Paul has been writing to the Philippians and the letter has been about encouraging the church. He spoke about his imprisonment and instructed them to rejoice because everything he was going through was for the sake of the gospel. In chapter 1 he had written, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” In life Paul’s entire purpose was to advance the gospel. In Chapter 2 he wrote, instructing them to have them be of one mind and one spirit, and to share the mindset of Christ. Paul wrote this poem or creed that many scholars believe people had been reciting around the church. The poem contained pretty heavy doctrine about Christ being with God and being in the form of God, and then emptying himself of divinity and being made in the form of man. Not just any man, but a humble slave, and he lived his life in service and obedience to God, humbling himself to death on a cross. He will be raised to the highest place and every knee will bow before him. Paul writes this to remind the church to share the mindset of Christ, to be obedient and willing to go to even the lowest and most humble of places to live in service to the Gospel. Share the mindset of Christ and rejoice in seeing the Lord’s will be done, even if it’s a situation you wouldn’t have chosen for yourself. Now we are in chapter 2 verse 19, and these last 11 verses might seem kind of unimportant, when compared with the first half of chapter 2. We were on a theological journey from Christ’s glorious pre-existence to his emptying to his exaltation.. and now in these last 12 verses it seems like Paul’s writing about personnel decisions. These verses are easy to skip or discount, but they are God’s word and they rich in their own way. They show us a few applications to sharing the servant mindset of Christ, and they are worth reading over.

19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

Paul writes that it’s his desire to send Timothy to the church soon. He is hoping for the opportunity, but it isn’t up to Paul. He is deferring to God’s will. Sometimes we say things like, “weather permitting”, or “if all goes according to plan”, but Paul knows that his hopes are dependent on God’s will and the plans are for the sake of the Lord Jesus and the gospel. Paul’s words “I Hope in the Lord Jesus” are humble and acknowledge God’s sovereignty in everything. In verse 19, it seems like the goal of sending Timothy is to send and receive news for the welfare and edification of the church. His job would be to check in and give an account of the state of the Philippian church, both for the welfare of the church, and the cheering of Paul’s heart. In King James the wording in verse 20 is that there are no like minded men like Timothy, who naturally care for the state of the Philippian church. When the Bible says “Like minded” here, it means Christ minded. It means humble minded. When you read about Timothy through Paul’s letters, you get an idea about Timothy’s character. God blessed Timothy with a natural, genuine, and sincere concern for the church. I’d like to think that I care for the state of a church, but when I am honest with myself, I don’t think my heart would be as sincere as Timothy’s. Care and service isn’t as natural for me as it is for Timothy. I am actually good at talking myself out of service. If I were in the same situation as Timothy, I would start asking myself questions. So Paul wants me to be his messenger to travel far for weeks or months just to do an in person checkup on this church? What’s wrong with this church anyway, not sending a letter? Paul’s writing to them, why hasn’t anyone from there written? Now I have to travel because nobody from the church thought to pick up a pen and write back to Paul? Just so Paul can receive cheer and encouragement? I’d rather not; I think I’d rather stay right here. In fact, speaking of “Right Here”, what am I doing hanging out near this prison with Paul anyway? Don’t I have better or more important things to do than sitting around a prison with Paul? I mean, yeah, Paul’s pretty important, but what am I adding here. Maybe I should start a few churches of my own. See, the servant heart isn’t so easy when you have these voices that are telling you how important you are. I’ll call them Diabolical delusions of grandeur. In this day in age, we’re all told how special and important we are, and we are important but that kind of self aggrandizing thinking can get us separated from where God needs us to serve. Timothy cared sincerely for Paul, and the church, and didn’t have personal aspirations getting in the way of service to Jesus Christ. Verse 21 says it’s a widespread sentiment to look out for your own interests over those of Jesus. The description of Timothy’s character should remind us of the contrast between Timothy’s heart and the hearts of those people who Paul didn’t name, but were preaching out of selfish ambition or jealousy. It’s kind of tempting to say, “oh those people are bad, but Timothy is good”, and just look at the situation impartially , conveniently removed by a few thousand years. But if you think about the two and you’re honest with yourself, do you lean towards self preservation and advancing your own self interest, or are you like Timothy and you’ve let the Holy Spirit of God influence your nature and personality to be sincere, genuinely caring of others in the Body of Believers? After that assessment, I know I have a way to go. Our goal is to be like minded with Christ when it comes to service, but sometimes the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh gives us a bit of a pass to say, well, I’m not that service minded, but who is? So now we have the example of Timothy who is a more realistic role model as someone like minded with Christ. And it isn’t just Paul’s glowing review and words, it’s Timothy’s action let’s read on:

22 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. 23 I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

Timothy has proven himself. The Greek word Dokimin here translates to test or tested which are words similar to the words used for gold refined and purified by fire. This process is a testing to see if a metal is in fact pure or a mixed alloy, it takes a large amount of heat and stress to see if it passes the test, and you know if it’s pure metal or not. Paul uses this phrase on Timothy, and it has a particular deep meaning, because Timothy has spent nearly a decade at Paul’s side, he’s been through countless tests and has shown himself to be a man of God’s character and mindset. Timothy is not a fair weather fan, or a one hit wonder. He has put in the time and has shown true character and maturity under the most stressful of conditions. Timothy is in it for the long haul. Paul speaks of Timothy with the love and esteem that a father has for his son, and the two of them have worked together with mutual respect, Timothy deferring to Paul and serving (the word in greek for service was bond service or slavery), so Timothy slaved with diligent dutiful respect, and the two treated each other with tenderness and kindness found among family. When Paul wrote his letters to Timothy, he addressed him as “My True Son in the Faith” in 1st Timothy and “My Dear Son” in 2nd Timothy. Now speaking of family, it is interesting to note Timothy’s family. His father was apparently Greek, and was not mentioned as a believer by Paul, however in 2 Timothy 1:5 Paul writes that he was “reminded of Timothy’s sincere faith, which lived in his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice.”

When we have a dedication or Christening for children, we like to remind everybody that we are actually dedicating the parents, and charging them to raise their child and teach them in the ways of the Lord. Our job as adults (whether it’s mother, or father, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, or even just friend) is to foster a sincere faith in God and familiarity with the Word of God, in ourselves, and we should live out a life of faith, so that we can lead by example. We live in such a way that we demonstrate what it means to fear God, love his laws and commands, acknowledge and repent of our sin, trust not in our works, but only in the works of Jesus, who is the only way to be fully forgiven and reconciled and adopted into God’s family. For Timothy, it wasn’t his father, but God used his mother and grandmother to raise Timothy in such a way that he was prepared to hear God’s word, and his heart was open to hear the truth and understand the Gospel, and recognize what love is when he saw it. Now let’s talk about another guy:

25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. 26 For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 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.

Verse 25 talks about Epaphroditus. From his name, we can assume his parents weren’t Christian or even Jewish believers. Parts of the family may have worshipped the greek goddess Aphrodite. But he became converted, and his heart was on fire for God. Paul calls him a brother, a co-worker, and a fellow soldier. The two were very close to each other, and had been through many things in their ministry. Apparently along with Timothy, Epaphroditus had the role as messenger between Paul and the Philippian church. And at the end of verse 25, it says the church sent him to take care of Paul’s needs. Epaphroditus missed his friends; Paul wrote he longs for all of them. He had fallen quite ill, but had kept his illness very quiet. He was distressed, not because he was sick to the point of death; he was distressed because the church heard that he was ill! When I am sick, I am not distressed about who knows I am sick, or whether they are worried that I am sick. My personal discomfort is what distresses me the most! It’s just selfish avoidance of pain! Some people are more worried about being served or being sympathized for their illness, as opposed to keeping the illness quiet, and worrying that other people will worry! The fact of the matter was Epaphroditus was ill. So ill that he almost died. He would never admit that to the church, it took Paul’s letter to admit that. That’s true servanthood demonstrated. He was sent to take care of Paul’s needs, but he himself had every reason to be taken care of himself. He kept his illness quiet so that nobody would worry. Paul also says, “God had mercy on him”. It wasn’t just, “Well Epaphroditus pulled through”. Paul continues to affirm God’s sovereignty in the situation. There are some commentaries that talk about how Paul had gifts of healing and ask why Paul hadn’t just healed Epaphroditus. They concluded that Paul’s gift of healing was intended to be a sign to others to confirm the truth of the Gospel. But if you think about having a gift of healing, who is the ultimate giver of the healing? It isn’t the guy who lays hands, it’s the Holy Spirit. It’s God working to heal. In the case of Epaphroditus, Paul admits, “God had mercy on him.” Whether Paul laid his hands to heal, or prayed for healing (which I am sure he did, since he told people to pray continually!), or whether God just healed Epaphroditus, with no invocation or request from Paul, no matter what, God should get the glory. And Paul gives that glory to God. Paul admits that he’s also been the recipient of God’s mercy, because God saved him sorrow on sorrow.

28 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. 29 So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.

Paul is all the more eager to send Epaphroditus back to the people in the church so they can be reunited together in gladness. That and also so that Paul can have less anxiety. Now there’s a little admission! In a few chapters (Philippians 4:6) Paul will tell the people to be anxious for nothing, but here he says he’d like to send Epaphroditus because he’d have less anxiety. I know I’ve felt bad about worrying or being anxious over different things in life, and I’ve had conversations with brothers and sisters at church about how it’s hard not to worry! It’s good to know that even though God’s word says “don’t be anxious about anything,” the person God used to tell us that, Paul, himself feels anxiety sometimes. He gives a command in chapter 29, which is something we should be excited to follow. Honor people like Epaphroditus, people who have a servant heart and live their lives to teach and proclaim the gospel.

Give honor! It’s not hard to say you appreciate someone, but it can fall under the cracks in life. In Romans 13:7 Paul said to give to everyone what you owe them, If you owe honor, give honor! Jesus said those who try to keep their lives will lose it, but those who lose their lives for the sake of Jesus and for the sake of God will save or preserve it. We can read these words and agree with them, but sometimes in our lives, we don’t follow through and affirm it by honoring those people who lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Galatians 6:6 says “He who is taught God’s word should share the good things he has with his teacher.” If someone has trained or taught you, honor them and thank them, share the good things that you have with them, share the insights and knowledge, the application and the value that they’ve provided. We should be open to let God use us as his servants, and in this chapter we have two examples of men with a servant heart, Timothy and Epaphroditus! And even if you don’t see natural servanthood in yourself, you can be on the lookout for it in others, and honor them when you see their lives giving glory to God.