Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-30)

The Bible is full of many unknown characters who served Jesus in their day. Take, for example, Tychicus; in Acts 20:4 he accompanies Paul on his last journey to Jerusalem; he was with Paul in Rome during his first imprisonment and carried Paul’s letters to Ephesus (6:21) and to Colosse (4:7); later he went back to be with Paul (Titus 3:12) and he was with Paul during his second Roman imprisonment (2 Tim. 4:12). Or take Priscilla and Aquila: they helped Paul evangelise Corinth (Acts 18); then they moved to Ephesus where a church met in their house (1 Cor. 16:19); later they moved to Rome where again a church met in their house (Rom. 16:3-5). Paul valued these forgotten servants of Christ. He describes Tychicus as ‘a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord’ (Col. 4:7), and he describes Priscilla and Aquila as those who ‘risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them’ (Rom. 16:4).

Paul founded the church in Philippi about the year 51, eleven or so years before he wrote this letter. At this time he is under house arrest in Rome, and although he was rejected by many local believers (1:15-18), his friends in Philippi had not forgotten him and had sent Epaphroditus to him with help (4:18). The journey was at least 500 miles if it included a sea crossing; it would be about 800 miles otherwise, a journey of six weeks. As a result of the journey Epaphroditus became so ill that he nearly died. When Epaphroditus set out on his journey to find Paul he had no guarantee that he would be successful; he persevered in his task, even although it had resulted in severe ill-health. But now he had recovered, and Paul was eager to send him back to his home church to be of benefit to them.

The name ‘Epaphroditus’ means ‘lovely’ or ‘amiable’; it is derived from the name of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. His name could indicate that his family were involved in that form of pagan worship and at least he of them had been saved by the grace of God. From then on, he had lived up to the meaning of his name because he developed a lovely character.

One of the striking features of Epaphroditus is that he is one of the many ordinary Christians who do extraordinary things and develop extraordinary characters. With regard to the other two examples mentioned in this chapter, we can respond by saying that Paul and Timothy were exceptionally gifted believers and therefore it is not surprising that they became so Christlike. But what can we say about Epaphroditus? There is no mention of any great gifts, nor does Paul say he was a leader in the church in Philippi. Instead he is an ordinary believer who was prepared to give himself sacrificially for the benefit of others.

What is a Christian?

No doubt several answers could be given to this important question. One description is given here by Paul when he mentions three aspects of Epaphroditus, aspects that should be a feature in the lives of every Christian. These aspects are brother, fellow-servant and fellow-soldier. To them can be added a fourth relationship that Paul mentions: Epaphroditus was the messenger from and the servant of the church in Philippi.

Each of these descriptions indicates the value that Paul placed upon Epaphroditus. Paul could have suggested that his calling as an apostle gave him a place of authority over Epaphroditus, but instead of elevating himself he elevated Epaphroditus. I think there is a lesson here for church leaders. We are facing today a very strong emphasis on leadership, and no doubt it is necessary to have this emphasis. But the primary role of a leader is to encourage believers to appreciate what Jesus Christ has done for them, to know what he expects of them, and to encourage them to know who they are in Christ.

Here, Paul stresses that, as believers, he and Epaphroditus have equal standing as God’s children and are also to be equally committed to serving Christ and fighting his enemies.

Firstly, Paul and Epaphroditus belonged to the same family – they are brothers. Here, Paul refers to the greatest privilege of believers – they are all children of God. We might think that when God made us right with himself in justification, that that was a great blessing. And so it is. But believers are more than right with God, more than friends of God, they are sons of God.

This relationship crosses barriers of society: it crosses ethnic barriers (Epaphroditus was a Gentile, Paul was a Jew); it crosses social barriers between rich and poor; it crosses gender barriers. This relationship is permanent; we are God’s children for ever. Nothing can separate us from God. This relationship is spiritual – the Holy Spirit has been given to us because we are sons. Within us dwells the Spirit of Love. He enables us to understand what God has done for us, he leads us to pray, he creates within us love for fellow believers.

Paul was under house arrest by the government of the time. He was deserted by those with whom he would have expected to have had fellowship. But God had not forgotten his child and in his providence arranged for another of his children to come to Rome to share rich fellowship together. And Paul was appreciative of his fellow believer.

Secondly, Paul and Epaphroditus served the same Master – they are fellow workers. It is interesting that Paul did not see his circumstances as preventing his working for Christ. And he did not regard Epaphroditus’ ill health as a sign that he was not working for God. Because they saw each other as brothers they were able to work together for the Master. They had a perspective on life that caused them to see all of life as an opportunity to serve Jesus Christ; they used the present opportunities to serve Christ. Adverse circumstances did not stop them working for Christ; their service for Christ was sacrificial – Epaphroditus had travelled hundreds of miles to serve his Master.

Thirdly, Paul and Epaphroditus belonged to the same army – they were fellow soldiers. Paul knew that he was called to wage war on Satan and on evil. And he knew that his enemies were powerful and strong, with a variety of tactics. We can imagine the devil trying to depress Paul by saying that his friends had forgotten him, but then through the door one day came Epaphroditus. Or the devil suggested that the cause of Christ was a defeated one, but as Paul looked at Epaphroditus he saw one who had previously served a false god but was now joining Paul in defeating Satan.

It was during this imprisonment that Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, and in that letter he writes of wrestling with satanic opposition. We can imagine Paul and Epaphroditus and Timothy and Tychicus and Epaphras from Colosse praying and battling that the fledgling cause of Christ would take root and grow. With their spiritual weapons of prayer and proclamation of the good news of Jesus they attacked the kingdom of darkness and defeated it.

Epaphroditus is one of three people in this chapter of Philippians who are commended for Christlikeness – the others are Paul and Timothy. It can be concluded that for us to be Christlike we need to have these three aspects of brotherly love, united service and united contesting with the enemy. Two words sum up the contribution of Epaphroditus: love and loyalty both to God and to fellow believers.

Fourthly, Paul mentions that Epaphroditus had a servant’s heart. He was prepared to serve the church in Philippi in the very important mission of travelling to Rome with some aid for Paul. The church had chosen him for this very significant task and I don’t think he was chosen because he had relatives in Rome with whom he could stay and so save the church the cost of his accommodation. Rather they chose him because they could trust him. He had earned that trust in the hundreds of little things that he had done for the cause of Jesus over the years. In other words, he was a humble man, he was like his Master and went about doing good. The way to become a useful servant is not by volunteering to do one big thing well, but in quietly doing lots of little things well. Then others will trust us with larger roles. Verse 30 is a wonderful description of a servant with a heart: ‘he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.’

Fellow feeling among Christians

In these verses, Paul gives several insights into how believers should feel about one another, and it is important to see that the terms he uses are those expressive of strong feelings. We can note two terms each about Epaphroditus, Paul and the Philippians.

The two features about Epaphroditus are part of his lovely character. One of them is that he was longing for the believers in Philippi. In other words, he missed them intensely. He felt the separation from them. And we should note that he longed for all of them , including Euodia and Syntyche who were not longing for one another even although they were geographically near to one another. In the heart of Epaphroditus, there was not a hint of distancing himself from any in the church in Philippi.

The other feature of Epaphroditus is that he was distressed when he became aware that the Philippians knew he had been gravely ill. We would not have been surprised to read that the church had become distressed when they heard about his problems. Hopefully they were, but the distress that Paul mentions is the worry of Epaphroditus for them (the word translated ‘distressed’ is a very strong word, the only other time it is used in the New Testament is by Christ in Gethsemane [Matt. 26:37; Mark 14:33). The fact that he had become a burden affected him deeply.

As far as Paul is concerned, he says about himself that he appreciated the mercy of God shown in the recovery of Epaphroditus to health. His response does not seem to have been a fatalistic assumption that Epaphroditus’ life had come to an end. Instead he had prayed earnestly for God to show mercy. Recovery from illness was not deserved by Epaphroditus even although it seems to have been the rigours of the journey that caused it, a journey done in devoted service to Christ. Perhaps Paul realised that he had seen another fulfilment of Psalm 9:13: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord! Consider my trouble from those who hate me, you who lift me up from the gates of death.’ Paul valued mercy experienced spiritually and physically.

How would Paul have reacted if Epaphroditus had died? He says that he would have had sorrow upon sorrow, even although he would have known that his friend was in heaven. We should be very sad when useful believers are taken away from the church.

Paul mentions that what Epaphroditus had done was not so much work for Christ as it was the work of Christ. This is a reminder that Christian authenticity comes from availability and action. Epaphroditus ensured that he was available for service and then did what he was asked to do. Jesus works through his people. It was costly service, because Epaphroditus nearly died. This grasp of realising that Jesus works through people helps explain why Paul was willing to let individuals like Timothy and Ephaproditus serve elsewhere.

The Philippians are instructed by Paul on how to greet Epaphroditus: they were to rejoice over him and honour him highly. They were not to be jealous of his apostolic commendation or be critical of what they might regard as his foolhardy journey to Rome.  Every meeting of Christians should be a joyful occasion because it is a family gathering. While none in our group may have accomplished what Epaphroditus did, we can be sure that they all did something for Jesus since we last met, therefore we should honour them. All these expressions of various feelings should mark our meetings. The church is a gathering of saints, not a meeting of stoics.