Philippians 2:19-30 (2)

Intro

Timothy

Philippians 2:19–22 ESV

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

What makes Timothy such an excellent help to those around him? His priorities. Namely, Christ as his top priority.

Note something about Timothy: what makes him the best possible help to the Ephesian church ISNT that the Ephesian church is the most important thing in the world to him.

What makes him the best possible help to the Ephesian Church is that Christ is the most important thing in the world to him.

Timothy’s proven worth isn’t in his love letters to the church or his flowery language, but in the fact that he has been faithfully serving with Paul in the gospel.

Epaphroditus

Philippians 2:25–30 ESV

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

Notice that Epaphroditus is also held up as one of the best that Paul could send to the church. He “longs for them” and he needs them to know that he is ok.

Loving God and loving people are inseparable, but our love for people has to flow out of our love for God and not the other way around.

If our love for God flows out of our love for people, we are going to have a subjective and broken way of loving people, and we will likely not love God very much at all/in a messed up way.

If our love for people flows out of love for God, our love for others will be unbiased, unchanging, completely selfless and eternal. Why is that?

because God’s love for people is so much greater than our own love for people, and that is proven through the person Jesus Christ.

Jesus

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

People don’t love people like this- we don’t have this type of love for anoe another naturally. Christ has a perfect love for you and for the people sitting around you.

And in his love for his church, he also brings us together and helps us to love one another.

Ephesians 4:12–16 ESV

to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

This is why our love for people has to come out of our love for God and God’s love for us.

1 John 4:19 ESV

We love because he first loved us.

We can only truly love each other properly when we commit ourselves to Christ first. But, if we are truly committed to Christ, we will also be committed to loving and serving the church the way that Jesus does.

The Call

Commit yourself to Christ, and let genuine love for others flow out of that commitment.

Commit yourself to Christ

reading the word

praying

submitting yourself to his authority- willing to change

Commit yourself to the church

serving one another

encouraging one another

holding one another accountable.