Philippians 1:13,14 - More bold to speak the word without fear

1:13

Again, this verse is a little surprising. Given that Paul delights in seeing the gospel advance, one might have expected him to say “the gospel has become known throughout the whole imperial guard”. Instead he says it has become known that “my imprisonment is for Christ”. Perhaps we are too prone to seeing declaring the gospel as a matter of winning the argument? Now, we should note that the Bible does speak of Paul proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Paul was not adverse to getting involved in an argument. But there is also his personal identification with Christ and the gospel. The two need to go together.

1:14

“The brothers” here presumably means the Christians in Rome (assuming that the letter was written from Rome). Paul’s imprisonment, and presumably his reaction to it, had emboldened the believers. What can initially seem to be bad news can turn out to be for good. Good things can come from adversity. So now more of the Christians were able to speak the word boldly, and without fear. The term “brothers” is used far more often than “Christian”, and as well as our identification with Christ, we also need to identify with each other.