“Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.”
King James Version (KJV)
2:17 Here he begins to treat of the latter clause of #Php 1:22|. Yea, and if I be offered - Literally, If I be poured out. Upon the sacrifice of your faith - The Philippians, as the other converted heathens, were a sacrifice to God through St. Paul's ministry, #Rom 15:16|. And as in sacrificing, wine was poured at the foot of the altar, so he was willing that his blood should be poured out. The expression well agrees with that kind of martyrdom by which he was afterwards offered up to God.
Php 2:17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,. He is willing to die as a sacrifice for Christ, martyred because he has preached the gospel to the Gentiles, if it will be an encouragement to their faith. The imagery used was familiar to those who had so often seen victims sacrificed as offerings in the heathen temples. I joy, and rejoice with you all. He will even rejoice in death if it will help the cause of Christ.