Gospel-Driven Ministers: Epaphroditus

Well we return once again to our study of the Book of Philippians. And we find ourselves in the final verses of chapter 2, now at the tail end of a bit of a three-part series that we’ve entitled, “Three Gospel-Driven Ministers.” We have been asking the question, “What does it look like to lay our lives down in the joyful service of Christ and His people in a manner that is worthy of the great Gospel by which we have been saved?” (cf. 1:27).

And we’ve taken our answers to that question from the Apostle Paul himself in Philippians 2 verses 17 to 30. And in listening to his answers, we have been confronted with the immense importance of having a godly example to follow in the Christian life. We’ve quoted him in our two previous studies in this mini-series, so we might as well go ahead and quote him this last time. But it was the great Puritan Thomas Brooks who said, “Example is the most powerful rhetoric.” In other words, you can lay out principles and inform men and women of their duty, and you can use all the finest tools of rhetoric, and oratory, and persuasion as you do it. But the most powerful rhetoric—the most powerful form of persuasion and the most effective form of discipleship—is that of example. See, we know the principles laid out in Scripture well enough. But in order to get those principles from our heads to our hands we seem to need to see how those principles translate into action in the theater of a real, tangible, godly example lived out right in front of us. We benefit so much more when we move from, “Tell me what,” to “Show me how.”...

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