What Does Philippians 1:23 Mean?

(23) **Having a desire . . .**—Properly, *having my own desire for departure.* The verb “depart” corresponds exactly to the substantive used in 2Timothy 4:6, “The time of my departure is at hand.” It is itself used only here and in Luke 12:36, “When he shall return (*break up*) from the wedding.” The metaphor is drawn either from “loosing” from the shore of life, or (perhaps better) from striking tents and breaking up a camp. The body (as in 2Corinthians 5:1) is looked upon as a mere tabernacle. Each day is a march nearer home, and death is the last striking of the tent on arrival. **To be with Christ.**—This is contemplated by St. Paul as the immediate consequence of death, even while still “out of the body,” and before the great day. The state of the faithful departed is usually spoken of as one of “rest” (1Corinthians 15:51-52; 1Thessalonians 4:14-16; Revelation 14:13), although not without expectation and longing for the consummation of all things (Revelation 6:10-11). Such a condition of rest, and suspension of conscious exercise of spiritual energy, is, indeed, that which human reason and analogy would suggest, so far as they can suggest anything on this mysterious subject. But such passages as this seem certainly to imply that this rest is emphatically a “rest in the Lord,” having an inner consciousness of communion with Christ. His “descent unto Hades,” not only brings out the reality of the unseen world of souls, but also claims it as His. As on earth and in heaven, so also in the intermediate state, we are “ever with the Lord;” and that state, though not yet made perfect, is spiritually far higher than this earthly life. The original here is an emphatic double comparative, “far, far better.”