Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Philippians 4:15

"And ye yourselves also know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but ye only;" — Philippians 4:15 (ASV)

In order to make it clear that he was not minimizing the Philippians’ generosity toward him, Paul recalls some earlier demonstrations of their love for him. When the Gospel was first preached to them (approximately ten years before; Acts 16), they were the only church to contribute to him when he exited Macedonia (a better translation than “set out from”; GK 2002). This gift he received while he was in Corinth (2 Corinthians 11:9). Then, as he mentions this gift, he also recalls two earlier instances of their generosity when he was in Thessalonica. Presumably these earlier gifts were small and thus in a different category from the one mentioned in v.15. This interpretation is also implied by 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:7–8, which show that Paul earned his own living in Thessalonica. Paul does not mean that no other churches ever assisted him (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:8), but that on the specific occasion referred to here, no other church had come to his aid.