“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,”
King James Version (KJV)
1:1 Servants - St. Paul, writing familiarly to the Philippians, does not style himself an apostle. And under the common title of servants, he tenderly and modestly joins with himself his son Timotheus, who had come to Philippi not long after St. Paul had received him, #Acts 16:3|,12. To all the saints - The apostolic epistles were sent more directly to the churches, than to the pastors of them. With the bishops and deacons - The former properly took care of the internal state, the latter, of the externals, of the church, #1Tim 3:2 |- 8; although these were not wholly confined to the one, neither those to the other. The word bishops here includes all the presbyters at Philippi, as well as the ruling presbyters: the names bishop and presbyter, or elder, being promiscuously used in the first ages.
1:4 With joy - After the epistle to the Ephesians, wherein love reigns, follows this, wherein there is perpetual mention of joy. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. And joy peculiarly enlivens prayer. The sum of the whole epistle is, I rejoice. Rejoice ye.
1:5 The sense is, I thank God for your fellowship with us in all the blessings of the gospel, which I have done from the first day of your receiving it until now.
Php 1:3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Almost all the Epistles open with thanksgiving. How glorious a faith that which led him always, even in the darkest hour, to see the hand of God present in blessing! Yet in the remembrance of the Philippians there was much to cheer his heart.