Introduction of the Gospel into Philippi

Notes

1. "The chief city of Eastern Macedonia was near the Thracian border, on a fertile plain between two mountain ranges. It derived its name from Philip of Macedon, who took it from the Thracians, B.C. 358, strongly fortified and garrisoned it, and resumed the working of the gold mines near it. The town had been called Datum, and still earlier Crenides, 'fountains,' from its copious springs. Philippi was the 'first' city reached after leaving its seaport Neapolis (Acts 16:12, R. V.), northwest of which it lay, at about ten miles distance, by the Via Egnatia, a paved Roman road over a steep height called Symbolum. On the plain of Philippi was fought the famous battle in which Brutus and Cassius were overthrown by Octavius and Anthony, B.C. 42. Later, when Octavius had become the Emperor Augustus, he transported Roman citizens to Philippi and made it a 'colony'—a miniature Rome, where Roman laws, customs, and language prevailed, the people were governed by their own magistrates, and possessed the rights of Roman citizens."—"Bible Dictionary," American Tract Society, Art. "Philippi."

The principal facts which throw light on the epistle to the Philippians are found in the epistle itself, in the sixteenth chapter of Acts and in 2 Cor. 8:1-5. In Luke's narrative we learn that Philippi was "the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony." Acts 16:12. By the term "colony" is meant that the city was founded, or at least occupied, by Roman citizens, who had gone there under the direction of the Roman Government, and who possessed all the privileges of the inhabitants of the city of Rome.

2. Satan could not allow the work to go on unmolested. He sought to bring it into disrepute by identifying his own work with it. The damsel who followed Paul and Silas, saying, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation," is said to have been possessed with a "spirit of divination," margin "python." She was doubtless a priestess of the Pythian Apollo, whose chief temple and oracle was at Delphi. To this celebrated oracle people flocked to receive information, just as people now go to consult noted Spiritualist mediums. The damsel was really a Spiritualist medium, whom Satan controlled, and through whom he worked. The effect of her testimony concerning Paul and Silas, though the exact truth, would be to cause people who were favorably impressed with their preaching to think that they were in harmony with her. Paul's rebuking her was in harmony with his injunction, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Eph. 5:11.

3. The miracle which Paul wrought deprived the men of the gain which came to them through the girl's soothsayings. This enraged them against Paul and Silas. On a later occasion, at Ephesus, a great uproar was made against Paul and his fellow laborers, by men who thought that their gains were endangered. Observers of the signs of the times can not fail to see that this spirit still is working. Paul and Silas had not troubled the city. They had gone quietly about their own work, and all the trouble had been caused by the men who had brought the accusation. Satan always charges upon the servants of Christ the trouble which he himself originates.