Philippians 1.27-30, Part 1

Paul is sure that he is going to "remain" yet longer because of the benefit that the Philippians stand to gain from his coming to them. Not surprisingly, for Paul this gain is ultimately the whole-hearted fixation—in thought (1:9), proclamation (1:18), and identification (3:8)—on Jesus Christ. The apostle exemplifies this reality in his own life, and he hopes that by his visiting the Philippian church, they too will approach this ideal. Most importantly ("only"), though, the believers are to behave (or "conduct yourselves as citizens") in a manner that is "worthy of the gospel of Christ" (1.27), that is, the good news that is characterized by Christ.

The verb in this sentence, politeuomai, is related to "city" (polis) and "citizen" (politeis) but in common usage at this time probably carried the general idea of "live," "conduct one's ways," etc., though one can easily see how the concepts are related, since being a citizen carried with it certain obligations. And because of this connection, it's not outside of the realm of possibility that Paul does intend the idea "conduct yourselves as citizens" to be understood by his readers as they are, as Christians, ones who live with a certain expectation of "the day of Jesus Christ" (1:6) that will "bring to completion" the work wrought within them. In fact, this work confirms that they already enjoy—together with all Christ-believers—"citizenship . . . in heaven" (3:19). Thus, even now they are bound by an obligation to live in a manner that corresponds to the person who has guaranteed their citizenship.

The remainder of this section (1:27b–30) expresses what it means to live in such a way. Paul employs a purpose clause ("in order that") merely as a means to spell out how the Christians in Philippi should be behaving: the important thing is not, of course, whether he "is able to come and see" or "hear" the following things about them, but that they are in fact conducting themselves as he proceeds to spell out.