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Epaphroditus [Ēpăphro dī'tus]—lovely, handsome, charming. A trusted messenger between Paul and the churches (Phil. 2:25; 4:18). Epaphras is a shortened form of this common name.
How fully and fittingly Paul describes the commendable character of this kindly man who went as Paul’s representative to the Philippian Church!
He was a brother—a term implying a spiritual relationship.
He was a companion in labor—their hearts beat as one in the cause they both loved.
He was a fellow soldier—together they endured all the hardness and discipline of daring and suffering which discipleship involves (2 Tim. 3:14).
He was a messenger—or “apostle” as the word really is; and he was ever the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message.
He was a sacrificial witness. What a brief but blessed biography Paul gives us of his dear companion. He “ministered to my wants”—“longed after you all”—caused much “heaviness” because of his fatal sickness—was mercifully spared lest his death should have brought “sorrow upon sorrow” to Paul.
He regarded not his life. Literally he gambled his life to assist and bless the Philippians. How rich was the Early Church in leaders who were entirely abandoned to God, that through their consecrated lives their fellow-saints might be filled with all the “fulness of God”!