Philippians 2:19

Philippians 2:19. But I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy shortly unto you. The verb is the same which is rendered ‘hope' immediately in Philippians 2:23, and there is no need for any variation of rendering. ‘In the Lord Jesus' is equivalent to ‘through the Lord Jesus,' It was to Jesus he looked in all his need. Of Timothy the Philippians had knowledge already, since he had been there with Paul in the first visit, and we can imagine that the youthful disciple would have won him friends who would be glad to hear of the prospect of his visit. We have no intimation anywhere of the stages through which the hearing of St. Paul's case at Rome passed, but he must have observed the tendency of events somewhat to be in his favour before he wrote this verse. There is nothing, however, to guide us very definitely to the date of the Epistle in those two years' imprisonment, except the time which must have been spent in the journey of Epaphroditus, and in his labours in Rome and consequent sickness. We cannot be far wrong, in view of these various events, if we place the date of the Epistle in the latter of the two years.

that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. The comfort which the apostle seeks is that encouragement which would be drawn from a knowledge that the Philippians remained stedfast in the faith.