So then3, my friends, how dear you are to me and how I miss you! How happy you make me, and how proud I am of you!—this, dear friends, is how you should stand firm in your life in the Lord. Euodia and Syntyche, please, I beg you, try to agree as sisters in the Lord. And you too, my faithful partner, I want you to help these women; for they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement and all my other fellow workers, whose names are in God’s book of Life.
Phil 4:1-3
I think most of you have decided to wait for me to take you on a tour of this passage rather than attempt to dig for treasure yourself. A couple of you asked me why I divided that text as I did. For that you will need to go back to Gem 1859. I pointed you to the Gem after that (1960) for the same passage and the title I had given it. It is sectioned where it is because Paul has used the discourse marker “Dear Friends” in addition to the conjunction [Ωστε] which carries the sense “therefore”, “so”, “so then”, “so that”, “so as”, or “wherefore”. It is clear that Paul meant for the beginning of this chapter (section) to be read in conjunction with, or as a natural flow on from what he was talking about in the previous paragraphs. We know from the conclusions we made concerning Paul’s previous section that he was comparing Us and Them. Those who are of the mind of Christ with those who are of another mind set.
On that basis he now focuses on those who have the mind of Christ, not on the enemies of the cross of Christ. So then, he warmly and affectionately switched his attention back to the Philippians believers. He expressed his affection for them and the warmth of previous parts of the letter returns. They made him happy with their support of him and he was proud of them, so he told them so. That is all very natural in the midst of a letter to those who were dear to him as a result of the contact he had forged with them. He clearly knows them well as a result of the 18 months spent there at one time and the occasional visits back again when he returned to the area. But clearly we can detect a hint of the threat of the enemies of the cross, the Judaisers, those who were trying to undermine the faith of the saints in Philippi. “This is how you should stand firm.” Friends, stand firm! Why? Because you are my friends who make me happy, who are loved and are my pride and joy and my crown (reward or prize). It is not like a heavenly crown, but I suspect (as do a number of commentators), it is an allusion back to the garland or the prize of the champions in the Panhellenic Games. Paul often talks of those he has won to Christ as his reward, prize or commendation. Perhaps we could go so far as to say “trophies of grace”. These are the words used in this first verses, although not seen at surface level in the NLT above. At the end of the verse the word [ἀγαπητοί] ‘beloved’ is repeated again. Hence some translations have a repetition of ‘dear’, or ‘dear friends’ or ‘friends’ as in this case. (AgapÄ“toi) refers to those people loved with agape love, the sacrificial love of the Lord, by Christ, by Paul and by fellow believers.
Why does Paul say, “Stand firm beloved, loved people”? Because of the threat that lurks to their faith and trust in Christ to save them. Remember Paul has been talking about the Judaisers who are out to make them conform to the Law, which won’t save them. There are those around who are the enemies of the cross of Christ inside and outside the Church. Furthermore, where was Paul? This is a prison letter sent from Paul to the church in Philippi while Paul was held either under house arrest in Rome under the benevolent watch-care of friendly guards who were under the authority of an amenable Emperor. Or he was held, chained in the inner dungeon waiting the command of a malevolent Emperor to have him put to death. The freedom of house arrest would change and ultimately Paul would lose his life. Paul was thinking of his end of the race (1:23) at the same time he encouraged the Philippian believers to stand firm in their pursuit of Christ. Just like those in Philippi who were followers of The Way, Christians in all generations need to stand firm in their life in the Lord. Our race, walk, journey is not a 100 metre sprint, or a short 192 metres; it’s a marathon to use Paul’s analogy of running. Oh we can run it or we can walk it, but either way we must reach the finish line. The Bible, albeit in Hebrew or in Greek uses the metaphor or ‘running’ or ‘walking’ our race to complete our journey with Christ to the ultimate prize – the Life of the Age to Come and attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Hence the reason Paul’s train of thought turns in the direction that it did.
Now Paul narrows down his general comments to focus on certain people. For a brief moment, it gets up close and personal for certain people back there in Philippi.
We have a list of people who are mentioned, some of them by name:-
- Euodia
- Syntyche
- You / My faithful partner
- Clement
- All my other fellow workers, whose names are in God’s book of life
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to do some more sleuthing on the above named characters. I am hiring you, as a private investigator, to find out all you can about these people and report back to me before the next Gem. It is not a Mission Impossible but rather a mission that is very possible with everything you have at your disposal. The people mentioned in Scripture are very accessible. Their names are a matter of public record now. All you have to know is where to look. Look in all the places you know to look. It is worth doing and the reward is great. See what you can come up with.
I tell people in Deeper Bible, the same principle applies to people’s names in Scripture as applies to place names. Don’t ever by-pass a place name without looking it up and finding all you can about it. If you do that, your understanding of Scripture will grow exponentially. But most of us read a place name in the Bible and think to ourselves, “place name”, “place name” and “place name”.
- “I don’t know where this is in the Bible or in the world and I don’t need to know.”
- “The Bible is outdated and I don’t need to bother following all the leads.”
- “It won’t change my life one iota. So I don’t need to bother about every person’s name in the Bible. They mean nothing to me and besides, I will never meet them.”
Let me assure you that it is important. Like any name in a book or character in a film or a play, it is important to try to suss out who these people are and how they are related to the storyline. So too in this case, it important for us to follow up the players or the suspects. But there is another reason to check out all place names and all personal names in the Bible. Those of you who know me well, know why. God often shares added relevant meaning with us via the meaning of the names of places and people in His story.
Collectively I will share anything you found in the next Gem and credit you for each little treasure.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet Act ii, Scene ii)
Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what’s in a name?
Helen Hunt Jackson
Don’t judge others. We only know their names, not their story. We only know what they’ve done, not what they’ve been through.
Sidney Mohede
I get up every morning and read the obituary column. If my name’s not there, I eat breakfast.
George Burns