Biblion Bible Commentary
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Hold Such Men in Honor
Philippians 2:28-30
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. · WEB
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