Biblion Bible Commentary
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Epaphroditus, Sick to Death
Philippians 2:25-27
25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need, · WEB
The man who carried their gift nearly died of it — and what distressed him was that they had heard he was ill.
I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need.
Five titles, and the arrangement is deliberate. Three describe his relation to Paul, ascending from kinship to shared labor to shared danger. The last two describe his relation to the Philippians: he was their apostolos, their sent one, and the minister of Paul's need on their behalf.
Verse 26 gives the reason for sending him home, and it is unexpectedly tender. He longed for all of them and was very troubled because you had heard that he was sick.
The distress named is not his illness but their worry about it. A man who nearly died is described as upset that the news reached them.
Verse 27 confirms how close it was: he was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.
Paul does not say he healed him. The apostle through whom extraordinary miracles were done Acts 19:11 reports a recovery as God's mercy and admits what the alternative would have cost him — sorrow piled on the sorrow he already carried.
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