A Personal Note

Dear Epaphroditus, Greetings from a twenty-first-century follower of Jesus! Allow me to introduce myself because when I arrive in the new heavens and the new earth, you are among the first people I want to meet! I know little about you, yet I am deeply moved every time I hear your name and recall Paul’s tender words about you. Like Paul’s apprentice, Timothy, you were the flesh and blood model of living a life worthy of the gospel. Your gritty courage and practical attention to Paul in his time of need caused him to celebrate you as a "brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier" (v 25).

I love you for your vulnerability, too. There is a sense in which you and the church may have felt you failed as their ambassador of care to the imprisoned Paul because your stay was cut short. Even once your near-fatal illness was behind you, Paul so worried that you were worried that the Philippians worried about you that he sent you home! Your fragility and distress make your sacrificial selflessness, as you gambled your life for Christ, all the more poignant.

I also want to thank you, Epaphroditus, for being the mailman and bringing this letter to the Philippians and millions of Christians throughout the ages. At your most wounded, you were God’s instrument of a legacy beyond your imagining. Image, honour, strength, and achievement are highly valued, so feelings of failure can be very real.

Paul’s enthusiastic endorsement of your costly service (described as worship) amid weakness highlights what delights Jesus's heart. By God’s grace, the disappointment of your mission to Paul is transformed into the incalculable gift of your example and of a letter that has sustained his worldwide church for centuries. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Your debtor.

Respond in Prayer

Loving heavenly Father, Thank you for providing Paul with such faithful friends when he was in prison. Thank you for the Christian friends you have given me. May I be such a friend to others, especially to anyone who is in need, whether lonely or struggling with illness or other difficulties. Make me like Timothy and Epaphroditus, sacrificially giving practical service to help spread the gospel. For Jesus' sake, Amen.