“The Work of Christ”
There’s hardly a more practical section in all of Paul’s letters.
Our passage this Sunday, Philippians 2:25–30, features Paul’s explanation for why he sent back Epaphroditus to Philippi.
A little background information is required here, and I’ll say more in the sermon, but for now, it’s worth knowing that Epaphroditus was a church member in this Philippian congregation. The church had commissioned him out of Philippi to travel to Rome, carrying a gift for Paul from the church. He was the church’s messenger sent to support Paul, and Paul called him his brother, co-worker, and comrade in arms.
At one level, as we read these verses it’s like we’re eavesdropping on something that has nothing to do with us. Paul is concerned with the details of his own day. But at another level — the truest level of Philippians being a portion of Holy Scripture — we see in Paul a particular kind of example. We have something to learn from him — something that I think will help us as we navigate life in a broken world. And it’s in the details.
I’ll mention three things in the sermon, having to do with decision-making, showing honor to others, and how we should think about death. But something I can’t fit in that 33-minute exposition is Paul’s meaning in a little phrase in verse 30, “the work of Christ.”
What is the work of Christ? What comes to your mind?
If you’re like me, you might think of the biggest and baddest Christian biographies. It’s the wise Jim Elliot! It’s John Paton hiding in a tree late at night to escape the cannibals of the New Hebrides! It’s William Tyndale laboring day and night to translate the Bible in English!
Yes, all that is the work of Christ.
But also, according to Paul, the work of Christ includes being the courier of missionary support (even if you have an unfortunate name). That was Epaphroditus.
Paul gives him a glowing commendation, and I’ll have a lot of great things to say about him on Sunday, but, let’s not gloss over the facts. Epaphroditus, first, was named after the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love and passion, the patron goddess of prostitutes. That wasn’t an uncommon name for a pagan kid in Philippi, but he had become a Christian! Paul, can he get a name change too?
Apparently not.
Paul calls him Epaphroditus. And he tells the church to honor him (and those like him!) because he risked his neck by traveling 800 miles to get some cash to Paul. The work of Christ.
I can’t help but imagine that Paul means for us to catch this. That a man with the most unremarkable name, embarrassing even, does a most basic thing, and it’s the work of Christ.
Within the economy of the gospel, significance is measured so differently than how we normally think.
