Bible Commentaries

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

If there be therefore — A most passionate obtestation, importing his most vehement desire of their good agreement; whereunto he conjures them, as it were, by all the bonds of love between him and them. Matters of importance must be pressed with utmost vehemence, Colossians 3:14 . Love is charged upon us above all those excellent things there reckoned up.

If any comfort of love — As there is very much, making the saints to enjoy one another’s society with spiritual delight, Psalms 16:3 , and to communicate with gladness and singleness of heart, Acts 2:46 . The Lord doth usually and graciously water the holy fellowship of his people with the dews of many sweet and glorious refreshings; so that they have a very heaven upon earth, for kind the same with that above, and differing only in degrees.

If any bowels and mercies — Ipsa suada, credo, si loqui posset, non potuisset, εμφατικοτερως , ubi quot verba, tot tela, …, saith Dr Morton; that is, persuasion itself could not speak more persuasively, here are so many words, so many weapons, able to pierce and work upon any heart not possessed with an iron sinew.

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Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Being of one accord, of one mind — Hereunto those many "ones" should move us mentioned by our apostle, Ephesians 4:4-5 . See Trapp on " Ephesians 4:4 " See Trapp on " Ephesians 4:5 " See Trapp on " Acts 4:32 " They were of one heart. Animo animaque inter se miscebantur, saith Tertullian of those primitive Christians; yea, they were una anima, one soul (so Tremellius rendereth this text out of the Syriac), all informed with one and the same soul; all as one man, in the matters of God’s worship.

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Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Let nothing be done through strife — These are those hell hags that set the Church on fire, φιλονεικεια and φιλαρχια : if these men could be cast out of men’s hearts, great hopes there were, παντας εις το θειον κηρυγμα ομοφωνως και ορθοδοξως συνδραμειν , as Isidore hath it, that all men would soon consent in one and the same truth, and be at peace among themselves.

Let each esteem other better than themselves — Non minus vere, quam humiliter, as Bernard glosseth; because in some gift or other, at least in the measure or use, another may be better than us.

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Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Look not every man, … — Self is a great stickler, but must be excluded where love shall be maintained. He that is wholly set up within himself is an odious person; and the place he lives in longs for a vomit to spew him out. It is his pleasure, his profit, and his preferment (saith one) that is the natural man’s trinity; and his carnal self that is these in unity. Indeed it is that flesh that is the principal idol; the others are deified in the relation to ourselves.

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Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Let this mind be in you — We should strive to express Christ to the world, not as a picture doth a man in outward lineaments only, but as a child doth his father in affections and actions. Our lives should be as so many sermons upon Christ’s life,1 Peter 2:9; 1 Peter 2:9 .

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Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

To be equal with God — Gr. Equals, that is, every way equal; not a secondary inferior God, as the Arians would have him. See Trapp on " John 1:1 " See Trapp on " John 1:2 " See Trapp on " John 1:3 " See Trapp on " John 1:4 " Hold fast this truth; it is of the foundation, it is the rock whereon the Church is built,Matthew 16:18; Matthew 16:18 ; and all the devils in hell shall not wrest this place from me, for a clear proof of the Divinity of Christ, saith learned Calvin.

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But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

But made himself. … — Gr. εκενωσεν , "emptied himself," suspended and laid aside his glory and majesty, and became a sinner both by imputation (for God made the iniquity of us all to meet upon him, Isaiah 53:6 ) and by reputation, for he was reckoned not only among men, but among malefactors, Philippians 2:9 . Hence he is said to be sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, Romans 8:3 .

And took upon him the form of a servant — Yea, of an evil servant, that was to be beaten.

In the likeness of men — Yea, he was a worm and no man, nullificamen populi, as Tertullian hath it. Christ vilified, nullified himself to the utmost, ex omni seipsum ad nihil redegit, as Beza expounds the former part of this verse, of everything he became nothing.

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And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

He humbled himself — The Sun of righteousness went 10 degrees back in the dial of his Father, that he might come to us with health in his wings, that is, in his beams.

Became obedient unto death — That is, to his dying day, saith Beza. He went through many a little death all his life long, and at length underwent that cursed and painful death of the cross, his soul also being heavy to the death, Matthew 26:38 , he suffered the insufferable wrath of God for a season. Ne perderet obedientiam, perdidit vitam, he lost his life lest he lose his submission to authority, saith Bernard.

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