Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favour of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus. I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Phil 1:3-11
Paul’s feelings expressed for the believers in Philippi are the warmest and most personal compared with all of his letters in the New Testament. In all of his letters with the exception of one (Galatians), Paul opens with thanksgiving to God for the people to whom he is writing. But there is no other letter among the letters Paul wrote which expresses such love and feelings for the recipients than this one we are studying now. There is no rebuke in the letter whatsoever, no issue that Paul wishes to address. He is simply pouring out his heart to people whom he loves dearly. I have shared the reasons with you in Gem 1703 that Paul would have felt the way he did. Now I want to analyse what Paul wrote to the saints (the holy people) in Philippi from the point of the warmth and the depth of feeling he expressed. I have emboldened the text above which highlights Paul’s feelings toward them. I have italicised the text above which marks the resultant prayer Paul prayed for them or the desire he had for them as a result.
Every time . . . whenever I pray
Εὐχαριστῶ τῷ Θεῷ μου ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇ μνείᾳ ὑμῶν, πάντοτε ἐν πάσῃ δεήσει μου ὑπὲρ πάντων ὑμῶν μετὰ χαρᾶς τὴν δέησιν ποιούμενος
{I give thanks} to God {of me} on all the remembrance {of you} always in every prayer {of me} {on behalf of} all {of you} with joy the prayer making,
There is a subtlety in the Greek text that I want to highlight for you. To do that I have used the Interlinearisation function on my website and the Literal Version [LITV]
I thank my God on all the remembrance of you, always in my every prayer on your behalf making my prayer with joy
Phil 1:3-4)
all the remembrance of you is ambiguous in the Greek. There are four different ways in which this phrase could be understood based on four alternative elements of the text and the interpretation of it. I am currently beginning Deeper Bible 401 which is focused on rightly interpreting the Word of God. So I guess I have matters of interpretation uppermost in my mind.
- Remembrance can mean “remember” or “mention”
- The significance “of you” can mean “when I remember you” or “when you remember me”. It can either be a subjective genitive or an objective genitive. Simply put the “you”, the Philippians can either be the subject of the prayer (doers) or the object of the prayer (recipients).
- There is no “my” before remembrance in the Greek.
- The meaning of every is not specified: “every time” or “everything” – leading to the options “every time I remember you” or “everything I remember about you”.
All of which leads to four alternative interpretations:
- “Whenever I remember you I thank God.” i.e. Every time I think of you.
- “Whenever I mention you (in prayer) I thank God.” i.e. as often as I make mention of you in prayer.
- “Everything I remember about you causes me to thank God.” Not in the KJV sense of “upon every remembrance” but more in the sense “in all my remembrance (repetetive) i.e. my remembering of you as a whole comes with thanksgiving to God.
- “Because you remember me I thank God.” [after Moffatt’s version]
And you thought knowing Greek would solve all problems. I often say when people make a comment like that or say things like, “Ian, knowing Greek must be so good for solving all the problems of interpretation.” Most certainly not! Often verses I thought were straight forward become cloudy. Setting all the complexity above aside, you can see that Paul’s simple comment can include all four alternative options of interpretation. All of which indicates to us there are more layers to the reasons Paul has to thank God for the Philippians.
- So which alternative reading is the correct one?
- What do you think?
- Which one is most natural or likely given the circumstances?
- Or is it possible that Paul meant all four?
Has he written this in such a way as to include all possibilities at the same time? If that is the case then it is an absolutely brilliant way of stating his feelings for the precious, holy people of Philippi. I know what I think but I will leave the conclusion to you. The best teachers show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.
One more thing I need to tell you, before I leave you to ponder the points I have made, concerns the Greek word deēsis [δεήσει and δέησιν] in the Greek text of these opening two verses. Notice that Paul uses the word twice! Don’t be put off by the different spelling; the differences are related to the case structure on the end of the word. This is an important word to Paul because he uses it twice in the same sentence. Remember I have told you, repetition is used in Greek and Hebrew for emphasis. Deēsis is a prayer or petition for some gift, something requested concerning some specific concrete, physical, material need. Deēsis is much narrower than the general word for prayer proseuchē. Deēsis is focused on the material things for which you ask. More on that in the next Gem. You have enough to ponder on before the next Gem.
My question to you now is:
What is the stated reason for Paul’s thankfulness to God for the saints in Philippi?