Philippians 3

Chapter 3. The Christian Temperas Illustrated in the Friends of PaulI have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. (Philippians 2:20-22)But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him. (Philippians 2:25-29)There is no brighter galaxy of beautiful lives than the cluster of friends that circled around the Apostle Paul. Their personality stands out in bold relief in his various epistles. The figures of Aquila and Priscilla, Silas and Barnabas, Tychicus and Trophimus, Onesiphorus and Epaphroditus, Timothy and Titus, Luke and even Mark, stand out as familiar friends. Their relations with the great apostle were most intimate, affectionate and helpful. With a heart peculiarly sensitive and loving, his whole being was open to every tie of holy friendship, and the glimpses his letters give us of these sacred friendships are full of the rarest touches of lofty character and nobility. Two special pictures are given in the texts we have quoted. Timothy, or the Loyal Helper The relation of Timothy to Paul was filial. “To Timothy, my true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2) was Paul’s usual salutation to his beloved disciple. Converted to God through the ministry of Paul, adopted by him from the beginning of his Christian life as his disciple, companion and helper, and associated with him till the very close of the apostle’s career in the most intimate and confidential relations, he could say of him, “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel” (Philippians 2:20-22).

1. Timothy Was a Helper It is not easy to take the second place. It needs more grace to be a good helper than a good principal. There are plenty of people who are willing to take a subordinate place for a time to serve some ultimate ambition, but it takes a rare quality of humility and devotion to fit into second place and live to carry out the plans and objects which another has originated. And yet this is the true spirit of the New Testament. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them… Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave” (Matthew 20:25-27). One of the most successful of modern missionaries went to the field in the first instance as a body-servant of a missionary, and God honored him afterwards equally with his former master and made the name of Marshman immortal among the records of noble lives. “My fellow workers in Christ Jesus” (Romans 16:3). This clause included many of the noblest lives in apostolic times. This is the trust that is given to most of us. May God make us true “helpers in Christ Jesus.”
2. Timothy Was a Truehearted and Loyal Helper In every age truth and honor have been counted sacred, and treachery base. The ethics of Christianity give no lower place to loyalty, and among the signs of the declension and apostasy of the last days, are mentioned “trucebreakers” (2 Timothy 3:3) and “covenantbreakers” (Romans 1:31). A man who will be false to his fellow man will also prove recreant to his trust and to his God, if the temptation and inducement are only sufficiently strong. Let us ask God to make us true to every trust.
3. Timothy Was an Unselfish and Disinterested Helper and Fellow-Worker Paul had found few such helpers. Even in apostolic days men used the Christian ministry to further selfish ends. “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:21). “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (Philippians 2:20). But here was one truehearted shepherd who only desired the good of the flock and the things that would please the Chief Shepherd. It was more than human friendship; it was more than loyalty to a leader; it was more than zeal for a cause—it was a love for souls that “takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (Philippians 2:20). It was the heart of the Master in the minister, pitying, sympathizing, entering into the very needs and conditions of the flock and caring for them even as Christ would care. Without this there can be no true service. “What I want is not your possessions but you” (2 Corinthians 12:14), the truehearted apostle could say. And so every true minister of Christ should be filled with the unselfish love, the disinterested aim, the shepherd heart—the very affection of Jesus Christ—toward the people for whom we stand in the Master’s name. All others are but hirelings. These only are the true undershepherds of the sheep. Epaphroditus, or the Considerate Friend The story of Epaphroditus is unique. He belonged to the church in Philippi, and was sent to Rome by the Philippian church while Paul was there in prison. He was probably one of the elders or pastors of the Philippian church. Hearing of the apostle’s sufferings, he made strenuous exertions to find him out and minister to him, and through his violent over-exertions, he became ill himself, dangerously ill. But so unselfish was he that he took special pains to conceal the knowledge of his sickness from his friends in Philippi lest they should be anxious about him. And when at length he found that they had heard the tidings he was “distressed” (Philippians 2:26) because they had heard that he had been sick. At length, however, God graciously restored him to health and spared the apostle the bitter sorrow which his death would have caused him, and Paul now sends him back to the Philippians as the bearer of this epistle and commends him to their confidence and love as one who “for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me” (Philippians 2:30). There are some exquisitely fine touches of character in this picture:
4. Epaphroditus Had the Spirit of Service Epaphroditus had gone from Philippi to Rome to carry to Paul the gifts of the Philippian Christians and to assist the apostle in his work. And Paul speaks of him as “My brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs” (Philippians 2:25). He was undoubtedly a spiritual worker, and able to minister Christ to the souls of men. But he was not above the humblest ministration of help to the bodies of men. He carried with his own hands the gifts of his brethren to the lone apostle at Rome, and doubtless ministered personally with lowly service to his physical necessities. Are we ministering to Christ’s suffering ones? Are we seeking out His poor, His sick, His prisoners, and doing it as unto Him?
5. Epaphroditus Had the Spirit of Sacrifice Such was Epaphroditus’ spirit of sacrifice that he risked his very life to minister to Paul. He toiled and traveled till he became exhausted and ill. He went beyond his strength. He lingered in the cold barracks or the damp dungeon until he contracted malignant disease and “almost died” (Philippians 2:30). He did it willingly, “risking his life” (Philippians 2:30). He was glad to sacrifice as well as serve for the sake of his Master and his friend. Beloved, how much have you sacrificed for Christ? How often have you risked your health and life in the unwholesome garret, the damp prison, the pestilential hospital, the long vigil of some sick saint’s bedside, who perhaps could not afford a nurse to watch her? How often have you given up a pleasant evening with your family to carry comfort or salvation to some other soul? How often have you denied yourself some gratification or necessity that you might have something to give to Christ to send the gospel to the perishing? These are the only badges of honor and reward in the kingdom of God. Service is only duty. When we have done all “we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (Luke 17:10). It is only the crimson blood of sacrifice that can make us partakers of the sufferings and glory of our Lord.
6. Epaphroditus Possessed the Spirit of Silence and Self-Forgetfulness in Service and Suffering Most people want their sacrifices known and the story of their service told in the glowing records of human praise. Their chief sorrow is the sense of the world’s neglect and want of sympathy. But here is a man whose only desire is to keep his friends from knowing of his troubles, and whose only heaviness was because they “heard he was ill” (Philippians 2:26). So unselfish and considerate was he that he only desired to spare them the news that might bring anxiety and concern. This is very fine. It touches the deepest lines of love and Christlikeness. It is the veil of humility and the covering of unselfishness which adds to sacrifice and service a divine touch and claims for it a heavenly reward. The things we do to be seen by men—the things that others appreciate, pity, praise—of these the Master says: “They have received their reward” (Matthew 6:16). But the things done only unto Him, and forgotten perhaps by us as soon as done, or esteemed as of small account because it was merely second nature for us to do them, of these He says, “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:18). The happy souls who are to sit at the right hand of the King when He comes in the glory of His Father, and hear Him say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink” (Matthew 25:34-35), will have forgotten all about their service and will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink” (Matthew 25:37)? But their very self-unconsciousness will but add to the value of their service, and the greatness of their reward in the day when He shall “bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). Lessons for Us Now the qualities we have been describing are among the finest touches of character. One may be a sincere Christian, and an irreproachable and righteous man, and not possess them. Yes, but it is these fine qualities that constitute the difference between the boor and the gentleman, between the piece of charcoal and the diamond, between the sunflower and the rose, between the soul saved “as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:15), and the glorified saint sweeping through the gates with an abundant entrance “into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). And it is not infrequently that a great issue is decided by what seems a trifling incident, but what really indicates some high quality beneath. The fact that 300 of Gideon’s 10,000 men lapped up the water when they drank, showed that they alone possessed the qualities that could be depended upon in the crisis hour. The fact that the widow of Zarephath was willing to give up her last handful of meal and her last drop of oil, marked in her spirit a quality which prepared her in later years to receive back her boy as the first to rise from the dead. The readiness of Abraham to give up his only son at God’s command was but a straw on the tide of his life, but it showed the bent and purpose of his being, and God could say, “Now I know that you fear God” (Genesis 22:12). The simple incident in Daniel’s history when he refused the royal dainties and stuck to his simple fare, was an index to his entire character and demonstrated the fixed purpose, the inflexible principle, and the self-denying simplicity of the man whom God could depend upon in any test. These may seem trifles, “but trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.” These may not be among “whatever is true and whatever is pure” (Philippians 4:8), but they are among “whatever is lovely” (Philippians 4:8). And God wants us to be arrayed “in the splendor of his holiness” (Psalms 96:9), as well as “a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). It is this that constitutes the difference between the justified and the sanctified, the clean robe and the marriage robe, the mere forgiveness of our sins and the great reward of him who overcomes. God is giving us all along the way the opportunity of winning these victories, of putting on these wedding robes, of gaining these great rewards. Let us not miss the opportunity; let us not despise the proffered prize. The soldiers of England and America have counted it the chance of a lifetime to be called to the post of danger and the opportunity of swift promotion. This is the way the heroes of Santiago, Manila, Dhargai and Glencoe, have looked upon their hardships and their dangers. And the verdict of history has already been pronounced, that, so far as earthly fame is worth contending for, they have not counted amiss or suffered in vain. And shall we who strive for a better crown think less of the promised prize, or complain when the trials come, through which we are permitted to win it? Shall we not rather meet every situation with holy and jealous care? Forge our future crowns out of our fiery trials? Turn opposition, temptation and suffering into occasions for putting on more fully all the graces of the Spirit and all the strength of Christ? So that at last we shall stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, with that happy company of whom it shall be said: “For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready Fine linen, bright and dean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)” (Revelation 19:7). “They follow the Lamb wherever he goes… No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless” (Revelation 14:4-5).