Philippians 2:20

For He gives his reason for sending Timothy.

likeminded Lit., "equal-souled;" a slight echo, in form, of the verb just above. Timothy's "soul," his loving and willing self, was "equal," level, to St Paul's, in pure, cordial, interest in the Philippians. The Greek adjective occurs nowhere else in the N.T., and in the LXX. only Psal. 54:13 (Heb., 55:14), for the Hebrew "after my scale, or standard": a good parallel. The A.V. margin, "so dear unto me," is certainly mistaken.

naturally R.V. "truly." But the A.V. well conveys the meaning. The word is literally, genuinely; so that heart corresponds to action.

care Better, take careful, anxious thought. The verb (merimnân) is traced by recent philologists into connexion with root-words giving the idea of mindfulness, earnestnessof thought, not, as according to the once current etymology, divisionof thought. It is the same verb as that below, Philippians 4:6, where see note. The apparent contradiction of the two passages has a beautiful harmony beneath it. Timothy's "anxiety" was in fact painstaking thought for others; the "anxiety" forbidden, Philippians 4:6, is the result of our failure, as each felt burthen comes, to pass it on to the love and care of the Lord. The verb (or its cognate noun) rendered "care" here occurs in the sense it bears here, 1 Corinthians 7:32; 1Co 7:34; 1 Corinthians 12:25; 2 Corinthians 11:28. In all other places its reference is to anxiety in an unfavourable sense of the word.