We are continuing with our series on the book of Philippians. By now, hopefully, you realize that the book of Philippians was actually a letter written to the Philippians by the apostle Paul in about 60 A.D. Consistent with what we have been doing the last few weeks, I would like to have somebody read today’s passage, which comes out of Philippians 2:19-30. If you can, read from the NIV version and read loud. (Scripture read here.)
As you can see, compared to the passages that we looked at last week in the earlier part of chapter 2 that dealt with the descent of Jesus Christ and the ultimate exultation of Jesus Christ, these passages seem a little mundane and ordinary. Really what they are simply referring to is Paul’s travel plans for his associates, Timothy and Epaphroditus. What is good about this passage is that it breaks itself down into two nice and neat sections. The first section has to do with Timothy and Paul’s desire to send Timothy back to the Philippian church with this letter and hopefully return with some good news. The second section deals with the fact that Paul found it more necessary that he would send this virtually unknown guy named Epaphroditus. Since Timothy gets a lot of press in other areas of the New Testament, I thought I would focus on this section that deals with Epaphroditus not only because it tends to be a little bit more interesting but I get to say Epaphroditus about 20 times in the next few times. It is a fun word to say. Back in the day it was actually a quite common name. Just as we often name our children after celebrities or movie stars, back then it was popular to do a very similar thing. They would name their children after Greek gods and goddesses. I suspect some of you have had Greek mythology in high school and you might remember the goddess Aphrodite. She was the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and all that sort of thing. The male name Epaphroditus stems from that particular name and it basically means someone who is devoted to Aphrodite. This seems strange because when you think about Christians, we are supposed to be devoted to no one else but Jesus Christ. So you would think when Epaphroditus became a Christian that Paul would have forced him maybe into a name change to give him a more common Christian name. But he didn’t make him change the name, which gives us the idea that Paul was not so much interested in a person’s name as he was with the character behind the name. Although we know a little bit about the name Epaphroditus, we really don’t know much about the man Epaphroditus because we just don’t have a lot of information. We have the section we just read and a little snippet about Epaphroditus back in chapter 4:18. When Paul is talking about the receipt of certain gifts when he was in prison he writes “I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts that you sent.” So really this is all we have on this guy named Epaphroditus in the entire New Testament.
Even though our information is limited, scholars have been able to basically put together a pretty good picture of the situation here. We believe that Epaphroditus was part of the Philippian church, and when Paul became imprisoned, the Philippian church decided they were going to send some gifts his way. We don’t know exactly what type of gifts but some suspect it was financial gifts at least. Epaphroditus took these gifts to Paul in prison in Rome. As I said before, Paul was under house arrest and he was also a Roman citizen, which means he probably had a lot of flexibility to receive visitors and the various gifts that people would bring. Epaphroditus was a part of the Philippian church. He came to Rome and brought these gifts. But somewhere along the line we learn that he got sick. He either got sick on the way to Rome or somewhere in Rome, possibly even injured, to the point where he was really on his deathbed. We can glean that somehow that information got back to the church in Philippi. They had heard that he was sick or ill or injured and they were worried about it.
The situation here is that Paul is writing this letter back to the Philippian church and he is probably thinking about who he is going to send back with this letter. They needed to have a messenger. Paul ideally would like to send Timothy because he is interested in sending someone who is a good representation of him and knows him and knows what he is looking for and really can direct the issues that he brings up in the letter to the people in a very good way. So he desires to send Timothy. We can see that Timothy had a good character and really would be a good person to go because earlier on it said Timothy had a genuine interest for the welfare of the Philippians. We also know that, unlike some of the Philippians that we read about last week, Timothy didn’t just look out for his own interests, but he looked out for the interests of others. It says he had the interest of Christ in mind. We also know that Paul refers to Timothy as really a son in the faith, someone who has served with him for years in the work of the gospel. If Paul was going to send anybody back, his first desire was really to send his right-hand man Timothy. He knows he would be a good representation of Paul and a good example for the Philippians to model. But as we learn also, for some reason Paul thought it more necessary to send back Epaphroditus “whom you sent to take care of my needs.” Those are the basic facts of the story that most all scholars would agree on.
But just as we can misinterpret things on a telephone when we only hear half of the conversation, it is very easy in passages like this to misinterpret what is going on here. In fact, when I was doing my study this week, I really struggled and wanted to skip past this entire section, and I don’t know if anybody would have even noticed. I realized going through it I couldn’t skip it. As I got deeper into it, I saw that there are really two very contrasting opinions regarding what is going on in this particular passage. There are some scholars who saw the person Epaphroditus as a phenomenal failure given the information here and what they glean through other passages while other scholars saw Epaphroditus as a phenomenal success. I was struggling with which one to give to you. As a side note, some of you are aware when you go off to seminary pastors are taught you are supposed to do your homework. You are supposed to dig into the word. Do all the historical analysis. Look at the grammar. Look at how the words are organized. If you do it right, you should be able to get back to the intention of the original writer and in this case, Paul. So if I do my homework correctly and dig and dig and dig, I should be able to get back to the point where I have a pretty good understanding of what Paul had in mind when he wrote this particular passage. But when I come to a passage like this that has limited information and I see contrasting opinions, it made me realize that this is not that easy. In fact, it is really tough to get back to the mind of a guy who lived 2,000 years ago. Not to mention the fact what makes it difficult is that I am dealing with the bias of different commentators. People are coming up with their own opinion. They are doing their homework, but how can they come up with two different opinions? So I am dealing with the bias of the commentators, but I am also dealing with my own personal bias. To be honest, I have to pick which view I am going to take. I will be honest, sometimes I pick the view that I think is going to preach better because I am taking a passage through my own person filter. Not only do I have to deal with the filter of the commentators and the filter of myself, but I have to take into the account the filter of the listeners, all you people out here. By the time the word goes from the commentator, to me, and gets to you, you are also taking it through a filtering because you are filtering it through your own lens of life and through your own prejudices and agendas. You are coming at it from a different angle. So much so that I can stand at the door when people are leaving and I say did you enjoy the passage and they say yes. And I ask what did you get out of it? And they tell me something and I don’t remember saying that, but it is good you got something very good out of it. But again, we take it through these different lenses. I say all this to say that when we approach scripture, we have to approach it from a very humble and submissive attitude knowing that really we may not get it right. That is why we are given the Holy Spirit as a guide. Someone who is going to guide us through the process of interpretation and give us the nugget of truth that he thinks is important for us to receive at that time no matter whether it lines up totally with the intent of the original author or not.
That is a little bit of an aside, but going back to this particular passage, when you read a passage like this, it is very clear that there are two distinct, contrasting interpretations about what is going on here. The first one that seemed almost like a stronger view was the idea that this guy Epaphroditus was actually a bit of a failure. Somehow he actually failed in his mission and that is why he is getting sent back home. To understand it, you have to think through the whole situation and all the facts that you have. The first one being that we know Paul was the church planter of the church in Philippi. He was their leader. He was their pastor. He was the one with the authority over the church. The people really loved him. When they found out that he was in Rome in prison for sharing the gospel, they really felt like we have to help him out. We have to do something for him. I was thinking about this. If for some reason me or Ramsey or Austin ended up in the county jail because we were preaching the gospel, hopefully something like not and not something worse, some of you would make your way down there with some thin mints or Oreos to make us feel better I hope. That is the situation there. The people know they wanted to do something. They wanted to respond appropriately for Paul. So they picked this guy, virtually unknown, named Epaphroditus to take some gifts to Paul. As we found out, for some reason along the way, he becomes ill or possibly injured. We do not know the nature of the illness or injury. So when you have commentaries whose view of Epaphroditus is that of a failure, they begin to read into the text. They begin to think that maybe the illness or possible injury was due to something that Epaphroditus did to himself. Possibly something stupid on the travels to Rome or when he was in Rome. I can relate to that view because about a year or so ago I was on the trip to the Dominican Republic. A few of you were on that trip with you. I remember the first thing they tell you is that you don’t drink the water. You always drink bottled water, which I pretty much understood, except one day when I was walking down the street, lagging behind the rest of the group as I often do, and the day was about 90 degrees out. I remember walking by this guy who had this huge jug of ice cold lemonade. I said this is awesome. I took out a couple pesos and he gave me a big cup. Before I could take a drink out of it, my friend José, who was leading the group and actually from the Dominican Republic, takes a little bit of a sip and throws it on the ground and says don’t drink that. You will get sick. I was clueless and almost did something silly, and it would have made me sick and put me out of commission for the rest of the trip. So there is the possibility that Epaphroditus might have done something that had the possibility of jeopardizing his mission to care for Paul in Rome. So it was a situation where he got sick and his family back in the church and his friends in the church found out he was sick and became worried about him. So worried that Paul goes on to write “For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died.” So again Paul is writing to the Philippian church and saying Epaphroditus is worried because his friends are worried. This is a place where it is helpful to understand the underlying words. The words that say “For he longs for all of you” is the sense of something like homesickness. If some of you have been away to college or vacation or been out of the country, you feel homesick. You have this deep longing to get back to your family and friends. Then the word “distressed” has the underlying idea of deep mental anguish. The same word that actually is used to describe Jesus in the garden on the night before the crucifixion, a deep anguish. The commentaries that would say Epaphroditus was a failure what they are saying is really that he was a wreck. He was a mental and physical wreck. Instead of being helpful for Paul, he was a burden. So Paul, although he wanted to send Timothy back, he found it necessary to send Epaphroditus back to the church in Philippi. So you can see how they can perceive him as a failure.
But then he adds an interesting tag to the end. He tells the people “Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him.” This line here would seem to be inconsistent with the idea that he was a failure. If he was a failure, why would you welcome him with great joy and give him honor. Paul would write something like this because he knows several things. First of all, he knows Epaphroditus. He knows the Philippian church. He knows that in the Greek culture of the day, there was this concept of honor and shame. We don’t really think about honor and shame but back in the day that was very important. When we think of the word honor, it means holding someone in high regard based on their character that is displayed in a certain setting. Back in the Greek culture people were taught from a very early age that they are to go out of their way to do things that would seek honor and avoid anything that would end up in shame or the possibility of disgrace. Paul understood Epaphroditus. He understood that if he did mess up something, which we don’t know, or if he did see himself as a failure, then he is feeling a certain amount of shame. He also knows that if Epaphroditus feels a certain amount of shame, it is likely that the Philippian church is feeling a little bit of shame. In fact, they are feeling maybe a little bit disgraced about Epaphroditus as a failure on his mission. So Paul, having the authority that he was given that he knew he had, what did he do? He basically gave him honor. By giving him honor as simply a worker in the Lord, somebody who may have possibly failed, by giving him honor, he not only strengthened Epaphroditus, but he strengthened the entire Philippian church. Because again he was their leader. He had the authority to do that. What he was doing was showing grace to Epaphroditus. That is an important thing to do. That is where the idea of Epaphroditus as a failure comes in.
On the other side of the fence is this idea of Epaphroditus as this phenomenal success. He was somebody that just did great. He completed the mission. He was coming home like a wounded soldier. Someone that was really deserving of honor. We know that by looking at some of the words that Paul uses to describe him early on in the passage. Thinking back to the passage 2:25 it says “But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier.” These are interesting words that sometimes we take for granted. Paul refers to Epaphroditus as his brother, which is a common word that Paul would use for Christian. It affirms the family relationship of all believers. So he is using it to consider him being a part of the family of believers. The brothers and sisters in Christ. As I think about the idea of calling somebody brother, I like that. I like attending churches like charismatic or Pentecostal churches because they freely use the term brother and sister. They say how is it going Brother Aaron or how is it going Sister Ruth. There is something very nice about that, especially in a society where so many of us are alienated from our biological families. To have somebody call you brother or sister affirms the family reality of the church. You may never hear the word brother or sister from your own biological family, but you can come to church and hear that and know that you are part of the spiritual family of God. That is a good thing. Paul uses this term brother to speak of the deep connection that he has with Epaphroditus. Then he goes on to refer to him as “my fellow worker”. Here it is speaking of someone who is working side by side in the cause of the gospel. These words imply that Epaphroditus wasn’t some sort of a slacker or a burden at all. He was a fellow worker with Paul in the gospel. That is a compliment. That is a commendation that he is giving to him. Then he goes on to describe him as a “fellow soldier”. A fellow soldier is someone who is not just working side by side but fighting side by side against a common enemy and in this case the common enemy would be those who oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of darkness that comes behind that. He is using these words brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, and he links them all together by the personal pronoun “my”. He says “my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier”, which implies that he had a deep connection and a deep respect for Epaphroditus and his character. A character that comes out even further as Paul continues on when he says “who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.” When people are translating the Bible, they have to make certain choices on words. If you have different translations, they make different choices. It doesn’t mean the Bible has errors. It just means they are trying to make the choice of the word that we can connect to in this given day. The NIV translation is messenger. I think it is kind of a weak translation because when we think of messenger, we think of somebody working down in the city on a bicycle that is carrying an important package or letter between buildings on a bicycle. A messenger. But when Paul is using the underlying word, he is not using the word messenger. He is using the word apostle. We know that Paul uses the apostle to signify his authority in other passages where he says I am Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He uses the word apostle to speak of the original apostles. Some would suggest the reason the translators used messenger is because Paul was just trying to give a looser example of an apostle and really not seeing him so much as an apostle. I think that is incorrect. I think what he is doing is trying to communicate to the readers that he sees Epaphroditus as an equal, an equal person with the same authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He is building him up. He is giving him commendation. Then he goes on and says “whom you sent to take care of my needs.” This is where the NIV translators are trying to make it friendly so we understand it. But really the underlying word here is translated in what they call the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, as priest. He is referring to him as a priest because in Paul’s mind he is basically saying Epaphroditus is like the priest who went into the sacrificial system and brought the sacrifices that were pleasing to God. This seems to be affirmed later in that passage in chapter 4:18 where he says “I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you have sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”
Coming from this angle, you can see how people would see Epaphroditus not as a failure but really as a huge success. Someone who is worthy of a hero’s welcome. So Paul writes “Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ. Risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.” He is not slamming the Philippians for not being able to help. He is saying hold this guy up because you guys couldn’t help for whatever reason, but he could. He was there. He risked his life. Sometimes translated as exposed himself to untold dangers really so that he could care for the needs of the apostle Paul, so he deserves a hero’s welcome. As a side note, thinking again about the name Aphrodite. Not only was Aphrodite the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, but she was also the goddess of gamblers. Some suspect that what Paul is doing here, as he often does, he is doing a little word play. When the Greeks were gambling and they wanted to have good luck called down, they would shout not Aphrodite but Epaphroditus. In other words send Aphrodite’s favor down so I would have good luck. What some people think is Paul is doing a little word play between Epaphroditus and this whole taking of a risk.
As I close, you can see the dilemma that we face when we come across these passages. It is very easy to interpret it one way or another depending on who you are talking to. That is why when we come to the passage, we always have to come in a posture of humility, realizing that the Holy Spirit might give us something totally different than the author’s original intent. Even though it is difficult to figure out which one of these would be the best one to pick, one thing is very clear. In both situations, Paul, as the leader of this church, he had the authority to give honor or take it away. To give honor or to give shame. When he chose in both situations to give honor, he was not only simply building up the individual, he was strengthening the whole church. Now as we prepare to go into our time of prayer what I would like to do as the minister of this church, I would like to pay honor to somebody in our church. Some of you know the lady by the name of Joanne Stuempges. She has been here for a long time. I honestly can say that I can call Joanne a sister in Christ. I can call her a fellow laborer because we have labored together in the cause of Christ. I can even call her a fellow soldier because I know we have both faced a lot of oppositions in the years past. But she has continued to serve faithfully for over 25 years in the children’s ministry. What I would like to do before I allow her to come up and you give her honor, I would like to show this brief little slideshow so that you can get a glimpse of her work in the past 25 years and really why she is someone deserving of this honor. (Slideshow shown.) Where is Joanne? Come on up. Don’t be shy. Do you want to make a speech or anything?
(Joanne speaking.) I just want to say that God gave me the talents and gave me the heartstrings for children and for that I give him the glory and all of you. Thanks.
(Chuck speaking.) This week Sandy put together a nice little book of notes and cards that kids have filled out and parents have filled out and people that were with Joanne many years ago and are now adults and put it all in a nice little binder. I also want to mention that Joanne has been actively involved in another urban ministry called His Place down in the city, and we will be making a donation to His Place on her behalf. So again, thank you very much, Joanne. We appreciate you and love you for all your work. Let us go ahead and close this time in prayer.
