Epaphroditus, Philippians, 2:25-30
Philippians 2:25-30 · Vern Peterman · Aug 10, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826225811015

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, we'll take a look here and you'll notice we'll step through this a little bit differently because of the length of the passage. I want to make sure we covered the entire passage at one time because it addresses Epaphroditus. And so the format will just be a little different and hopefully you'll be able to track with me OK here.

This first verse here, but I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier. who is also your messenger and minister to my need." He starts off with that. Now, there is one other place where Epaphroditus is mentioned in Scripture, and that's at the end of this book. In Philippians, only four chapters long, he comes up and mentions that Epaphroditus had come to Paul bringing basically some support money, and he wanted to let them know that yes, that had come. And you notice he'd already at the very beginning of the letter thanked them. the believers at Philippi for their support of his ministry. So let's get the big picture on Epaphroditus here.

The one thing is we get from these two passages, he appears to be a man from Philippi, we get that impression. He had been sent by the church at Philippi to send the support money to Paul, and while Paul was in prison and while he was there, to assist Paul and to help Paul with whatever he needed. One thing you've got to remember is that the prisons in those days were a tough place and having assistance was helpful. We'll get to that in a minute here. Paul was now sending Epaphroditus back to the believers at Philippi. He was going to send the letter with him, so he'd have the letter with them.

And one of the things he wanted to do is to assure the church at Philippi that his coming back was okay. because one of the things that you pick up as you read the letter is Paul is concerned that the people at the church at Philippi are going to react to Epaphroditus coming back having fallen short of doing everything that was needed to help Paul. You see that? That there would be perhaps some disappointment. Hey, Epaphroditus, what are you doing coming back? Why are you back so soon? Is Paul out of jail? How come you're back yet?

And so with that concern, he's sending Epaphroditus back with this letter and letting him know, hey, first of all, Epaphroditus was okay, and it's all right that he's back. It's fine. I'm okay with it. And he didn't want them to receive Epaphroditus back with some sort of a grilling response, but instead to welcome him. So we'll see that in a bit. One of the other things is we've looked at this passage here in Philippians 2, 19, and we'll look through it through 30, which is the end of the chapter.

There's a sequence, and it's a three-part sequence that goes like this. Epaphroditus was sent with this letter right away. In other words, he's going to take the letter as soon as Paul and Timothy are done. They're going to seal it up, put it in his hand, and Epaphroditus is going to start on the 40-day foot journey back to Philippi to deliver the letter. So that's this first step. This is one of the earlier copies of the book of Philippians, the first couple of verses, and this is the road that heads across the peninsula and into Philippi.

The next step here, Timothy is going to come. Remember that from last week? Timothy is going to be sent once the outcome of Paul's trial is known. Timothy is going to be kind of the messenger, okay, this is what happened to Paul, as well as other things that ministry would do. But that would be the next person to go to Philippi. and then finally Paul would come.

Do you get that? So we've got this sequence. Epaphroditus first, then Timothy, then Paul. Isn't that amazing for this 40-day trip, Rome to Philippi? Three people are going to go there. It's sort of, okay, now you've got one, now you've got the next, and now you've got the final one coming. Kind of amazing. But that's what was planned, and Paul is revealing it in these verses 19 through 30. The other thing, and we brought this up last week, here's a 40 days journey.

They're going to start from Rome over here and go around here and then end up down into Philippi, which is over there. So quite a trip, quite a journey, and not a small one. Let's keep that in mind as we go through this passage, because it was not just an undertaking of, here, run this across town. It isn't a matter of, here, here's my cell phone, go ahead.

It was instead a matter of saying, OK, I'm going to start an almost a month and a half long journey in order to get to Philippi and, by the way, be at substantial risk along the way. For Epaphroditus to have carried money and gotten it there was a brave thing to do on those roads with no protection.

Now, let's take a look at the first verse that we read there, verse 25. It says, But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker, and fellow soldier who is also your messenger and minister to my need." And by the way, on your very front first page, you've got the same text so that you can track with me a little more closely. I thought that might be helpful since we're going through so many verses here. Let's take a look at two words that particularly jump out and are important to understanding what Paul's writing. This first key word, I thought, and that's one word in the Greek, and I suppose in the King James, Hegeomai.

Now, you see this little squiggle there? Where is it? There you go. See that little squiggle? What does that squiggle do? It makes your arm come up and go like this, right? And you go, ha! All right. If you've been with us before, you'll understand what that means. If you don't, you'll be puzzled. Oh, well. Okay. All right. Now, so this first one comes out here, this hegeomai. We've seen this twice before in this chapter. Sorry if you're puzzled, but we'll talk about it afterwards. Okay. The next part, hegeomai, this isn't a word of, gee, I was just kind of thinking. I think the King James has supposed, and that's actually a little bit foggy, almost like it's sort of what I thought or assumed.

It relates to specific judgment and estimation and appraisal, frequently used of judges or officials. So it's something carefully thought out and having impact, okay? So this isn't something he just sort of, you know, presumed upon or assumed anything.

This is something he very carefully considered, considering the facts. The next thing we read here is Paul is sending Epaphrachitus back to Philippi, not with just some casual thing. He says, I'll flip a coin, I'll send you back. No, this is something he had considered very carefully. He thought about it. He weighed out all the factors and consequences. He looked at the whole thing.

The next word, this word necessary, jumps out. This word reveals here that Paul wasn't just slightly inclined in this direction. The facts pressed him towards the conclusion. Once considering all the facts, making a judgment, the facts pressed toward this conclusion. I had no choice looking at the facts but to come to this conclusion. That's what he's saying. It's an automatic deduction from the given facts. The logic points inexorably in that direction.

We're not done with this verse here, but let's look at the next part of it. He's got five words and phrases there that I think will be helpful for us to look at together first. He refers to Epaphroditus, and this is interesting. Here he gives this description of the guy, basically five descriptions. Do you see that? He says, fellow worker, fellow soldier, your messenger, and minister to my niece." So five descriptions of Epaphroditus. That's interesting to give that much description of the guy, but I think there's a reason for it. One is the first one speaks of Epaphroditus' position with Paul.

They're both part of the family of the Lord, and so he says, he is my brother. That's a positional statement. Based on that position, look what he refers to him otherwise. He is a fellow worker, he's working alongside, in his condition, okay? Based on that position, he is a fellow worker with me. Based on that position, in his condition, he's a fellow soldier.

In that condition, based on his position, he is your messenger, and finally, minister to my need, okay? All those are based on the position he has in Christ, founded upon as being Paul's brother. Notice this too, the first three, are all based on Paul saying, my, my brother, my fellow worker, my soldier, and that's all in reference to Paul. But the next two, or the last two, means he was sent by the church at Philippi, and so those two relate to his role having been sent from Philippi.

Minister to my need, he came with support money and came to help. And he was the one who sent message from you to update me what's happening at the church, because Paul was always wanting to know, how's it going? How's it going? When Paul said, how are you doing, he really meant it.

The next thing we see coming out here is there's some other indications. That brother name refers to his relationship, the relationship that they had in their position between one another. The next thing is fellow worker meant accomplishment, getting things done. There were things to do. Paul would send people places, and of course in this case, Paul himself had needs in prison, things that he couldn't take care of. A fellow soldier.

We know from Ephesians 6 that that meant standing your ground, okay? Standing your ground. He was a messenger from Philippi, and finally, he was a minister to Paul's need while Paul was in prison. Remember the prisons and the people at Philippi, remember that Paul spent some time there in the Philippian prison.

Prisons were not a nice place. We have various provisions, although prisons now are not a nice place. They were even worse then because they put you in jail, they didn't have showers. And if you're hungry, that's too bad. You're uncomfortable, that's too bad too. You're in the stocks, feel like you need to relieve yourself, that's too bad. If there's some discomfort, basic essential needs, the jailer was not responsible for you.

If you want something to make you more comfortable, you better get some help from outside. That's what Epaphroditus was there for because they knew very well that Paul is not likely to be terribly comfortable. So help Paul in whatever he needs. He's got some basic needs you're going to have to help him with.

Now, here's another key word that jumps out. There's adelphos. That's the word for brother. Literally, it means from the same womb. And in the New Testament times, it was used for those who were physical brothers, and also among Jews, they called themselves by this word as well. Paul here, though, is referring to he and Epaphroditus being of the same spiritual family. They had the same position in Christ, and so he spells that out to them. Next word, fellow worker, is a companion in labor. That's the way it comes across in the King James. This is this prefix, sun, remember, together. It's the same prefix that is used, we are seated together with Christ. That same prefix here, sun ergos, together worker. way it comes across here.

Paul had used that same title for a number of other believers throughout the New Testament, and later on in this very book he would call all of the Philippian believers together-workers with him. Isn't that neat? Okay, it goes beyond that. This next one, fellow-soldier. And it's interesting, this one here is together-soldier. Same prefix, but what he does, he puts that in front of soldier, And this word was also applied directly to Archippus of Colossae and Philemon too. He uses that same word.

Paul had already, in number 127 of Philippians, he'd already told them to strive together. And remember that Philippi was this soldier city. It was a Roman colony. A great many of the people in Philippi were either retired Roman soldiers, a great many of them grandsons of Roman soldiers. and maybe even farther back than that. And so everybody in Philippi knew what a soldier was and knew what it meant to be a soldier.

Many of them having committed their entire careers to being a soldier, they knew it. Remember this that we looked at back in 127. These are together soldiers. You see that? And that's the example that he is again bringing back to mind to them. Together soldiers. Working together. Notice how well the defense coordinates. in these together soldiers. Messenger.

Now here's a surprise, he uses the word apostolos, the same word applied to the apostles. Now at first you might say, hmm, what's he doing there? Epaphroditus, an apostle? This is the same word, but what Paul is using this word for, since the apostle means special messenger, all he's saying is that Epaphroditus is a special messenger from the church at Philippi. Why?

He isn't just kind of running along the way and dropping messages along the way. He has specific assignment in bringing things to Paul and to help Paul. So in that way, he's a special messenger. One of the things, just by way of reminder, is just that the qualifications of an apostle are specific. So one way we would distinguish this in English is Paul was Apostle with a capital A, one of the Apostles. That's different from being just a special messenger for some other purpose, because the Apostles with a capital A were those who were assigned to be Apostles by the Lord specifically to the Church at large. Epaphroditus' special messenger purpose was to help Paul, the Apostle, with a capital A. All right. And finally, minister to my need. And in the King James, it says, minister to my wants. I think it's important to make a distinction. It's deficiency. It's what he lacks, not just what he desires.

But this liturgus is the word that is used here. And real interesting, Paul says that he is the liturgus to the Gentiles, the one who carries out ministry to the Gentiles. It's interesting, too, that this word was used of those in the Greek culture. This is a secular culture. Someone who would volunteer for a public duty and pay for that out of his own expense, this word was used for that. It was someone who really put themselves out completely in order to carry out a duty.

That's the word that Paul picks, and he uses it more than once in this letter. Craia, it means needs, requirements, what's lacking. It's basic things, not just whatever Paul wanted. It's the basic things that Paul needed. And in prison, that's exactly what he needed. Basic things.

Because the Roman government did not provide it. Alright, the next verse. Because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. This longing for, epipaseo, here's another compound word. Have you noticed how Paul loves to use those? Epipathia was an intensive longing. And the idea here was basically Epaphroditus was really missing those people back home.

He had developed a love and a bond for these people. And by the way, you've got to remember, these people, it wasn't social commonality that bonded them together. You're talking about mixing a Jewish lady, Lydia, a slave girl had been freed from a demon, the Philippian jailer, we're talking a real ragtag assortment of people. So it wasn't that they were all of the same social group or class, or they all had something in common like kite flying, okay? It was because of what they had in Christ that put them together. And he was just missing them terribly. Even the walk itself would put him 40 days distant from them. Paul used this same word regarding his longing for the believers at Philippi, back at the very early verses of this book.

So he's not using a word that he hadn't applied to himself. He says, I'm longing for you, I'm missing you. And Epaphroditus is too. That's all. He's missing you. Was distressed. Now this is a powerful word. This word means overwhelmed with sorrow. It doesn't mean just slightly irritated or something.

Epaphroditus was distressed because of his concern of the believers at Philippi for him. He says, I was almost killed. I almost died. I was so ill, and I'm concerned that they'll be distressed for me. So, Epaphroditus, he was profoundly distressed. How do we know? This is the same word used for our Lord's distress in the Garden of Gethsemane. That kind of distress. Here's something else to touch on while we're looking at this. Epaphroditus and Trophimus are two of Paul's companions that are listed, and this is one of them, obviously, where they were sick. And what's interesting, there's no evidence that Paul healed them. There's no evidence that they were sick because they were sinning. And nothing was pointed to them so far as they were lacking faith.

You see that? And you can look at the other passage as well. I think in our common teaching it's good to make that clear. Paul had the ability to heal as an apostle. That was abundantly clear. But what we see in Scripture is there's neither a guarantee of freedom from illness, nor are church-age believers guaranteed to be healed. That's simply not in Scripture. What we do find is those promises of healing applied to the Jews on the condition that they were obedient. And frequently people who will claim obedience as a natural right of the, excuse me, healing as the natural right of the Christian, will point to those Old Testament promises and claim them for the church age believer. Anyway, back to our passage here, verse 27. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

The particular phrase I want to look at there, that actually boils down to less than that, is this, to the point of death. To the point of, here, or nayan, to, in the King James, it's the Greek, paraplasion, it means alongside a neighbor. How about that? We would use in English, he was a next door neighbor to death. That's the way we would put it in our vernacular. He was a next door neighbor to death. That's pretty close, isn't it? Wouldn't you say? Paul is saying that Epaphroditus was very near death.

This was something very serious. It doesn't exactly say what it is. Verse 29 makes it clear, and we'll look at it in a bit, that he was risking his life. And finally, in verse 28 here, he says, Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less concerned about you. So he's sending Epaphroditus back as going to put Paul at ease, too, and that's something he's trying to make clear. He's saying, don't worry, Philippian believers. Sending Epaphroditus back isn't going to make me more stressed. I'm going to be relieved because he's back with you and you'll know what's going on. It'll be a lot better. So let's look at a couple of those words, eagerly and rejoice, here. This one, eagerly or more eagerly, in the Greek, this is one word, and I know what you're thinking. When you look at this word, I know what you have in mind.

Okay? I know what you're thinking is Greek potatoes. That's what you're thinking, right? Spadioteros, okay? That's the word, right? That's not Greek potatoes. I want to let you know. It's not Greek potatoes. Not spuds, okay? What Paul is saying is he's sending him all the more urgently, hastily, okay? He wants them to get on, you know, back. I'm sending them back early. Why? because of these issues, and so when you see him, I am the one sending him, and I want to get him back to you quickly.

The other thing to notice is this word rejoice pops up, and you'll see a similar word showing up there in verse 29, which we'll look at next. These are part of the Keres family of words. We looked at these before. This Keres family of words is founded on the word that's translated grace, and it means God-given. God-given. God-given.

God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given. God-given And one of the things to note is the way Paul writes this, this prefix has the idea of being face-to-face. I want you to be face-to-face with this guy. But it's even more forceful, he puts that as an imperative. He's telling the church, you must welcome Epaphroditus. I want you to welcome him, not grill him when he gets back. Don't read him the riot act because he came back quickly. I want you to welcome him. You must do so. Receive him when he comes back.

The other one is high regard, intimos. In value is basically the literal meaning. Paul is telling the believers at Philippi to hold Epaphroditus in value. Don't get ticked off at him because he came back early. I sent him, but instead receive him and hold him to be of great value. Notice the way Paul writes it out. He wants them to esteem the qualities of believers like Epaphroditus. He wants them to place high value on those qualities, a high priority on those.

If you see something of value, it kind of catches your eye, doesn't it? That's what you pay attention to. If we see a piece of trash on the street, it doesn't particularly grab our attention. If we saw a stack of $100 bills, I think it would. We see something of value, so all of a sudden we focus on that. He's saying, place a value on the qualities that you see in this man.

Finally, the last verse there, "...because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service for me." A couple of things to note, and then we'll take a look at a couple of specific words. This word for minister here, same word here, service. Same word. And so we've looked at that before. This word for worker, He carries that down here, for the work of Christ. So he ties those two together by pairing up words and what he's telling them about Epaphroditus. Finally, we have this word, risking. Now, this is a fascinating one.

Parabola omae. You might just say omae when you try to read that, but that's how it's pronounced. This word was used among gamblers in the Greek world. whom Paul put in a bad light, so Paul's not encouraging gambling. In Ephesians 4.14, it talks about the trickery of men. The Greek word is kubeia. We get our word cube.

So Paul's not talking about putting gambling in a good light, but he is making a play on words here, and I want us to take a look at it. Curiously, the pagan gamblers in the New Testament times would roll the dice, and as they were rolling, they would wish themselves luck by saying, I think that's what Paul is doing.

He's not encouraging gambling. He never does that. But what he is doing, I think, is making a play on words by pointing out, he says, this guy is taking risks, and he is risking himself for the sake of the gospel. You see that? And I think that's the play on words that he is working with here. He knows he's got this name, and here's these guys, every time they roll the dice, Epaphroditus.

Here's a historical note, because the church didn't let loose of this. In the early church, there came to be a group of believers who called themselves the Parabolani, and what they did is they were the risk-takers. They were the ones who went out and would take care of the sick and even bury those who had died, not taking care they might catch the disease, taking great risk in order to extend themselves for love. So they used the same basic root word that Paul had just used to establish their risk-taking on the behalf of others. They expressed the love of Christ based on that.

That was a good risk, and I think that's an important thing. They risked to give, whereas the gamblers risked to gain. See the difference? They took a great risk to give, the parabolani, whereas the gamblers took the great risk in order to have selfish gain.

And I think Paul is encouraging that understanding here. The word deficient is what comes across in the English here, or lacking, and Paul is not trying to insult the Philippians here, like there's something deficient and he came and filled it in. No, this is what he's getting at here. He's not trying to belittle them in any way. Instead, he's trying to say, look, Epaphroditus completed. He fit the bill. He did the rest of the job here. He completed the rest of what you set out to do. That's what he's saying. It is not a cut against the Philippian saints, but instead a compliment for what Epaphroditus had done in ministering to Paul's needs in various ways.

You've got this, and I apologize, I think you've got three pages here on your handouts here, so you can track with me here. It's a bit of a long one, so let's step our way through it. But I, having carefully considered the facts, was compelled to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother in the Lord, that's obviously his reference, and together worker in the service of the gospel, and together soldier. Remember what together soldiers mean, okay? Taking a stand alongside me in his position in Christ, who is also your special messenger and the one who in sacred service has ministered to my needs while I am in prison." That's what he had in mind.

Verse 26, because he was intensely longing for you all and was greatly distressed, and remember this word means great distress, not just slight discomfort, because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick, starting in verse 27, being right next to physical death. Remember, right next door? Next-door neighbors to physical death.

But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow as a result of Epaphroditus' death while in service to my needs. He would have been heaped with sorrow if Epaphroditus had died in the process.

Since Epaphroditus was I want him to get back to you right now. I want him to get back to you right now. He's gambling, risking his life for Paul's behalf. In verse 28 there, he continues on, "...therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly with urgency..." See, that's the idea that Paul's getting across. I want him to get back to you right now. Right now. "...so that when you see him again, when he arrives with this letter..."

Because remember, he's going to have the letter in hand. to continue to grow and not have Epaphroditus help end up being something unsettling in the church, a point of constant derision of Epaphroditus. He wants him to go back and be received and accepted and have the body continue to grow together, not to spur divisions. Do you see that? Not to spur on the divisions. So he tells them, you must welcome him then, and remember that's mandatory, having the Lord's view of things, with all grace given joy, and hold men who are in character like him, that's what he's looking for, to be considered of high value.

And finally in the last verse, because in extreme service, I'll use that word, it's kind of taken on, that word extreme has kind of taken on a modern sense, and that's what Epaphroditus was doing, extreme service. He came close to death for the work of Christ in delivering my support funds, providing me updates on the condition of your church body, and caring for me, putting his own life at risk to complete the balance of your service to my needs. And that's the idea where he talks about being deficient or lacking. Again, not intended to cut, completing the balance of the service. That's his focal point there. For my needs as I carry out my special commission from the Lord.

One of the things we look at here is Paul had given from early on in this chapter up until what we just completed this morning, four examples, the first one being Christ himself. Then Paul gives himself as an example. Then Timothy, and today Epaphroditus. And he is underscoring with example after example, being more concerned for the interests of others than about oneself.

And that's certainly a good thing. I think there's some other lessons we can learn from looking at this fellow Epaphroditus. A few of them are these. One is that if you look at it, is it okay to take a risk to give? Yeah. I think that's one of the things. You know, we sometimes are taught to be risk-averse. There is a place for taking a risk to give. Didn't Paul do that in carrying the Gospel out? He took great risks. Did that stop him? No. Why? The risk was to give and not to get.

And two, it was well worth it. It was well worth the price. I think there's something else to take a look at. Remember, Epaphroditus came close to death and had great distress as a result of what he did. Did that make what he did wrong? No. You don't get that impression at all. He was an example. The character that he showed, Paul said, hold that in high value. So that's not his point. And I think that's something else we can take home.

If we find ourselves in places where we're highly distressed, if we find ourselves in some spot, maybe in his case it was a physical danger, but some other distress, does that automatically mean that we've done the wrong thing? No, it does not. He'd look carefully and see, you know, did the Lord lead me through this? but it's wrong to automatically conclude that if something bad happens or if I'm distressed that I'm automatically outside of what the Lord has in mind. You don't get that impression at all from reading Paul's letter. And he certainly wasn't sending Epaphroditus back with the Philippians to get that impression.

Let's see. I think there's something else, too. Epaphroditus came through this thing okay physically, but he didn't know that. At some point, I'm sure he was wondering whether he was going to come through okay. If you have been going through a tough time, and notice he had both physical and emotional tough times. If you have been going through a tough time, maybe you're going through one right now, or maybe another one's going to start tomorrow. We don't know.

But whatever kind of tough time you're going through, or have gone through, or will be going through, notice that here's Epaphroditus, And there is no meaning in the midst of that that somehow you're out of God's will, that you're out of whack. Instead, you can look at it and say, you know, in the midst of this difficult physical situation, maybe it's your health, maybe it's some other circumstance.

In the middle of this distress that I'm going through, it does not automatically mean that I'm in trouble spiritually. The Lord was faithful and carried Epaphroditus through this, wasn't He? The Lord was faithful, and the Lord will be faithful carrying you through these things as well. And that's real valuable and important for us to remember.

The other thing is to look, when Paul saw that Epaphroditus was going through these things, he did not come to Epaphroditus and say, well, Epaphroditus, you're distressed, you obviously aren't trusting the Lord. or Epaphroditus, I can tell you're having physical problems, or you were having physical problems, and therefore you must have done something wrong.

Paul's place was what? To encourage him, and to encourage others to encourage him in the midst of that. Isn't that what we need? We need that as well. As believers, we have a place to do as Paul did, and to encourage one another in the midst of these things. And certainly there's a place for talking through if sin is involved, but we need to be careful we don't jump to that conclusion.

Sometimes the Lord has people going through a difficult time, physically or emotionally. In Epaphroditus' case it was both. And that is the Lord's assignment, to conform them to Christ. We get in the way of that if we jump on their case, if we automatically assume that they've somehow off track. So I think as we look at Epaphroditus, he not only is an example to value, but he's an example of these other things, too, as well.

Because he went through the range of emotional distress, circumstantial distress, of wondering, how are people going to receive me? And, you know, what's Paul going to think? And, you know, am I going to live through this? All those wondering. and concerns were real and intense for him. He didn't just get a little sick, he was close to death.

He wasn't just a little irritated or a little down, he was greatly distressed. And yet in the midst of that, the Lord is faithful, and Paul was also being an example in being concerned for him, not condemning him, and being concerned also how the rest of the body received him. The way Paul handled it assured that the believers at Philippi would get the good message, the right message. The way Paul handled it avoided division among the body of Christ. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Isn't that great?

Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for this marvelous letter, what deep and precious things it teaches us. And we see here that Paul, by the inspiration of your Spirit, has chosen words very carefully. and the unity of the body is maintained, the encouragement and support of the paphroditus is maintained. And Lord, these are wonderful things. And we just pray as we spend the rest of our minutes here and as we go from this place, that these truths would be carried home, not just in our minds, but in our hearts. That we might indeed love one another and care for others ahead of our own, ahead of ourselves. We give you thanks for all these things. for these precious words, in Jesus' name, amen.