Today’s message is from Philippians 2:19-30. This passage is about two men, Timothy and Epaphroditus, who were servants of Christ Jesus—two men who worked hard to do the work of Jesus along with the apostle Paul. Paul is going to tell us about them.

As we read the passage, remember as always that we are reading the word of God. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The apostle Paul wrote that to one of the two men, to Timothy, in 2 Ti~mothy 3:16, 17 (and to us, also).

So, I encourage you to read the Bible every day. Read all of the Bible and let the Holy Spirit show you what it means. Be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (And, by the way, “the man of God” also includes the woman of God. The word translated “man” means “person” (but “person of God” just doesn’t sound right).

¹⁹Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I also may be encouraged when I hear news about you. ²⁰For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests; ²¹all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. ²²But you know his proven character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. ²³Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. ²⁴And I am convinced in the Lord that I myself will also come quickly.

²⁵But I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus—my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need—²⁶since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have one grief on top of another. ²⁸For this reason, I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice when you see him again and I may be less anxious. ²⁹Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with all joy and hold men like him in honor, ³⁰because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me. (Philippians~2:19-30)

Paul talks about Timothy first. Paul met Timothy in Lystra as he and Silas were traveling around to encourage the churches and to deliver the message from the council at Jerusalem that Gentile believers did not need to be circumcised or follow the Jewish ceremonial law to be saved. Timothy was the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer and a Gentile man. Paul took Timothy along with him and Timothy worked with Paul in spreading the gospel. Listen to what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy:

³I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my forefathers did, when I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. ⁴Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy, ⁵clearly recalling your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced is in you also. (2 Timothy~1:3-5)

I would guess that Timothy was brought up on the word of God. His mother and grandmother were both women of faith. Our children, and we, ourselves, need to be brought up on the word of God. Moses told the Israelites to impress God’s commandments on their children, to talk about them as they sat in there homes and as they walked along the road—to write them on their door posts. How little most of us talk about the word of God. The word of God is not just for Sunday preaching. It’s not just for Sunday school and for Bible studies. It’s for every day and every hour. We need to learn to talk about the word of God as we go about our lives.

Timothy was there in Rome along with Paul helping him out while he was a prisoner. (in fact, he probably wrote this letter to the Philippians as Paul dictated.) Paul says that he’s hoping to send Timothy back to the Philippians so that he can get the news from them and find out what is happening. He’s expecting to hear good news and be encouraged. He knows that the Philippians love the Lord.

Paul says that Timothy genuinely cared about the interests of the Christians in Philippi. What would those interests be? Well, they probably had material need. We know that they were poor. Timothy was probably concerned about their physical needs. But he surely was concerned about their spiritual needs. And all of us have spiritual needs, too. We absolutely have to encourage and build each other up in Christ. We don’t do enough of it.

We don’t do enough of it. We say, “Hello,” and “How are you doing?” I do it, but don’t expect to get much more than, “OK.” But maybe we ought to say, “What’s going on in your life? How is God working in your life? What is he doing through you? Is he being glorified through your life? Are you struggling with any problems—with any sin? Are you under any spiritual attack? And what do you have to be thankful for? What do you praise God for?” But that’s against our culture. We think we might offend someone.

We have a time of prayer and ask each other to share prayer topics. But in the same way that the word of God is not just for Sunday preaching, so sharing what’s going on in our lives is not just for prayer meetings. We need to praise the Lord and to strengthen each other in Christ and to especially praise the Lord when he gives us strength to have victory. (By the way, Timothy’s mom’s name, Eunice, means “good victory” in Greek. Many of the names of early Christians had spiritual meanings.) (And, also, by the way, it’s much easier for us to keep in touch with each other than it was in the early church. We have telephones, e-mail and websites where we can communicate what’s going on in our lives. We can ask people to pray for us and we can pray for them. We can encourage them.)

Paul says about Timothy... I should say, the apostle Paul says about Timothy... I can remember more than once when I said to someone—when I said to someone in church, in fact—in a supposedly spiritual setting... I would say, “Paul says,” and then would quote something that the apostle Paul said. The response would be, “Paul who?” If you read the Bible, you’re supposed to know who Paul is and recognize the things he said (what God said through him, by the way).

Anyway, the apostle Paul says about Timothy, “For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests; all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his proven character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father.” Timothy was unique, at least among the people whom Paul knew—and he probably knew lots of people.

So, what should we conclude? We can say, “Oh, well. I’m not like Timothy. Not many people are.” Or, we can say, “I want to be like Timothy. I want to have the interests of Christ be my first priority, not my own interests. I want to love the Lord my God with all of my heart and mind and strength and life.” We can say, “I want to genuinely care about the interests of others. I want to love my neighbor as myself.” What do you say? What do you say?

The passage from two weeks ago, the passage just before today’s passage says that Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. For this reason (for the reason that he humbled himself and obeyed his Father in heaven), God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name...” Jesus was Paul’s example and he is our example.

Paul was expecting to be released soon: “And I am convinced in the Lord that I myself will also come quickly.” But he didn’t want to wait to find out how the Philippians were doing. He was sending Timothy.

The Philippians had sent Epaphroditus to provide for Paul while he was a prisoner. Paul says in Philippians 4:18, “But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided—a fragrant offering, a welcome sacrifice, pleasing to God.” The Philippians provided for Paul’s physical needs through Epaphroditus. But I also believe that Epaphroditus was a great spiritual encouragement to Paul. Paul could see his love and the love of the Philippians and the love of Christ that came through them. But Paul wanted to send Epaphroditus back because the Philippians were worried about him.

Epaphroditus had been sick and had almost died. God spared Paul grief on top of grief by healing Epaphroditus. Why didn’t Paul just heal Epaphroditus? Didn’t Paul have a gift of healing? He did. But it’s God who does the healing according to his own purpose. God healed people through Paul in order to confirm the message of the gospel. Don’t you think Paul prayed for Epaphroditus? God still heals people in response to our prayers. But it’s according to his wisdom and his purpose. His purpose, by the way, is salvation. And his purpose to bring praise and thanksgiving to himself. His purpose is for his glory to be revealed and for us to rejoice in it.

Let’s look at verses 29 and 30: “Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with all joy and hold men like him in honor, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.”

Epaphroditus was willing to go and help Paul. Paul was the one who had brought the message of salvation to the Philippians. Epaphroditus wanted to help Paul. He was willing to risk his life. He probably felt obligated, but not in the sense that he felt like he had to force himself to do something he really didn’t want to do. It was because he loved Jesus and he loved Paul.

Paul says that Epaphroditus risked his life. How did he risk his life? Paul was a prisoner, but I don’t think Paul thought Epaphroditus was in any danger of being arrested and executed, or even in any danger of being put in prison. Paul, himself, was expecting to be released soon. The fact is that Epaphroditus became sick and almost died.

Maybe Epaphroditus got sick because of the rigors of the trip from Philippi to Rome. Maybe some sickness like the flu was going around. Maybe the Lord said (as he did about Job), “Have you considered my servant Epaphroditus...a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil,” and Satan said, “Just let him get sick and just about die and he’ll say, “This isn’t worth it. I’m going to look out for myself from now on.” Epaphroditus didn’t do that. He recovered and kept on serving the Lord. Paul didn’t give any reason that Epaphroditus had become sick except the implication that is was connected with the fact that Epaphroditus was serving Jesus. He risked his life to serve Jesus and to help Paul.

That it’s not worth it to serve the Lord is Satan’s lie. There is nothing that can bring a greater reward—far greater than anything we can receive in this life (although we are promised a reward in this life, too). The reward we are promised is much greater than anything we deserve or are able to earn. In fact, we deserve death, but we are promised eternal life and glory. What we are promised has already been paid for by Jesus. Amen.