Philippians 1:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Now the Apostle says, "If life in the flesh brings fruit to my work," and precisely "to my work." How is it fruit of the work? "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith." This is why it is fruit of the work.

"Then I do not know what to choose." O what philosophy! How he both rejected love for the present life and did not slander it! By the words, "and death is gain," he rejected love for it.

By the words, "if life in the flesh brings fruit to my work," he showed that the present life is also necessary. In what way? If we use it as we ought, if we bear fruit.

But if it is fruitless, then it is no longer life. Trees that do not bear fruit, like dry trees, we cast away and hand over to fire. To live is something intermediate and indifferent.

To live well or badly lies in our will. Therefore we must not hate life, since it is possible to live well. If we misuse life, even then we must not blame it.

Why? Because life is not the cause, but the will of those who misuse it. God gave you life so that you might live for Him. But you, by an inclination to evil, live sinfully and subject yourself to every blame.

What are you saying, Paul? Tell me. You do not know what to choose? Here he reveals a great mystery, that it was in his power to die. For where there is a choice, it means we have authority.

"I do not know," he says, "what to choose." Then is this in your will? Yes, he says, if I wish to ask this grace from God.

For if I wish, he says, to ask this of God, He will show me this mercy. From this you must receive consolation. If I die, it will not be by the malice of enemies, but according to God's ordering.

But since the words that follow are, "this is far better," it is clear that the Apostle desires this better thing. Thus, being drawn by both, or constrained by both, he desires one thing and finds the other only more necessary.

That is, he desires to depart and be with Christ, while he finds remaining in the flesh more necessary. Here the ambiguity is resolved by the single following particle "for," although some interpreters have omitted it.

They thought that the Apostle was not only constrained by both, but apparently also desired both. In light of this observation, the Apostle's words in this place should be divided as follows: "I do not know what to choose. I am pressed by both."

After this one should read, "having a desire to depart and to be with Christ." Since someone here could ask the Apostle why he especially desires this departure, he adds, "for this is far better."

Why then does he find himself constrained on both sides? Because on the other side he finds it more necessary to remain: "but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you."

In the same way, when someone comes to desire death, if he has already attained the desire to die while possessing firm faith and seeing where he must go, he has already come to depart this life willingly.

For understanding where one must go is not the same as also loving it and desiring to be there. As regards what will happen in his soul, it is necessary that he die willingly.

Therefore some who already possess firm faith speak in vain when they say that they do not wish to die in order to become perfected. Their very perfection consists in their coming to wish to die.

If they wish to speak truthfully, let them not say, "I do not wish to die in order to become perfected." Rather, let them say, "I do not wish to die because I have not been sufficiently perfected."

Thus, for believers, not wishing for death is not counsel by which they may be perfected. It is an indication that they have not been sufficiently perfected. Therefore, as to their not wishing to be perfected, let them wish it, and behold, they are already perfected.

"What philosophy! By the words, 'to die is gain,' he rejected love for this life. By the words, 'to live in the flesh is fruitful labor for me,' he showed that the present life is also necessary.

How is it necessary? If we use it as we ought, if we bear fruit. Therefore one must not hate life, for one can live well. But if we misuse life, even then we must not blame it.

Why? Because life is not the cause, but the will of those who misuse it. God gave you life so that you might live for Him. But you, by your inclination to evil, live sinfully and subject yourself to every blame" (Chrysostom).

"In itself, death is neither loss nor gain, and it occurs according to God's order. Therefore Saint Paul calls martyrdom itself gain, death for Christ and the Gospel. Such death is truly gain, for of itself it crowns the sufferer with a most glorious crown" (Bishop Theophan).

To this our more recent interpreter adds: "As Christ partook of divine glory and sat at the right hand of God the Father only after the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, so the believer will partake of Christ's glory and behold God face to face only after his own resurrection.

Therefore, although the Apostle, even while living in the flesh, has Christ as his true life, death will be gain for him. It is gain not in itself, but as a necessary link in the passage from this earthly life, filled with deprivation and sufferings, to the life of glory with Christ.

It is the passage to full communion with Him and the contemplation of Him."

"There could be no comparison between being with Christ in the other life and life here. It is not this latter life that appears in the Apostle as the counterweight to the former. Rather, it is what he can still do in this life for the good of his neighbors, and for the spread of the Kingdom of Christ on earth" (Nazarevsky; cf. Rom 9:1-3).

How? If we use it as we ought, if we bear fruit. If it is fruitless, then it is no longer life. Trees that do not bear fruit, like dry trees, we cast away and give over to fire.

To live is something intermediate and indifferent. To live well or badly lies in our will. Therefore one must not hate life, for one can live well. But if we misuse life, even then we must not blame it.

Why? Because life is not the cause, but the will of those who misuse it. God gave you life so that you might live for Him. Yet you, by an inclination to evil, live sinfully and subject yourself to every blame" (Chrysostom).

When the Apostle says, "what I shall choose I do not know," he gives the thought that the choice of life or death lay in his power. Yet life and death are in God's hands. In what sense, then, did the Apostle say this?

Perhaps he meant the choice of the heart. Considering the events made possible by his present situation, he could not avoid supposing that they might hand him over to death. His heart could respond to this with desire, because of the radiance of the martyr's crown and a swifter personal communion with the Lord.

At the same time, conscience could remind him that he is an Apostle. While strength remains, he must desire to live, so as to spread the Gospel of Christ. Being devoted to his apostolic duty, he could not but desire that what happened to him follow this good prompting.

So he speaks of this struggle of good desires. Standing amid them, he says that he does not know what to choose.

But one may also understand this directly. The choice here is not of desire or preference, but of the very event of life or death, because he would pray for it, and God would do according to his prayer.

Hezekiah prayed, and God added years to his life. In the lives of the saints there were many instances in which some died, while for others life was prolonged through prayer.

In this sense the Apostle too could say, "I do not know what to choose, or for what to pray, so that God may do it for me."

Chrysostom understands these words in this way: "Here the Apostle reveals a great mystery, that dying was in his power. For when there is a choice, it means that we have authority.

'What I shall choose,' he says, 'I do not know.' Then is this in your power? Indeed, he says, if I wish to ask this grace from God."