The author of Hebrews writes, “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). I have taken this to mean that it is fine to have heroes in life. In fact, I think that we need to have heroes. We need to have people that we see embodying what we long for and imitate their actions.
I am a big fan of this. If you walk into my office, you will find that one entire wall is covered with quotes of men—some of whom I would consider my heroes of the faith. I long to model their faith. And I long to be as they were and are in order that I might be a model for others to follow as well.
Paul would have agreed wholeheartedly with the exhortation from Hebrews 13:7. He knew that we needed models of the Christian life. In fact, he told the Corinthians: “Imitate me, even as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). He understood that Christian character was not something that someone developed simply through the teaching of another individual, but it was something that was picked up from associating with other Christians.
For example, why do children in the South grow up speaking differently from children in the North? It is not that there is something genetically different about these children.
We all know why this happens. It happens because children imitate the sounds that they hear around them. So if you put them in an environment where everyone sounds one way, they will end up sounding that way, and if you put them in a different environment, they will sound different.
The same thing happens in the Christian life. For example, how did you learn to pray? If you grew up in a Christian home, it was probably because you listened to your parents pray. Or you heard people praying in church, and you imitated them.
How then does a new believer learn to pray, think, talk, and live in a Christian manner? Sure, it will come through reading Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit; however, in large part, it will happen as he or she sees other believers and is able to model his or her life after the believers’ lives.
And how are some of us who have been believers a while supposed to learn to walk boldly through life, facing situations that we have never before faced? Again, (not overlooking the importance of Scripture, prayer, and the leading of the Spirit) a great deal of our understanding will come through simply modeling those who have walked before us.
We need heroes. We need models for God-saturated living. And, at the same time, we need to be a model for others. Those who come behind us are not going to be able to see Jonathan Edwards, or George Whitefield, or Billy Graham living life before them and modeling how Christians are supposed to go about things. They will look to us.
So it is crucial that we understand two things this morning if we are to model others and become models for still others. They are: 1) what kind of person we are supposed to model our lives after, and 2) how we are to model the Christian faith for those who are looking to us.
I think that Paul helps answer those questions for us as we are able to peer into his letter to the Philippians. In the passage which we have just read, he writes to the Philippians to let them know that he is sending to them Timothy and Epaphroditus. However, I believe he is doing more than simply letting them know what is going to happen. I agree with Gordon Fee that both of these men who are written of by Paul are meant to be “paradigmatic” for the Philippians (see note 1). And that is just a complex way of saying that Paul sent these men to the Philippians to be models for them of how one is supposed to live in a Christian manner.
For he tells the Philippians much about these men, and I cannot bring myself to think that he is indulging in cheap flattery, patting himself on the back (for they were his disciples), or wasting words. Rather, I think he is trying to make it clear to the Philippian believers that these are the kind of men that we should emulate.
That being the case, Paul sheds light on the two questions that I listed earlier. He shows us what kind of people we are supposed to model and what kind of people we need to be as models for others by simply telling the Philippians about Timothy and Epaphroditus.
I will, therefore, highlight three qualities that should be present in those after whom we would model and know as well that, though I will phrase the exhortations to fit the kind of person we should model, they can also be applied as the kind of person we need to be in order to be a model for others.
This is a quality that is hard to find because our nature wants to seek our own interests and not care about the interests of others. However, if we remember from last week in 2:5-11, this is the attitude that Christ had and it is the attitude that we must have. Therefore, if you are going to model someone and he or she is modeling a picture of Christ for you, then that demands that the individual is sincerely concerned about he welfare of others even above his or her own interests.
Paul writes to the Philippians, “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (2:19-21).
Paul knew there was a shortage of people like this, but he knew that Timothy was one of them. These kind of people are encouraging and humble. They are easy to desire to be around because we feel like the individual is desiring to be around us. They are delightful to be around, and they are truly interested in your life.
This kind of person is not easily offended when he or she is overlooked because the person is too concerned for others to stop and think of their hurt feelings. However, I do not think that Timothy was the only person like this. In fact, I don’t even think that Timothy was the only person like this in the passage.
Listen to what Paul says of Epaphroditus: “But I also thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier [obviously Paul considered him a close friend], who is also your messenger and minister to my need; because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick” (2:24-25).
I know that I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but did you catch that? Epaphroditus was distressed not because he was sick, but because he was concerned that his fellow believers were distressed upon hearing the news.
That is the picture of someone who is genuinely concerned for the welfare of others more than he is concerned for his own interests. That is why Paul is able to say, “Hold men like him in high regard” (2:29).
Imitate the lives of such men and women.
The reason I put this as one of the traits that we need to see in the lives of those whom we model (besides the fact that I think this passage addresses it, which I will get to soon) is because the person who has endured hardship because he or she is seeking to live a God-saturated, God-centered life is usually genuine in their love for God.
In other words, people who have endured hardship for Christ’s sake and are still pressing on in their God-centered living have proven that they are serious about the faith.
I fear that there are several people who confess Christ, but when they are faced with hardship for the sake of Christ will be quick to abandon their professed cause.
Again, Paul holds up Timothy and Epaphroditus for us. Paul writes of Timothy, “But you know of his proven worth that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father” (2:22). Timothy hadn’t just professed Christ, he had labored with Paul in advancing the gospel. Most likely he was with Paul on at least a few occasions when they were run out of town, or beaten, or put in jail. And yet, he was still at Paul’s side. He was still longing to live a God-centered, God-saturated life.
At the same time, Epaphroditus had been the one who had taken the funds, or food, or whatever the Philippian believers wanted to give to Paul, and given them to him. And did it cost him anything? Most certainly it did. He became very sick in this work.
Now, one might say that the reason he got sick was probably from some virus, not from taking things to Paul. However, it might also be true that if he had just sat at home that he would not have gotten sick. And we should not seek to differentiate between this kind of suffering in the work of Christ and persecution from other people. For I know of many people who have taken up mission work who suffer because of the food their body has to adjust to, or the pollution, or the heat, or many other things. And though it may not be that these things happen specifically because they are spreading the gospel (instead of opening a business in another country, for example), nonetheless, they did not have to go and risk that suffering. They went in obedience to Christ.
In the same way, Epaphroditus went to Paul and got sick. And though Paul mentions that Epaphroditus’ concern was for the Philippians, Paul doesn’t let us miss how sick he really was. He mentions in verses 27 and 30 that he was sick to the point of death, saying specifically in verse 30 that “he came close to death for the work of Christ.” And adding that he “risk[ed] his life to complete what was deficient in [the Philippians’] service to [Paul].”
When you find men such as these, who have endured hardship for the sake of Christ and are pressing on as passionately as ever, latch on to them. Follow them. Learn from them. Imitate them. For this character badly needs to be displayed to the world. The world will at times take notice of men who claim Christ and have lacked suffering, but they will not be able to turn away from men who are God-saturated and have endured hardship on his behalf.
For men such as these, everything in their lives is worship to God, for their lives are about him. They can say with Paul, “For to me, to live is Christ” (1:21).
I say that because as I was examining the lives of Timothy and Epaphroditus in my study, I kept wanting to point to Paul as having the same character. After all, he was the one who had modeled godly character for these two men. And couldn’t you say that he considered the welfare of others above his own interests? He was in jail as he was writing this letter. And couldn’t you say that he had endured hardship? For even when he first brought the message of the gospel to the Philippians he had been beaten and thrown into jail. He had exhibited the very traits that he was showing in Timothy and Epaphroditus that make a man worthy of being held in honor.
However, Paul doesn’t speak of himself here. And I believe it is because he is concerned about men thinking too highly of him.
Now, if you are wanting to object in light of his statement to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:1 (“Imitate me, even as I imitate Christ”). I would first remind you that there is need for such a thing, but I do not think at all that this dismisses the fact that Paul did not want men to think too highly of him. For, even in writing to the Corinthians later, Paul writes, “On behalf of such a man will I boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses. For if I do wish to boast I shall not be foolish, for I shall be speaking the truth; but I refrain from this, so that no one may credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me” (2 Corinthians 12:5-6).
Paul is saying that he doesn’t want anyone to think of him in a manner that is higher than he actually lives. And he was concerned that some might, so he actually spoke much about his weaknesses.
Again, we need to model and be such men.
May God grant us models (both men and women) who seek out the welfare of others above our own interests, endure hardship and press on for Christ’s sake, and fear that men will think too highly of them. And may God grant us the character to be like these people so that others might model their lives after us. Amen.