For he longed after you
This verse and ( Philippians
2:28 ) contain the reasons of the apostle's sending him; and
the first is, because he had a very vehement and longing desire
after all of them; to see them, as the Syriac and Ethiopic
versions add, and as it is read in the Alexandrian and
Claromontane copies, and in others: it was not the city of
Philippi he longed to see, which might be his native place, nor
his natural relations and family, but the church there; and not
the officers of it only, the bishops and deacons, but all the
members of it, rich and poor, high and low, strong and weak
believers:
and was full of heaviness:
almost pressed down, quite disheartened and dispirited, ready to
sink and die away, not so much with his own disorder and illness,
as with sorrow on account of the church at Philippi:
because that ye had heard that he had been
sick:
he understood that the news of his sickness had reached them, and
he knew how distressing it would be to them, that it would cut
them to the heart, and press them heavily, fearing they should
never see his face, nor hear his voice more. We have here an
instance of that mutual love, tender affection and sympathy;
which were in the first churches, and what subsisted between
ministers and people; see how they loved one another! but, alas!
this first love is left.