February 7
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RISKING ONE’S LIFE FOR THE WORK OF CHRIST
25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need, 26 because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27 For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. 29 Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold people like him in high regard, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to compensate for your absence in your service to me. -Philippians 2:25-30
________________________________________According to William Barclay’s commentary, the Greek word for risking one’s life is the verb paraboleuesthai, a gambler’s word which means to stake everything on a turn of the dice. Paul is saying that for the sake of Jesus Christ Epaphroditus gambled his life. In the days of the Early Church there was an association of men and women called the parabolani, the gamblers. It was their aim to visit the prisoners and the sick, especially those who were ill with dangerous and infectious diseases. In A.D. 252 plague broke out in Carthage; the heathen threw out the bodies of their dead and fled in terror. Cyprian, the Christian bishop, gathered his congregation together and set them to burying the dead and nursing the sick in that plague-stricken city; and by so doing they saved the city, at the risk of their lives, from destruction and desolation. There should be in the Christian an almost reckless courage which makes him ready to gamble with his life to serve Christ and men.
We see another selfless act of love of Paul in these passages. He sends back Epaphroditus to the Philippians who were concerned that he may be sick. Paul endorses this courageous worker of the Lord, Ephaphroditus, who risked his life for the gospel. Epaphroditus was with Paul in prison, as a way of the Philippian’s support for him. Can you imagine how someone suffering in prison can think of the welfare of others? Paul didn’t want the Philippians to worry about Ephaphroditus, so he sends him back so they can rejoice as to how the Lord is caring for them in prison. He reminds them how selfless and faithful Ephaphroditus in spreading the gospel, risking his own life.
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REFLECTION
• How can we risk our own lives just to bring the gospel to this corrupt world?