Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

These nobler preachers recognized the apostle’s sincerity and unselfishness.

They realized that his present circumstances were part of a larger divine program and that he had never deviated from it. He had been “put here” not by his own miscalculations, nor by chance, but by the operation of God’s sovereignty “for the defense of the gospel.” By ways that could never have been humanly foreseen, God had accomplished within the short space of thirty years the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from its humble beginnings in obscure Judea to its defense before Caesar at the center of the Empire. No doubt it was with some sense of awe that Paul evaluated his situation in this manner. Recognition of the nature of Paul’s imprisonment caused many stalwart Christians to respond out of love for him, to step into the breach, and to take their stand with him, eager to ensure that the Gospel did not fail to be proclaimed while Paul was in prison.