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The opening word of verse 10, "Therefore", is, in the original, dia touto, "because of
this", and there are some who have felt that the Apostle was here referring back to the
free and unbound character of the Word of God. Dia touto, however, followed by hina
(in order that) is a phrase that the Apostle employs elsewhere, and by it refers to what
follows. For example:
"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace" (Rom. 4: 16).
"Therefore I write these things . . . . . lest . . . . . I should use sharpness" (II Cor. 13: 10).
"For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first" (I Tim. 1: 16).
Paul therefore endured affliction that the elect might benefit, though we know how
resolutely he repudiated the remotest idea of associating himself with the atoning work of
the Saviour, saying, "Was Paul crucified for you?" (I Cor. 1: 13), "Who then is Paul, and
who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed" (I Cor. 3: 5).
Paul's sufferings on behalf of the church of the mystery laid no foundation for either
the salvation of the members of that church nor its position in glory, but there is, as we
have learned, an added glory, called in Phil. 3: "the prize", in Col. 3: "the reward",
in II Tim. 4: "the crown", and in the very context of our verse, "reigning with the
Lord". Now with regard to this added thing, we discover the Apostle does introduce his
own example.
"Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us
for an example . . . . . for our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall change the body of our humiliation, that it
may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory" (Phil. 3: 17-21).
This body of humiliation must not be interpreted as referring to the body of every
believer, for the Apostle has made his meaning plain in the Philippian epistle.
The word translated "vile" in the A.V., which we translate "humiliation", is
tapeinosis. Just as we saw the word "endure" meant literally "to remain under", so we
discover that this word primarily means a low-lying place or condition, hence "lowly" or
"humble". Now in Phil. 2: 8 we read of Christ that "He humbled Himself" (tapeinoo),
and in Phil. 2: 3 the believer is exhorted to follow the Saviour's example with
"lowliness of mind" (tapeinophrosune). To this the Apostle refers when he says "I know
how to be abased, and how to abound" (Phil. 4: 2). It is this voluntary humiliation that is
in view in Phil. 3: 10.
"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto
the out-resurrection out from among the dead" (Phil. 3: 10, 11).
Just as this "conformity" (summorphomai) is no ordinary, average, experience, but
something in advance of even the Apostle's experience ("Not as though I had already
attained", Phil. 3: 12), so the parallel, "conformity" (summorphos) of verse 21 is not the
blessed hope which belongs to every member of the one body, but that "out-resurrection"
to which the Apostle aspired, and for which he voluntarily suffered. This is the
background of the teaching of II Tim. 2: 10-13.