Albert Barnes Commentary Philippians 1:16

"the one [do it] of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel;" — Philippians 1:16 (ASV)

The one preach Christ of contention. This means preaching with the intention of forming parties and producing strife among His professed followers.

Not sincerely. Not purely—ἁγνῶς—not with pure motives or intentions. Their real aim is not to preach Christ but to produce difficulty and stir up strife. They are ambitious men, and they have no real regard for the welfare of the church and the honour of religion.

Supposing to add affliction to my bonds. That is, to make my trial greater. How they did this is unknown.

Perhaps they were those who were strongly imbued with Jewish notions, who felt that his course tended to diminish respect for the Law of Moses, and who therefore took this opportunity to promote their views. They knew that this would be particularly painful to him when he was not at liberty to meet them openly and defend his own opinions.

It is also possible that they may have urged that Paul himself had met with a signal reproof for the course he had taken and, as a consequence, was now thrown into chains. Bloomfield suggests that it was the opinion of many ancient expositors that they endeavoured to do this by preaching in such a way as to excite the fury of the multitude or the rulers against Paul and to produce increased severity in his punishment. But the way in which they did this is unknown, and conjecture is altogether useless.