PHILIPPIANS 2:25

25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.


Verse 25 Epaphroditus is the second good example Paul wants to put before his readers. It was normal in a letter like this to introduce the bearer of it with commendations – but not when they were as well known to the recipients as Epaphroditus and Timothy were. Paul’s clearly doing it because there are aspects of the character of both men which are important demonstrations of the theme he’s writing about.

It’s always interesting to hear how someone else describes a person we already know well. Sometimes others, who are further removed, can see qualities or abilities or weaknesses in friends of ours that we just wouldn’t spot – because we’re too close to see the wood for the trees. Paul is determined that the Philippians should see in Epaphroditus exactly what he sees, and value him accordingly.

Epaphroditus was a common name in the ancient world (“Epaphras” is another version of it, although the Epaphras of Colossians is a different person). It came from the name of the goddess Aphrodite – a bit like an Indian Christian today being called Krishna or Ram, or a Middle Eastern believer called Muhammad. (The scorn of the early Christians for the powerlessness of pagan deities meant that many of them didn’t see it as a necessity to alter their name when baptised. Just like eating meat offered to idols, to become concerned about it seemed like dignifying the idols with an attention they didn’t really deserve.)

Paul uses a strong, complicated phrase to underline just how important Epaphroditus is to him – literally it reads “the brother and co-worker and fellow-soldier my”. One article at the start to hold it together (“the”), and one personal pronoun at the end (“my”), welds the phrase together as a unity. Paul is saying: all three of these characteristics are bound up together; all three are reasons for my attachment to Epaphroditus.

The terms he uses would have a resonance in Philippi. The city was a retirement centre for old soldiers, and sustratiotes (fellow soldier) was the term used for an old comrade who had fought side by side with you. Sunergos, “co-worker”, is a term from the world of business and commerce; Philippi was a busy trading centre and Lydia was by no means the only merchant operating a thriving firm locally. And adelphos – “brother” – common word though it was, had a special meaning for a city whose history was full of back-stabbing and betrayal by seeming friends (such as the Philip who gave the city its name!). The battle for the very soul of the Roman Empire, between Mark Antony and Octavian on one side and Cassius and Brutus on the other, had been fought on the plain before the walls of Philippi, just a century before Paul wrote. And of course it was all about the assassination of Julius Caesar by his friends, fellow workers and former comrades in arms.

But Paul is also using words which had a special meaning for him. “Fellow worker” is a term he uses twelve times in his writings, and it describes someone who has worked alongside him in the work dearest to his heart: taking the gospel where no one had taken it before (Romans 15:20). “Soldier” is a frequent picture he uses to evoke the strain and hardship involved in front-line Christian service, the discipline required to cope with intense spiritual opposition.

Paul’s relationship with Epaphroditus provides a powerful condensed sketch of the ways in which Christian lives can be bound together. We are drawn close by living together (“brother”) and building emotional bonds. We are drawn close by fighting together (“fellow soldier”) and helping one another stand. (How many movies have you seen in which two people who aren’t getting on well are attacked by a common enemy – and after the fight begin to appreciate one another for the first time?) Finally, we are drawn close by working together (“co-worker”) and investing our energies in a common cause.