What must the tender
weight of the words have been as they were first read aloud at Philippi!

Ver. 2. +To Euodia I appeal+ (_parakalo_),[3] +and to Syntyche I
appeal, to be of the same mind, in the Lord+; to lay aside differences
of feeling, born of self, in the power of their common union in
Christ.[5] +Aye+ (read

Ver. 3. _nai_, not _kai_), +and I beg thee also+, thee in _thy_ place,
as I seek to do in mine, +thou genuine yoke-fellow,[5] help them+
(_autais_)--these sisters of ours thus at variance, +women who+
(_aitines_) +wrestled along with me+, as devoted and courageous
workers, +in the+ cause of the +Gospel+, when the first conflicts with
the powers of evil were fought at Philippi; yes, do this loving
service, +with Clement[6] too, and my other fellow-workers, whose names
are in the Book of Life+; the Lord's own, "written in heaven," His for
ever.[7]

Wonderful is the great use of small occasions everywhere in Scripture.
Minor incidents in a biography are texts for sentences which afford
oracles of truth and hope for ever. Local and transitory errors, like
that of the Thessalonians about their departed friends, give
opportunity for a prophecy on which bereaved hearts are to rest and
rejoice till the last trumpet sounds. The unhappy disagreement of two
pious women at Philippi is dealt with in words which lead up to the
thought of the eternal love of God for His chosen; as if the very
unworthiness of the matter in hand, by a sort of repulsion, drove the
inspired thought to the utmost height, without for one moment diverting
it from its purpose of peace and blessing. And now, in the passage
which is to follow, the thought still keeps its high and holy level.
It says no more indeed of the Book of Life. But it unfolds in one
sentence after another the manifestation here below of the eternal life
in all its holy loveliness. It invites Euodia, and Syntyche, and us
with them, to the sight of what the believer is called to be, and may
be, day by day, as he rejoices in the Lord, and recollects His
presence, and tells Him everything as it comes, and so lives "in rest
and quietness," deep in His peace; and finds his happy thoughts
occupied not with the miseries of self-esteem and self-assertion, but
with all that is pure and good, in the smile of the God of peace.

The passage now to be translated has surely this among its other
precious attractions and benefits, that it stands related to what has
gone just