Live In Harmony, Philippians, 4:2-3

As we look at this passage in Philippians, as I was studying through this passage this week, I just increasingly, as I look at it, I just get more and more excited, impressed, amazed, astounded. I think, boy, this is rich stuff. And as I look at this passage too, this is one, At the end of a lot of the New Testament books, Paul and the others who are writing will kind of break into sort of personal commentary and greet this one and that one, and this is kind of that character, and yet I see such immense depth in it, and I also see some unique things. And so, because of that, I'd like to have you take a look at it with me, okay? Could you do that? All right, let's take a look. This is part of Paul's pattern, and this list here of passages where Paul gives kind of guidance, brief proverbs, personal greetings, kind of last instructions.

And a lot of times they're short things, you know. He'll mention something and then skip on to another subject. And so this is typical, and we're getting into that section in Philippians where that's the case. What's interesting, you notice I didn't put 1 Timothy in there because the whole book is almost like that. But nonetheless, you'll find that this is a common pattern, as Paul writes.

And what's interesting here, he gives us four names. And I put a question mark there. We'll talk about why the question mark. Euodia and Syntyche are the two women's names that he lists. And right after that, Sysygus. I don't see that in it. Well, you will. Just a minute. And Clement. So he gives those names there. And it's interesting.

Prior to that, he'd mentioned himself and Timothy and Epaphroditus and, of course, the Lord. But here he breaks into some other names that he hasn't mentioned before. And what's interesting, too, is we never see them anywhere else in Scripture, not even in the book of Philippians. He mentions something else here that we'll want to take a look at, the Book of Life.

Has that been curious to you? The Book of Life. What's that all about? This is the only place in all of Paul's letters where he writes and uses the phrase, the Book of Life. He doesn't mention it anywhere else, but he does here with these people. And there's a good reason, as we'll see here after a little bit. Paul doesn't do things arbitrarily or for no cause, and this is no exception. He is mentioning the Book of Life for good reason. First, let's take a look at a couple of words that pop up here, and Paul uses them twice.

He says, I urge Euodia, and I urge Syntyche. Let's look at that I urge there. The first key word there is I urge, or in the King James, I beseech. Parakaleo is basically alongside call. It's a verb. In various contexts, it's translated different ways. Here, I urge comfort, exhort, admonish, or even encourage are some of the other ways it's translated in different contexts. What it really means is just a compound, call alongside.

It's putting together those two ideas. What's he doing here? He says, I am calling myself alongside. I call alongside. Yoda, and I call along Syntyche. And you notice something, as he uses that word, he doesn't say, look here, Yoda, look here, Syntyche, you'd better shape up, or you're going to get it. No, I'm going to come and let you have it. He's not anything like that, is he? He's not threatening. What does he do? He comes alongside them. Something else, did you notice? He comes alongside them individually, one at a time.

This word we've seen in a similar form before, back in Philippians 2, 1 and 2, and he talks about encouragement, and he uses the word there, paraklesis. Paraklesis. And so what we see is there's a pattern of words that shows up in the New Testament. Paul uses them. Paraklesis is an alongside call in a noun form. Here it's parakaleo in a verb form. This is an action that's being taken.

Now, here's something real interesting. In John 14, and then again in 15 and 16, and you have the passages there, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as parakletos, the one called alongside. So we start to see a family of words that are showing up here in the New Testament.

Here's in Acts 9.31, Dr. Luke writes about the comfort, the paraklesis, that's the word used above there in Philippians 2.1, the paraklesis of the Holy Spirit.

What is this? And if you notice, if you dig into this, it keeps showing up in the New Testament. Paul uses it again and again and again and again in 2 Corinthians, first chapter, and it's translated there in many translations, comfort. What's this about? What we see here is this is something that is woven throughout the New Testament, a calling alongside. I would suggest to you that this is the basis for biblical counseling. This is the basis for biblical counseling.

It's coming alongside. And that's exactly what Paul is doing with these ladies, isn't he? I counsel Euodia, and I counsel Syntyche. Now, the next phrase that comes in there is translated in the New American Standard, and the King James has that, that they be of the same mind. Actually, this is a case where I think the King James is truer to the original language. And he uses, guess what, this word phreneo shows up again.

We saw this exact same phrase before, back in Philippians 2.2, except there Paul was addressing who?

The entire church body. Here, what is he doing? He's using the exact same phrase, but he is directing it to two ladies, Euodia and Syntyche, personally to them. And what's that? He's urging them there to be of the same mind. And I think that's something else to take a look at.

Notice that he didn't start off the Book of Philippians saying, Hi, I'm Paul. By the way, Euodia and Syntyche, start getting your head together. He didn't do that. What did he do? He spoke to them together more gently and kind of prepared the ground, if you will. I think that's worth taking note of. He called them all to live as a being of the same mind.

And that word for neo there, we won't take another look at, even though we've looked at it before, I think it's important to just call to mind in remembrance what that is. But he had prepared the ground for talking to these ladies about this issue, rather than just kind of barging in and saying, here we've got this, and hitting it head on and rather bluntly. So, this word phrenaeo, we brought it before, has showed up in various passages.

Every single chapter has it sewn somewhere in the chapter. And what we see here is there's two particular passages right in here and right in here where he uses that word frequently. And so what he's done is he's woven it through the fabric as a thread. He's woven it through the fabric of the book of Philippians. It is a theme for the book. Mindset. Perspective. So let's take a look at that word there. This word freneo that he keeps harping on, keeps coming back to, it means to have a mindset about something.

In fact, the translators have an almost impossible challenge. How do I translate this one word simply? And so, because it means more than just mind, it involves the will, emotions, conscience, and it means resulting in a proper course of action. How do you put that in one word? Tough time. So what do the translators do? They kind of simplify it. They tend to figure out, how do I say it simple?

Well, we're not going to leave it at that. Instead, it's really important, we feel, that you understand what that word is conveying because Paul's trying to get something across to them. The very reason that we study God's Word, the very reasons why we want to have the mindset of Christ. We want to have this mindset that he's conveying to them of Christ. And that's why we study God's Word. We want to have the understanding that impacts our will and emotions and everything else.

Okay. Then he says, I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. We brought up before that this The word in means entirely in the Lord. The natural sense in the Greek is to be completely in the Lord. Now, has not the Lord positioned us entirely in Him?

What percent have you been blessed in Christ? Yes, like the total lunar eclipse. Very good. This is complete. It is entirely in the Lord. We're not percentage-wise, we're not in the process of getting there. Positionally, we're entirely in the Lord. The thing that he's pointing out to them is, he's urging Euodia and Syntyche, he says, I want you to have the same mindset, but not just to sort of agree on something, It's in the Lord. It is in their position. The place for them to have the same mindset, perspective, and understanding is in the position that they have in the Lord. Do they have the same position in the Lord? Yes. So that's the basis on which he makes his appeal.

One of the things to underscore, because I think a lot of Christendom now has gotten off the mark in this, and I think it's important that we understand it, urging them to be of the same mindset is not just asking them to embrace diversity. You see the distinction there? It's not just asking them to embrace diversity. There are a number of churches today that have kind of gotten around this idea that, you know, well, you've heard it. Well, it's true for you, but not for me. You heard that? Or, you know, there's lots of truths, or there's lots of different paths.

You're not asking them to step in to look agree to disagree. What he is saying, he wants them to have a singular mindset. Do you notice that? Singular mindset. What Paul tells the church at Corinth, and how does he start off this exhortation? Parakaleo. He comes alongside them. Same thing. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing. He wants them to speak the same thing.

This is not diversity of doctrine, is it? And that there be no divisions among you, and that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. Does it sound like the same message? Yes. He's urging them to be of the same mind. The church at Corinth, same exhortation.

He wants them to speak the same thing All right, notice that this being of the same mind, and pardon the brain up here, it's not because everyone is under the heavy-handed control of some charismatic leader. I've told some folks here that I had some experience in the past with Jim Jones, the cult leader. And my younger sister, Jim Jones, was a 7th grade teacher. And I sat there across from him in potlucks at PTA meetings and things of that sort.

I won't repeat what my brother told him anyway. But what's interesting is you look at that and that guy's idea was we're all of the same mind because he's the guy that's controlling things, very controlling to the point where many of the kids I went to high school with died down at Guyana drinking the Kool-Aid.

And that's not what this is about. That's not what this is about at all. This isn't heavy-handed control. This isn't because you've got a charismatic leader. This is the mind of Christ that is singular. Not the leader that's heavy-handed or charismatic. It's not because everybody's just passive. Not because everybody says, whatever you say, we'll go along with it. It's not that either.

Notice Paul's frequent use of athletic illustrations and others in the New Testament. Wrestling, boxing, running, those illustrations were all there on purpose and he wasn't urging them to be passive. Instead, there was activity that was involved in what he communicated. It was because they understood their position in the Lord.

They had the mind of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 2.16, The spiritual facts are revealed as one consistent body of truth in Scripture.

One of the things that we have pointed out here is this phrase, the faith, when you find the definite article in the Greek combined there, so it's the faith. Most often in the New Testament, that is referring to a consistent set of doctrines, a fixed set of doctrines. That's why in Jude 3, he would say, There's that athletic word again. I urge you, not just the pastor, not just the elders, I urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The faith, a consistent set of doctrines.

Now, here we get into the real fun one. Indeed, true companion, and I put in here, syzygous. Now, I don't encourage you to name any of your kids syzygous, by the way, but that's what's here. So, let's take a look. What about this Syzygous guy? In Philippians 4, 2, and 3 that we've been looking at here, there is a focus upon names. He gives, obviously, three of them real evidently, and then the fourth one here. Those of Paul's fellow workers in the Book of Life.

Euodia, by the way, means prosperous journey. Syntyche means pleasant acquaintance. I certainly hope she was. Clement means merciful or gentle. So each of the names that he gives has a meaning. So what happens is the translators, when they come across these words, they have to decide, is Paul saying a name or is he saying a meaning? See the difference there? My name means some things too, but I won't tell you what those are. Anyway, they had to decide whether to translate the name and just say Syzygus. or translate it where it would be companion or yoke fellow. What the translators have typically tended to do is to just simply carry it across as its meaning instead of the name. So they chose to translate it. Now, there's a number of suggestions that have been made, since as you see in your translations, who is this person? If it is not somebody's name, then it's referring to somebody and nobody really knows who it is. So people have made suggestions.

Some have thought that it was Dr. Luke or Silas. After all, Dr. Luke seems to have had some connections with Philippi and some ideas perhaps that he went to medical school there even. Silas we know from Acts 16, spent time with Paul in Philippi, maybe that was it. Or Timothy, we certainly know Timothy had involvement. Epaphroditus, since we know he's the one that's going back with the letter.

That's another name that's been given. Lydia, she was the first convert, remember, along the river. So some have suggested Lydia, or even Paul's wife. There's a problem with that. The prior word, true or loyal, yoke fellow, that's masculine. So probably not the women's identities here. Or some have suggested it's a man's name, Syzygus. Okay. What we'll do here is we'll just call this person Syzygus, understanding the meaning of the name. We understand what it is, and we'll talk about that more in a bit.

Certainly, Paul knew who he was writing about, right? Certainly, the Philippian believers knew who he was writing about. It's possible that there was some supplemental instructions we don't have here. But neither Paul nor the Philippian believers are confused about this or questioning, okay? They know clearly who he was, They also know his character. Paul was able to write that this fellow was loyal or true. Actually, the word carries across the idea of genuine. He's the real thing. Here's an interesting point.

Syzygous comes from sun. Paul likes those sun words. And zygous, which is that cross piece on a yoke. So this is a syzygous, together yoke. That's the idea of the word. Now, so what Paul may very well have been doing here is using the fellow's name and then making reference to that in terms of him being genuinely according to his name. Then he says, I ask you, this is Syzygus, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle and the cause of the gospel. King James has it, I entreat, and the Greek there is ero ta'o. And if you're thinking that it's ero and ta'o put together, no, that's not it. It's not ero and ta'o. Instead, it's to ask or make a request. It was used in various contexts in the New Testament and in the Greek-speaking world.

Sometimes official requests were used with this particular word. Interestingly, this is the only place in Philippians that Paul uses this word, and he only uses it otherwise with the Church of Thessalonica. Then he says, I ask you what? I ask you to help. Very interesting word that he chooses here. Sulambano. This is one of those soon words again. Boy, Paul likes those, doesn't he? Together. This is the only place in all of Paul's writings where he uses this word. This is a passage that's really unique. He uses several words here alone in this one passage and nowhere else. Over half of the times, however, where this word is used, it's used by Luke. Dr. Luke uses it as he writes in his Gospel and in the Book of Acts. And interestingly enough, Dr. Luke uses this in Luke 5, 1 through 11.

This is where Jesus was telling the fishermen, you know, okay, put this net over here, put the net in. And there were so many fish that the disciples that were there said they called for help, this word, to work together to pull the fish in. That's the word that Paul uses here in Philippians. He says, Syzygus, I want you to work together with these ladies to resolve this issue and to come to a place where they are of the same mind. That's the word that Paul selects. Unique word, a word he uses nowhere else. Then he says, these women have shared my struggle.

Now in the English, we sometimes have this word my, and in this case, the translation, the word my is inserted. It's actually after in the Greek, but sharing the struggle is the key here. And here's another Sun word, wouldn't you guess it? Sun athleo. And this is a word that was used for team athletic events. Either it would be like in a relay, where you'd have one passing the baton on to the next, or in some sort of a team sport. So they would sun athleo. So what is he saying? they've shared my struggle with me or laboured with me, they've worked together with me as we were on a team.

See that? That's the figure that he's using. And of course, since we know very well these Philippians love sports, this would be a perfect term for him to use with them. And so he does. Then he refers to them, he says, together with Clement and also the rest of my fellow workers, That fellow worker is there. What do you know? Another sun word. Wow. Sun ergos, together worker.

Ones who work together with him. He has used this phrase previously, as we pointed out, here in Philippians with Epaphroditus and all of the saints of the church. So now he's using it in this context It's those who work together. And he keeps using this soon, because the together aspect of it is critical, isn't it? He keeps underscoring that.

And finally, we get to this term, the Book of Life. That's kind of an amazing one. You have at the bottom of side two of your handout a chart. And this is a chart that we used in the beginning of the course. It's used when we're going through this exact same phrase that's used several times throughout the Book of Revelation. So we brought it up then.

Paul uses it here for the only time that he ever makes reference to the Book of Life in all of his writings. I'll let you take a look at that. We simply haven't time right now. Anyway, there's lots of detail on that. One of the things to take note of, though, is that the use of the Book of Life as a term changes between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Different use. I'll let you take a look at that, since we don't have time.

But some things to note. The cities in the New Testament times all had a role of those citizens living in the city, or if you were but not present, they would still keep you on the role of citizen. That role was called the Book of Life or the Book of the Living. So when a citizen died or moved away or committed a serious crime, they would block his name out of the role. But the other flip side of that is those that were honoured would have their name either circled or overlaid in gold. This was the list of the citizens.

And so, as he's brought up this book of life, it's not accidental. One of the things that we've seen as we've gone through the book of Philippians, this is the third time that he has had some focus on citizenship. Isn't that something? So what he did in chapter 1 is he said, conduct yourselves, and he uses that... He didn't say just live a certain way. which is, live as citizens. And then here in 320, citizenship is in heaven. And now here, he makes reference to citizenship again by telling them these people's names are in the Book of Life, the list of citizens.

Let's take a look at each one of those. It's really interesting. 127, conduct yourselves. That's here and now, isn't it? a person could conduct themselves as a heavenly citizen or not. So that's a statement of condition. That's a statement of their current condition. He's urging that their condition be consistent with their position. What does he do to address their position?

In 320, he says, your citizenship is fixed in the heavenlies, or fixed in heaven. Your citizenship is in heaven. He uses a related word, And we get our word like policy, police, politics. Those are all words that are from this common root. That is about their position. When He tells them their citizenship is in heaven, it means that your position is in heaven. And remember as we went through 320, your position is fixed in heaven.

Your citizenship is fixed there. Finally, when he gets to 4.3, he makes the third reference to their heavenly citizenship, and think of it this way. Here would be believers living in Philippi who would have a citizenship or would hope for or work even many years for a citizenship in Rome somewhere else. Now he's looking and saying, you who are here on planet Earth living somewhere else, you now have your name listed on the list of citizens, the book of life, in heaven, a different place.

So he's using a picture they well understood in order to convey a truth of their position in Christ, where they were citizens in heaven, listed in the book of life, in the heavenly places. Then he says, You know, we remember here we talked about in the Lord.

In means entirely in. Well, the same thing applies to in the book of life. You're not partly in the book of life. You're not 50% and gaining, 50% and slipping. You are in the book of life. The sense of the Greek there is you are entirely in the book of life. Your listing there is fixed. It's certain. It's for real.

Now, Paul's given us these four names. I think what's fascinating, Physicus being, of course, the semi-question mark, because of the practice of encircling or overlaying names of those honored citizens in gold, he may be alluding to that practice here. He's not explicitly saying it, but he is certainly honoring them by listing the names, right? Saying, these are my fellow workers, fellow laborers, okay?

Listed in the Book of Life. One of the things that I think as we look at this passage that is really neat is just to look how much Paul was underscoring. You have a citizenship there. There in the heavenlies is where your position is. There in the heavenlies, untouchable and unchangeable, is where you have that position. It's fixed. It's not going anywhere. It's not changing. He never said, you know, do this or your name will get dropped. He never said, you know, you have a citizenship in heaven mostly. Instead, what did he do?

He laid it out. You have a fixed citizenship in heaven. Your names are in, completely in, the book of life. He laid that out, the position that he wanted them to count on. And like Paul is so frequently doing, he's telling them, here is your position in Christ. Here is where you are positioned. Therefore, the things that you're dealing with, the struggles between Yodi and Syntyche, what's the resolution?

What's your position? You see that? Frequently, as human beings, especially in church context, in our church history class, one of the things we brought up is that there are thousands of denominations. One figure I was reading this last week, and certainly I'm not going to recount it, 33,000 different denominations, Christian denominations. Huge, massive number. Obviously, that's a lot of disagreements. But what does Paul point to as the basis for resolving disagreement?

What's your position? What's your position? Do you see that? Resolving disagreements in the body of Christ, Paul takes them back to their position. Single mind. Single position. I think that's key as we look at things even here among this church body. Have we got something that we're wrestling with? Have we got something that's, boy, I don't care for this, and Vern talks too long, or I don't like the Greek, or whatever. How do we resolve those things?

Paul points the answer here. Back to your position. What's your position? That's where he puts the focus, that's where he puts the point of resolution. It's not simply a matter, as many people have mistakenly thought, of just resolving it between two people. It's a matter of going back to the position, and that's where he takes them here. They've been fellow workers, they've been fellow laborers, fellow athletic team members. But in resolution of this thing, we're going to go back to the position. that we have in Christ in order to see that resolved.

And that's true resolution. That's singular. Because it's not just human beings working out differences between them. Because there are eternal consequences. There are eternal foundations that we have to consider here. And that's exactly what Paul does. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, How wonderful to see how the inspired writings, Lord, of your apostles have directed us to the things that matter, the things that really count. And Lord, there have been and will be times when we will struggle with things, wrestle with things between one another. Sometimes even things that I might say or not say would be the cause of it. But Lord, how wonderful to be able to depend upon the singular position that we have in you, the singular mind that we have, that mind of Christ.

And Lord, just as we've seen this inspired passage here, we look to you to bring understanding in our minds so that as we encounter situations where we find difficulty of resolution, Draw our hearts, draw our thoughts, Lord, to that position, that singular, solid, eternal, and fixed in the heavenlies position that we have in You. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.