od
to the Philippians. There was no need for him to assert what was not
denied, and he did not wish to deal with them officially, but rather
personally. There is a similar omission in Philemon and a pathetic
substitution there of the 'prisoner of Jesus Christ' for the 'slave of
Christ Jesus.'

The persons addressed are 'all the saints in Christ Jesus.' As he had
not called himself an apostle, so he does not call them a church. He
will not lose in an abstraction the personal bond which unites them.
They are saints, which is not primarily a designation of moral purity,
but of consecration to God, from whom indeed purity flows. The primitive
meaning of the word is _separation_; the secondary meaning is
_holiness_, and the connection between these two meanings contains a
whole ethical philosophy. They are saints in Christ Jesus; union with
Him is the condition both of consecration and of purity.

The Philippian community had an organisation primitive but sufficient.
We do not enter on the discussion of its two offices further than to
note that the bishops are evidently identical with the elders, in the
account in Acts xx. of Paul's parting with the Ephesian Christians,
where the same persons are designated by both titles, as is also the
case in Titus i. 5 and 7; the one name (elder) coming from the Hebrew
and designating the office on the side of dignity, the other (bishop)
being of Greek origin and representing it in terms of function. We note
that there were several elders then in the Philippian church, and that
their place in the salutation negatives the idea of hierarchical
supremacy.

The benediction or prayer for grace and peace is couched in the form
which it assumes in all Paul's letters. It blends Eastern and Western
forms of greeting. 'Grace' being the Greek and 'Peace' the Hebrew form
of salutation. So Christ fuses and fulfils the world's desires. The
grace which He gives is the self-imparting love of God, the peace which
He gives is its consequence, and the salutation is an unmistakable
evidence of Paul's belief in Christ's divinity.

This salutation is followed by a great burst of thankful love, for the
full apprehension of which we must look briefly at the details of these
verses. We have first Paul's thankfulness in all his remembrance of the
Philippians, then he further defines the times of his thankfulness as
'always in every supplication of mind on behalf of you all making my
supplication with joy.' H