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In these epistles, which originated among the Pauline Christians, the Gnostic theosophy is skilfully applied to the Pauline conception of the scope and purposes of Christianity. Or, according to "Colossians" and "Philippians," all the aeons are summed up in him, in whom dwells the pleroma, or "fulness of God."
Thus, when Paul had taught the Philippians how they had been made rich by that faith in Christ in which they had obtained all things, he teaches them further in these words: "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Paul to the Philippians commandeth as much; where treating of his own practice in the doctrine of faith and holiness, requireth them to walk by the same rule, to mind the same thing.
If he tries to ease his body by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain dangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks up a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old friends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison epistle, resounding with clanking chain.
Lightfoot, "had a wider popularity than the other letters of Ignatius, both early and late. It was cleverly contrived. It employed the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians as a kind of voucher for its authenticity, inasmuch as it is there stated that Ignatius had written a number of letters; and it contained little or nothing which any one in that age would have been disposed to controvert.
"The third great step was taken when Paul and his companions, on the second tour, crossed the Aegean to Europe and thus began the conquest of Europe for Jesus Christ. Local churches were planted in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth, to each of which Paul wrote epistles Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and 1 and 2 Corinthians.
Paul says in his epistle to the Philippians, "help those women who labored with me, in the gospel;" Phil. iv, 3. But this is not all. Roman women were burnt at the stake, their delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of the Amphitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the diversion of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people.
But as he recedes further in time, and men are able to see more truly the proportions of the man, they will judge, that without having gained the rank of a great reformer, Shelley had in him that element of wide sympathy and lofty hope for his kind which is essential both to the birth and the subsequent making of the greatest of poets. PHILIPPIANS iii. 15, 16.
"My God," Paul wrote to the Philippians, "shall fulfil" not merely "all your need," as the Authorized Version has it, but "every need of yours." There is a fine discrimination in the Divine love which sifts and sorts men's needs, and applies itself to them one by one, just as the need may be.
If they rebuke or reprobate it we may be equally assured that we have no right to indulge in it. St. Philippians 4:6. How inclusive this is full of care, anxiety, fretfulness, worry about nothing, but in everything presenting your case to God. And then comes the promise: And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phil.
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