“MY BROTHER AND FELLOW-WORKMAN AND FELLOW-SOLDIER”
G. R. Maynard
I want to say a word, beloved brethren, about this servant of the Lord, Epaphroditus. There is not much said about him in Scripture, indeed, apart from this verse which I have read the only other place where he is mentioned is in chapter 4 of this same epistle, and there Paul refers to him in verse 18 as “having received of Epaphroditus the things (sent)” by the Philippian brethren. Although so little is said of him in this sense, yet he is a remarkable vessel, and my desire is to allude to various features which are set forth in him. He might be rightly described as a sample Philippian.
It is important to understand the setting of each of the epistles that Paul wrote. When we think of Romans, for example, we think of an epistle which establishes the soul in its relations with God, an epistle that brings out the truth of the gospel; in that sense it is a basic or foundational epistle. When we think of the two epistles to the Corinthians they set out for us the order of the house of God, the order that is proper to the assembly of God in a place.
When we think of the epistle to the Ephesians we think of the scope and the glory of the counsels of God that are expanded and developed in it. Ah, but then when we come to the epistle to the Philippians I think what is set before us is someone in the gain of Ephesian truth worked out in Christian experience. I think that is the setting of the Philippians, an assembly in the gain of Ephesian truth not as mere light from God, but worked out in Christian experience. It is
in this epistle then that we get normal Christian experience, and we look at Epaphroditus as a sample Philippian, who sets out what is normal in regard to Philippian formation and Philippian experience.
So Paul refers to him here and the first feature that I want to call attention to is what Paul refers to by saying, “my brother”, “I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother”. It is a wonderful thing to be referred to as ‘a brother’. I know that the word is rather hackneyed today in the world, a person is referred to as ‘brother So-and-so’, without any understanding of the import of that word brother. But when Paul says, “my brother” you can see the full understanding of what is involved in the divine thought of a brother, which would enter into Paul’s use of that expression. The Lord Jesus in John 20 gives that message to Mary, “go to my brethren”. Now, dear brethren, the thought of the brethren there is the relationship from the standpoint of privilege and from the standpoint of what was heavenly—
“go to my brethren”; then, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and (to) my God and your God” (John 20: 17). We must always begin from the heavenly side when approaching any aspect of the truth. So in John 20 you have a heavenly view of the brethren linked with Christ the ascended Man “my brethren”—a privilege thus to be one with Christ, as the word is, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified (are) all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Hebrews 2: 11.
Now that is John’s presentation of it, but in the synoptic gospels the thought of the brethren is presented not from the heavenly side of privilege, but from the standpoint of what is moral.
So that the Lord was able to say, “my brethren are those who
hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8: 21); it is the moral side, the responsible side, that is emphasized in the synoptic gospels. The brethren in that sense establish moral likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, for He, par excellence, was One who heard the word of God and did it. Oh, you think of His life of obedience here, morning by morning hearing the word of God. His ear opened to hear the word of God, and obeying that word, that word from God day by day; that was Christ here as Man, and He would say, “My brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it”.
So, beloved saints, I think that these two aspects of the truth enter into the expression here when Paul says, “my brother”. He is thinking of the John 20 side of privilege, the heavenly side, but he is also thinking of the moral and responsible side as set out in the synoptic gospels, when he refers to Epaphroditus as “my brother”. Oh, could Paul refer to you in that way, dear brother? Could he refer to me in that way?—to be taken on by Paul, to be associated with Paul, the great vessel of the truth of the assembly—as “my brother”. You know, Paul was a very brotherly man; he was an apostle, of course, but the greatness of the gift he had as an apostle would in no way hinder him from working out the brotherly side.
And I think what helped Paul to be brotherly was the way the Lord dealt with him at his conversion. You will remember how the Lord sent Ananias to him. When Ananias came to Saul of Tarsus the first word that he said to him was “Brother”. Oh, that must have touched Saul greatly, “(he) said to me, Brother Saul”, Acts 22: 13. Then, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest”, Acts 9: 17. A link, a bond, was now formed between the one who was formerly a persecutor of the assemblies and one of the saints of God, such a link that Ananias could say to him, “Brother Saul”.
So you will find that in many of his epistles Paul links on a brother with him as he addresses an assembly. In 1 Corinthians 1: 1, “Paul (a) called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God’s will, and Sosthenes the brother”. Then in 2 Corinthians 1: 1, “and the brother Timotheus”; and so on; he links a brother on with him because he values the brother. When he wrote to the Galatians, so critical was the issue at Galatia because the foundations of the gospel were at stake, that he brings all the brethren into it; he says, “Paul, apostle ... and all the brethren with me”. The matter was so critical that he had to bring all the brethren into it. We need to be more in the feature of the brother, dear brethren. I want to say to you that this thought of the brother is a greater thought than gift, so that you might have things in the right balance; gift is for now, and it is for down here where the saints need edifying; we will not need edifying in heaven; it is down here we need edification, building up, perfecting, through the ministry of the word, and gift is in view of that. But the idea of the brother is eternal, it is what goes through; the links which are formed amongst those who establish brotherly relationships, those links are not just for time, those links are eternal.
So what a great privilege we have thus to be amongst the brethren in that sense, those whom Christ owns as His. Paul is drawing Epaphroditus into it when he says, “Epaphroditus, my brother”. One feature that marks a brother is love. So scripture speaks of brotherly love; that is a feature that marks a brother. We are exhorted, “Let brotherly love abide”, Hebrews 13: 1.
Things arise, difficulties among brethren; whatever the problem or difficulty that may arise, let us always allow brotherly love to abide, to remain—“Let brotherly love abide”. Hold on to that. The
outcome of this thought of brotherly love is unity; how essential that feature is, dear brethren.
We remember Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
So unity enters into the bond between brethren, and it is where unity is that God commands a blessing—“for there hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore”, Psalm 133: 3.
So we need to work out these thoughts of love, these thoughts of unity. Think of Abraham.
There was a kind of division about to occur between Abraham and Lot, but think of the spirit that marked Abraham. He was a heavenly man, a heavenly-minded man, and so he said to Lot, “I pray thee let there be no contention between me and thee for we are brethren”, Genesis 13: 8. That was the spirit that marked him. So, beloved saints, as we think of this feature of “my brother” let us think of brotherly love, let us think of unity. Then there is a remarkable scripture in Proverbs—“The friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs l7: 17). What does that mean, “a brother is born for adversity”? God gives us brethren to walk with not only for the enjoyment of fellowship, but they are there for our help in adversity; that is what that scripture means. Two are always better than one; you see, if one falls the other can help him up, but if he is alone there is nobody to help him. So that a beloved brother is given to us by God so that when adversity comes there is someone we can look to to lend a hand to help. So the word is, “a brother is born for adversity”.
Paul was in adverse circumstances when he wrote this letter. Let us understand that Paul was a prisoner in Rome; he wrote this epistle from the prison cell, and he was not only in prison but there were bonds upon him. He could say in chapter 1,
“my bonds have become manifest (as being) in Christ in all the praetorium and to all others”
(Philippians 1: 13); he was a prisoner bound with a chain when he wrote this letter, and this servant Epaphroditus left Philippi to travel to Rome to carry a gift to Paul; he was a brother born for adversity. Paul was in adverse circumstances and Epaphroditus was a brother who could draw near to him when he needed help. How Paul appreciated that help because he, the vessel of the testimony, was in need. He refers to it in chapter 4, you will recall, when he says, “for also in Thessalonica once and even twice ye sent to me for, my need” (Philippians 4: 16). So there were times when Paul had need, the need of a servant. The Philippians wanted to minister to his need and so they found Epaphroditus, a brother, and he travelled all the way to Italy to carry the ministration to help Paul in his need. You know, in carrying that gift to Paul Epaphroditus got sick, he jeopardized his own life. Paul says, “for he was also sick close to death” (Philippians 2: 27); it was a serious situation in which he almost lost his life. Paul could say, “because for the sake of the work he drew near even to death, venturing his life that he might fill up what lacked in your ministration toward me” (verse 30).
I commend this thought of the brother to the dear brethren—“a brother is born for adversity”, and Epaphroditus is here a brother in times of adversity to minister to Paul’s need, and venturing his own life so that he nearly died, he was sick close to death.
The second feature to which I allude is the expression “my ... fellow-workman”. Ah, the thought of the workman, the thought of work that is God’s labour; work involves labour together, labour with Paul, the thought of fellow-workman, to be able to labour alongside of Paul. The Lord
Jesus when He was here had to say sorrowfully, “The harvest indeed (is) great, but the workmen few; supplicate therefore the Lord of the harvest that he may send out workmen into his harvest”, Luke 10: 2. The tendency sometimes is to shirk responsibility; I feel it myself and I am sure you are conscious of it, to leave it for somebody else to do; somebody else will do it. So the Lord said, “The harvest indeed (is) great, but the workmen few”. Thank God for men like Epaphroditus who would join in the work, labouring together with Paul, so that Paul could refer, to him as his fellow-workman, one who would not make a tug-of-war against Paul but would work with Paul for the furtherance of the gospel, and the furtherance of the truth of the assembly. So, as I said, there is need of workmen, and as we get into the work let us be sure that we work rightly, and build rightly.
In 1 Corinthians 3: 9–13 Paul says, “we are God’s fellow-workmen”, but then he gives a warning, “let each see how he builds”; he says, “Now if any one build upon [this] foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, the work of each shall be made manifest”.
The fire will try the work of each. Now evidently the gold and the silver and the precious stones would abide, because the fire does not destroy those metals; but when the fire comes to try the wood, and the grass and the straw, you know what happens, the fire will burn it up.
So how are we building? Is our labour going to stand when the fire tries our work? Will it be proved to be of gold, precious stones and silver, or wood and grass and straw? Oh, this is a very exercising matter, how we work, how we labour, how we build. Hence the apostle says to the Corinthians, “let each see how he builds”. It is not that our souls will be lost, for if you are a believer you are saved eternally, but if the work which you do does not stand up to the test of the
fire, you will lose your reward in the day of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore let us see how we build. It was Paul who spoke of work and labour for the Lord’s sake, so much so that the word used at the end of 1 Corinthians 15: 58 is “abounding always in the work of the Lord”. That is a great victory chapter—1 Corinthians 15—resurrection from among the dead, and the change of the mortal body to immortality; it is a victory chapter, and in the light of the victory of that chapter the apostle ends it with that expression,
“So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in (the) Lord”.
Dear brethren, let us abound at the close of the dispensation; this is not the time for armchair Christians. You know what I mean by an armchair Christian; he is always resting; this is not a time for that, this is a time for work, work and labour for the Lord’s sake, and abounding in the work of the Lord, “knowing that your toil is not in vain in (the) Lord”. Do you know that prayer is one part of the work of the Lord? A sister who is shut in, for example, who is not able to get to the meetings, she can work through prayer for the prosperity of the testimony, she can be before God constantly, giving Him no rest, shall we say reverently, through her prayers for the testimony, her prayers for the gospel, her prayers for the saints. So that is one way in which you can labour. You can work with the ministry of the word, the preaching of the gospel, you can labour in the shepherd care of the saints. We had in the reading as to the great Shepherd of the sheep; that service is carried out by the Lord, and He uses men and women to work out this shepherd service to one another. A shepherd in the Lord’s work, knows the needs of the brethren spiritually, and otherwise too, and is available to help in any way; that is
the shepherd.
So, beloved saints, I am impressed with this thought, Paul’s “fellow-workman”.
Epaphroditus, no doubt, was a good workman. That is the word in 2 Timothy 2: 15, “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed”. One thing as to being a workman is that we would not be concerned with the praise of man, or seek approval of men. Paul says that if he were pleasing men he would not be Christ’s bondman. Your only concern in being a workman is to please the Lord. Be sure you are approved of God; that is all that matters, to have His approval. So the word is, “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. I believe that Epaphroditus was such a man; he was a workman approved of God.
Then I touch on this third feature to which the beloved apostle alludes, “my fellow-soldier”.
Ah, that brings up the militant thought, the military idea. Do you understand, beloved brother, beloved sister, that there is an aspect of the church involving what is military, the church militant? Dear brethren, let me tell you we are in a time of warfare, serious warfare. The apostle alludes to it in Ephesians 6: 12, “our struggle is not against blood and flesh”; our struggle is not against mere human enemies “but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual (power) of wickedness in the heavenlies”. What the apostle is seeking to convey there is that the warfare is a spiritual warfare between the saints and wicked spirits in the heavenlies that are set against the testimony of God, and those wicked spirits are under the dominion of Satan. It is a serious warfare, and because it is a serious warfare we need to have
the right armour on for this war. Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 10: 4, “For the arms of our warfare (are) not fleshly, but powerful according to God to (the) overthrow of strongholds”.
What then is the armour we need for this spiritual war in which we are, this warfare in which we are soldiers? Paul alludes to it as the panoply of God, the whole armour of God. He says,
“For this reason take (to you) the panoply of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day”, Ephesians 6: 13. Dear brethren, if ever there was “the evil day” it is today. The evil day is now. This world has never been as evil as it is today. It boggles the mind the evil that is in the world today; this is the time when we need the whole armour. Let us have that armour, the whole armour of God. I have no doubt that Epaphroditus had the armour, for Paul alludes to him as my “fellow-soldier”; he would stand with Paul in the military defence of the testimony and the defence of the gospel, and he would contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. In that sense he was indeed a good soldier.
Now, dear brethren, may we each have a part in this our day in being a soldier of Jesus Christ in this heavenly warfare for the defence of the testimony. Each one of us is to hold himself in defence of the testimony. Now warfare involves action, and because of the hardness that it involves there might be a tendency to draw back. Some countries have compulsory military service, and in other countries it is voluntary; but wherever the State imposes compulsory military service people use all kinds of ‘conscience’ to escape it. Some are fake excuses of conscience, some are genuine. I am just trying to illustrate that the hazards of warfare and military service make persons seek to escape it. Paul had to say to Timothy, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”,
2 Timothy 2: 3. He was evidently drawing back from the battle, he was drawing back from the warfare. Paul says, “Take thy share in suffering”—in hardship—“as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”. I commend that word to every one here—get in the war alongside of Paul and be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. If you want to be a good soldier do not get entangled with the affairs of life. The apostle says, “No one going as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of life, that he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier”. You can understand that a soldier wants to be free from being entangled and be in the warfare rightly. So if you want to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ avoid being entangled. Avoid being entangled with the world. The word of God is, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world”. It only entangles; avoid any entanglement that would hamper you so that you are not available for the Lord. Let us avoid entanglement and be in the warfare. Paul fought the good fight. He says in the last chapter of 2 Timothy, “I have fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4: 7 A.V.).
So that at the very end of his path of service, in his last inspired writing, he says to Timothy, I have finished the race, I have fought the fight. Paul is gone; we are still here, and the spiritual warfare is still going on. Beloved brethren, if we have not before now enlisted we can enlist this evening and be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
So I commend these three thoughts to you, “Epaphroditus, my brother”, “fellow-workman”, and “fellow-soldier”. May God bless the word.
Address in Barbados
26 December 1987