An Appeal to Unity (Phil. 4:2-3)

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An Appeal for Unity (Phil. 4:2-3)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on October 22, 2023

Imagine yourself sitting in a worship service and you hear your name in the message. But imagine it is not in a positive way. It is not particularly negative either. It is not a personal attack. It is something going on. You see, you have a dispute with someone else in the church. You are a very important leader in the church. There is another important leader in the church as well, and both your names are mentioned. You are exhorted to unity. It is a positive exhortation. You are being exhorted to agree “in the Lord.” Further, you are a woman, and in the culture and place that you live, women would not be mentioned in writing unless they were of a higher status.

Further, you are not mentioned by the preacher in some extemporaneous sermon. Someone is reading a letter. The letter is from a leader of the churches. The letter is from the person who started the church and is now in prison. The writer says that you served side-by-side for the gospel. The writer says that your name is in the Book of Life. But you are exhorted to make peace. It is not a command but a strong request.

Now, would you be squirming in your seat? Would you get red in the face? Would you get angry? Or would you respect the person who wrote the letter so much that you reflect, pray, and obey?

As you may know, I am thinking about what the Apostle Paul urged Euodia and Syntyche to do. They were leaders in the church at Philippi, but they are not united, and it is hurting the church. Let’s look at that passage.

My theme today is:

An Appeal for Unity

  1. Paul gives the appeal (Phil. 4:2).
    1. Philippians 4:2 (ESV)
    2. 2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
    3. This is again a passage where we see the importance of unity in Philippians.
    4. I like what The Message says: I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges.
    5. The verb “entreat” could be translated “entreat,” “encourage,” “ask,” “beg,” “invite,” or “appeal.”
    6. It has the idea of inviting for help.
    7. It is an appeal, not a command.
    8. Paul is asking them to apply the principle of Phil. 2:2-4.
    9. Francis Chan writes: Apart from the Pastoral Epistles and the book of Philemon, the only other personal exhortation like this is found in Colossians 4:17, where Arichippus is encouraged to complete his ministry, which suggests an indirect criticism from Paul. Unlike that example, however, Paul expresses a clear rebuke to these ladies (Silva, Philippians, 192).[1]
    10. He wants them to agree “in the Lord.”
    11. Notice how he says that again. The agreement is “in the Lord.” The Lord frames this agreement. The Lord helps us agree. He is saying that we are “one in the Lord.”
    12. Witherington III shares: in Greek and Roman oratory, women were not mentioned by name unless they were very notable or notorious.2 This is an important rhetorical signal that likely tells us something about the prominence of these women that Paul calls by name here.[2]
    13. Fee: That Paul had women as coworkers in Philippi should surprise us none, since the church there had its origins among some Gentile women who, as “God-fearers,” met by the river on the Jewish sabbath for prayer (Acts 16:13–15). The evidence from Acts indicates that at her conversion Lydia became patron both of the small apostolic band and of the nascent Christian community. By the very nature of things, that meant she was also a leader in the church, since heads of households automatically assumed the same role in the church that was centered in that household. Moreover, Macedonian women in general had a much larger role in public life than one finds elsewhere in the Empire; in Philippi in particular they were also well-known for their religious devotion.[3]
  2. Paul asks a true companion to help out (Phil. 4:3).
    1. Philippians 4:3 (ESV)
    2. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
    3. Paul now inserts an interjection translated as “Yes.”
    4. Now, he asks someone whom he calls “true companion” to act as a mediator.
    5. “True companion” is literally translated as “loyal yokefellow.” Or, “legitimate yokefellow.”
    6. MacArthur: The Gr. word pictures two oxen in a yoke, pulling the same load. A companion is a partner or an equal in a specific endeavor—in this case a spiritual one. It is possible that this individual is unnamed, but it is best to take the Gr. word translated “companion” as a proper name (“Syzygos”). He was likely one of the church elders (1:1).[4]
    7. Witherington III: I still believe the most plausible conjecture is that this is a reference to the bearer of the letter, Epaphroditus.35,[5]
    8. Sometimes we need a mediator to help us reconcile.
    9. I like what John Piper shares regarding the phrase “Help these women”: help these women
    10. He is asking an on the ground person, maybe a pastor to help them.
    11. Paul is an apostle, and he has written this letter. He may think that should be enough, but he is saying let this letter take root in a person and put flesh and bones on this letter to help.[6]
    12. Paul says that these women labored “side by side” with him in the gospel.
    13. That could be translated as “struggle with me” or “strived.”
    14. The gospel ministry is a struggle, it is a labor, it is something we strive for.
    15. Witherington III: From a sociological point of view one must ask questions such as, What sort of women had the time, resources, or freedom to struggle side by side with Paul for the gospel? The most plausible answers are: (1) women of some social status and personal freedom; particularly (2) single women or more well-to-do women with considerable clout in their own families, who could count on their servants to take care of many of the domestic responsibilities (see Acts 16:15). And make no mistake: since Paul does not specify the problem here, and does not even bother to take sides in the quarrel (it would appear), it is probably the divisive social consequences of this dispute that concern him, not some theological or ethical matter.[7]
    16. Paul says these ladies labored with him, and Clement and the rest of my fellow workers…
    17. We do not know who Clement is.
    18. These workers have names in “the book of life.”
    19. The book of life is a symbolic idea. It is a metaphor of those who have eternal life. Our name gets in the book of life when we accept Christ as Savior.[8]
    20. We are chosen before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), so I believe this is anthropomorphic language. That means it is ascribing to God human attributes.
    21. MacArthur: In eternity past, God registered all the names of His elect in that book which identifies those inheritors of eternal life.[9]
    22. Chrysostom comments on this passage: “Do you see how great is the virtue of these women, according to his testimony? As great as that which Christ told his apostles … ‘your names will be written in the book of life’ [Luke 10:20].… Did they toil with him? Yes, he says. They contributed in no small part. Even though there were many fellow-workers, yet in many affairs they also took a hand” (Hom. Phil.4.2–3).41,[10]
  3. Applications:
    1. Do we have someone we need to reconcile with?
    2. I encourage you to read Matthew 18:15-17 and Matthew 5:23-24 and apply those to your life this week.
    3. Do we recognize that we agree “in the Lord”? We have a bond “in the Lord.”
    4. Do we need a mediator like the one called “true companion”?
    5. Do we recognize that unity and reconciliation are very important (Phil. 4:3)?
    6. Do we labor “side by side” for the Gospel? Are we in ministry with others in the body of Christ (Phil. 4:3)?
    7. Are our names in the book of life (Phil. 4:3)?

Prayer

[1] Tony Merida and Francis Chan, Exalting Jesus in Philippians, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2016), 168.

2 Schaps, “The Women Least Mentioned,” pp. 323–30, here pp. 328–30.

[2] Ben Witherington III, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2011), 233–234.

[3] Gordon D. Fee, Philippians, vol. 11, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 1999), 168.

[4] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Php 4:3.

35 See Witherington, Friendship and Finances in Philippi, p. 106. I follow my fellow Durhamite Lightfoot, Philippians, pp. 158–59; and also Reumann, Philippians, p. 629. On this point my old mentor Fee, Philippians, pp. 393–96, suggests it was Luke, which is possible if one reads between the lines in Acts.

[5] Ben Witherington III, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2011), 239.

[6] John Piper, Look at the Book; 01/7/2020; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA4CLygDzCY

[7] Ben Witherington III, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2011), 237.

[8] Dr. Rydelnic, Open Line, 11.28.2020

[9] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Php 4:3.

Hom. Phil. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians

41 In fact in his thirteenth Homily on Philippians (13.244) Chrysostom calls these women the principal characters or “heads” (kephalion) of the Philippian church. See the discussion by Osiek, Philippians, Philemon, p. 111.

[10] Ben Witherington III, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2011), 241.

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