, too, Paul’s plan to send Timothy to them, and his hope of coming himself (2:19–24).

The commentators all note the warmth of the letter. Henry calls Paul’s care for this church “a particular fatherly tender care,” and Gill gives its first design as “to express his love and affection to them.” And through all four chapters, written in prison, runs the note of joy (1:4, 18; 2:17–18; 3:1; 4:4, 10).