Joyful thanks for a gift of love
Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.
Having taught the lesson, Paul now returns to his thankyou. He wants the Philippians to know that he was pleased with the gift and that he appreciated it. Note how he does it. He does not just say, “Thanks for the gift. I am glad about it because I can surely use it.” He says, “Thank you for the gift. I am glad about it because of what it says to me about you.”
Their giving him this gift, the apostle tells the Philippians, was a beautiful deed. In deciding to give the gift, the Philippians had felt the apostle’s affliction as if it were their own. This was not the first time the Philippians had shown such extraordinary generosity. Paul vividly remembered that, soon after their congregation was founded, they had sent him a gift to assist him in his ministry at Thessalonica, the very next stop on his second mission journey. The congregation had been, and still was, a particularly generous congregation.