I am distressed by people who say you must never feel any negative emotion in the name of faith. These are people who think that they need to control everything with their confessions or rituals, etc.
This is a self-dependent faith, not faith in God. It is faith in your confession, not faith in God. It is faith in how you can keep your emotions under control, not faith in God. It is putting yourself above Christ since we learnt that Christ himself was distressed, he was grieved (Matthew 26:38).
***
So the focus verse is telling us about one person missing others. You can only miss people we have been positively associated with for a long time.
And Ephaproditus could do something about missing them; he could go there, but sometimes you miss people, and you cannot do anything about it. Maybe they have died. It is okay to miss them.
Once again, I reject the message that seeks to cut out the emotional aspect of human beings is what I reject.
The book of Psalms is a powerful display of this.
The law that Moses wrote was about dos and don'ts and the consequences, with a sprinkling here and there of the need to love God, expressed in obedience.
But the Psalm is full of struggles. It is full of people who are either on a high, praising God, or on a low, praying for God's intervention, expressing their distress while still clinging to God. And all in the context of faith because they are calling upon God.
Jesus painted a scenario in Luke 18, whereby the saints are calling upon God like the widow repeatedly going to the judge.
Answer to prayer did not happen in a moment, but the faith is in the repeated going, not having any alternative except God, fixing the eyes on God.
***
Epaphroditus did not just miss that church; he greatly missed them. That shows the depth of the attachment. They had a deep relationship that is centered on Christ.
***
We don't know what caused Epaphroditus' sickness or how long he was sick. But it must have been a scare. Paul ascribed the recovery of Epaphoditus to the mercy of God. And he did not try to blame the sickness on the devil or on Epaphroditus's lack of faith.
In another place, Paul tried to help Timothy with his illness by recommending that he stop taking just water, but it must be mixed with wine. He also mentioned that he had frequent illness, though we do not know his particular illness (1 Timothy 5:23).
I say all that to say that illness is part of the human experience.
God gave a special promise to the nation of Israel that if they kept His commandments, they would not experience certain kinds of sicknesses (Exodus 15:26) associated with the plagues, showing that, in a limited sense, sickness was associated with judgment.
Jesus put an end to the extreme view that takes that to mean there should be no sickness among the people of God when He said the reason a man was born blind was so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him (John 9:2-3).
But now that we have passed from death to life because of Jesus (John 5:24), why are some people who are obviously devoted Christians sometimes ill? We do not know, but to deny that reality is to proclaim another gospel.
No part of the gospel says healing/deliverance is the children's bread (Matthew 15:26) (Jesus was communicating that His mission while in the flesh was to the natural Israel). No part of the gospel says you will not be sick.
The gospel, particularly, promises persecution and tribulation (Luke 21:12, 17), but Jesus says we should cheer up because he has overcome the world (John 16:33).
Some people will say the reason you are sick is because you have not confessed enough, you have not tithed enough, you have not served God enough, the list of requirements to be in health goes on and on. In all these is the rejection of the sovereignty of God and possibly even of common sense.
The sovereignty of God says that no bird falls to the ground without God knowing, and Jesus added that you are more valuable (Matthew 10:29-31). That means, no matter what, God is in charge.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus promises a new heaven and a new earth where there would be no pain (Revelation 21:4).
Revelation 21:4: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
That means there would be nothing that causes distress.
I believe in the operation of the gifts of healing (1 Corinthians 12:9). If anyone is sick, they can call the elders, and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up (James 5:14-15) and the general effectiveness of prayer (James 5:17-18). However, we must be careful not to think that this is the whole of reality. God bless you!
From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye
