So, while still hoping for Timothy to be available to be sent, he is sending Epaphroditus. He said he is his brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, "your messenger and minister to me in my need."
So the picture being painted here is that the ministration of physical nourishment in material goods is vital. He gives regard to the church for ministering to his physical needs. Epaphroditus brought food, and Paul is sending him off with a letter.
In both cases, needs are being met. One is the physical need of the body, and the other is the spiritual need of the soul. It is clear that the word, the preaching, is the food for the soul.
Jesus set up that understanding by saying that man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). That begins to open our eyes to the fact that man is not just a physical being but also has an intangible aspect to him. The spiritual resource we need to be built up into Christ (Ephesians 2:20-22) is the word of God.
To disregard the word of God is to disregard the most important thing (Luke 10:38-42). Jesus did miracles, but He said that the words that He spoke are spirit and life (John 6:63), and Peter said that Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:68-69).
Peter recognized that he had a need that only Jesus could meet. Just as physical food is necessary and you need it regularly, so also the spiritual food of the word is important and you need it regularly.
Peter said desire the pure milk of the word (1 Peter 2:2). Basically, there is no graduating from needing the word of God, since the body does not graduate from needing the word of God.
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Brother
Paul feels a connection with Epaphroditus as a brother.
That is the basic foundation of our relationship with one another as Christians. We may not be connected by natural antecedent, but we are connected spiritually, across continents, centuries, age, and genders. And just as the spiritual food is more important in the grand scheme of things than the physical food, our spiritual connection is more eternally relevant than our natural connection.
Jesus, again, laid this foundation.
While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came and stood outside, asking to speak to him. Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you.” To the one who had said this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And pointing toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:46-50)
Jesus is not asking us to ignore our natural family, but there is need for perspective here, just as he said you cannot be his disciple if you do not hate your family (Luke 14:26). It is a matter of perspective and getting ready, like Abraham (Genesis 22), to sacrifice, in a figurative sense, those relationships because of His higher calling. The point of "hating" is that all other relationships no longer exist on their own (we are dead to them), but as outflows of our relationship withHim, and if they negatively affect your relationship with him, they are no longer relevant to us.
The point is that your spiritual connection is higher than your natural connection. But the natural and the spiritual overlap, for example, as a rule, we are not supposed to marry anyone who is not in the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:39).
Coworker
After saying Epaphroditus was his brother, Paul said he's his coworker. To be a coworker also means time, energy, and investment in a shared aim.
Again, we look to Jesus to flesh it out. He gave various parables where he is the Lord and we are the servants, and he calls people to work in his kingdom, his field. A worker is ultimately about partnership with God in his goals and purposes.
Fellow soldier
As a worker, you are creating value. As a soldier, you are destroying or defending. One exists in a positive sense, the other in a negative sense. Sometimes we focus on being built without understanding that we should at the same time be soldiers, pushing against lies. And sometimes people are primarily focused on pushing against lies and don't build as they should.
As soldiers, we recognized that we are in a war zone, and we need a strategy and awareness of the enemy's tactics.
As workers, it's like we are on a construction site, and we just grind on under the direction of Jesus, the ultimate builder of the church.
As a soldier, it is eat or be eaten. As a builder, it is either a grid or grounded.
As soldiers, we put on the whole armor of God (under the direction of Jesus, the Lord of Heaven's armies) and we are strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10-18), fighting, not for our own glory but for the glory of God.
People would not understand us, as we are brothers, fellow-workers, a
From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye
