We close the section of Timotheus and Epaphroditus. We have given our main thought to the light which it throws upon the nature of the Scriptures, those blessed "men of our counsel." We have scarcely turned aside to think of the actual "men" of the passage; Timotheus, and his self-forgetting devotion to the Lord and to St Paul, overcoming the sensitiveness of a tender nature; Epaphroditus, at once brave and affectionate, yearning for the old friends in the old scene, restless in the thought of their trouble about him, yet ready to "throw his life down as a die" in the cause of God and of His people. But if we have said little about them, it is not that we do not love their very names, and feel our union with them.
"Once they were mourning here below";
finding then, as we find now, that the day's burthen is no dream. But we shall see them hereafter, in the mercy of God, "changed and glorified," yet the same, where there will be leisure to learn all the lessons that all the saints can teach us from their experience of the love of Jesus.
Meanwhile let us pray, with the Moravians in their beautiful Liturgy:
_Keep us in everlasting fellowship with our brethren of the Church triumphant, and let us rest together in Thy presence from our labours._
[1] _Timotheon_ is slightly emphatic by its place in the Greek; as if to say, "Though _I_ must still be absent, _he_ will soon be with you."
[2] Not "equal-souled _with myself_"; which would demand rather, in the Greek, _oudena allon echo isopsychon_.
[3] Possibly, "_entered on_ bondservice," "_took up_ the slave's life," with a reference to Timothy's earliest connexion with St Paul (Acts xvi. 1-3). But the reference to the memories of _Philippi_ is much more likely. The aorist, _edouleusen_, will in this case gather up into one the whole recollection.
[4] The _touton_ is slightly emphatic by position, for St Paul is about to speak of other persons also, himself and Epaphroditus.
[5] _Egesamen_: I render the epistolary past by a present tense, which is the English idiom.
[6] So I render _apostolon_, to represent something of the _sacredness_ attaching by usage to the word. If I read aright, we have here an instance of gentle pleasantry, quite in harmony with the gravity of the Epistle at large. He takes the Philippians' message of love and gift of bounty as a sort of _gospel_ to himself, and so regards their messenger as a _missionary_ to him. So also with the word _leitourgos_: its usual associations in New Testament Greek are sacred, or at least solemn; and so St Paul seems to employ it here. Epaphroditus was no mere agent; he was a "_ministrant_," commissioned from a high quarter--the Philippians' love.
[7] _epeide epidothon en_: the epistolary past (_en_) is rendered in accordance with English idiom. _Epipothon_ is perhaps too _heavily_ rendered above; but the phrase is certainly a little stronger than _epepothei_ would have been.
[8] Perhaps it was an attack of Roman fever.
[9] _Ina me_ . . . _scho_: lit., "that I _may_ not." But the English idiom asks for "might." The Greek puts the past intention into what _was_ its present aspect.
[10] _Epempsa auton_: the epistolary aorist.
[11] Quite literally, "up to death he drew near." It is as if St Paul had been about to write, _mechri thanatou esthense_, and then varied the expression by writing _eggise_.
[12] _Paraboleusamenos te psyche_: so read, not _paraboleusamenos_ (which would mean, "taking evil counsel for his life," neglecting its interests). _Paraboleusamenos_ is a well-attested reading; the verb is not found elsewhere, but the form is abundantly likely. It would be developed from the adjective _parabolos_, "reckless," connected with the verb _paraballesthai_, "to cast a die."
[13] _Thoughts for Heart and Life_, by John Ker, D.D. (1888), p. 92.
[14] See Ep. i. _ad. Cor._, Sec. 47: "Take up the Epistle of the blessed Paul, the Apostle. . . . He wrote to you in the Spirit (_pneumatikos_) about himself, and Cephas, and Apollos."