Charles Ellicott Commentary Philippians 2:26

"since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick:" — Philippians 2:26 (ASV)

For he longed after you all...—The two clauses of the verse are distinct from each other. St. Paul’s first reason for sending Epaphroditus was in itself a sufficient one, that in his convalescence he yearned for home, and needed a change there. The original is strong, because he was continually longing (Philippians 4:1) for you all. But besides this, he was full of heaviness, or more properly, distressed and uneasy, because of the effect which the news of his apparently fatal illness might cause at home.