CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Philippians 2:25. Epaphroditus.—Brother, work-mate, comrade-in-arms, Church-messenger, and serving-man. What a designation! St. Paul thinks him worthy of all the honour (Philippians 2:29) that the Church can give, and he himself immortalises him by this unusual estimate of his personal character and work.
Philippians 2:26. Was full of heaviness.—The same word is used of our Lord when in Gethsemane—“He began to be very heavy.” Its etymology is an open question. Grimm, following Buttmann, says it means “the uncomfortable feeling of one who is not at home.” If this, the almost universally accepted derivation be the correct one, it is a beautiful idyll we have presented to us. A convalescent, far from home, as his strength returns feels the pangs of home-sickness strengthen and eagerly returns to dispel the misgivings of those made anxious by tidings of his critical illness.
Philippians 2:27. Nigh unto death.—Or as we say colloquially, “next door to death.” God had mercy on him.—St. Paul speaks after the manner of men, as we could not have dared to say anything else if Epaphroditus had died. The cry of woe so often heard by Christ was “have mercy.” Sorrow upon sorrow.—“He does not parade the apathy of the Stoics, as though he were iron and far removed from human affections” (Calvin).
“When sorrows come they come not single spies,
But in battalions.”
Philippians 2:28. The more carefully.—R.V. “diligently.” “With increased eagerness” (Lightfoot). How difficult it must have been for St. Paul to relinquish the company of so worthy a man we do not realise; but he who gives up is worthy of the friend he gives up, for neither of them is consulting his own wishes. “Love seeketh not her own.” What a contrast to sordid Hedonism—old or new! Ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.—A variation on the theme of the letter—the sum of which is, as Bengel says, “I rejoice; rejoice ye.” “What an exquisitely chosen form of expression! “A prior sorrow will still remain unremoved,” says Lightfoot; “but if he cannot go so far as to say he will rejoice, the alleviation of the loss of such a friend’s society is the fact that they have him again.”
Philippians 2:29. Hold such in honour.—Learn to know the value of such—“grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.”
Philippians 2:30. For the work of Christ.—What noble self-oblivion the apostle manifests! He thinks more of the cause dear to his heart than of his own comfort or even life. Not regarding his life.—R.V. “hazarding his life.” There is the difference of a single letter in the long word of the R.V. The word of the R.V. means “having gambled with his life.” Just as today a visitor to Rome in the autumn must run the risk of malarial fever, so Epaphroditus, for the work of Christ, had faced that, and other dangers as great, probably. The A.V. would mean “as far as his life was concerned he followed an ill-advised course of action.” To supply your lack of service toward me.—Does not mean that they had been remiss in their attention. They did not lack the will, but the opportunity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Philippians 2:25-30
A Devoted Christian Minister—
I. A valued associate of good men.—“Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants” (Philippians 2:25). Epaphroditus had been sent by the Philippian Church with a gift to Paul, and, pending the proposed visit of himself or Timothy, he employs him as his messenger. The commendation of Epaphroditus indicates the apostle’s high estimate of the character of the man—a Christian brother, a colleague in toil, a fellow-soldier in scenes of danger and conflict. The work of the Christian minister brings him into contact with the noblest spirits of the times.
II. Full of sympathy for the anxieties of his people.—“For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick” (Philippians 2:26). It may be that Epaphroditus was the more anxious to return to his people lest the rumour of his sickness should have disastrous consequences on the state of his Church, that some parties between whom he had mediated should take advantage of his prostration and fall again into animosity, or it may be that he might dispel the distress and sorrow of his people on his own account. This longing to see his people reveals a womanly tenderness that some men might call weakness. Paul did not so regard it. He knew the manly robustness of spirit, the decision, energy, and devotedness that had made Epaphroditus his honoured companion in labour and fellow-soldier; and to him the element of softness and sweetness brought out in the languor of the recovery exhibited a new charm. “The best men often show a union of opposite virtues; for example, Epaphroditus. The finest delicacy of soul which, if alone, might seem excessive and effeminate, allies itself to a manly courage, which sets at naught life itself. The deepest love of the Church does not exclude a most faithful attachment to its great apostle, nor anxiety for the present moment forbid sympathy for a distant community. One may reverence and acknowledge superior men, and yet give all the glory to God alone; may be anxious for his own soul, and yet give himself to the welfare of the Church and the common service of its membership” (Lange).
III. Exposed himself to great risk in the eager discharge of duty.—“For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; … I sent him therefore … that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful” (Philippians 2:27-28). The sickness of Epaphroditus was probably brought on by the risks and exposures of his journey from Philippi to Rome. It was no easy task for a Christian, one of a sect everywhere spoken against, hated and oppressed, having no protection from either Jewish or Roman rule, to undertake such a mission, carrying aid to a man in prison, who was bitterly hated by many, and over whose approaching execution they were gloating with a fiendish satisfaction. But Epaphroditus braved all the privations and sufferings of the perilous enterprise, and would not hesitate to acknowledge publicly before the world that the prisoner he sought to help was his friend. Paul fully understood all the perils of the adventure and that it had nearly cost a valuable life; he thus specially acknowledges the mercy of God both to himself and the Philippians and the mitigation of their mutual sorrow in the recovery of Epaphroditus. “Life, especially the life of a faithful servant of Christ, possesses great value. For such a life we ought to pray; and it is an act of God’s grace when it is preserved to the Church” (Heubner). “It is a fine thing,” wrote Sailer, “if you can say a man lived and never lifted a stone against his neighbour; but it is a finer far if you can say also he took out of the path the stones that would have caught his neighbour’s feet. So did Feneberg, and this his doing was his life.”
IV. Highly commended for his character and work’s sake.—“Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me” (Philippians 2:29-30). Words of highest eulogy, coming from such a source, and uttered under such circumstances. How tender, unreserved and unselfish are the apostle’s commendations of Timothy and Epaphroditus, and how large and loving the heart from which they came! Even with these friends, so dear and needful to him, the aged servant of Christ, worn with labour and suffering, is willing, for the work of Christ, to part, and to be left alone. And this man was notorious, a few years before, as Saul the persecutor. What wrought the change? The glorious gospel of the blessed God. The faithful, conscientious, self-denying minister of the word cannot fail to win the esteem and love of his people.
Lessons.—
1. A Christian minister has many opportunities of usefulness.
2. Should cultivate a generous and sympathetic nature.
3. Should be faithful in all things.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Philippians 2:25-28. Anxieties of Ministerial Life.—
1. Ministerial employment is a painful, laborious work, and faithful ministers who are standard-bearers or sentinels, and march in the front, before the Lord’s people, have a peculiar battle of their own for truth and piety. The Lord sometimes suffers His servants to fall into desperate dangers, that His mercy may be the more seen in their delivery.
3. Courage under sufferings for Christ, and rejoicing in God, may consist with moderate sorrow and heaviness.
4. The weights and griefs of the godly do prove an occasion of rejoicing afterwards, so the grief which the Philippians had because of their pastor’s sickness and apprehended death ended in joy when they saw him in health again.—Fergusson.
Philippians 2:29-30. Heroic Devotion to Christ—
I. Is wholly absorbed in the work of Christ.
II. Risks life in serving the cause of God.
III. Should be held in highest esteem.
IV. Should be joyfully acknowledged in whomsoever manifested.