upon them. Here again is the spirit of the Philippian epistle, namely concern for others,

rather than concern for self.

We do not know what his illness was, except that it was connected with his Christian

service (30). It must have been extremely serious, because Paul tells us Epaphroditus

was "nigh unto death" (27).  What an opportunity the Apostle had to exercise his

miraculous gift of healing, so evident during the Acts! (19: 11, 12; 28: 8, 9).

If Paul still possessed this evidential gift after  Acts 28:,  it is utterly

incomprehensible that he did not use it in connection with such a close friend and

valued fellow-labourer who was in such desperate physical need. The same could be

said of Timothy's frequent physical weaknesses (I Tim. 5: 23) and the illness of

Trophimus (II Tim. 4: 20).  Dispensational truth alone has the Scriptural answer.

Instantaneous divine healing was one of the earthly kingdom miraculous signs of the Acts

period and passed away when the earthly kingdom people, Israel, passed into their

spiritual darkness, deafness, and hardness of heart, making them unusable by the Lord

during this parenthetical age of grace.

The healing of Epaphroditus was the direct result of God's mercy, not only on him,

but on the Apostle also (27). Had the Lord not intervened, Paul would have had the

sorrow of bereavement on top of his prison sufferings. Resuming the statement of his

immediate plans, Paul writes that he is more eagerly, or very eagerly, sending him back

to them. This is possibly in case anyone in the Philippian assembly should criticize

Epaphroditus for leaving Paul in his imprisonment and need. He should be received with

all joy and held in honour (29) or highly valued. Verse 30 shows the extent this faithful

servant of the Lord was prepared to go for Him. Note the R.V. "hazarding his life" as

against the A.V. "not regarding his life". The omission of one letter in the Greek gives

this  deeper  meaning  and  this  is  supported  by  modern  editors  generally.

Paraboleusamenos is a gambling term and thus Epaphroditus almost gambled with his

life for Christ's sake. This means more than being ill; it suggests some special danger to

which he exposed himself for His Lord, the Apostle Paul and the Philippian assembly,

who were unable to help the Apostle owing to the distance that separated them (30). This

is Christian service indeed, where self is forgotten and the claims of the Lord and His

people are first and foremost.

Chapter 3: commences with the phrase to loipon, translated in the A.V. and R.V.

"finally", which gives the impression that Paul is concluding his letter. However, one

peculiarity of the Apostle's style is the habit of "digression", the holding up of his main

argument to explain or expand a point. (Note the parenthesis of Eph. 3: 2-13 and there

are many other examples.) MacKnight states that to loipon is put for kata to loipon, "as

for what remains", for loipos means "something left over".

Thus we need not deduce that Paul is now going to end immediately this epistle. He

had still something remaining to say to the Philippians and this is seen in chaps. 3: & 4:

where the real concluding remarks begin (4: 8). His call to "rejoice in the Lord",

repeated in 4: 4 is characteristic of the epistle as we have seen. But realizing certain