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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 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. 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. So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 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.
Philippians 2:25-30
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In yesterday’s message from our continued study of Philippians, we found Paul talking about his mentee, Timothy, who had followed the Apostle to learn how to be a missionary for the Gospel. You will remember how Paul complimented Timothy for his devotion to Christ and the salvation of others in the midst of a society that was self centered and self serving.
Today, as we close out the second chapter of this letter to the Christians in Philippi, we find Paul singling out another fellow servant for the cause of Christ, a man by the name of Epaphroditus.
Of interest, this is the only place in the scriptures where we read about Epaphroditus but there’s good reason for that. This is because he was a Philippian who was sent to Paul during his Roman imprisonment to take care of his needs. In other words, Epaphroditus served as an emissary for the church in Philippi, providing help that the people couldn’t give.
We should view this in the same light as we do other missionaries today. Not everyone can go to bring the Gospel to others and meet needs so often one person goes while representing many other Christian believers who provide support for the one sent and those they are ministering to.
Paul obviously thought highly of Epaphroditus and heaped great compliments on his, calling him a “brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier” for the cause of Christ. Traveling to other places for the cause of the Gospel was risky business in Paul’s day as it is today in many instances. Christianity wasn’t exactly embraced and there was always danger of persecution and death. It took extreme bravery for Epaphroditus to willingly travel to Rome to care for Paul, knowing that the reason Paul was imprisoned was for his work for the cause of the Gospel.
But note that Epaphroditus’ near death experience had nothing to do with persecution. For Paul shares that the Philippian missionary became ill and would have died had it not been for the mercy of God who spared him. This brought great relief to Paul who was already in sorrow for being incarcerated and therefore not free to travel and share the Gospel.
Paul urged the Philippian Christians to welcome Epaphroditus with “great joy” when he returned, honoring him for his sacrifice for the “work of Christ”, work that almost took his life.
Friends, today (and every day), we should be mindful of missionaries around the world who daily do as Epaphroditus and Paul did, go willfully to do the work of Christ despite the inherent risks of doing so. It’s estimated that there are 435,000 missionaries in the world and 22 percent of those missionaries are working in places where people have either been unevangelized or unreached for the cause of the Gospel. In the latter category, there are approximately 3.16 billion people who have not heard of the salvation offered by God through His Son Jesus.
There are men and women who are bravely sacrificing their life to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission in a big way. Like the missionaries in first century AD, they leave their comfort zones and step out into the unknown by faith, motivated by helping others get saved. I pray you will join me in doing whatever is possible to honor and support those who are faithful to the calling and work of Christ, either by prayer, financial support, or both. It’s the least we can do to participate and support the missionary efforts today.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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