Philippians 1:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What are you saying, Paul? Chains brought not despondency, but boldness, not fear, but longing? These words are not consistent. I know this, he says. But this did not happen according to the consistency of human affairs. It was beyond nature and was accomplished by divine grace.

Therefore what produced despondency in others gave him boldness. If someone seizes a general and imprisons him, and makes this known, he puts the whole army to flight. Likewise, if someone removes the shepherd from the flock, he drives off the sheep with complete fearlessness.

But it was not so with Paul. It was entirely the opposite. The general was bound, and the soldiers became most zealous, attacking their adversaries with greater boldness. The shepherd was imprisoned, and the sheep were neither destroyed nor scattered.

Who has seen or heard that disciples found greater consolation in the misfortunes of their teachers? How were they not afraid? How were they not frightened? How did they not say to Paul, "Physician, heal yourself" (Lk 4:23)? Free yourself from heavy troubles, and then you will bring us countless blessings.

Why did they not say this? Why? Because by the grace of the Spirit they had been taught that all this happened not from weakness, but by Christ's permission. The truth was to shine more brightly, growing through chains, prisons, afflictions, and oppression, and attaining greater greatness.

Thus the power of Christ "is perfected in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9). If the chains had caused Paul to stumble and had made him or those near him fearful, there would be reason for perplexity.

But if they produced greater boldness and led to greater glory, then one must be struck with wonder. One must marvel how a dishonorable thing created glory for the disciple, and how a thing that brings timidity produced boldness and consolation in them all.

Who then would not have been amazed at him, seeing him surrounded with chains? Then the demons especially fled when they saw him in prison. A diadem does not make a king's head so radiant as the chain made his hands, not by its own nature, but by the grace blossoming on his hands.

This is why it became great consolation for the disciples. They saw his body bound, but his tongue unbound. They saw his hands shackled, but the word loosed and running through the whole inhabited world more swiftly than a ray of the sun.

This became consolation for them, when they learned in deed that nothing present is terrible. When the soul is truly embraced by divine longing and love, it turns to nothing present. As those in frenzy dare boldly even fire, iron, beasts, the sea, and everything else, so these, rapt in a most beautiful and spiritual frenzy arising from chastity, despised everything visible.

Therefore, seeing their teacher bound, they rejoiced still more and were still more enraptured by his deeds. They proved to their adversaries that they were inaccessible from every side and unconquerable.

“If the one in bonds had borne his bonds with grief and kept silent, then naturally the others would have been in the same condition. But since the one in bonds acted still more boldly, he gave them more boldness than if he had not been bound.

“But since it was a great thing to say that my bonds produced boldness in them, he first said, ‘in the Lord.’ Do you see how the Apostle, even when compelled to boast, does not abandon modesty?” (St. John Chrysostom).

According to Oecumenius, “boldness seized the preachers because Paul’s bonds inflamed their faith. If this preaching were not divine, they said, Paul would not have agreed to suffer such bonds for it. St. Paul’s bonds served to strengthen the preaching.”

The brethren were inspired with hope in the Lord by the occasion that the Apostle’s bonds had taken such a turn. Or the Lord inspired them with hope through Paul’s bonds.

“Since it was a great thing to say that my bonds produced boldness in them, he first said, ‘in the Lord.’ Do you see how the Apostle, even when compelled to boast, does not abandon modesty?” (St. Chrysostom).

“In the Lord means through the Lord” (Oecumenius). “Having become confident” means being inspired by my bonds, either because they had received such renown, or because St. Paul bore them with good courage.

In the first sense, the thought is this: they saw that the Apostle’s preaching, despite his being in bonds, not only brought no calamity. Rather, it made him known even among the most prominent persons.

Everyone knew about it, and no one undertook anything against him, although he was in their hands. Seeing this, they set aside every fear and began to proclaim the word of God with boldness.

In the second sense, the thought is this: “because of my bonds, courage was born in many of the brethren. Seeing that I endure suffering gladly, they preach the divine Gospel without fear” (Blessed Theodoret).

“If the one in bonds had borne his bonds with grief and kept silent, then naturally they also would have been in the same condition. But since the one in bonds acted still more boldly, he gave them more boldness than if he had not been bound” (St. Chrysostom).

“They are much more bold.” “Even before, they acted boldly and spoke with boldness; now they do so much more” (St. Chrysostom).

“Boldness seized them, for Paul’s bonds inflamed their faith. If this preaching were not divine, they said, Paul would not have agreed to suffer such bonds for it. St. Paul’s bonds served to strengthen the preaching” (Oecumenius).

“To speak the word of God.” The preaching was not human, and the doctrine spread was not Paul’s. Through Paul, God Himself proclaimed to all the surest path of salvation.

In this lies the power of the Gospel. The mouths were human, but what they uttered was divine, according to the power active in it.