Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh.
το επιεικες υμων γνωσθητω πασιν ανθρωποις ο κυριος εγγυς
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
"Let your gentleness be known to all men." Above he said, "Their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; they set their mind on earthly things."
Since it seemed likely that the Philippians would treat evil people without friendliness, the Apostle exhorts them. While having nothing in common with such people, they should deal with great gentleness not only toward brethren, but even toward enemies and adversaries.
"The Lord is near..."
"Let your gentleness be known to all men." Since Paul above condemned certain people as enemies of the Cross, he now urges the Philippians not to treat them with hostility, but to act mercifully toward them, even if they are enemies.
"The Lord is near." Yet you envy the fact that they live in pleasure and insult you, while you are in sorrow. The Lord is near; judgment has already come.
As for modesty and good order, do not be troubled, but let it be known to all men. For the Lord, who gives us strength, is near.
Here Paul wants others also to gain benefit from their example. When their meekness becomes evident, that is, when it becomes their usual way of life, their works will be illumined with light. Then there will be no lack of those who wish to imitate their good deeds. Then they will not only increase in doing good, but will move others to do it. “The Lord is near,” says Paul. To be anxious for nothing means to be ready to keep vigil in prayer and supplication, to thank God, to leave worldly cares, and to hope. It means keeping before one’s eyes what the Lord has promised, for which He must be thanked.
"Let your gentleness be known to all men." Endure the assaults of opponents courageously, and do not repay evil for evil.
"The Lord is near." "Be anxious for nothing." The Judge draws near and will finally give the reward for labors.
Meekness is patience that keeps every measure and does not extend beyond its own bounds. When, living among strangers, we recognize our abasement and live in accordance with it, God will exalt us. “Let your meekness be known to all men.” Why does the Apostle teach this? Is it so that we should try to please others? No, but because when Christ comes, He will exalt our abasement and receive our meekness. “Be anxious for nothing,” that is, do not be anxious about your well-being. Do not be troubled or disturbed about the world and worldly affairs. For God will care for everything necessary for you now in this life. In eternal life He will care also for what is better.
The word “meekness” has many meanings. It signifies good character, moderation, quietness, humility, freedom from anger, yielding, and guilelessness. One would not err in judging that it signifies every virtue. When one hears the Apostle say, “Let your meekness be known to all men,” let no one be scandalized. Let no one think that he is urging us to display ourselves or to seek glory. This word is like that saying of Jesus Christ: “Let your light so shine before men” (Mt 5:16). That saying did not have vainglory as its aim, but the glory of God and the benefit of men. “That they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” So also Paul’s word had as its aim the glory of God and the conversion of men. Consider the likeness between them.
Christ called virtue light, and Paul called it meekness. Christ did not say, “Strive so that your light may shine before men.” He said, “Let your light shine,” meaning that the light of virtue shines of itself when you do good works. Likewise Paul did not say, “Make an effort that all men may know you are meek.” He said, “Let your meekness be known to all men.” It is as though he said. “Let all men come to know your meekness when you become meek.” A meek disposition is fitting and proper for disciples of Him Who is meek and lowly in heart (Mt 11:29). It is also the strongest weapon against the plots of enemies who persecute and harm us. Yet as great a virtue as meekness is, so difficult is it to fulfill. Therefore the divine Apostle encourages us to fulfill it, saying, “The Lord is near.” Man, he says, do not doubt, but take courage. Your Lord is near you. He will help you bring meekness into your heart and remain unwavering in it. The holy Prophet David said this very thing of himself: “I foresaw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken” (Ps 15:8). The saying “The Lord is near” applies not only to the Apostle’s preceding words, but also to those that follow. Verse 6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
"The Lord is near." The Apostle accompanies the summons to joy with a reminder of His nearness. For those who suffered for Christ, this nearness was a sign that their sufferings would soon end.
Passing from the admonition of particular persons to general instructions, the holy Apostle teaches them always to rejoice in the Lord. He urges them to show themselves gentle before all men, not to surrender to the many restless cares of life.
He teaches them to make their desires known before God in prayer, and so forth. "Finally, my brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just... if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things... do these things. And the God of peace will be with you."
Teaching the Philippians the rules of Christian life, the Apostle first exhorts them to have joy in the Lord. Then he exhorts them to be meek, free from sorrow, and to place their hope in God. They must pray to Him with different prayers, requests, and thanksgivings. He promises that then the peace of God will be poured out upon them. By this peace they will understand Christ and abide in Him with the heart, as they have been faithful to Him until now. Concerning the Apostle’s repeated exhortation to rejoice, St. John Chrysostom says: “To speak this way belongs to one firmly assured. It shows that the man who abides in God always rejoices. Whether such a man grieves or suffers anything, he always rejoices.
Hear what Luke tells of the Apostles: they went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name (Acts 5:41). If scourges and bonds, which seem hardest of all, produce joy, what else can cause them sorrow?” Our more recent interpreter adds that the Apostle exhorts them to Christian joy, “whose essential property must be constancy. Inconstancy is the lot of earthly joys.” According to St. Basil the Great, “the Apostle invites one always to rejoice, but not just anyone. He invites the one who is like himself, who does not live in the flesh, but has Christ living in him.” Explaining why the Apostle, after exhorting them to meekness, recalls the nearness of the Lord, Bishop Theophan says: “What does an injured man usually say to comfort himself? There is God the Judge; He will repay. If to this one adds the conviction that this Judge is about to appear, there can be no better means for calming a troubled heart.” “But not only in afflictions, but in every circumstance of life, one can cast all one’s sorrow upon the Lord. The Apostle exhorts us to complete surrender to the will of God. He cuts off ruinous over-anxiety, which torments the soul and takes away the heart’s peace. For though you labor, the Lord will give the fruit of your labor. Cast all your sorrow upon Him, again because He is near. Enter with awareness into this truth. When you enter it, and contemplate the majesty of Him Who is near, can you fail to pray? The first condition for success in prayer is to pray in everything, that is, in every need, spiritual and earthly. This is the essence of surrender to God. Second, pray with prayer and supplication, that is, from the depth of the soul. Faith and hope lie at the foundation here. Third, pray with thanksgiving. Fourth, pray by stating the requests themselves. Fifth, pray before God, speaking of things worthy of God, and knowing that you stand before God.” “Do all that has been prescribed, and the peace of God will guard you and be your sentinel. It will overshadow you and keep your hearts and your understandings.” “This peace surpasses every mind both because it cannot be brought within ordinary concepts, and because it comes apart from the mind, in Christ Jesus. To taste this peace is the same as communion with God. Communion with God takes place only in Jesus Christ, by the way held by the one Orthodox faith.”
Then again come exhortations of a general character. Christians must rejoice in their salvation and act meekly toward all people, even toward their opponents. In any case, the latter must soon appear before the Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ. They must not be overly anxious about themselves (μεριμνάτε), but on every occasion turn to God in prayer. Then peace from God will descend into their souls. Through Jesus Christ, God will order their life better than human reason can, and will preserve whole both their life of heart and their life of mind. Then the Apostle gathers into one exhortation everything he requires of his readers.
They must constantly think on truth in general, “whatever things are true,” and give this truth its fitting and honorable form, “whatever things are honorable.” In relation to others they must show justice. Their conduct must be unstained. It must make them agreeable members of civil society and bring them praise. In general, they must make virtue their constant aim, together with that praise which falls to the lot of virtuous people. The best example for them in this regard is the Apostle’s life, which fully confirms his instruction and teaching.
Meekness is the virtue opposed to irritability and anger. Whoever has acquired it has driven out a whole half of the passions.
Meekness together with purity is the safeguard of full and perfect dispassion. For this reason the Lord also blessed it (see Mt 5:5).
Saint John of the Ladder defines it in this way: “Meekness is an immovable state of soul, in which it remains the same amid insults and praises.”
“The sign of meekness consists in preserving the pledge of love in a quiet heart toward the one who provokes you, even in his presence.” It also means “to pray for him purely.”
“The Lord rests in meek hearts.” “A meek soul is the throne of simplicity.”
Saint Chrysostom connects this instruction with what was said earlier about their sufferings for the Lord’s sake. He thinks the Apostle feared that the Philippians might become hostile toward those who caused them sorrows.
Therefore “the Apostle exhorts them to have nothing in common with such people, and not to pursue them with hatred. They should deal with great meekness not only with brethren, but even with enemies and adversaries.”
Theodoret writes the same: “Bear the assaults of opponents courageously. Do not repay evil for evil.”
Oecumenius and Theophylact consider the occasion for this lesson to be the Apostle’s strong rebuke of those who please the flesh. They too think he feared that those innocent of this sin might become hostile toward them.
Yet the present lesson can be linked with that rebuke in another way. By that rebuke the Apostle turned the Philippians away from desire, which is the first source of the passions.
By this lesson he turns them away from irritability and anger, the second source of the passions. By both he leads them to dispassion.
The enemy usually fights us now by anger, now by desire, according to what is more convenient at the time. But the enemy has no access to one who is troubled by neither anger nor desire.
Such a person has acquired meekness against the first, and purity against the second.
“Let your meekness be known to all men.” This does not mean that it should be displayed to people for show. It is said so that all people may experience your meekness toward themselves.
It is the same as saying: be meek to all people, both your own and strangers, both great and small.
“The Lord is near.” This saying may be referred both to what precedes and to what follows. It gives two thoughts.
The first is that the Lord is present and near to all who call upon Him. The second is that the Lord’s second coming is near.
Confidence in both equally helps to drive out anger and establish meekness, if this saying is placed in close connection with the preceding lesson.
Both thoughts equally help in fulfilling what the Apostle commands immediately afterward, namely, to be anxious about nothing.
Basil the Great writes on how the thought of God’s omnipresence tames anger: “How can one avoid becoming angry? If you always keep in mind that you are before the eyes of God, Who sees, and before the Lord, Who is near you. For what subject would dare do anything displeasing to the king before the king’s eyes?”
In another place he writes: “If the gaze of a man, equal to us by nature, restrains us from passion because of the superiority of his rank, how much more will one be restrained who is firmly convinced that he has God as witness of his own movements? For God, Who searches hearts and reins, sees the movements of the soul far more than a man sees changes in the face.”
Universal experience confirms how the thought of the nearness of the second coming and judgment tames anger and vengefulness. What does the offended person usually say to comfort himself?
“There is God the Judge. He will repay.” If one adds to this the conviction that this Judge is about to appear, there can be no better means for quieting a troubled heart.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 9 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS