Philippians 2:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

I do not say this without cause. You yourselves know that, as a son with a father, he served with me in the Gospel. Here he rightly praises Timothy, so that they may receive him with great honor. He does this also in the Epistle to the Corinthians, saying, "See that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I do" (1 Cor 16:10). He is not concerned for Timothy, but for those receiving him, so that they may receive a great reward for it.

You yourselves, he says, are witnesses that he served me as a son serves a father, not only in bodily needs, but, what is far more important, in the Gospel. Therefore, as my son he is worthy of honor, and as a servant of God still more. Through this he commends Timothy to them, not so much honoring him as benefiting them. For if they heed him as most worthy, they will certainly receive benefit from his word and be counted worthy of a higher reward.

He, as a son to a father, that is, as a son cares and is concerned for the life of his father, so he labored with me in my Gospel. For in every place where believers in Christ were subjected to persecution, persecution did not leave me. Therefore I myself would at once set out to strengthen them, and I sent him into all the cities to encourage those oppressed by persecution, since persecution was in every city.

The praises of blessed Timothy are just. The divine Apostle has written them here both to show his own affection toward them, namely that he sent for their benefit the one in whom alone he found consolation, and to persuade them to receive him as a preacher of the truth with every readiness to serve (Phil 2:23). Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I know what will happen to me.

The Apostle hopes to receive comfort from this: that Saint Timothy, both by his good order and care for the Philippians and by his devotion to Saint Paul, will remove from their community all the undesirable things that so grieved the Apostle, according to the report brought by Epaphroditus. "For," Saint Paul says of Timothy, "I have no one equally zealous, who would care for you so sincerely. And you know his proven faithfulness, because as a son with a father he served with me in the Gospel."

Showing the fullness of his care for the Philippians, the Apostle tells them of his intention to send the Apostle Timothy to them. To awaken complete trust in him, he speaks of Timothy's entire devotion to the cause of Christianity, free from all self-interest, by which many false teachers were marked. The Apostle wished to send him, on the one hand, to learn the condition of the Philippians. On the other hand, he wished Timothy to be comforted by their progress, and at the same time to inform them of his own condition. This condition was evidently to change for the better. After that, he intended first to send Timothy, and then to go himself. From this the Philippians were to understand that the Apostle was not in a hopeless state. In all this, St.

The thought of possible death in bonds, or at least of their possible continuation, moves the Apostle to care for the spiritual good of the Philippians through someone else. The Apostle's choice rests on Timothy, who in character was very much like the Apostle, ΐαόψυχον. Therefore he could most suitably replace the Apostle Paul where Paul himself could not be present. All the others, who by bodily and spiritual qualities could have taken upon themselves the duty of envoy, lacked sufficient devotion to the work of Christ. They did not wish to obey the Apostle in everything as submissive children. The Apostle, however, will send Timothy only when he receives definite information about his own case. For he continues to hope for a speedy personal meeting with the Philippians. In that case Timothy's mission would, of course, prove unnecessary.

"Proof" means both experience and testedness. The Apostle suggests that they can rely on him in everything. Whatever he says, receive it as though I myself were speaking. Whatever you pass on to him, pass it on boldly. It will be the same as though you were passing it on to me. "You know," he says. Yet he considered it necessary to mention this, so they might know that Timothy was still the same and stood in the same relationship to him. They knew how he had served St. Paul up to the Apostle's last visit to them, just before his bonds. But what happened afterward they did not know. The Apostle tells them: he is still the same. As he labored with me then in the Gospel, as a son with a father, so he continues to act now. It is not surprising if St. Paul here means St. Timothy's special labors in the Gospel in Rome itself. Having set St. Timothy in such a bright light before the attention of the Philippians, the Apostle Paul then says to them...