Homilies on Philippians

Contents

Reading pages: 0.1–0.2 · 1.1–1.5 · 2.1–2.5 · 3.1–3.4 · 4.1–4.5 · 5.1–6.2 · 6.3–7.1 · 7.2–7.6 · 8.1–9.1 · 9.2–9.6 · 10.1–10.5 · 11.1–11.4 · 12.1–12.4 · 13.1–13.4 · 14.1–15.1 · 15.2–15.5

1. 0.1Chrysostom introduces Philippians: the church's beginnings in Acts, Paul's imprisonment at Rome, the sending of Epaphroditus, and why the letter opens with comfort about his bonds and calls for concord.
2. 0.2Chrysostom outlines the rest of the letter and the Philippians' virtues, then urges his hearers to imitate their generosity by continual almsgiving, which frees the soul from the love of money and opens heaven.
3. 1.1Paul calls himself a servant rather than an apostle out of regard for the Philippians; Chrysostom explains that “bishops” here means presbyters, since the titles were once shared, and why Paul addresses the clergy.
4. 1.2The Philippians shared Paul's labours by serving him, and Chrysostom urges that those who cannot live the ascetic life can share its rewards by serving the saints who do.
5. 1.3God completes the good work he began, yet only in those who draw his grace by their will; Paul's bonds confirmed the gospel; and Chrysostom urges his hearers to share Paul's reward by supporting those who suffer for Christ and giving gladly.
6. 1.5Alms should go to those in real need rather than to well-off church leaders, and should be given with simplicity, as the widow fed Elijah, without prying into whether the recipient deserves it.
7. 2.1Paul's longing for the Philippians springs from Christ, and he prays that their love grow with knowledge and discernment, so that affection never leads them to accept false doctrine.
8. 2.2Paul's bonds emboldened the brothers, and even those who preached Christ out of envy, hoping to inflame Nero against him, could not harm him; Paul rejoices that Christ is proclaimed.
9. 2.3Those who preached Christ to harm Paul changed nothing in the gospel and only earned punishment, as the devil does with the heretics' fasting and virginity; Christ's commands are light, and envy comes from attachment to present things.
10. 2.4The rich are to be pitied rather than envied, since wealth robs them of the sleep God gave as a rest and ends, as with the rich man in the parable, in torment.
11. 2.5The rich man was condemned not for wealth but for lack of mercy; true wealth and poverty lie in the will, so the poor should not fear poverty, which is often safer than riches.
12. 3.1Paul rejoices whatever his enemies do, hoping through the Philippians' prayers and his own hope to be delivered, and knowing that Christ will be magnified in him whether by life or by death.
13. 3.2Paul does not expect to die yet, but neither life nor death can shame him, for he no longer lives the common life of sin but lives for Christ.
14. 3.3Paul's real life is Christ, so death is gain; yet living in the flesh bears fruit and must not be despised; death itself is neither good nor evil, so we should mourn sinners and rejoice over the righteous, living or dead.
15. 3.4We should weep, with restraint, not for the dead as such but for those who die in sin or unbaptized, and help the faithful departed by prayer, alms, and remembrance at the Eucharist, as Job provided for his children by sacrifice.
16. 4.1Paul, though he longed to depart and be with Christ, chose to remain for the Philippians' sake; Chrysostom marvels at a soul that set the good of others above its own crown, and compares Paul to a sun brighter than the sun.
17. 4.2Paul stayed for the Philippians' growth, urging them only to live worthily of the gospel, united in one spirit and unafraid of their enemies, since suffering for Christ is itself God's gift.
18. 4.4Chrysostom rebukes his hearers' softness, explains that God planted shame and natural pity in us as helps to virtue, and shows that all, even the apostles, live by God's mercy.
19. 4.5All, apostles included, depend on God's mercy, which created and sustains the world; therefore we must show mercy and forgive debts and wrongs, as the parable of the unforgiving servant warns.
20. 5.1Paul appeals to the Philippians by spiritual rather than fleshly claims to complete his joy by being of one mind, and teaches that humility, counting others better than oneself, is the cure for vainglory and envy.
21. 5.2Mutual humility forms a double wall that no quarrel can breach; pride is childish, and Joseph, Daniel, and the apostles show how the truly gifted ascribe everything to God.
22. 5.3Chrysostom distinguishes, with scriptural examples, true courage and boldness from rashness and insolence, and true humility from flattery and servility, and urges that knowing this is useless without doing it.
23. 6.1Paul urges humility by Christ's example, and Chrysostom, likening Phil 2:6–8 to a two-edged sword, sets out the errors of Sabellius, Marcion, Marcellus, Photinus, Arius, and others, and begins to refute them from “the form of God”.
24. 6.2Chrysostom argues from “equal with God” against Sabellius and from “the form of God” against Arius, rejecting a “small” and “great” God as a pagan idea, and explains that humility belongs only to one who could rightly claim more.
25. 6.3Abstaining from wrongdoing earns no praise, so Phil 2:6 cannot mean that a lesser Son merely refrained from grasping at equality; Christ's example of humility works only if the Son is equal to the Father, and “being in the form of God” means being truly God.
26. 6.4Chrysostom closes his argument against the heretics, warns that God abandons to the devil those who bring his name into blasphemy, as with the vineyard of Isa 5 and with Judas, and condemns the love of money that drove Judas to betray Christ.
27. 6.6God and mammon give opposite commands, yet mammon's cruel orders are obeyed; Chrysostom explains that he speaks of Gehenna to drive his hearers toward the kingdom, and argues from God's justice that judgment and resurrection must come.
28. 7.1Chrysostom gives the true sense of “did not count it robbery”: the Son held equality with God by nature, not by seizure, and therefore could freely lay aside his glory and humble himself without fear of losing it.
29. 7.2Against Marcion's phantom Christ, Paul of Samosata's mere man, the Arians, and those who deny Christ a soul, Chrysostom explains “likeness”, “fashion”, and “as a man”: the Word, remaining God, truly took human nature, obeyed as Son to the shameful death of the cross, and his exaltation and worship redound to the Father's glory.
30. 7.5Faith must be matched by life; Christ's obedience shows that humility leads to exaltation, as with Satan and Paul, Absalom and David; glory comes by fleeing it, and arrogance, worse than folly, has no ground in strength or beauty.
31. 7.6Wealth, houses, skill, speed, and keen senses are shared or surpassed by animals and the wicked; only godliness and virtue set human beings above the beasts and make them like angels.
32. 8.1Paul praises the Philippians' obedience and urges them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, mindful that God is always present; God works both the willing and the doing, not to remove their effort but to relieve their anxiety.
33. 8.2God's working does not abolish free will, since doing good breeds the will to do more; Paul warns against murmuring and doubting, and Chrysostom sets before his hearers Job, who endured loss, disease, and reproach without murmuring.
34. 8.4Like stars in the night, Christians shine by staying blameless among the crooked; Paul, ready to be poured out as a libation, calls the Philippians to rejoice with him, and Chrysostom forbids excessive mourning for the dead.
35. 9.1Paul plans to send Timothy, the only one who cares for the Philippians as he does, because love seeks news of others; Chrysostom notes that Paul did not learn everything by the Spirit, and that this made the churches more careful.
36. 9.2Paul commends Epaphroditus as brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, explains the delay in sending him by his near-fatal illness, and calls his recovery God's mercy, since the present life, used for gaining souls, is good.
37. 9.3Epaphroditus risked death to serve Paul in prison on behalf of the Philippian church, which Chrysostom counts as a kind of martyrdom; supporting those who labour for the gospel is a debt, like soldiers' pay, not a favour.
38. 9.4People pay civil taxes readily but grudge support for the clergy, though the Jews gave far more; Chrysostom rebukes those who slander clergy for having bare necessities and insists that the command to be content with food and clothing applies to all Christians.
39. 9.5Scripture's warnings against luxury and riches apply to all, not only to clergy; slandering priests harms the slanderer whether the charge is true or false; and Chrysostom begins to show from Peter and Paul that apostles did own sandals, cloaks, and lodgings.
40. 9.6Christ's command to the apostles to take nothing was temporary, as Luke 22:35–36 shows; God left his teachers in need so that the faithful might be sanctified by supporting them, and Christians should look at their own sins and others' virtues.
41. 10.1Paul calls the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord and warns them against Judaizing teachers, whom he calls dogs and evil workers, and against circumcision, which he renames mutilation, since the true circumcision is spiritual worship.
42. 10.2True circumcision is of the heart, and the bodily rite, a type now replaced by the reality, no longer even deserves the name; Paul, who surpassed all in Jewish birth and zeal, gave up these advantages because he found Christ far greater.
43. 10.3Paul gave up all his advantages to gain Christ, while we will not give up even money; Chrysostom shows that costly clothes, gold ornaments, and lavish houses bring no real gain but only loss.
44. 10.4Costly things are pure loss, and wealth can neither prevent death nor old age; it is the will, not riches or poverty, that wins heaven, though virtue comes more easily in poverty.
45. 10.5We should use every gift of God, our bodily members, money, crafts, houses, land, and sea, for his service and for the poor, and not prize jewels and finery, whose value lies only in opinion.
46. 11.1Paul counted the law loss not because it is bad by nature but by comparison with Christ: the law was a ladder and a bridge to grace, and becomes loss only when clinging to it keeps one from Christ.
47. 11.2The righteousness that counts is God's gift received by faith, not one's own from the law; faith, which alone grasps Christ's resurrection and still more his divine birth, is proved by sharing his sufferings, through which believers are conformed to his death.
48. 11.3Although all will rise, Paul, despite all his sufferings, presses on toward the glorious resurrection with Christ without presuming he has attained it, conscious that Christ first laid hold of him as he fled.
49. 11.4Christians who sin flee God as the prodigal fled his father, squandering the gifts of forgiveness and the Spirit given in baptism, by which Christ, the physician, healed humanity's diseases; Chrysostom urges them to return to a Father who does not even reproach the penitent.
50. 12.1Remembering past achievements breeds sloth and pride; Paul, though he had done so much, forgot what lay behind and strained forward like a runner toward the prize, and so must we.
51. 12.2The prize, the kingdom of heaven, lies above and must be pursued like a disciplined runner; perfection is not to think oneself perfect, and Paul bids the Philippians hold fast to the concord they have reached and imitate those who live as he does.
52. 12.3The apostles taught by example; if one's teacher lives badly, Christ himself is the teacher, and Scripture offers models of virtue in every state, wealth or poverty, marriage or virginity, kingship or captivity, since virtue depends on the will, not circumstances.
53. 12.4Virtue, like the apostles, can thrive in every circumstance, so no one should excuse himself by retreating from responsibility; the soul grounded in hope of the resurrection stands like a rock, unmoved by gain or loss.
54. 13.1Christians who live in ease and luxury are enemies of the cross; Chrysostom praises the power of the cross, by which baptism and ordination are accomplished, and laments those whose god is their belly, fearing that the charge fits his own hearers.
55. 13.2Gluttons serve the belly as their god, but Christians, citizens of heaven, await a Saviour who will transform their humble bodies to be like his glorious body; mixed into this part of the scan is Chrysostom's comment on the women Paul commends in Phil 4:2–3.
56. 13.4Christ himself will come on the clouds with all the angelic hosts to take his own to his kingdom; falling from that glory is worse than Gehenna, so we must labour now; mixed into this part of the scan is Chrysostom's comment on Phil 4:1–3, praising Euodia and Syntyche as leading women of the church.
57. 14.1Christian joy is not the world's laughter but springs from mourning for sin and from suffering for Christ; Paul urges gentleness toward the wicked, freedom from anxiety because the Lord is near, prayer with thanksgiving for everything, and trust in God's peace.
58. 14.2God's peace surpasses understanding and guards believers in Christ; Paul bids them think on whatever is true, pure, and lovely, following his example, and Chrysostom shows that vices such as sexual immorality, adultery, and greed act as enemies, while virtue protects like a loving mother.
59. 14.3Virtue keeps us safe while vice endangers; Paul's call to think on what is praiseworthy aims at virtue, not reputation; and Chrysostom urges peace with all, since fights arise from worldly desires and those who harm others harm themselves.
60. 15.1Paul rejoices in the Philippians' renewed gift for their sake, not his own, since giving benefits the giver; Chrysostom explains why Paul accepted gifts from Philippi but not Corinth, and that contentment in want and in plenty is a learned virtue.
61. 15.2Paul was the same in want and in plenty and owed his strength to Christ, yet he praises the Philippians for sharing his affliction and for being the first church to support him; giving is a partnership in which the kingdom is bought not with money but with the will, and God accepts such gifts as a fragrant sacrifice.
62. 15.4Paul prays that God will supply the Philippians' needs, not make them rich, and sends greetings, including from Caesar's household; Chrysostom notes that the shared persecution of the early church bound believers in love.
63. 15.5Affliction binds believers together and is praised throughout Scripture; even emperors live in fear and bloodshed, as recent imperial history shows; so Christians should grieve over sin, as Paul did over others, and walk the narrow road of affliction to eternal life.