The Exception of Faithfulness


Sermon by Wiley Lowry on July 30, 2023 Philippians 2:14-20

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Tonight, we come to faithfulness, the seventh of the nine fruit of the Spirit that we find in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. It’s been fun to have conversations with several of you about this series. Patience has probably been the one that has generated the most feedback, whether it’s about the way people drive or about your neighbor’s loud music or about really just having to wait for anything. We can resonate with the need for patience. But I also learned a little piece of trivia about these nine words that I had never heard before or never noticed before. It actually came from – Craig Flowers shared this with me. It’s that the first three – love, joy and peace – are all one-syllable words. And then the next three – patience, kindness, goodness – are two syllables. And then the last three – faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – are all three syllables each. That’s just so simple, but something about that is really satisfying to me! And maybe it’s something that can help us remember these nine fruits of the Spirit as we reflect on them and seek to live them out in our own lives.

Faithfulness is at the head of this last trio of the fruit of the Spirit. Some commentators will group the fruit into groups of three, and not just because of the syllables, believe it or not. And so, for instance, John Stott says that love, joy and peace are directed towards God, patience, kindness and goodness are directed towards others, and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are more inward attitudes and directed towards ourselves. And there is certainly merit in grouping the fruit of the Spirit in that way. But one of the things that we have tried to stress over these weeks in the fruit of the Spirit is that all of these fruits are about our relationships with each other. The fruit of the Spirit are about life together as God’s people. So, what does it mean to exhibit faithfulness toward each other? How are we called to be faithful as brothers and sisters in Christ to each other?

Well, there are four things that I want us to see from this passage tonight. I want us to see first, the rarity of faithfulness. Secondly, the relationships of faithfulness. Third, the reason for faithfulness. And then lastly, the relevance of faithfulness. So those four things will be our outline for tonight. Before we read this passage from Philippians chapter 2, let me pray and ask for God’s help and blessing on our reading and study of His Word. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, for gathering us around Your Word morning and evening, and for challenging us, convicting us, comforting us, encouraging us, directing us in the way that You would have us to go. We thank You for Your Son, Jesus, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit that comes through faith in Him. We pray that Your Spirit would illumine these words to us and to our hearts and our minds, to our hands and our feet, to the actions that we display towards others, and that we would do all for Your glory and praise. Speak Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 14:

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So, receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.”

The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.

First, the exception of faithfulness. When it comes to faithfulness, good luck finding it in the New Testament, because in the ESV, the word “faithfulness” only appears three times. So that means that in the last three sentences, I have already said “faithfulness” more times than in all 27 books of the New Testament. That’s surprising to me. Now the Greek word shows us more often because the Greek word that is translated as “faithfulness” in Galatians chapter 5 is actually the word “faith.” It’s “pistis” in the Greek. And when it’s used to refer to a personal characteristic or to a quality of life, then it means “faithfulness” or “trustworthiness.” And whatever the case, faithfulness is hard to find. Think about what Paul says here in Philippians 2 verse 20 about Timothy. He says, “I have no one like him.” No one who is so like-minded. No one who will have the genuine interest of the Philippians in mind. And then Epaphroditus – clearly there’s a challenge to faithfulness. Faithfulness came from Epaphroditus at a great cost. He was on his own and he was a long way from home as he ministered to Paul. In fact, he almost died in his service to the apostle Paul. He risked his life to care for Paul on behalf of the Philippian church. You see, Timothy and Epaphroditus, they stand out. They stand out for their examples of faithfulness, their exemplary faithfulness to Paul in his time of need.

And that wasn’t always the case for Paul. Paul didn’t always find that to be true. In fact, think about some of the things Paul writes to Timothy in his second letter to Timothy. Second Timothy chapter 4, Paul says that, “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” He says, “Luke alone is with me, and at my first defense, no one came to stand by me but all deserted me.” You get a sense toward the end of Paul’s life that he knew what it was like to be alone and of how much he needed faithful partnerships in the Gospel, how important and significant those things were to him and his ministry.

And faithfulness can still be a rare thing today as well. There was a recent article on friendship by a writer named Jennifer Senior, and she tells this story about how two friends started out to write a book together and their book was going to be about what it was like to live life together and to show what it’s like to live and to be okay and to kind of show their friendship to the world. And it was going to be based on a collection of their emails and their text messages to each other over time. But what it ended up being was a record of how their friendship broke down and fell apart. And it killed the book project. You could say that there may be something about it that would have made it a more compelling book to read, to see about the weaknesses and the fragility of friendships today. Senior writes, she says, “One could argue that modern life conspires against friendship, even as it requires the bonds of friendship all the more.” And there’s marriage and parenthood and busyness. There’s mobility, success, and even social media. Those things all have a role in thinning out our friendships in ways and testing the bonds of friendship that we have with one another. And there are studies that say things like we replace half of our social network over a course of seven years and that the percentage of Americans who say that they do not have a single close friend has quadrupled since 1990. And that goes along with the things that we already know, don’t we, about marriage and the percentages of marriages that end in divorce. Or what we already know about how frequently people hop from one church to the other or just merely drop out. “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man, who can find?” is what we read in Proverbs chapter 20.

Timothy and Epaphroditus, they were such faithful men. But what is faithfulness? Well maybe the best definition of faithfulness that we can find anywhere is what we find in the book of Ruth. And you know the book of Ruth and how it begins with what Eugene Peterson calls “the least promising material for a gospel story.” It begins with anarchy and famine and death and separation and bitterness. And when it came time for Naomi and her two widowed daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to part ways, Orpah went back to her people but not Ruth. What did Ruth say? Ruth said to Naomi, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and may the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” It’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful picture of faithfulness. It’s a beautiful picture of commitment in relationship. And that’s what faithfulness is; it’s commitment in relationship. It’s “lasting loyalty and trustworthiness in relationship,” as one dictionary defines it. Or as another says, it’s “a quality or virtue associated with being loyal, trustworthy and reliable in keeping promises, commitments and obligations.” You see, it’s about relationships.

And that brings us to our second point – the relationships of faithfulness. We know who the relationships are in this passage, don’t we? It’s Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus and the Philippians, and some mixture or combination of all those different relationships and the way they fit together. But what are those relationships like? Well, think about prepositions. Prepositions have been called “the biggest little words” in our language and maybe really in any language for that matter. They’re little words like “in, on, at, to,” and “from.” They’re easy to overlook, but they make big connections. Like, “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed.” Or, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Or, “Come to Me all you labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The prepositions in those verses are a big deal. And sometimes you hear it said that so much of Christianity is about personal pronouns, that Jesus Christ loves me and gave Himself for me. But isn’t it also true that so much of Christianity depends on little prepositions? Little prepositions like “with” and “in” and “for” and “to.” What is God’s faithfulness like? It’s that He is with us, and He is for us, and “of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be the glory forever and ever, amen.”

Those little prepositions are a big deal and they can say a lot about our faithfulness to one another too. Think about it. Faithfulness means being with one another. And Paul says that Timothy had served with him in the Gospel. He had served with him as a son with a father. And that could be something that Paul and Timothy had something of an apprentice type relationship; there was modeling and watching and copying and adapting. There’s this close bond as they are engaged together in the work of the Gospel. And with Epaphroditus, Paul calls him “my brother,” and “fellow worker,” and “fellow soldier,” and “your messenger and minister to my need,” in verse 25. You see, when Paul talks about Epaphroditus as “my fellow worker” and a “fellow soldier,” those words each begin with the Greek word “sum.” It’s the Greek preposition, “sum.” And that is translated as “with” or “together.” They are side by side in the work and defense of the Gospel, and it’s important to notice just how significant it was that Epaphroditus left Philippi to be with Paul in order to care and to minister to him, to bring encouragement to him, to care for him personally. And so much of this exchange between Paul and the Philippians is related to Paul’s concern, one, that Timothy go and be with him, secondly, that Epaphroditus return and be with him, and then third, that he is hoping, he is hopeful that one day he will be able to be with them as well.

You see, faithfulness, as we see it displayed in these relationships, is so much about enjoying the bonds of fellowship together, of being together. And even if it’s not able to be literally, physically together, it’s being united in mind and heart; it’s being with one another, in it together. That’s part of faithfulness. And it’s not just being with each other, but it’s being for one another. Paul here sends Timothy to the Philippians because it says in verse 20, he will be “genuinely concerned for your welfare.” Now we read that and we think naturally that their welfare that he’s talking about is their spiritual welfare, and that probably is the case, but don’t miss that so much of this passage is about physical well-being as well. Because most likely when Epaphroditus went to visit Paul, he was there to minister to his physical needs while he was in prison. And while Epaphroditus became sick to the point of death, Paul is obviously concerned about his recovery and about relieving the concerns and the anxieties of the Philippians that they had for their brother. There’s a concern, I think, that we see in this passage of being for someone spiritually and physically as well, being for the whole person. That’s the overall impression that we get from this whole letter to the Philippians, is that Paul is for them and he is for their good and they are for him as well. There’s a love and a concern and a mutual interest that they have for each other and for each other’s good. 

And then there is a commitment to each other over a long time. It’s a commitment for as long as they are able. That’s what the other preposition is – “over.” Over time. And if you know the story of the founding of the church in Philippi, it’s one of the most unlikely and memorable accounts in all the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16 tells us about the conversion of Lydia. She was a merchant in purple. And then there was the conversion of that unnamed slave girl who had been demon possessed. And then the conversion of a Philippian jailor who was set to take his own life when the earthquake happened and he thought that all the prisoners had escaped. And yet it’s those three unlikely individuals and their households and others with them that came together as the church in Philippi. This was Paul’s first church on European soil. And now here we are all these years later and Paul is writing to them, he is affirming to them his commitment to them for as long as God allows. In verse 16, Paul is thinking about the day of Christ and he is thinking about how his ministry to them measures up in light of the day of Christ. He says, “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith” – he’s saying that he is pouring out his life for the sake of his brothers and sisters in Philippi. He’s doing in the same way much of what Epaphroditus had done for him on behalf of the Philippians. That’s the story of the church at Philippi.

What do we know about the story of Paul and Timothy’s relationship? Paul and Timothy’s relationship is full of affection and tenderness. Timothy really was like a son to Paul, and in Paul’s last letter to Timothy, we read those moving words about how Paul had “fought the good fight,” he had “finished the race,” he had “kept the faith.” And he says to Timothy, “Do your best to come to me before winter.” You see, Paul and Timothy’s friendship, it had been forged over many years, and Paul can say here in verse 22, “You know Timothy’s proven worth;” his proven worth because he had demonstrated it over many years. That’s what faithfulness is. It’s being with someone and for someone over the long haul. It’s being trustworthy and dependable and selfless and gracious through good times and bad.

Faithful was one of Christian’s traveling companions in John Bunyan’s, Pilgrim’s Progress. And Faithful was there with Christian as they walked through the wilderness together, and Faithful was there with Christian as they walked through Vanity Fair together, that town that was full of the world’s temptations and pleasures and opposition. And Faithful didn’t make it through Vanity Fair. You see, Mr. Envy and Mr. No-Good and Mr. Love-Lust and Mr. Live-Loose and Mr. High-Mind, they had no place for a man like Faithful there. And Faithful gave his life to remain true to his name. He didn’t make it through Vanity Fair. He made it to the Celestial City. But you see, Christian did make it through, and Christian made it through the wilderness with great comfort, and Christian made it through Vanity Fair with his life because he had Faithful there with him. And we need Faithfuls too. We need Faithfuls if we are going to make it through the wilderness of life. We need Faithfuls as well if we are going to make it through the temptations of worldliness and the dangers of the pleasures of this life present to us. We need Faithfuls, and we also need to be Faithful to others as well.

How do we do that? How can we be faithful to others? Well, let’s think about the reason for faithfulness. See, so far, we’ve talked about the faithfulness of Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus and the Philippians, but we’ve left one out, haven’t we? Who have we left out? You see, none of those is the main example of faithfulness in these verses because the main example of faithfulness in these verses is Christ. And you see, the care that Paul and Timothy extended the Philippians is Christ’s care that is extended to the Philippians. And the care that Epaphroditus and the Philippians extend to Paul is the work of Christ to Paul on their behalf. But did you notice how the overarching concern, the controlling principle throughout this passage, really the controlling principle throughout this whole book is Christ. And what do we read back in Philippians chapter 1 where Paul says, “To live is Christ and to die is gain”? And he says that his labor, his suffering on behalf of the Philippians, verse 16, was “carried out in view of the day of Christ.” In fact, he’s viewing his ministry to them as an offering, as a sacrifice of praise to the one who had offered Himself for his own salvation.

And what is it that sets Timothy apart from so many others? Paul says that what sets him apart from others is that he did not seek his own interests, but verse 21, he sought the interests of Jesus Christ. Did you get that? It’s not a contrast between seeking his own interests versus seeking the interests of others; it’s a contrast between seeking his own interests versus seeking the interests of Christ. And seeking the interests of Jesus means seeking the welfare of the brothers and sisters at Philippi.

Then there’s Epaphroditus. Verse 30. Look at verse 30. It says he nearly died for the work of Christ. And what he did for Paul was ultimately done for Christ Jesus. His and the Philippians’ service to Paul was in truth service to Jesus Christ. Surely, we need that kind of reminder, don’t we when we’re called to faithfully serve one another. The same thing applies as what we saw last week with goodness because it’s easy to grow weary in doing good; it’s easy to grow weary in being faithful, isn’t it? It’s easy to grow weary in being faithful, isn’t it? It’s easy to grow weary in being faithful when sometimes the other person’s needs are so great. And sometimes we don’t know how we’re going to fix it. And you know what, we probably weren’t even called to fix it in the first place. But even our service, our ministry to them, sometimes it goes unnoticed. It may go unappreciated. And there are plenty of times when you just don’t feel like giving of your time and your energy to someone else. But ultimately, it’s not about us. And really, it’s not about the other person in some sense. It’s about Jesus, and it’s about serving Him, and it’s about advancing the work and the name of Christ in our service and ministry to other people.

You know it’s surprising – it’s surprising but it’s not an accident that these verses come right after Philippians 2:1-11. Philippians 2:1-11 are some of the most amazing verses in all of the Bible. They are some of the most beautiful, mysterious even, teaching about Christ and the Gospel. In fact, some people think that Paul is including a hymn in the text of his message to the Philippians. And he writes about Jesus who, “Though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but He emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in likeness as a man, and found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” And then a few verses later, we basically get travel plans and a medical update on somebody that we’ve never heard of.

But there’s a connection. And what Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus and the Philippians do for each other are ultimately done because of what Christ had done for them. And He had been faithful to them in showing them grace and forgiveness and giving them new life together in Christ. And though we never want to say, we never just want to say that Jesus gives us an example to follow, but we can also say that Jesus gives an example to follow. And Alec Motyer writes about these verses. He says that, “The Lord is the Christian’s model and these are model Christians.” And in the end, their service to one another is done because they follow Jesus and because they have bowed their knee to Him as their Lord and Savior. You see, we need that. We need the wonders of the person and work of Christ if we are going to be faithful to carry out the mundane duties of the work that we do for Christ.

And that leads us to the last thing. That’s the relevance of faithfulness. Notice what verse 29 says. “So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men.” Honor such men. Honor faithfulness. Honor what is oftentimes quiet and simple and unassuming, ordinary and mundane faithfulness. Honor it. Because what do we usually honor? We usually honor someone with a big personality and with charisma. We usually honor someone who is a visionary and strategic leader, who has all of the credentials and connections, who has money and style. We honor the people who can make a big splash but they may not be around when everything calms down.

Here are a few quotes I came across this week from various places:

“We often over-value abilities and under-value faithfulness.”

“We think we’re called to be successful when we’re actually called to be faithful.”

“We celebrate gifts and talents when we should be celebrating character, like faithfulness.”

And one of the things David Felker and I talked about as we prepared for this series on the fruit of the Spirit is how there is a connection with this series with the one that we did previously this summer – the series on the unnamed and indispensable people in the Bible. Because you see, we’re so oftentimes drawn to big names and big talk, but what about being there with one another, for one another, over year after year after year after year. We need that. We need faithfulness. We need faithfulness in our marriages. We need faithfulness with our children. We need faithfulness with our friendships and we need faithfulness in the church among God’s people. We need faithfulness, like what we see here in Philippians chapter 2.

I was preaching out of town for a friend recently, and after the sermons someone came up from the congregation and she said, “I could tell that sermon was for you.” Maybe I had been a little too personal in the sermon, I don’t know, but in truth, every sermon is for me as much as it’s for anyone else. Well, this sermon is for me, because a few weeks ago a friend of mine died and if I’m honest, it was hard to be faithful to him over the years. And there are so many ways I could have been, should have been a better friend. And there’s grief and there’s discouragement that comes along with that. I wonder if anyone else here ever feels like giving up. But see, there’s this thing called the Gospel, and God doesn’t give up on us, but He is faithful. He is faithful in that He gave His own Son to make us His and to bring us into the fellowship with Himself forever. And what’s great about that is that we get to take part in that same ministry of the Gospel with one another. And by relying on the Holy Spirit, sowing to the Spirit, living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, we can be faithful. We really can. It’s not easy, but it’s really worth it.

Let’s pray.

Our Father, we recognize so acutely even what Paul writes to Timothy elsewhere – that when we are faithless, He is faithful. You are faithful to us in all the ways in which we are faithless, the ways in which we stumble, we turn in on ourselves, we are prone to give up and to lose heart. Would You remind us again tonight of how much You have been with us and for us forever? And would You help us by Your Spirit to cultivate that same faithfulness towards others that You place in our lives? Would You receive all the glory for it and send blessing abroad through it? We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

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