Being the Church 15

Philippians 2.19-30

Timothy

Of Timothy, Paul says, “I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. They all seek their own interests and not those of Jesus Christ” (2.20,21). Timothy was neither self-centred nor self-serving – an excellent example of the attitude Paul was urging upon the Philippians (“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” V4). So Paul is sending written advice (in his letter to these Christians) but he is also sending the word-in-action, by sending the man, Timothy! He is the word fleshed out – a little example of Jesus, who is the Word who became flesh.

This is your calling: to be a little example of the Word becoming flesh to all the people you were sent to live among. And you do this by having the Scriptures fulfilled – written all over – your life. Paul was sending a role model to the Philippian church – someone who could confirm in life the very things that they needed corrected among them. A healthy church is one where all its members are learning and growing according to the Bible and have lives that illustrate and flesh out this learning. Husbands and wives that declare God’s purpose in marriage. Children demonstrating respect for their parents. Old people, including widows, who are proving that the joy of the Lord is their strength. Young men and women, totally committed to being Christ’s workers. Sick and suffering people confirming that …

Each of us has a chance to be Christ-like in this way; showing by our example that we have the attitude of Christ. Issues will arise within families, such as:

§ The roles people should have and whether they are taking up their share of responsibilities.

§ How money should be handled and who decides how it should be spent.

§ Who is responsible for looking after the kids?

§ What will the kids be permitted to do?

§ How are important family decisions made?

In all these issues you need Christians living as the Word become flesh. You need Christian mothers, wives, husbands, fathers, children, grandparents, uncles, aunties, brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws who will be Christ-like in their families. Blessed is the family that is full of Christians taking on their family responsibilities having the mind of Christ. There is not a person here who should not be bringing their heart quietly and submissively to God and asking him to grant them the mind that yours in Christ Jesus. Have this mind among yourselves, which is YOURS in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. 2.5-7.

Why have I started talking about family dynamics? Because Christian families are sub-units of the church – chunks of the church. They are NOT the Church, as if the church was just an extension of one or a few special families. But families or households are important chunks of the church. This is why we highly value seeing whole families being born anew and being added to the Church – whole chunks with the potential of bringing great strength and vigor to the Church. At Philippi, the church was first made up of Lydia’s household and the jailor’s family. These were at least two whole households that were added to the Church in one hit! But there were also individuals – presumably some of the women who used to meet down by the river and the slave girl. If you are part of a family, you have important work to do. You have to bring Christ into your family and bring your family into the church. If you are an individual – praise God that you just found your place in the best and only lasting family in the universe!

Timothy was not self-interested, unlike some of the other Christians in the church at Rome. They all seek their won interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel 2.21,22. Timothy was willing to go to Philippi. The others who could have gone were too busy with their own stuff. Paul has already mentioned (in 1.15,17) how some of the Christians in Rome were so self-interested that they preached the gospel with a spirit of rivalry, wanting to get people who might have been supporters of Paul to follow them! Timothy was like Abraham and Isaac. He lived in the world as if in a tent. He had a camping mentality, ready to pull out his tent pegs and move wherever God sent him. Like Abraham, who had his eyes on a city with foundations whose architect and builder was God (Heb 11.9,10), Timothy was working for an eternal kingdom rather than trying to dig foundations in the world.

Timothy had ‘proven worth’ (v22) – an excellent reputation as a steady, reliable, compassionate, selfless Christian worker. It would be hard for the Philippian Christians to reject Timothy’s teaching and advice about counting others more significant than yourselves and looking not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. He was a living example of this! Timothy was like a son of Paul. For the Philippians to receive Timothy was to receive Paul – like father like son.

In the church we are not just passing on ideas to believe in, we are passing on character – Christ’s character. We are passing on the mind of Christ – his attitude and mindset. Paul knew that he needed to get people like Timothy and Epaphroditus into the church at Philippi as living examples – the word of God in action.

Epaphroditus

Paul was sending Epaphroditus first, with the current letter, and Timothy would follow shortly later. Paul was holding Timothy back with him until a court ruling regarding his own imprisonment was decided (v23,24). Paul hoped the Timothy might then be able to bring news that he had been freed from prison and would himself be soon able to visit them.

So, Epaphroditus, the Philippian Christian, was coming with the letter we are studying to bring it to Philippi.

Paul is teaching them to look to each other’s needs and here he is putting their needs ahead of his own by sending Epaphroditus back to them. He was also looking to the need of Epaphroditus who had been very ill (at death’s door) recently and was fretting that his people back at Philippi would be worried about him. Paul is sending him to them so that they will be encouraged at his recovery and be a living example of the kind of selflessness that Paul sees they need to deepen in their church fellowship. Right there, in front of them, Paul was placing a man who ‘nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.’ They needed some role models of selfless service, of people pouring themselves out for the sake of the church, rather than wanting status and privileges.

So Paul holds up to the church at Philippi, these two men that he is sending to them. Good men, men who were highly useful to him and encouraging for him to have as his fellow-workers, but men he was willing to give to them as role-models and examples of what it means to have the same attitude as Jesus Christ.