Bringing Brothers Together - Philippians 4:1-3 Series

Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! 2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

1. Why all the effusive language in v.1? Why not just say, “Therefore, beloved brothers, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord”?

2. What can we learn about the way we are to love one another (the various components of love) from Paul’s description of his love in v.1?

3. The phrase "in the Lord” is used 3 times in these 5 verses. It must be important. What is the meaning of "in the Lord?" Why is it so important here?

4. Whose job is peacemaking?

5. Why does Paul mention that these women were fellow workers with him, and their names were in the book of life? What does that have to do with the purpose of the passage?

Introduction

Would you agree that for the majority of people, most of the pain you experience in life, and the worst kind of pain, comes from broken relationships? Conflicts with your kids or parents, problems with coworkers, roomates, fights with your spouse – what has caused you more anguish in life than broken relationships? And not only do they cause pain, they also do catastrophic damage to the church. It’s the primary way that Satan destroys healthy churches. In a healthy church, where people really take the Word of God seriously, Satan can’t usually destroy a church like that by introducing heresy or worldliness, and so he usually goes after healthy churches, like the church in Philippi, by attacking their unity. When all the people take God’s Word seriously, the people are passionate about their beliefs. And when people are passionate about what they believe, that’s when disagreements can shatter the unity of the church.

That’s what was starting to happen in the Philippian church because of a conflict between two prominent women. Hopefully you’ve all listened to the message on vv.1-3 (preached 5 months ago). But just to remind you of the context, Paul, who is in a prison 800 miles away, hears about this conflict and writes to the church with some instructions, because this is a big deal. And he tells these women what needs to happen in four Greek words.

Philippians 4:2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to have the same attitude in the Lord.

Have the same attitude. Your Bible might say “agree with each other.” That’s a misleading way to translate it, because that makes it sound like the goal is to adopt the same opinions. The point isn’t that they have to agree in their opinions. The point is that in their disagreement, they need to have the attitude that Paul described in ch.2 – humble, selfless love that seeks the interests of the other person and considers that person more important than yourself. If both women had that attitude, then they could disagree all day long on their opinions , and it isn’t going to harm their friendship or fracture the unity of the church.

Now, does Paul think that he’s going to solve this whole crisis just by saying four words: have the same attitude? No. If it were that simple, these two godly women would have worked things out a long time ago. Paul doesn’t expect that they are going to be able to reconcile just because of what he has written in the letter. In fact, he doesn’t expect them to be able to reconcile at all without some outside help.

Whose Job is Peacemaking?

The Yokefellow 3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women

Paul knows they will need help, so he commands this yokefellow to step in. There is a ton of debate about who this guy is. There are all kinds of theories: Epaphroditus, Mark, the lead pastor, Paul’s wife, some unknown leader in the church. One theory is that it was actually a guy named Yokefellow. I’ll tell you who I think he is in a minute, but first, let’s just make sure we catch the significance of the fact that, whoever he was, Paul was calling on a third party.

Be Willing to Be Helped

That’s important to understand because it teaches us the biblical protocol – when you can’t reconcile a conflict, you need to bring in some outside help. Most conflicts you can handle just between you and the other person, but once in a while you get one of those situations where you try to work it out, but the more you talk, the worse it gets. That can happen sometimes even when both parties are godly people. Euodia and Syntyche were both godly women, and yet Paul still calls for outside help.