Filipenses 3
Theodoret of Cyrus · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Filipenses 3:5
"My Jewish identity," he says, "is in no way ambiguous. I do not come from a family that was only partially Jewish. I am a plant of freedom, a son of Rachel the beloved, on whose behalf the patriarch himself endured slavery." — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.5
Filipenses 3:6
"When I was harrying the church," he says, "I was not driven by love of honor or vainglory or jealousy, like the rulers of the Jews. I was burning with zeal for the law." — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.6
Filipenses 3:8
It is not that I flee them as base things but that I prefer what is superior. Having tasted the grain, I throw away the refuse. For refuse means the denser and harder part of the chaff. It carries the grain but is discarded once the grain has been collected. — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.8
Filipenses 3:10
To know "the power of his resurrection" means to know through faith that he is the God and Maker of all, he assumed our nature, he effected our salvation, and he was raised again in the body that he had taken as he conceived the common salvation of all humanity. To know "the power of his resurrection" is to know the purpose of his resurrection. — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.9-10
Filipenses 3:12
"It was he who first caught me in his net" Paul says in effect, "for I was fleeing him and was turned well away. He caught me as I fled. But now I in turn am the pursuer in my desire of catching him, that I may not be a disappointment to his saving work." — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.12
Filipenses 3:13
Some think that "paying no heed to the things behind" refers to life under the law. I think he says this of his labors as a preacher. For his custom was to be cursory and to mingle doctrinal statement with exhortation. What he says then is "I pay no heed to my previous labors, but I strive enthusiastically to press on to those ahead." — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.13-14
Filipenses 3:14
This is how we should think about the crowns laid up for us. For even if we do not perceive exactly what these are like, we ought at least to know that God, as Master of the contest, will reveal this to us. — EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 3.15