will themselves become pure and will not cause others to stumble. The word used for pure is interesting. It is eilikrinēs. The Greeks suggested two possible derivations, each of which presents a vivid picture. The word may come from eile, sunshine, and krinein, to judge, and may describe that which is able to stand the test of the sunshine without any flaw appearing. On that basis, the word means that the Christian character can stand any light that is turned upon it. The other possibility is that eilikrinēs is derived from eilein, which means to whirl round and round as in a sieve and so to sift until every impurity is extracted. On that basis, the Christian character is cleansed of all evil until it is completely pure.
But Christians are not only pure; a Christian may also be described as aproskopos – never causing any other person to stumble. There are people who are themselves faultless, but who are so austere that they drive people away from Christianity. Christians are themselves pure, but their love and gentleness are such that they attract others to the Christian way and never repel them from it.
Finally, Paul sets down the Christian aim. This is to live such a life that the glory and the praise are given to God. Christian goodness is not meant to win credit for any individual; it is meant to win praise for God. Christians know, and witness, that they are what they are, not by their own unaided efforts, but only by the grace of God.
THE CHAINS DESTROY THE BARRIERS
Philippians 1:12–14
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has resulted rather in the advancement of the gospel, because it has been demonstrated to the whole Praetorian Guard and to all the others that my imprisonment is borne for Christ’s sake and in Christ’s strength; and the result is that through my bonds more of the brothers have found confidence in the Lord the more exceedingly to dare fearlessly to speak the word of God.
PAUL was a prisoner – but, far from his imprisonment ending his missionary activity, it actually expanded it for himself and for others. In fact, the chains of his imprisonment destroyed the barriers. The word Paul uses for the advancement of the gospel is a vivid word. It is prokopē, the word which is specially used for the progress of an army or an expedition. It is the noun from the verb prokoptein, which means to cut down in advance. It is the verb which is used for cutting away the trees and the undergrowth, and removing the barriers which would hinder the progress of an army. Paul’s imprisonment, far from shutting the door, opened the door to new spheres of work and activity into which he would never otherwise have penetrated.
Paul, seeing that there was no justice for him in Palestine, had appealed to Caesar, as every Roman citizen had the right to do. In due course, he had been despatched to Rome under military escort, and, when he had arrived there, he had been handed over to ‘the captain of the guard’ and allowed to live by himself under the care of a soldier who was his guard (Acts 28:16). Ultimately, although still under guard, he had been allowed to have his own rented lodging (Acts 28:30), which was open to all who cared to come to see him.
In the Authorized Version, we read that Paul said his imprisonment was ‘manifest in all the palace’. The word translated as palace is praitōrion, which can mean either a place or a body of people. When it has the meaning of a place, it has three meanings. (1) Originally, it meant a general’s headquarters in camp, the tent from which he gave his orders and directed his campaign. (2) From that, it very naturally moved on to mean a general’s residence; it could, therefore, mean the emperor’s residence, that is, his palace, although examples of this usage are very rare. (3) By another natural extension, it came to mean a large house or villa, the residence of some wealthy or influential person. Here, praitōrion cannot have any of these meanings, for it is clear that Paul stayed in his own rented lodging, and it does not make sense that this lodging was in the emperor’s palace.
So we turn to the other meaning of praitōrion, a body of people. In this usage, it means the Praetorian Guard or, very much more rarely, the barracks where the Praetorian Guard lived. The second of these meanings we can leave on one side, for it is unlikely that Paul would have rented accommodation in a Roman barracks.
The Praetorian Guard were the Imperial Guard of Rome. They had been set up by Augustus and were a body of 10,000 select troops. Augustus had kept them dispersed throughout Rome and the neighbouring towns. Tiberius had concentrated them in Rome in a specially built and fortified camp. Vitellius had increased their number to 16,000. They served for twelve, and later for sixteen, years. At the close of their term of service, they received the citizenship and a financial payment. Latterly, they became very nearly the emperor’s private bodyguard; and in the end they became a significant problem. They were concentrated in Rome, and there came a time when the Praetorian Guard became nothing less than king-makers; for inevitably it was their nominee who was made emperor every time, since they could impose their will by force, if need be, upon the people. It was to the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, their commanding officer, that Paul was handed over when he arrived in Rome.
Paul repeatedly refers to himself as a prisoner or as being in chains or fetters. He tells the Roman Christians that, although he had done no wrong, he was delivered a prisoner (desmios) into the hands of the Romans (Acts 28:17). In Philippians, he repeatedly speaks of his imprisonment (Philippians 1:7, 1:13, 1:14). In Colossians, he speaks of being in prison for the sake of Christ, and tells the Colossians to remember his chains (Colossians 4:3, 4:18). In Philemon, he calls himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and speaks of being imprisoned for the gospel (Philemon 9:13). In Ephesians, he again calls himself the prisoner for Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:1).
There are two passages in which his imprisonment is more closely defined. In Acts 28:20, he speaks of himself as being bound with this chain; and he uses the same word (halusis) in Ephesians 6:20, when he speaks of himself as an ambassador in chains. It is in this word halusis that we find our key. The halusis was the short length of chain by which the wrist of a prisoner was bound to the wrist of the soldier who was his guard, so that escape was impossible. The situation was this. Paul had been delivered to the captain of the Praetorian Guard, to await trial before the emperor. He had been allowed to arrange a private lodging for himself; but night and day in that private lodging there was a soldier to guard him, a soldier to whom he was chained by his halusis all the time. There would, of course, be a rota of guardsmen assigned to this duty; and in the two years one by one the guardsmen of the Imperial Guard would be on duty with Paul. What a wonderful opportunity! These soldiers would hear Paul preach and talk to his friends. Is there any doubt that, in the long hours, Paul would open up a discussion about Jesus with the soldier to whose wrist he was chained?
His imprisonment had opened the way for preaching the gospel to the finest regiment in the Roman army. No wonder he declared that his imprisonment had actually been for the furtherance of the gospel. All the Praetorian Guard knew why Paul was in prison; many of them were touched for Christ; and the very sight of this gave to the Christians at Philippi fresh courage to preach the gospel and to witness for Christ.
Paul’s chains had removed the barriers and given him access to the finest section of the Roman army, and his imprisonment had been the medicine of courage to the Christian men and women at Philippi.
THE ALL-IMPORTANT PROCLAMATION
Philippians 1:15–18
Some in their preaching of Christ are actuated by envy and strife; some by goodwill. The one preach from love, because they know that I am lying here for the defence of the gospel; the other proclaim Christ for their own partisan purposes, not with pure motives, but thinking to make my bonds gall me all the more. What then? The only result is that in every way, whether as a cloak for other purposes, or whether in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice –
HERE indeed, Paul is speaking from the heart. His imprisonment has been an incentive to preaching. That incentive worked in two ways. There were those who loved him; and, when they saw him lying in prison, they redoubled their efforts to spread the gospel, so that it would lose nothing because of Paul’s imprisonment. They knew that the best way to delight his heart was to see that the work did not suffer because