Philippians 4:1-9

Philippians 4:1–9 “So then, my brothers and sisters, dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends! I appeal to Euodia and to Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I say also to you, true companion, help them. They have struggled together in the gospel ministry along with me and Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! Let everyone see your gentleness. The Lord is near! Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. And what you learned and received and heard and…”

Introduction TBD

Philippians 3:20–21 NET 2nd ed.

But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 4:1 NET 2nd ed.

So then, my brothers and sisters, dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

We read the end of chapter 3 because he says “This” way, and th>?e “way” we should be standing is as a citizen of heaven. A kingdom citizen.

Not acting like Roman citizens, not actin like worldy citizens, but conducting ourselves in the way Kingdom Citizens should be acting.

And to understand this passage, you have to understand that the word he uses in verse 20, our “Citizenship” is in heaven is the exact same word he uses in

Philippians 1:27 NET 2nd ed.

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that—whether I come and see you or whether I remain absent—I should hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel,

If you remember from when we went through chapter 1, the word Paul uses there is “act like a citizen”

Keep your finger there on 1:27, because Paul references back to that multiple times throughout this section.

What does it look like to be a citizen of God’s kingdom?

Topic brought up in bible study tuesday, we might have the misguided idea that if you’re a citizen of the Kingdom, that if you’re a kingdom citizen you can’t participate in anything earthly

Can’t salute the flag, can’t say the national anthem

Can’t participate in government.

Misguided. I think our attitude should be that of Jeremiah 29.

God is speaking to the exiles going into Babylon and he says

Jeremiah 29:7 NET 2nd ed.

Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.’

We can be kingdom citizens and still work for the betterment of Babylon.

We don’t do that by hiding ourselves away, and not associating with the world at all.

We do that by showing the world the goodness of God’s kingdom.

In order to do that we have to

1) Act differently than the world, Act the way God commands us to

2) We have to be present in the world, and visible to the world, and recognize that the world is watching us.

We have to stand in the Lord in this way.

And the word he uses there, “stand” in the Lord

Is the exact same word he uses in Verse 1:27

Philippians 1:27 NET 2nd ed.

At this point the letter takes a turn. This is where it gets interesting

Philippians 4:2–3 NET 2nd ed.

I appeal to Euodia and to Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I say also to you, true companion, help them. They have struggled together in the gospel ministry along with me and Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.

I might have said this before, but when we read a letter, we have to understand that we are hearing one half of a phonecall conversation

Here in this verse it is absolutely evident.

Who are these women? Euodia and syntyche

We have no idea

What were they arguing about?

We have no idea

Who is the faithful companion who is supposed to help

We have absolutely no idea.

None of these people are ever mentioned ever again in the rest of the Bible, this debate is never talked about in the Book of Acts, it’s never referenced by any other letters.

We don’t have any church history sources that give us any clue.

All we know for certain is that there are two women who are disagreeing about something.

They worked with Paul

And Paul is calling on someone to help them.

What we can do, when we get tricky passages like this, is we can think critically about this, and at the very least we can rule out some of the things that it’s not.

And we can gather some clues as to who these women could be.

First and foremost, we can safely say that these women were prominent leaders in the church in some capacity.

Paul describes them as “Struggling together in the Gospel Ministry” with him.

We know that in the Church in Philippi from the book of acts, the head of the household of the original church was a woman named lydia.

Remember, the church in the first century wasn’t like this

They mostly met in houses.

When they took the Lord’s supper it was a lot more like a pot luck at someone’s house than a gathering in a public building like this one.

And in the early church it was not just possible, it was common for women to be leaders of a household church.

I know that can be a touchy subject for some people.

But if you’re interested, we can pull out our bibles and I can show you example after example after example of women holding not just secondary helper roles, but holding prominent leadership roles in the early church.

Paul says they struggled together, they contended side by side with him.

Which by the way is the exact same word that Paul uses in:

Philippians 1:27 NET 2nd ed.

So we can fairly safely assume these are prominent women in the church

And as for their disagreement we can rule a couple of things out.

We can rule out the idea that it was just some petty squabble.

Remember, Paul was all the way in prison, they had to send someone to him to fill him in on what was going on in the church. It’s highly unlikely that if this were some little minor disagreement that it would have made it into the letter.

Whatever the debate was, it was serious enough that it was causing a problem in the church.

Philippians 4:2 NET 2nd ed.

I appeal to Euodia and to Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

But we can also rule out the idea that it was a major doctrinal issue.

Because if it were an issue of doctrine, a biblical issue, Paul would have picked a side.

He would have said Euodia is right, synthche is wrong. now let’s move on.

No, he says “Agree” in the Lord. He tells them to work it out. Come to a compromise, come to a decision.

He literally says for them to be of the “Same mind”

Which is the exact same type of wording that uses earlier in:

Philippians 1:27 NET 2nd ed.

We have this disagreement in the church. It’s not a doctrine issue, but’s it’s a serious issue.

And it’s serious enough, I think, that it was threatening to split the church.

Paul talks about Unity in this letter an awful lot. It really feels like like that’s his major push throughout the entire letter.

My guess: the argument was probably about either Authority, or Money.

because Paul talks a lot about submitting, and being humble, and not being self-serving

But in the next section he’s also going to talk about money and finances.

Whichever way you go, Paul is urging them NOT to handle things the way the world handles things.

Philippians 4:3 NET 2nd ed.

Yes, I say also to you, true companion, help them. They have struggled together in the gospel ministry along with me and Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.

And then we have here in verse 3.

I say to you true companion, help them

one of the things that the greek language does that the english language doesn’t is that in english, the plural form of the word you and the singular form of the word you are the same word.

You can mean one person, or it can mean multiple.

And you usually have to depend on context to know which one it is.

Greek is great because it has two seperate words for the plural you and the singular you.

99 times out of a hundred, when you’re reading a letter written to the church, you’re going to see the plural version. “y’all”

If you read the letters, and you just automatically assume it’s plural, you’re going to be right more often than not.

Here in verse 3, it’s singular.

He’s talking to a specific individual.

That’s curious.

Who is this guy?

Paul calls him a “true companion”

The word is literally “yokefellow”:

Basically like saying “co-worker”

Most likely, and again, this is all just us trying to play detective work

Most likely it’s Epaphroditus.

And the language he uses, here in this verse to describe him, and the other co-workers

It’s the exact same type of wording that he uses earlier in:

Philippians 2:25 NET 2nd ed.

But for now I have considered it necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. For he is my brother, coworker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to me in my need.

Most scholars and traditions hold this out to be Epaphroditus. It makes the most sense.

Here’s what’s fascinating then.

Epaphroditus is the one who the Philippian church sent to Paul in prison.

He’s the one who relayed everything that was going on in the church

Epaphroditus is the one who returned with Paul’s letter back to philippi

Fun fact, almost all of the time, paul didn’t pen his own letters, he dictated them to someone who then wrote down his words, and then read them back to the church.

So from what we have so far in Philippians, we can almost recreate the scene in prison, as Epaphroditus is sitting with paul, and they’re talking about the church.

Paul’s like how are things going?

And epaphroditus is like Absolutely terrible.

First of all everyone is worried sick about you in prison

The entire church is extremely anxious about the leadership, and we really need you to come back. What are we going to do if you die here in prison?

On top of that we’re facing all kinds of pressures.

There are some people who want to jump ship and worship the roman gods

we don’t think we can do this?

And if you can’t come with us, at least can you send timothy?

He was there from the beginning

I tell you Paul it’s a wreck

The Judiazers have showed up, they’re trying to circumcise all the gentiles

On the other side of things we’ve got these gnostics who are trying to pull people astray and tell them to just do whatever makes them feel good

And if that wasn’t enough, We’re having a leadership crisis between Euodia and syntyche, and we just don’t know what to do

We’re stressed out.

We want to make this church work, but we don’t have the right people for the job.

And then Paul dictates this letter to him. He says write this down.

And he goes down the list, answers all of the concerns.

And then he says “I say to you true companion, help them”

And Epaphroditus is like did you mean to say “y’all” I’m assuming you misspoke, I’ll put the plural form of the word down

And Paul’s like I said what I said.

Epaphroditus. You. Help them.

you don’t need me

You don’t need timothy

you can do it. You can help hold this church together, you can help solve this debate

You’re a citizen of Heaven.

Philippians 4:4 NET 2nd ed.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!

And then paul switches back to the plural again. He’s telling the whole church, rejoice.

Philippians 4:5 NET 2nd ed.

Let everyone see your gentleness. The Lord is near!

The word gentleness, here, this is the Definition of the greek word behind it

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. ἐπιεικής

not insisting on every right of letter of law or custom, yielding, gentle, kind, courteous, tolerant

The reason God calls us to act this way is so that the world might see us, as a beacon of hope. So that they might look at the church and say “this place is different”

Here’s why I brought up the fact that this

Philippians 4:6–7 NET 2nd ed.

Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

I want to impart something to you:

This passage, here, and what follows is incredibly comforting as an individual to read.

As an individual Christian, this warms my heart.

I’ve been in those situations, where God has provided me the overwhelming peace, where I’ve had to stop leaning on my understanding, and start leaning on his

And I’ve taken my stress, and my pain, and my anxiety, and my worries, and my grief, and my struggles,

And I’ve had moments where I’ve had to take all of these things and laid them at the foot of the cross

Isn’t that beautiful

But if we stop there, and the only thing we think about is what god can do for me, individually, I think we’re missing the boat completely.

Remember, this whole passage is not in the context of an individual.

This is not Paul writing to one specific person, trying to comfort him or her

Paul is writing to the community, not the individual Christian.

This is why this citizenship stuff is so important

You can’t be a citizen of one.

What we have done in the modern church, in my opinion, is we have watered down the gospel into soundbites that are pleasing to the individual

Has anybody ever been handed a gospel tract: Those little pieces of paper that say “here’s what the gospel is:” Each person is a sinner in need of a savior, Jesus came to save sinners, put your faith in him, say the little prayer we have printed here on the card, and you’ll go to heaven.

That is not the Gospel.

That’s me language

Your individual walk with God is but a fraction of the gospel.

It is a component of it, to be sure, but the gospel is Christ’s institution of a kingdom

Jesus Christ defeating the powers of death and sin for the world

Jesus Christ instituting a Heavenly citizenry, and putting them on mission to go out into the world

He didn’t just die on the cross so that a few people could go to heaven and enjoy eternal life

1 Peter 2:9 NET 2nd ed.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

When we take up our cross to follow Christ, when we acknowledge his kingship, his Lordship over us

When we are immersed into Christ, when we die to self, and become one with the Body, when we enter into his community of faith

We take an oath of citizenship

We enter into something bigger than ourselves

And so as much as it is an amazing comfort to read these words individually, when we think about these as instructions for us, it takes on such a powerful meaning.

Philippians 4:8 NET 2nd ed.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.

Euodia and syntchece, they’re a test case of what it should look like for kingdom citizens to interact with one another.

Epaphroditus, he’s a test case example of what it should look like for God’s family to operate.

And Paul is encouraging Euodia, and Syntyche, and Epaphroditus to stop thinking of self, and to start being one

Throw off what I think, and live in such a way that WE have the same mind of Christ.

With your fellow citizens.

Whatever is true, worthy of respect, just, pure, lovely, commendable....

We should think of these things

We should be of the same mind

Because that’s what it looks like for us, collectively to be citizens of heaven.

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