Hold Such Men in Honor
28 I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. 29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor, 30 because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
Paul sends the man back with a public commendation, and the reason for it is a gap he names without complaint.
I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
The arithmetic of the sentence is characteristic: their joy is the first reason, his own relief the second, and even that is stated as a subtraction from sorrow rather than an addition of gladness.
Verse 29 is the commendation, and it is a command: receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor.
A man sent home before completing his errand could easily be thought to have failed, and Paul forecloses that reading before it can start — the same tactic he used for Onesimus in the letter to Colossae Colossians 4:9.
Verse 30 gives the grounds, and it is the sharpest sentence in the paragraph: because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
The verb for risking is a gambler's word — he staked his life. And the phrase that which was lacking in your service is not a rebuke. The Philippians could not come themselves; Epaphroditus made up the deficit by going, and nearly paid for the journey with his life.
settled What this mark means