So Paul concludes in verse 24, “but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”  It does not appear, therefore, that “the desire weakens before the necessity” or that Paul’s “personal desire ‘to be with Christ’ in glory must be subordinated to his pastoral responsibility to the Philippians”, as though Paul himself decided through some sort of “pastoral altruism” to say no to himself and yes to “the down-to-earth needs of his fellow-believers”. Paul has already made clear that both these desires are equal in intensity, so much so that he himself was incapable of making a choice:“I cannot tell what I would choose!” (v 22). Hence, it is not Paul who, martyrlike, sacrifices his personal desire on the altar of service to others and decides to keep on living, but God who chooses for him.

[This is from the Word Biblical Commentary]

In the Rabinnical teaching style, there is a technique that is regularly used.  You see it with Jesus, Paul and every NT writer.  It’s called a Remez- basically for our purposes it means, “I’m going to use a phrase or word from the OT to help build the context of my statement.”  Many of you probably have some type of reference system in the middle or bottom of your bibles.  Many times this shows the references from which the Remez[s]s are made.  For an easy example, Jesus uses two when he says to the merchants in the temple courts in Luke 19:46, “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be a house of prayer’ ; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’  Look up the references, it sets a very interesting context.

Paul does something very subtly, but most certainly understood by the readers in his first statement.  “Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, ¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance- Php 1:18-19.”  This is a Remez from Job’s statement in Job 13:16, “Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance.“  He is drawing from the plight and yet determination of Job to set the context and proper anticipation for his prayer warriors!  Paul is saying, “Believe me, just as Job was vindicated, so will I be!”

Begin to search for the Remez context clues that are all through-out the NT.

While in school I took a class called Hebrew Wisdom Literature where I learned some really cool biblical writing techniques.  Most are hard to think naturally for us Western thinkers, but one that I found intersting was the chiasm.  The chiasm works like this:
A “But many that are first
B shall be last;
B¹ and the last
A¹ shall be first. Matthew 19:30
Notice that it is the same thought inverted.  Here is another example:
A “Make the heart of this people fat,
B and make their ears heavy,
C and shut their eyes;
C¹ lest they see with their eyes,
B¹ and hear with their ears,
A¹ and understand with their heart, and convert [return], and be healed.” Isaiah 6:10
The bible is filled with this technique and the reason that I bring it up is because paragraphs 6 & 7 are in the form of a double chiasm (crisscross shape).  Look at the format:

You’ll need a literal translation like the KJV or ESV to see it, but check it out and then you might want to google chiasmus and check out some more.

Many people don’t realize that the Bible is one gigantic story. It’s a story of salvation and redemption, but it’s also a story of history. From Genesis to Acts, you can basically fit pieces into a semi-chronological order that makes it very exciting. Philippians is a letter written to a real church with real people during the life of a real Paul. Let’s put it into some context.

When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 21) and shut away in prison in Caesarea (Acts 23–24), you could have easily assumed that this was the end of his ministry, especially as his imprisonment dragged on month after month (Acts 24:27). But in the brilliant timing of God, very deja vu of Joseph’s story in Genesis, Paul’s imprisonment served to thrust the gospel up into higher levels of Roman society than it had ever reached before. Roman military officers, chiliarchs, and centurions (Acts 23:24, 26), as well as Roman soldiers, heard the gospel in Jerusalem and Caesarea. Two Roman governors, Felix and Festus, along with King Herod Agrippa and their wives heard Paul speak about faith in Christ Jesus (Acts 24:24–27; 25:1–26:32). One of these governors, over a span of two years, often sent for Paul to converse with him (Acts 24:26). News of this celebrated prisoner and his teaching must have spread through the surrounding community. Thus, what appeared at first to be the fatal blow to the Christian mission, the arrest of Paul, turned out to be the means of its revitalization, the key to preaching the gospel before governors and kings (cf. Mark 13:9) and their staff personnel. It became evident, therefore, to those in all parts of the residence of the provincial governor of Caesarea and to all outside it that Paul was a prisoner because he was a Christian. Christianity, therefore, gained public notice because of Paul’s bonds. His imprisonment produced notoriety as being for Christ and provided extraordinary opportunity for bearing witness to the saving power of Christ in the gospel.

This brings me to the ultimate question- does God ordain trials or simply use them when they occur?

Word studies are very interesting if you get the right word. Try this word from our passage- allow each verse to expound upon Paul’s understanding of the exciting, Christian life.

Look at “abound” or “flourish” in the Message. It’s the Greek word “perisseue”- “to abound, overflow, be more than enough, be extremely rich,” is a Pauline word, used by Paul twenty-six of the thirty-nine times it appears in the nt. There’s probably no other word that so characterized for him the new age opened up by Christ as did “perisseue”. Just look at all of the times and the variety in which he uses this word to describe our new lives in Christ—grace overflows (Rom 5:15–17), the church richly overflows in hope (Rom 15:13), in faith, in word, in knowledge, in zeal (2 Cor 8:7), and in wisdom (Eph 1:8). The new ministry overflows in edification (1 Cor 14:12) and in excellence, in contrast to the old (2 Cor 3:9); Christians overflow in ability to comfort (2 Cor 1:4–5), in generosity (2 Cor 8:2), in thanksgiving (2 Cor 4:15), in every good work (i.e., the grace of generosity [2 Cor 9:8]) in the work of the Lord (1 Cor 15:58), in everything (2 Cor 8:7). So it is not surprising, then, that Paul’s aspiration for the Philippians, people of the new age, is that they might be so rich in love that they have no room to store it. Love must not only characterize them, it must well up and flow out from them in an ever-increasing degree (“more and more” found in the NIV) toward each other and toward all (1 Thess 3:12).