Philippians and Philemon - MR Vincent - 1906.pdf

122 PHILIPPIANS [ill. 21
3. This conception is carried out on the line of mystical union
with Christ : to know him, the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.
Notice the repetition of,keeping Christ continually before
the eye (vs. 10).
4. The hfe in Christ is marked by earnest striving to realise the
ends for which the behever was grasped by Christ. He follows
the beckoning of God which ever summons him heavenward, in
order that he may at last win the heavenly prize (12-16).
5. Vital communion with Christ constitutes him a member of a
heavenly commonwealth. To this his allegiance is rendered ; by
its laws his life is regulated ; its members are his brethren. As a
citizen of this commonwealth he eagerly awaits its consummation
in the final triumph and eternal establishment of the Messianic
kingdom (vs. 20).
6. Therefore, living in the power of Christ's resurrection, he
awaits in hope the actual resurrection from the dead, wherein the
saving power of Christ will be displayed in the change of the mortal
bodies of all believers into the likeness of Christ's glorified body,
and which will inaugurate the absolute and eternal dominion of
the commonwealth of God (vs. 21).
^
The warrant for this confident expectation is the divine power
of Christ to subject all things to himself.
ivepyeiav *
: according tO the working
whereby he is able ' ; or, more literally, * of his ability.'
according to the energy
: The change is ' in accordance with ' or ' appropriate to
Christ's power of universal subjection. The statement both as to
the change itself and the power which effects it, is in accordance
with I Cor. vi. 14, xv. 53, 55 ; Eph. i. 19.
*€/9 occurs only in Paul. It is power in exercise ; " potentia
in actu exserens " (Calv.), and is used in N.T. only of
superhuman power. (See Col. i. 29, ii. 12 ; 2 Thess. ii. 9.) It
is the active energy in which 8