Philippians 4:10

Now at the last. — There is in these words an expression of some hitherto disappointed expectation, not wholly unlike the stronger expression of wounded feeling in 2 Timothy 4:9; 2 Timothy 4:16. At Cæsarea St. Paul would have been necessarily cut off from the European churches; at Rome, the metropolis of universal concourse, he may have expected some earlier communication. But, fearing to wound the Philippians by even the semblance of reproof, in their case undeserved, he adds at once, “In which ye were also careful (before), but ye lacked opportunity.”. Epaphroditus would seem to have arrived early, almost as soon as St. Paul’s arrival at Rome gave them the opportunity which they previously lacked.