Charles Ellicott Commentary Philippians 1:22

"But if to live in the flesh, --[if] this shall bring fruit from my work, then what I shall choose I know not." — Philippians 1:22 (ASV)

But if I live in the flesh . . .—The translation of this verse in the Authorised Version is inaccurate, and perhaps a gloss to soften the difficulty of the original. The exact translation is, But if to live in the flesh this is to me a fruit of work, and what (or, what also) I shall choose I do not know. The construction is clearly broken by emotion or absorption in thought; it can only be supplied by conjecture. If (as in 2 Corinthians 2:2) the word “and,” or “also,” can be used to introduce the principal clause (“what then I shall choose,” etc.), the construction will be correct, though harsh. If otherwise, we must suppose either that the sentence is broken at the word “work,” or that the whole should run,

But what if to live in the flesh is a part of work? And what I shall choose, I do not know, etc. But though the construction is obscure, the sense is plain. St. Paul had said, to die is gain. But the thought crosses him that to live still in the flesh, this and this only is (i.e., carries with it) a fruit of apostolic labor, in souls brought to Christ or built up in Him. Accordingly, what to choose he does not know. For in such a harvest there is a gain, which outweighs his own personal gain on the other side.

I am in a strait betwixt (the) two.—The word here used signifies “to be hemmed in,” or “confined,” and is generally associated with some idea of distress (Luke 19:43), often with the pressure of disease (Matthew 4:24; Luke 4:38; Acts 28:8). Our Lord uses it of mental distress in Himself (Luke 12:50): How am I straitened till it be accomplished! Here the sense is clear. St. Paul’s mind is “hemmed in” between two opposing considerations, until it does not know which way to move, even in desire.