‘The Lord is Near’ (Phil. 4:5): Imminent Parousia or Divine Presence?

Paul’s statement in Philippians 4, ‘the Lord is near’, is ambiguous. It could refer to Christ’s spatial proximity to believers, or it could reflect a belief in the imminent parousia. For a long time, the great majority of scholars have understood the statement as meaning that the Lord’s coming is near. The present article seeks to show that the most natural sense of a person’s nearness, the immediate literary context, the Old Testament background, and several other factors, point strongly towards a sense of the Lord’s spatial proximity.