“Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.”
Philippians 2:29-30
In this passage Epaphroditus is being commended to his fellow believers in Philippi. They are told to receive him and to hold men like him in high regard. Paul goes on to explain what he means by men like him. He says he came close to death. Now it doesn’t say what the particular situation was but it does go on to say that Ephroditus obviously knew he was walking into some danger. It says “risking his life”. In the Greek the word translated risking is parabole which means knowingly placing oneself alongside danger. As I said we aren’t told the details of the situation but whatever it was we are told that to complete their service to Paul, he willingly placed himself in danger. He came close to death in this service to Paul. The Philippians are told to hold men like him in high regard. So what does that say to us? Well we are not often (in our American culture) placed in harms way because of our faith. We are always called to die to self and deny ourselves and follow Christ though. This often places us in a position where to follow Christ means saying no to our own comfort and self promoting desires. We are faced with saying yes to self and our comfort or saying yes to Christ even when it seems to cost us something. Are we willing to follow Christ even when that seems risky? Following Christ often will stretch us but He can always be trusted. Are you walking with Him? What does that look like? Well from our text we can see that the risk was taken to serve and minister to Paul. Are we allowing Christ to lead us into others lives. To minister to the people He has placed around us in a way that may cost us personally? Let’s look beyond ourselves to the people God has placed all around us and let’s serve them as God leads!
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