Philippians 4:6

4:2-9 Let believers be of one mind, and ready to help each other. As the apostle had found the benefit of their assistance, he knew how comfortable it would be to his fellow-labourers to have the help of others. Let us seek to give assurance that our names are written in the book of life. Joy in God is of great consequence in the Christian life; and Christians need to be again and again called to it. It more than outweighs all causes for sorrow. Let their enemies perceive how moderate they were as to outward things, and how composedly they suffered loss and hardships. The day of judgment will soon arrive, with full redemption to believers, and destruction to ungodly men. There is a care of diligence which is our duty, and agrees with a wise forecast and due concern; but there is a care of fear and distrust, which is sin and folly, and only perplexes and distracts the mind. As a remedy against perplexing care, constant prayer is recommended. Not only stated times for prayer, but in every thing by prayer. We must join thanksgivings with prayers and supplications; not only seek supplies of good, but own the mercies we have received. God needs not to be told our wants or desires; he knows them better than we do; but he will have us show that we value the mercy, and feel our dependence on him. The peace of God, the comfortable sense of being reconciled to God, and having a part in his favour, and the hope of the heavenly blessedness, are a greater good than can be fully expressed

. This peace will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus; it will keep us from sinning under troubles, and from sinking under them; keep us calm and with inward satisfaction. Believers are to get and to keep a good name; a name for good things with God and good men. We should walk in all the ways of virtue, and abide therein; then, whether our praise is of men or not, it will be of God. The apostle is for an example. His doctrine and life agreed together. The way to have the God of peace with us, is to keep close to our duty. All our privileges and salvation arise in the free mercy of God; yet the enjoyment of them depends on our sincere and holy conduct. These are works of God, pertaining to God, and to him only are they to be ascribed, and to no other, neither men, words, nor deeds.

{6} Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with {f} thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (6) The third is, that we are not too anxious for anything, but with sure confidence give God thanks, and desire from him whatever we have need of, that with a quiet conscience we may wholly and with all our hearts submit ourselves to him. (f) So David began very often with tears, but ended with thanksgiving.

Be careful (μεριμνᾶτε) See on Matthew 6:25. Rev., better, be anxious. Prayer and supplication General and special. See on Luke 5:33; see on Luke 8:38. Προσευχή prayer, only of prayer to God. The two words often occur together, as Ephesians 6:18; 1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Timothy 5:5. Requests (αἰτήματα) Specific details of supplication. Unto God (πρὸς τὸν Θεόν) The force of πρός is rather in your intercourse with God. See on with God, John 1:1.

Php 4:6 . Μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε , be careful for nothing ) When others do not treat you with kindliness , when different things are pressing upon you, be not over-careful, rather pray. Care and prayer, [ and likewise care and joy .—V. g.] are more opposed to one another than fire and water.— ἐν παντὶ ) in every thing .— μετὰ εὐχαριστίας , with thanksgiving ) This is the best characteristic of a soul freed from cares, and of prayer joined with resignation of the human will. Accordingly peace follows, Php 4:7 ; and thanksgiving and peace are united together also in Colossians 3:15 . All things are thereby safe and tranquil.— τὰ αἰτήματα , requests ) A thing sought , the subject δεήσεως , of supplication .— γνωριζέσθω , be made known ) Those who veil, stifle, and restrain their desires, with preposterous shame and distrusting modesty, as if they were too small or too great, are tortured with cares. Those who lay them before God with a generous and filial confidence, are freed from difficulties. The Psalms abound in confessions of that sort.— πρὸς τὸν Θεόν , to God ) Even though often men should be ignorant of them, and you should modestly conceal them from your fellowmen. Paul had not even asked aught from the Philippians. [ But the exercise of unaffected candour towards men, Php 4:5 , and here towards GOD, is perfectly consistent .—V. g.]

Verse 6. - Be careful for nothing ; rather, as R.V., in nothing be anxious. Μέριμνα is anxious, distracting care. St. Paul does not wish his converts to be careless, but to be free from that over-anxiety about worldly things which might distract their thoughts from the service of God, and hinder their growth in holiness. Comp. 1 Peter 5:7 , where the apostle bids us cast all our care ( μέριμνα ) upon God. The thought of the Lord's nearness should lead us both to be forbearing in our relations to others, and also to keep ourselves free, as far as may be, from worldly anxieties. "He careth for us." But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God . "Curare et orare," says Bengel, "plus inter se pugnant quam aqua et ignis." In everything ; in each emergency, little or great, as it arises, pray; cultivate the habit of referring all things, great or small, to God in prayer. The two words rendered "prayer" and "supplication" προσευχή and δέησις ) occur together also in Ephesians 6:18 ; 1 Timothy 2 :l and Ephesians 5:5. The first has been defined by Chrysostom and others as prayer to obtain a good; the second, prayer to avoid an evil Better, perhaps, as most modern commentators, προσευχή is the general word, covering the idea of prayer in its widest meaning; while δέησις is a special act of supplication for some particular object of need (see Trench, 'Synonyms of the New Testament,' sect. 51.). With thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is the necessary accompaniment of prayer; it ought never to be absent from our devotions; it springs out of that holy joy which St. Paul so constantly sets before us in this Epistle as the bounden duty of Christians. St. Paul himself is an example of constant thanksgiving. All his Epistles, except those to the Galatians, 1 Timothy, and Titus, open with a thanksgiving. In the dungeon at Philippi he and Silas "prayed and sang praises unto God" ( Acts 16:25 ). Our requests, the things for which we ask, are to be made known unto God; πρὸς τὸν Θεόν before God, in the presence of God, by prayer, the general converse of the soul with God; and by supplication, direct petitions for the supply of our necessities. Indeed, he knows our necessities before we ask; but we are encouraged to make them known before him, as Hezekiah took the letter of Sennacherib and spread it before the Lord. Philippians 4:6

6. Translate, "Be anxious about nothing." Care and prayer are as mutually opposed as fire and water [Bengel]. by prayer and supplication—Greek, "by the prayer and the supplication" appropriate to each case [Alford]. Prayer for blessings; and the general term. Supplication, to avert ills; a special term, suppliant entreaty (see on [2390]Eph 6:18). thanksgiving—for every event, prosperity and affliction alike (1Th 5:18; Jas 5:13). The Philippians might remember Paul's example at Philippi when in the innermost prison (Ac 16:25). Thanksgiving gives effect to prayer (2Ch 20:21), and frees from anxious carefulness by making all God's dealings matter for praise, not merely for resignation, much less murmuring. "Peace" is the companion of "thanksgiving" (Php 4:7; Col 3:15). let your requests be made known unto God—with generous, filial, unreserved confidence; not keeping aught back, as too great, or else too small, to bring before God, though you might feel so as to your fellow men. So Jacob, when fearing Esau (Ge 32:9-12); Hezekiah fearing Sennacherib (2Ki 19:14; Ps 37:5).

(6) Be careful for nothing. —An exact repetition of our Lord’s command, “Take no thought” (in Matthew 6:25 ; Matthew 6:34 ). The prohibition is of that painful anxiety which is inevitable in all who feel themselves alone in mere self-dependence amidst the difficulties and dangers of life. It is possible to sink below this anxiety in mere levity and thoughtlessness; it is possible to rise above it by “casting our care on Him who careth for us,” and knowing that we are simply “fellow-workers with Him” ( 1Peter 5:7 ; 2Corinthians 6:1 ). Hence the Apostle passes on at once to speak of the trustfulness of prayer. Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.—By “prayer” is meant worship generally, so called (as in common parlance now) because in this state of imperfection prayer must be its leading element, as praise will be in the perfection of the future. (See Acts 2:42, where “the prayers” are among the essential marks of church membership.) To this general word is subjoined the distinction of the two great elements of worship, “supplication with thanksgiving.” The very expression, however, shows that, though distinct, they are inseparable. (See Ephesians 6:18, and Note there.) Both words “prayer” and “supplication” have the article in the original, and may probably refer to the recognised worship of the Church.

Php 4:6 . μ . μερ . “In nothing be anxious.” μερ . is not common in earlier prose. It is used repeatedly in LXX of anxiety ( a ) approaching dread as Psalm 37:19 , ( b ) producing displeasure as Ezekiel 16:42 , ( c ) of a general kind as 1 Chronicles 17:9 . For the thought Cf. 4 Ezra 2:27 : Noli satagere, cum venerit enim dies pressurae et angustiae … tu autem hilaris et copiosa eris . See the note on chap. Php 2:20 supr. — προσευ . κ . τ . δεής . προσευχή emphasises prayer as an act of worship or devotion; δεήσις is the cry of personal need. See on chap. Php 1:4 supr. Curare et orare plus inter se pugnant quam aqua et ignis (Beng.).— μετὰ εὐχ . The word is rarely found in secular Greek ( e.g. , Hippocr., Polyb., Diod.; see Rutherford, New Phrynichus , p. 69), or LXX. Paul uses it twelve times, but only twice with the article. Does not this imply that he takes for granted that thanksgiving is the background, the predominant tone of the Christian life? To pray in any other spirit is to clip the wings of prayer.— αἴτημα is found three times in N.T. It emphasises the object asked for (see an important discussion by Ezra Abbot in N. Amer.

Review , 1872, p. 171 ff.). “Prayer is a wish referred to God, and the possibility of such reference, save in matters of mere indifference, is the test of the purity of the wish” (Green, Two Sermons , p. 44).— πρὸς τ . Θεόν . “In the presence of God.” A delicate and suggestive way of hinting that God’s presence is always there, that it is the atmosphere surrounding them. Anxious foreboding is out of place in a Father’s presence. Requests are always in place with Him. With this phrase Cf. Romans 16:26 .

Be careful for nothing; he dissuades not from a spiritual care, arising from a good principle, according to a right rule, for a good end; this care of diligence, in a due manner, within our own sphere, is incumbent on us, both for spirituals and temporals; as Philippians 2:20 ; with Romans 12:11 2 Corinthians 11:28 12:14 2 Thessalonians 3:10 1 Timothy 5:8 2 Timothy 2:15 : yet he earnestly dissuades from and prohibits all carnal solicitude, or carking, distrustful, worldly care, which doth divide and, as it were, split the heart in pieces; that anxious solicitude which doth torture the mind with such thoughts as our blessed Lord will not allow so much as one of them to be predominant in his real disciples, Matthew 6:25 , because such immoderate, distracting care, is on our part a disparagement to our heavenly Father’s good providence, Matthew 6:32 ; with Psalm 55:22 127:1,2 Mt 4:18,19 1 Peter 5:7 . The remedy against which he doth here subjoin. But in every thing; but in all things, or in every occurring necessity, whether prosperous or adverse; sacred or civil, public or private: some render it, every time, in every condition, on every occasion. By prayer; by petition or apprecation of good to ourselves or others; mercies, or blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. And supplication; and by a deprecation of evils felt or feared, wrath and judgments deserved.