when the spiritual leader is absent. How great praise was it when the Philippians increased theirs when Paul was gone! And he was gone not only for a short time. Paul had been absent from them for a long while: “now,” at this very moment, after so long an absence, they still obeyed “much more” than when Paul was present in their midst. Verb and object are reversed so that both are emphatic. “With fear and trembling” is placed at the beginning and thus has the primary emphasis: “with no less than