All Commentaries on Philippians 1:21 Go To Philippians 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
For even in dying, he means, I shall not have died, for I have my life in myself: then would they truly have slain me, had they had power through this fear to cast faith out of my soul. But as long as Christ is with me, even though death overtake me, still I live, and in this present life, not this, but Christ is my life. Since, then, not even in the present life is it so, but that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith; so I say in that state also, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20 Such ought a Christian to be! I live not, he says, the common life. How do you live then, O blessed Paul? Do you not see the sun, do you not breathe the common air? Are you not nourished with the same food as others? Do you not tread the earth as we? Do you not need sleep, nor clothing, nor shoes? What do you mean by, I live not? How do you not live? Why boastest you yourself? No boasting is here. For if indeed the fact did not witness to him, a man might with some show have called it boasting; but if facts do witness, how is boasting here? Let us then learn how he lives not, for he himself says in another place, I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me. Galatians 6:14 Hear then how he says, I no longer live. And how he says, to me to live is Christ. The word life is much significant, beloved, as also the word death. There is this life of the body, there is the life of sin, as he himself elsewhere says, But if we died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Romans 6:2 It is then possible to live the life of sin. Attend diligently, I entreat you, lest my labor be vain. There is the life everlasting and immortal; with eternal life the heavenly; for our citizenship, says he, is in heaven Philippians 3:20 There is the life of the body whereof he speaks, through him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28 He does not then deny that he lives the natural life, but that of sin, which all men live. He who desires not the present life, how does he live it? He who is hastening to another, how does he live this life? He who despises death, how does he live this life? He who desires nothing, how does he live it? For as one made of adamant, though he were struck a thousand blows, would never attend to it, no more would Paul. And I live, says he, but no longer I, that is, no longer the old man; as again elsewhere, Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body of this death! Romans 7:24 How too does he live who does nought for the sake of food, nought for the sake of clothing, nought for any of these present things? Such an one does not even live the natural life: he who takes thought for none of the things which sustain life, lives not. We live this life, whose every action regards it. But he lived not; he busied himself about nought of the things here. How then lived he? Just as we are accustomed to say, in common matters, such an one is not with me, when he does nothing that pertains to me. Again, in like sort, such a man lives not for me. Elsewhere he shows that he rejects not the natural life: The life which I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me Galatians 2:20; i.e. a certain new life I live, an altered one. And truly all these things he said to comfort the Philippians. Think not, says he, that I shall be deprived of this life, for neither while alive did I live this life, but that which Christ willed. For tell me? He who despises money, luxury, hunger, thirst, dangers, health, safety, does he live this life? He who has nothing here, and is ofttimes willing to cast life away, if need be, and clings not to it, does he live this life? By no means. This I must make clear to you by a kind of example. Let us imagine some one in great wealth, with many servants, and much gold, and who makes no use of all these things; is such an one rich for all his wealth? By no means. Let him see his children dissipating his property, strolling idly about; let him feel no concern for them; when beaten let him not even be pained; shall we call him a man of wealth? By no means; although his wealth is his own. To me, he says, to live is Christ; if you will enquire of my life, it is He. And to die is gain. Wherefore? Because I shall more clearly be present with Him; so that my death is rather a coming to life; they who kill me will work on me no dreadful thing, they will only send me onward to my proper life, and free me from that which is not mine. What then, while thou were here, were thou not Christ's? Yes, and in a high degree.
