the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
Chinese NCV (Simplified)
è ç«æ¯ä¹¦ 1:22
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- EveryParallel Translations
但 我 在 肉 身 活 着 ， 若 成 就 我 工 夫 的 果 子 ， 我 就 不 知 道 该 挑 选 甚 麽 。
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
live: Philippians 1:24, 2 Corinthians 10:3, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 2:1, 1 Peter 4:2
this: Psalms 71:18, Isaiah 38:18, Isaiah 38:19
I wot: Genesis 21:26, Genesis 39:8, Exodus 32:1, Acts 3:17, Romans 11:2
Reciprocal: 2 Corinthians 12:2 - in the 1 Thessalonians 2:17 - endeavoured
Cross-References
Evening passed, and morning came. This was the third day.
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years.
God blessed them and said, "Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones so that they might grow in number."
Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Have many children; grow in number and fill the earth.
Laban said to him, "If I have pleased you, please stay. I know the Lord has blessed me because of you.
When I came, you had little, but now you have much. Every time I did something for you, the Lord blessed you. But when will I be able to do something for my own family?"
God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Have many children and grow in number as a nation. You will be the ancestor of many nations and kings.
"‘Then I will show kindness to you and let you have many children; I will keep my agreement with you.
"Look at Behemoth, which I made just as I made you. It eats grass like an ox.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
But if I live in the flesh,.... To be in the flesh sometimes signifies to be in a state of nature and unregeneracy, and to live in and after the flesh, to live according to the dictates of corrupt nature; but here it signifies living in the body, or the life which is in the flesh, as the Syriac version renders the phrase here, and as the apostle expresses it in Galatians 2:20, and the sense is, if I should live any longer in the body, and be continued for some time in this world:
this [is] the fruit of my labour; or "I have fruit in my works", as the above version renders it:
yet what I shall choose I wot not, or "know not"; whether life or death; since my life will be for the honour and glory of Christ, and though a toilsome and laborious one, yet useful and fruitful: by his "labour", he means his ministerial work and service; the ministry is a work, a good and honourable work, and a laborious one. Christ's faithful ministers are labourers; they labour in the word and doctrine, both in studying and preaching it; and such a labourer was the apostle, who by the grace of God laboured more abundantly than others; the "fruit" of which was the conversion of many sinners, the edification, comfort, and establishment of the saints, their fruitfulness in grace and works, the spread of the Gospel far and near, the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ, and the weakening of Satan's kingdom, and the glorifying of Christ in his person, offices, and great salvation; all which was a strong and swaying argument with him, to desire to live longer in the body, and made it on the one hand so difficult with him what to choose: for as a certain Jew b says,
"the righteous man desires to live to do the will of God while he lives;''
but not with that view, he adds,
"to increase the reward of the soul in the world to come.''
b Kimchi in Psal. vi. 5.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
But if I live in the flesh - If I continue to live; if I am not condemned and make a martyr at my approaching trial.
This is the fruit of my labour - The meaning of this passage, which has given much perplexity to commentators, it seems to me is, “If I live in the flesh, it will cost me labor; it will be attended, as it has been, with much effort and anxious care, and I know not which to prefer - whether to remain on the earth with these cares and the hope of doing good, or to go at once to a world of rest.” A more literal version of the Greek will show that this is the meaning. Τοῦτό μοι καρπὸς ἔργου Touto moi karpos ergou - “this to me is (or would be) the fruit of labor.” Coverdale, however, renders it: “Inasmuch as to live in the flesh is fruitful to me for the work, I wot not what I shall choose.” So Luther: “But since to live in the flesh serves to produce more fruit.” And so Bloomfield: “But if my life in the flesh be of use to the gospel (be it so, I say no more), verily what I shall choose I see and know not.”
See also Koppe, Rosenmuller, and Calvin, who give the same sense. According to this, the meaning is, that if his life were of value to the gospel, he was willing to live; or that it was a valuable object - operae pretium - worth an effort thus to live. This sense accords well with the connection, and the thought is a valuable one, but it is somewhat doubtful whether it can be made out from the Greek. To do it, it is necessary to suppose that μοι moi - “my” - is expletive (Koppe, and that καὶ kai - “and” - is used in an unusual sense. See Erasmus. According to the interpretation first suggested, it means, that Paul felt that it would be gain to die, and that he was entirely willing; that he felt that if he continued to live it would involve toil and fatigue, and that, therefore, great as was the natural love of life, and desirous as he was to do good, he did not know which to choose - an immediate departure to the world of rest, or a prolonged life of toil and pain, attended even with the hope that he might do good. There was an intense desire to be with Christ, joined with the belief that his life here must be attended with toil and anxiety; and on the other hand an earnest wish to live in order to do good, and he knew not which to prefer.
Yet - The sense has been obscured by this translation. The Greek word (καὶ kai) means “and,” and should have been so rendered here, in its usual sense. “To die would be gain; my life here would be one of toil, and I know not which to choose.”
What I shall choose I wot not - I do not know which I should prefer, if it were left to me. On each side there were important considerations, and he knew not which overbalanced the other. Are not Christians often in this state, that if it were left to themselves they would not know which to choose, whether to live or to die?
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. But if I live in the flesh — Should I be spared longer, I shall labour for Christ as I have done; and this is the fruit of my labour, that Christ shall be magnified by my longer life, Philippians 1:20.
Yet what I shall choose I wot not. — Had I the two conditions left to my own choice, whether to die now and go to glory, or whether to live longer in persecutions and affliction, (glorifying Christ by spreading the Gospel,) I could not tell which to prefer.
