23
THINGS THAT ARE MORE EXCELLENT
as in the administration of justice, and the awarding of a sentence, or it is the act or process of the mind in
ascertaining the truth by comparison of ideas, facts or propositions.
Now the word so rendered in Philippians 1:9 is the Greek aisthesis. This word occurs in but three forms in the
New Testament and in three passages. Let us record these occurrences before we proceed further.
Aisthesis. `In knowledge and in all judgment' (Phil. 1:9).
Aistheterion. `Having the senses exercised to discern both good and evil' (Heb. 5:14).
Aisthanomai. `They understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not' (Luke 9:45).
In the LXX version, this word aisthesis apart from one reference in the law, is found only in the book of
Proverbs.
`And speak thou to all those who are wise in understanding, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom and
perception' (Exod. 28:3).
`The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and there is good understanding to all that practise it, and piety
toward God is the beginning of discernment' (Prov. 1:7).
`Judgment is the comparing together in the mind two of the notions, or ideas, which are the objects of
apprehension, whether complex or incomplex, and pronouncing that they agree or disagree with each other ....
Judgment is therefore affirmative or negative: as, Snow is white; All white men are not Europeans' (Lloyd's Encl.
Dict.).
In the two passages where Paul has used the word aisthesis or aistheterion, he has actually expanded the idea of
discriminating by saying either `to discern both good and evil' (Heb. 5:14) where the word `discern' is diakrisis
`discriminate, divide up, make a distinction' between two things - or as in Philippians 1:10, he continues `that ye
may approve things that are excellent'. The Authorised Version gives as an alternative rendering `that ye may try
the things that differ'. The original reads eis to dokimazein humas ta diapheronta. `Approval' is rather the result
(dokimos) than the process (dokimazo) and always implies some sort of test or trial, being derived from the root
dokeo, `to think' in the sense of concluding that anything `is what it seems to be'. `It seemed good' (Luke 1:3); `it
seemed to me unreasonable' (Acts 25:27); `these who seemed to be somewhat' (Gal. 2:6). Dokimazo is used for
`discerning' the face of the sky (Luke 12:56); `trying' anything by fire (1 Cor. 3:13), like `gold' (1 Pet. 1:7); and then
of `examining' self (1 Cor. 11:28); `proving' all things (1 Thess. 5:21), and so finally `approving' things that are
excellent (Phil. 1:10).
The word translated `excellent' is diapheronta, and refers to things that are discrepant, or that differ, things that
must be distinguished one from another, the word `distinguished' in English having this double meaning, first of the
marks of distinction that separate things, and then of the mark of approval that such `distinction' indicates. This dual
meaning can be seen in such translations of diaphero as `better than' `of more value than' (Matt. 6:26; 10:31), and
`one star differeth from another'; `differeth nothing from a servant' (1 Cor. 15:41; Gal. 4:1). The process of this
discrimination is expressed by the Authorised Version margin `that ye may try things that differ'. The result of this
discrimination is found in the text `that ye may approve things that are excellent'.
We have already indicated that there is a close connection in theme between Philippians and 2 Timothy (see p.
xiv), and the process and result of discrimination here expressed in Philippians 1:9,10 is repeated in a different form
in 2 Timothy 2:15, where `approval' is used of the workman before God, and `trying things that differ' is restated in
the words `rightly dividing the word of truth'.
One more connection is seen between these two passages when we continue in Philippians 1, `that ye may be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ'. This is a similar extension of the subject to `a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed'. `Sincere' is eilikrines `to be judged in and by sun light'; `without offence' is aproskopos,
which is the negative of proskopto `to dash', as the foot against a stone (Matt. 4:6) and so `to stumble' (John
11:9,10), and proskomma `a stumbling stone' or a `stumbling block' (Rom. 9:32; 14:13). A warning is uttered in
1 Corinthians 8:9, `but take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block, to them that are
weak'. If we compare 1 Corinthians 8:1, `knowledge puffeth up but love edifieth', with 1 Corinthians 13:4 `love ... is
not puffed up' and Romans 14:1 `not to doubtful disputations' (diakrisis), we shall see that there can be a