Paul, even as a prisoner, was confident God would deliver him (Philippians 1:19). His confidence did not seem to have been in a deliverance from prison. The apostle seemed to have been assured that the Almighty would work everything out for good (1:20). It did not matter whether he was delivered from prison to preach freely again or delivered from this life to be with the Lord.
God’s spokesman to the Gentiles seemed to have based his confidence, in part, on the prayers of the saints for him. He had learned not to trust in himself but in God who is able to raise the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9-11). Paul also benefited by the “supply,” or help which undergirds and strengthens, of the Spirit. He expressed a powerful trust in the Lord as a part of his closing words to his son in the faith (2 Timothy 4:18). Such thinking would surely support one through the most difficult of times.
An “earnest expectation” is “primarily a watching with outstretched head.” It “signifies strained expectancy, eager longing, the stretching forth of the head indicating an expectation of something from a certain place” (W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words 61). Paul did not look forward to failure but to success in showing the Savior more clearly to others either through his life or through his death (Philippians 1:20). Thus, death would be gain because it would bring the long-awaited reward of rest (2 Corinthians 5:18; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Revelation 14:13).
One has to know how to live to be able to die with the same assurance Paul expressed (Philippians 1:21). He told the Galatian brethren, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
