The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Philippians — Background and Themes

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Authors: Rainy, Robert, 1826-1906 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2012 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bible. Philippians -- Commentaries Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 91,204

Reading time 397 min

Text sections 8

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Robert Rainy's exposition of Philippians traces the apostle Paul's movement between imprisonment and joy, examining how the letter's structure and recurring images of loss, gain, and citizenship shape a theology of Christian life as a race under pressure.

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INTRODUCTORY: THE SALUTATION 3

THE APOSTLE'S MIND ABOUT THE PHILIPPIANS 19

HOW THE PHILIPPIANS SHOULD THINK OF PAUL AT ROME 45

THE CHOICE BETWEEN LIVING AND DYING 65

UNDAUNTED AND UNITED STEADFASTNESS 77

THE MIND OF CHRIST 95

THE MIND OF CHRIST (_continued_) 111

WORKING AND SHINING 131 CHAPTER IX.

TIMOTHY AND EPAPHRODITUS 157

NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH 171

THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST 199

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH 217

RESURRECTION LIFE AND DAILY DYING 237

CHRISTIAN LIFE A RACE 259

ENEMIES OF THE CROSS 281

OUR CITY AND OUR COMING KING 299

THE THINGS TO FIX UPON 337

GIFTS AND SACRIFICES 353

_INTRODUCTORY. THE SALUTATION._

"Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."--PHIL. i. 1, 2 (R.V.).

_INTRODUCTORY. THE SALUTATION._

The sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles contains the account of the Apostle Paul's first intercourse with the Philippians, and of the "beginning of the gospel" there. The date may be fixed as A.D. 51. After the council at Jerusalem (Acts xv.), and after the dissension between Paul and Barnabas (ver. 39), the Apostle of the Gentiles, accompanied by Silas, took his journey through Syria and Cilicia. "Confirming the Churches," he went over a good deal of ground which he had traversed before. At Lystra he assumed Timothy as an additional companion and assistant; and he passed on, guided in a very special manner by the Holy Spirit, until he arrived at Troas. Here a Divine warning, in a dream, determined him to break ground in a new field. The little company, to which Luke was now added, passed on to Macedonia, and, having landed at Neapolis, where they do not seem to have made any stay or found any opportunity of preaching, they came to Philippi. This therefore was the first city in Europe in which, so far as we have any distinct intimation, the gospel of the grace of God was declared.

Philippi was a city of some importance, and had the position and privileges of a Roman colony. It was situated in a fruitful district, was near to gold mines, and was also near enough to the sea to serve as a depôt for a good deal of Asiatic commerce.

It is hardly necessary to remind readers of the Scripture how Lydia and others received the word; how the preachers were followed by the damsel with the spirit of divination; how, when that damsel had been silenced by Paul, her masters raised a tumult against Paul and Silas, and got them scourged and cast into prison; how the earthquake, which followed during the night, resulted in the conversion of the jailor, and in Paul and Silas being sent forth from the city with honour. Perhaps Luke and Timothy remained behind at Philippi, and continued to edify the believers. At any rate, Paul himself had by this time continued there "many days." Two short visits of the Apostle to Philippi at a subsequent time are known to us (Acts xx. 2, 6).

The Church thus founded proved to be an interesting one, for it possessed much of the simplicity and earnestness of true Christianity. Both in the Epistles to the Corinthians and in this Epistle, the Philippians are singled out, above all Churches, for their cordiality of feeling towards the Apostle who had brought to them the knowledge of the truth. They made liberal contributions for the furtherance of his work in other regions, beginning shortly after he left Philippi, and repeating them from time to time afterwards. They seem to have been remarkably free from some of the defects incidental to those early Churches, and to the Churches at all periods. The Apostle's commendations of them are peculiarly warm and glowing; and scarcely anything had to be noticed in the way of special warning, except a tendency to disagreement among some of their members. It does not appear that there was any great number of Jews at Philippi, and we find no trace of a synagogue. This may account in some measure for their freedom from the Judaising tendency: for we find the Philippians exhorted, indeed, to beware of that evil, but not reprehended as if it had taken any strong hold among them. On the other hand, they seem to have remained in a good measure free from evils to which Gentile Churches were most exposed, and which, at Corinth for example, produced much that was disheartening and perplexing.

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Robert Rainy's exposition of Philippians opens not with the letter's text but with the geography of Paul's mission: the account in Acts 16, the date A.D. 51, and the route through Syria and Cilicia. This grounding in movement—Paul traveling, confirming churches, taking Timothy—establishes a pattern that Rainy will follow throughout. The commentary itself moves between scenes: from Paul's imprisonment in Rome to the Philippian congregation, from the apostle's personal choices to the corporate life of the church. Rainy repeatedly returns to the image of a race, of pressing forward, of things counted as loss. The structure of the exposition mirrors the epistle's own shifts between gratitude, exhortation, and eschatological hope.

The Salutation as a Map of Movement

Rainy devotes his first chapter to the opening two verses of Philippians, but he does not linger on the greeting itself. Instead, he uses the salutation to trace the apostle's path: from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Philippi, from Philippi to Rome. The commentary notes that Paul writes 'with the bishops and deacons,' a phrase Rainy treats as evidence of an organized community in motion. He observes that the epistle's address 'to all the saints' includes not just individuals but a body defined by its officers and its location. This attention to geography and structure recurs throughout: Rainy is as interested in where Paul is writing from as in what he writes.

Loss and Gain as Structural Motifs

Rainy returns repeatedly to Paul's language of counting things as loss. In chapter XI, he examines the phrase 'suffered the loss of all things' and argues that this is not merely a biographical detail but a structural principle. The commentary sets up a competition between Christ and 'all things,' a conflict that Rainy insists is inevitable. He writes that 'the heart of Paul, in this burst of loyalty, is only echoing the call of Christ.' The movement of the exposition follows this logic: from the negative (renunciation) to the positive (the knowledge of Christ). Rainy uses the image of a race to bind these sections together, showing how the believer's life is a continual reaffirmation of this decision.

The City and the Coming King

In chapter XVI, Rainy turns to the phrase 'our city is in heaven.' He treats this not as a static hope but as a dynamic contrast between two cities: Philippi, a Roman colony, and the heavenly commonwealth. The commentary moves between the earthly and the heavenly, showing how Paul uses the language of citizenship to shape the Philippians' identity. Rainy notes that the apostle's own imprisonment becomes a scene of witness: the praetorian guard hears the gospel. The exposition itself shifts between these scenes—the prison, the church, the coming king—without settling in any one location. This restlessness is, for Rainy, the heart of Christian life.

Joy as a Counterpoint to Conflict

Rainy's treatment of joy in Philippians is notable for its restraint. He does not treat joy as a feeling but as a decision made in the face of conflict. In chapter XVII, he examines the command to 'rejoice in the Lord always' and connects it to the earlier discussion of loss. The commentary moves from the negative base of Christian life (renunciation) to the positive fruit (joy). Rainy argues that joy is not the absence of struggle but the result of a 'great inward decision' maintained over time. The structure of the exposition mirrors this: each chapter returns to the tension between present suffering and future hope, between the 'all things' that claim our attention and the one thing that matters.

Rainy's commentary is best read as a series of movements rather than a static analysis. The reader who follows the apostle's path from Philippi to Rome, from loss to gain, from conflict to joy, will find that the exposition itself enacts the race it describes. The structure is not linear but recursive: each chapter circles back to the same questions—what is gain, what is loss, where is our city—and answers them with increasing depth. This is a commentary that rewards patience and attention to the turns of Paul's thought.

Reading Rainy’s Paul, I kept thinking how joy and struggle seem braided together, each turn of the page a little more weight to carry. That same tension lingers in Satan — Context and Discussion, where the shadow feels less like an enemy and more like a question we learn to sit with, quietly.