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Timothy and Epaphroditus
19I want to be encouraged by news about you. So I hope the Lord Jesus will soon let me send Timothy to you. 20I don't have anyone else who cares about you as much as he does. 21The others think only about what interests them and not about what concerns Christ Jesus. 22But you know what kind of person Timothy is. He has worked with me like a son in spreading the good news. 23I hope to send him to you, as soon as I find out what is going to happen to me. 24And I feel sure the Lord will also let me come soon.
25I think I ought to send my dear friend Epaphroditus back to you. He is a follower and a worker and a soldier of the Lord, just as I am. You sent him to look after me, 26but now he is eager to see you. He is worried, because you heard he was sick. 27In fact, he was very sick and almost died. But God was kind to him, and also to me, and he kept me from being burdened down with sorrow.
28Now I am more eager than ever to send Epaphroditus back again. You will be glad to see him, and I won't have to worry any longer. 29Be sure to give him a cheerful welcome, just as people who serve the Lord deserve. 30He almost died working for Christ, and he risked his own life to do for me what you could not.
Reflect
Dear Epaphroditus, Greetings from a twenty first century follower of Jesus! Allow me to introduce myself, because when I arrive in the new heavens and the new earth, you are among the first people I want to meet! I know little about you, yet every time I hear your name and recall Paul’s tender words about you, I am deeply moved. You, like Paul’s apprentice Timothy, were the flesh and blood model of living a life worthy of the gospel. Your gritty courage and practical attention to Paul in his time of need caused him to celebrate you as a “brother, co-worker and fellow soldier” (v 25).
I love you for your vulnerability, too. There is a sense in which you and the church may have felt you failed as their ambassador of care to the imprisoned Paul because your stay was cut short. Even once your near-fatal illness was behind you, Paul was so worried that you were worried that the Philippians were worried about you that he sent you home! Your fragility and distress makes your sacrificial selflessness, as you gambled your life for Christ, all the more poignant.
I also want to thank you, Epaphroditus, for being the mailman, bringing this letter to the Philippians and to millions of Christians throughout the ages. At your most wounded, you were God’s instrument of a legacy beyond your imagining. Image and honour, strength and achievement are highly valued, so feelings of failure can be very real.
Paul’s enthusiastic endorsement of your costly service (described as worship) amid weakness highlights what brings delight to the heart of Jesus. By God’s grace, the disappointment of your mission to Paul is transformed into the incalculable gift of your example and of a letter that has sustained his worldwide church for centuries. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Your debtor.
First used in Encounter with God July-Sept & Oct-Dec 2014, written by Fiona Barnard, copyright Scripture Union. Used with kind permission.
Respond
Loving heavenly Father, Thank you for providing Paul with such faithful friends when he was in prison. Thank you for the Christian friends you have given me. May I be such a friend to others, especially to anyone who is in need, whether lonely, or struggling with illness or other difficulties. Make me like Timothy and Epaphroditus, sacrificially giving practical service to help the spread of the gospel. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Fiona Barnard
Having grown up in Brazil and settled in Scotland, Fiona Barnard enjoys living in a multicultural setting. She works as an English tutor for adult speakers of other languages; she is Honorary International Chaplain at the University of St Andrews and staff worker for Friends International, involved in evangelism, discipleship, pastoral care and encouraging Christians to reach out in friendship to those far from home. She is part of the leadership of her local Baptist Church.