'But I counted it necessary to send to you
Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and
fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to
my need. 26. Since he longed after you all, and
was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he
was sick. 27. For indeed he was sick nigh unto
death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him
only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow
upon sorrow. 28. I have sent him therefore the
more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye
may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all
joy; and hold such in honour: 30. Because for the
work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding
his life to supply that which was lacking in your
service toward me.'--PHIL. ii. 25-30 (R.V.).
Epaphroditus is one of the less known of Paul's friends. All our
information about him is contained in this context, and in a brief
reference in Chapter iv. His was a singular fate--to cross Paul's path,
and for one short period of his life to be known to all the world, and
for all the rest before and after to be utterly unknown. The ship sails
across the track of the moonlight, and then vanishes ghost-like into
darkness. Of all the inhabitants of Philippi at that time we know the
names of but three, Euodias, Syntiche, and Epaphroditus, and we owe them
all to Paul. The context gives us an interesting miniature of the last,
and pathetic glimpses into the private life of the Apostle in his
imprisonment, and it is worth our while to try to bring our historic
imagination to bear on Epaphroditus, and to make him a living man.
The first fact about him is, that he was one of the Philippian
Christians, and sent by them to Rome, with some pecuniary or material
help, such as comforts for Paul's prison-house, food, clothing, or
money. There was no reliable way of getting these to Paul but to take
them, and so Epaphroditus faced the long journey across Greece to
Brindisi and Rome, and when arrived there threw himself with ardour into
serving Paul. The Apostle's heartfelt eulogium upon him shows two phases
of his work. He was in the first place Paul's helper in the Gospel, and
his faithfulness there is set forth in a glowing climax, 'My brother and
fellow-worker and fellow-soldier.' He was in the second place the
minister to Paul's needs. There would be many ways of serving the
captive, looking after his comfort, doing his errands, procuring daily
necessaries, managing affairs, perhaps writing his letters, easing his
chain, chafing his aching wrists, and ministering in a thousand ways
which we cannot and need not specify. At all events he gladly undertook
even servile work for love of Paul.
He had an illness which was probably the consequence of his toil.
Perhaps over-exertion in travel, or perhaps his Macedonian constitution
could not bear the enervating air of Rome, or perhaps Paul's prison was
unhealthy. At any rate he worked till he made himself ill. The news
reached Philippi in some round-about way, and, as it appears, the news
of his illness only, not of his recovery. The difficulty of
communication would sufficiently account for the partial intelligence.
Then the report found its way back to Rome, and Epaphroditus got
home-sick and was restless, uneasy, 'sore troubled,' as the Apostle
says, because they had heard he had been sick. In his low, nervous
state, barely convalescent, the thought of home and of his brethren's
anxiety about him was too much for him. It is a pathetic little picture
of the Macedonian stranger in the great city--pallid looks, recent
illness, and pining for home and a breath of pure mountain air, and for
the friends he had left. So Paul with rare abnegation sent him away at
once, though Timothy was to follow shortly, and accompanied him with
this outpouring of love and praise in his long homeward journey. Let us
hope he got safe back to his friends, and as Paul bade them, they
received him in the Lord with all joy, the echoes of which we almost
hear as he passes out of our knowledge.
In the remainder of this sermon we shall simply deal with the two
figures which the text sets before us, and we may look first at the
glimpses of Paul's character which we get here.
We may note the generous heartiness of his praise in his associating
Epaphroditus with himself as on full terms of equality, as worker and
soldier, and the warm generosity of the recognition of all that he had
done for the Apostle's comfort. Paul's first burst of gratitude and
praise does not exhaust all that he has to say about Epaphroditus. He
comes back to the theme in the last words of the context, where he says
that the Philippian messenger had 'hazarded' his life, or, as we might
put it with equal accuracy and more force, had 'gambled' his life, or
'staked it on the die' for Paul's sake. No wonder that men were eager to
risk their lives for a leader who lavished such praise and such love
upon them. A man who never opens his lips but to censure or criticise,
who fastens on faults as wasps do on blemished fruit, will never be
surrounded by loyal love. Faithful service is most surely bought by
hearty praise. A caressing hand on a horse's neck is better than a whip.
We may further note the intensity of Paul's sympathy. He speaks of
Epaphroditus' recovery as a mercy to himself 'lest he should have the
sorrow of imprisonment increased by the sorrow of his friend's death.'
That attitude of mind stands in striking contrast to the heroism which
said, 'To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,' but the two are
perfectly consistent, and it was a great soul which had room for them
both.
We must not leave unnoticed the beautiful self-abnegation which sends
off Epaphroditus as soon as he was well enough to travel, as a gift of
the Apostle's love, in order to repay them for what they had done for
him. He says nothing of his own loss or of how much more lonely he would
be when the brother whom he had praised so warmly had left him alone.
But he suns himself in the thought of the Philippians' joy, and in the
hope that some reflection of it will travel across the seas to him, and
make him, if not wholly glad, at any rate 'the less sorrowful.'
We have also to notice Paul's delicate recognition of all friendly help.
He says that Epaphroditus risked his life to 'supply that which was
lacking in your service toward me.' That implies that all which the
Philippians' ministration lacked was their personal presence, and that
Epaphroditus, in supplying that, made his work in a real sense theirs.
All the loving thoughts, and all the material expressions of them which
Epaphroditus brought to Paul were fragrant with the perfume of the
Philippians' love, 'an odour of a sweet smell, acceptable' to Paul as to
Paul's Lord.
We briefly note some general lessons which may be suggested by the
picture of Epaphroditus as he stands by the side of Paul.
The first one suggested is the very familiar one of the great uniting
principle which a common faith in Christ brought into action. Think of
the profound clefts of separation between the Macedonian and the Jew,
the antipathies of race, the differences of language, the
dissimilarities of manner, and then think of what an unheard-of new
thing it must have been that a Macedonian should 'serve' a Jew! We but
feebly echo Paul's rapture when he thought that there was 'neither
Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free, but all were one in Christ Jesus,'
and for all our talk about the unity of humanity and the like, we permit
the old gulfs of separation to gape as deeply as ever. Dreadnoughts are
a peculiar expression of the brotherhood of men after nineteen centuries
of so-called Christianity.
The terms in which the work of Epaphroditus is spoken of by Paul are
very significant. He has no hesitation in describing the work done for
himself as 'the work of Christ,' nor in using, as the name for it, the
word ('service'), which properly refers to the service rendered by
priestly hands. Work done for Paul was done for Jesus, and that, not
because of any special apostolic closeness of relation of Paul to Jesus,
but because, like all other Christians, he was one with his Lord. 'The
cup of cold water' given 'in the name of a disciple' is grateful to the
lips of the Master. We have no reason to suppose that Epaphroditus took
part with Paul in his more properly apostolic work, and the fact that
the purely material help, and pecuniary service which most probably
comprised all his 'ministering,' is honoured by Paul with these lofty
designations, carries with it large lessons as to the sanctity of common
life. All deeds done from the same motive are the same, however
different they may be in regard to the material on which they are
wrought. If our hearts are set to 'hallow all we find,' the most secular
duties will be acts of worship. It is possible for us in the ordering of
our own lives to fulfil the great prophecy with which Zechariah crowned
his vision of the Future, 'In that day shall there be on the bells of
the horses Holiness unto the Lord'; and the 'pots in the Lord's house
shall be like the bowls before the altar.'
May we not further draw from Paul's words here a lesson as to the honour
due to Christian workers? It was his brethren who were exhorted to
receive their own messenger back again 'in the Lord with all joy, and to
hold him in honour.' Possibly there were in Philippi some sharp tongues
and envious spirits, who needed the exhortation. Whether there were so
or no, the exhortation itself traces lightly but surely the lines on
which Christians should render, and their fellow-Christians can rightly
receive, even praise from men. If Epaphroditus were 'received in the
Lord,' there would be no foolish and hurtful adulation of him, nor
prostration before him, but he would be recognised as but the instrument
through which the true Helper worked, and not he, but the Grace of
Christ in him would finally receive the praise. There are very many
Christian workers who never get their due of recognition and welcome
from their brethren, and there are many who get far more of both than
belongs to them, and both they and the crowds who bring them adulation
would be freed from dangers, which can scarcely be over-stated, if the
spirit of Paul's warm-hearted praise of Epaphroditus were kept in view.
Epaphroditus but passes across the illuminated disc of the lantern for a
moment, and we have scarcely time to catch a glimpse of his face before
it is lost to us. He and all his brethren are gone, but his name lives
for ever, and Paul's praise of him and of his work outshines all else
remembered of the city, where conquerors once reigned, and outside whose
walls was fought a battle that decided for a time the fate of the world.