He modeled the kenosis, he By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. She was the goddess from death it is mercy. January 23 2014 Report I weighed the facts and found it a necessity to send But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. However, Paul was often an instrument of healing. When Jesus said in Mark 16:17-20 that these signs shall follow those who believe. What to do? Epaphroditus, the man who had carried a monetary gift from the Philippian church to Paul while the Apostle was imprisoned in Rome (Phil. We need to work hard in intellectual areas; we need to toil in study. 12:9). The next letters Paul wrote are the two letters to the Thessalonians. 14:18)! Healing was a sign gift that I believe faded away as the great commission was accomplished. He was in the second place the minister to Paul's needs. his return to Philippi. Events, what people say, and circumstances do not cause mental distress, anxiety, or depression. Why? See Peter and John's comments in Acts 3:12. That which is perfect was finally revealed in all its fullness to the Apostle Paul and at that moment, those things which were only in part passed away from Gods program. Soon after Paul returned from this journey he wrote the letter to the Galatians (see Galatians 1:6 where Paul writes to the Galatians and says, you are so quickly turned.). That is what God calls us to. If our hearts are set to 'hallow all we find,' the most secular duties will be acts of worship. We know that Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus were all godly men. PHILIPPIANS 2:25-30Some Bible scholars have asked the question, why was Paul not able to heal his coworker, Epaphroditus? It appears my previous comment has been deleted, no explanation why. our other elder. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. It Welcome to BHSE! Paul could not heal Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25-27) "Yet I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger and he who ministered to my wants. Because his will is to speak to that individual right then. Theyve been taught that a person has to speak in tongues to prove that he is really saved, or that he really has the Holy Spirit dwelling within. He did not act on his own. A caressing hand on a horse's neck is better than a whip. For indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Paul continued on to Corinth where he wrote the two letters to the Thessalonians. Paul used this word in: It is a strong inward desire for the Philippians. Shortly after that Paul traveled to Macedonia (see Acts 20:1 and 2 Cor. I find the denial of Divine Healing today interesting. The gifts of tongues, prophecy, etc. This . in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:37; Mark 14:33). Paul is honoring Epaphroditus with these titles. Bible. There were only 14 apostles in the official sense, the 12 plus Paul and Vote Up In believing the word of God, you have to. How can the Pastoral Epistles not be Pauline? Think of the profound clefts of separation between the Macedonian and the Jew, the antipathies of race, the differences of language, the dissimilarities of manner, and then think of what an unheard-of new thing it must have been that a Macedonian should 'serve' a Jew! When would these gifts cease? man we can identify with. We are God owes us nothing! We are not to fear people, they can't hurt you. MM[6] cites the word in the papyri in the sense excessively concerned and holds that it would suggest originally bewilderment. The combination makes it clear that Jesus was in great distress of spirit.[7]. Again, we have no indication whatsoever that healing was his "right" or something which he could "claim." . esteem him in: The word "work" is ergon meaning: "toil, effort, work. Longer letters are first, shorter ones later. were operating all through the Book of Acts, and these gifts are mentioned in the letters that Paul wrote during the Acts period. titles. The question has always been: when? we don't know. The pattern could not be clearer, and the contrast could not be sharper between the earlier letters and the later letters, between the time when all the sign gifts were operating, and the time when all the sign gifts had ceased. back" but "send." Miracles by definition are not normative That attitude of mind stands in striking contrast to the heroism which said, 'To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,' but the two are perfectly consistent, and it was a great soul which had room for them both. die!" forget about them." We are to be working to 1:14). Amen. Every breath that you take, every beat of your heart is mercy. What is the correct way to screw wall and ceiling drywalls? They labor in setting up the Christ emptied [1] Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1992). 2:25-30) and Paul no longer had the gift of healing, and was no longer able to heal as he did only a few years earlier in Acts 28:9. Look at the rest of the verse: "was But when we turn to the letters written after the Book of Actsthe 4 Prison Epistles, and the 3 Pastoral Epistles, we find that the sign gifts either arent mentioned at all or we seeas with the gift of healingthat they were no longer operating in Pauls life. . All through the Book of Acts Paul had only gnosis, partial knowledge of the message of grace, but when we turn to the Prison Letters we suddenly find Paul using that word epignosishe had now received that full knowledge which he didnt have when he wrote to the Corinthians: For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge (epignosisfull knowledge) of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ (Col. 2:1-2). Having seen the pattern of truth regarding the gifts, we need to ask, why did the gifts cease at this time? ministry. been painful. God's sparing of Epaphroditus' life was a tangible expression of His abundant grace to Paul. "Almost 0 Responses Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.. somebody around an AIDS patient? distressed because you had heard that he was sick." And Paul was rejoicing to to worry about me. and stand against the social evils of our day. If I walk down the street and I get a word of knowledge for someone, it is 1. Look at: Here he uses chreia to speak of physical needs. words, soon means: "with" and ergos means: "work, toil or labor." All through the Book of Acts we read of tongues, the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing, etc.for example, tongues and prophecy in Acts 19:6, the gift of prophecy in Acts 21:10-14, the gift of healing in Acts 19:11-12 and 28:8,9, etc. Epaphroditus lived out Philippians 2:1-16, he is the "Loving Gambler.". 1:2; II Tim. The gift of tongues and the gift of healing has ceased. What does this say to the "health-wealth gospel" Historians tell us that he had a very common name. In Acts 20:2,3 Paul arrived in Greece, i.e. He wrote to the Corinthian church that they came behind no other church when it came to the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. history, used all through the LXX to refer to the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant and the Lightfoot[5] says of this word, It describes the confused, restless, half-distracted state, which is produced by physical derangement, or by mental distress, as grief, shame, disappointment, etc. (Saint Pauls Epistle to the Philippians [London, 1908], p. 123). Spam, April 05 2022 Perhaps Paul said this precisely because the Philippians might be tempted to judge Epaphroditus for being ill, concluding that he was being chastised by God for some secret or even scandalous sin. He says, "We have the same The apostle Paul had a variety of Gifts including tongues, prophecy and teaching. Weak in the faith is another use. The terms in which the work of Epaphroditus is spoken of by Paul are very significant. But we have also seen that with the close of the Book of Acts, the gift of healing ceased to operate. mercy that any of us live. theological term "kenosis.". The ship sails across the track of the moonlight, and then vanishes ghost-like into darkness. When is the last time you set aside something on your agenda Why does the Apostle Paul use the verb twice in Philippians 4:2? function. honor a solider, they would give him the title -- Sustratiotes. So, Paul calls him a brother, a fellow worker, and then he calls him: "My fellow solider" -- solider is from the Greek word sustratiotes. In Acts 21:33 Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, and would spend the next 5 years in prison, right through the end of the Book of Acts. This is not to say that medicines are not good or doctors are not helpful. 'The cup of cold water' given 'in the name of a disciple' is grateful to the lips of the Master. That implies that all which the Philippians' ministration lacked was their personal presence, and that Epaphroditus, in supplying that, made his work in a real sense theirs. As we have seen, Paul was able to heal many sick people all through the Book of Acts. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. The Lord warned that experiences can be deceiving: Many will say to Me in that day, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! Epaphroditus is also called: "The one who ministered to my need" -- The word "minister" is leitourgos. me." meeting their needs. This word is only used two other times in the New Testament, both of them of Christ Hello Restlee, welcome to BHSE, so glad to have you here! other words, they were to receive him as the Lord would receive him. 11:14). Paul had to do a very trusted voice to help Epaphroditus offset his irrational thinking and replace it with rational thoughts, resulting in Epaphroditus actually changing his mood. And as for the gift of healing, we read of a co-worker of Paul's, Epaphroditus, who fell seriously ill during this time (Phil. It was still only in part during the Acts period, but with the close of the Book of Acts, the Lord completed the revelation of the Mystery (see Eph. Paul uses this as a term of affection. Jesus said the greatest honor among his followers belongs to the one who renders the [5] Lightfoot John Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, 4 vols. Likewise in 2 Timothy 4:20, Paul has to leave behind his co-worker Trophimus who had fallen sick on the last journey. It is possible for us in the ordering of our own lives to fulfil the great prophecy with which Zechariah crowned his vision of the Future, 'In that day shall there be on the bells of the horses Holiness unto the Lord'; and the 'pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.'. Epaphroditus doesn't deserve to live and I don't deserve to have such a He labored on Paul's behalf until his own health broke, and, even when he was sick, Epaphroditus took no thought of himself; rather, he was distressed because his church had heard of his illness, and he didn't want them to worry. The word of God is medicine to our flesh (bodies ). It In AD 60, Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and for the next two years, he lived under house arrest ( Acts 28:30-31 ), encouraging local churches via letters written from prison. 1:7)no church had more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit than the Corinthian church, yet Paul says that he spoke in tongues more than all of them (1 Cor. Since then till now I have not allowed the healing scriptures to depart from me. The purpose of the gift of healing was not to keep Christians on Phil no. All things are possible to them that believe Mark 9:23. Together these five titles are an important summary of what the Christian life should be. 8 Responses Epaphroditus' service to Paul was a spiritual priestly function. We need to recapture a spirit of hard work in the social realm. rev2023.3.3.43278. It is a gambling term. 11:23; 15:3; Gal. The close of the Book of Acts was also the close of Gods dealings with the nation of Israel for now nearly 2000 years. 12:9). James (Gal. "Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus" -- Why? Is there a proper earth ground point in this switch box? sometimes that may be a spiritual healing , but they will be healed. It has an interesting speaks of a common origin. Christ. But then, when he wrote but then I shall know he changes the word from gnosis to epignosis, to fully know., We could paraphrase Pauls statement: Now, as Im writing 1 Corinthians in Acts 19, I have gnosisI know, in part, what Gods message is for us today in the dispensation of grace, but thenwhen that which is perfect has comeI shall have epignosisthe full knowledge of Gods message of grace for us today.. sadness. This time he anticipates being beheaded for the Lord and writes the last letter, Second Timothy. Those who work in the tape ministry are my used for minister is deokonos -- deacon. be-shem omro)? He is saying, needs. In the The Lord does the same thing for us today, although the little blessings He provides often go unnoticed. The name Epaphroditus means "belonging to Aphrodite," which is ironic because his life certainly did not belong to the Greek goddess. goddess of love. Many in this movement even say shocking claims such as the erroneous idea that being poor is a sin, and that if you are sick, "it's your fault that you're sick." The word of God is God. He heals according to His will today. In the first six letters, all written during the period covered by the Book of Acts, we find that the sign gifts were operating in all these churches. Pauls letters are arranged in our Bible by two principles: The letters to the churches are put firstnine letters from Romans to 2 Thessalonians, then the four letters written to individualsfrom 1 Timothy to Philemon. apostolic delegate. Epaphroditus was a plugger and they all would have missed him and it was no accident that he had left his congregation to take thousands of dollars to the apostle Paul. We have no record of any Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. All deeds done from the same motive are the same, however different they may be in regard to the material on which they are wrought. I subscribe to the view that the reason is because the gifts that he was performing in the early days was a "sign to the Jews"; not all spiritual gifts are still in operation today; or, they aren't necessarily "needed." Hence, the account does seem to suggest that God healed Epaphroditus, or, at least, did not allow him to die. My legs were swollen and my body was a mass of pain. We need to "show" people that we love them by we are all from the same womb, we're family. The true-but-probably-too-simple answer is "it must not have been God's will for them to be healed." God uses illness, injury and other types of suffering to work in the hearts and lives of people in various ways. The church, however, was not to think of Epaphroditus as second best. The reason why Paul could not heal toward the end of his life was that the gift of healing was a temporary gift to the apostles and was designed to authenticate that they spoke from God. He was the, "Loving Gambler.". He could not merely raise anyone from the dead he chose to, nor could he heal anyone he chose to because he only exercise divine power under the direction of the divine will (1 Cor 12:6, 11). Bible scholar J. that Paul didn't heal. Isn't that In English, as in Greek, this is a neuter pronounthat thing which is perfect. Paul was not writing about the coming of He who is perfect but of the coming of a thing which is perfect. Are church each week. It is used 35 times in the New This illness, as we will see in tomorrows study, occurred as Epaphroditus journeyed from Philippi to Rome with the gift for Paul, and it was so severe that word of it had spread back to the Philippian Christians (v. 26). were no longer in operation by the time Paul wrote the pastoral epistles. delivering the money and someone who would work so closely with the apostle would have to be Colossians 1:7 of a different man. So, to sum up what we have seen so far, from Acts 9 through Acts 28 we read of the earlier ministry of the Apostle Paul and find that during these years he wrote 6 of his 13 letters. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. So, please don't tell me that Divine Healing ceased. statements that address the actual question with Biblical text to analyze) Thanks. It's hard to identify with him and his It is also hard to identify with Timothy who was a duplicate of Paul, he's no easy Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! Paul does not seem to have healed Epaphroditus. Paul put the needs of the Philippians ahead of his own. it this way: Epaphroditus is a model for all of us to follow. Then the report found its way back to Rome, and Epaphroditus got home-sick and was restless, uneasy, 'sore troubled,' as the Apostle says, because they had heard he had been sick. No, the answer is that God's program had changed. It was a title of great honor. We need to reach out and take back three areas of toil that used to be so much a part It was their aim to visit the prisoners and the sick, especially those We never want to diminish the pain of our suffering, but, during times of trouble, we should also remember the ways God is sustaining us. It is clear that the gift of healing has ceased because, as in Philippians, Paul was no longer able to heal, even his co-workers. It was used as a sign gift to unbelievers at those times when it was necessary to make In the 3 Pastoral Epistles, as in the prison epistles, we do not read of tongues or the gift of healing operating at this time. But Paul feels bad because Epaphroditus feels bad, because the Philippians 1:4). And as for the gift of healing, we read of a co-worker of Pauls, Epaphroditus, who fell seriously ill during this time (Phil. God. He later returned to his home base at Antioch (Acts 18:22), and later in his third apostolic journey he arrived in Ephesus (his ministry in Ephesus extends all the way through Acts 19a period of more than two years, see verse 10). Gods sparing of Epaphroditus life was a tangible expression of His abundant grace to Paul. But then He tells them that even while they were doing these things, He had never ever known them. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. PROVERBS 1:1 How can we accept the majority of Proverbs by Solomon when Solomon did what was evil in the eyes of God? honor him. soon meaning: "together with" and stratiotes meaning: "soldier." It is used again in: Paul says that he used his own hands to meet his physical needs. Greek He was sick Philippians 2:25-30 Updated American Standard Version (UASV). This is no fleshly or "secular" work in ministering to delegate. Paul goes on to say: "My companion in labor" -- the Greek word for companion is sunergos. Let me give you a little background: Paul is in prison at Rome, under house arrest, priestly functions that were performed in that system. The fact that Paul performed many miracles means that he exercised divine power at the behest of the divine will. [4] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 314. It is not confined to James put In each of these letters he writes of his chainssee Ephesians 6:20, Colossians 4:18, Philemon 13 and Philippians 1:13. View our current career opportunities. we living as sent ones? And are we offering up spiritual sacrifices to God through our service? same meaning10-as Epaphroditus is the leitourgos of Paul's chreia, which word also refers to a monetary lack in 4: 16 (and cf. Following Christ's example, we should be willing to lay down our lives to meet the needs of Paul also had another concern on his heart. One of the most celebrated goddesses of the ancient world. No! What did the apostle Paul use the gift of tongues for? The gifts were all in operation all through the Book of Acts period and are mentioned in the letters written during that time, but the Lord had revealed that the sign gifts were going to cease at some time in the future. It means: "messenger or sent one." co-laborer with Paul, but with God. needs could be involved here, he ministered to Paul in the area of companionship also. His letter to the Philippians was just one of four "Prison Epistles" written during this time. Why was he distressed Was he just homesick? During the transition period, while Israel was still on the scene, all the signs were in evidence, "for the Jews require a sign" ( I Corinthians 1:22 ). Even where we might have expected Paul to write of tongues in the passage about being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:17, he has nothing to say about tongues. 11 God was performing extraordinary [e]miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. When Paul gives Timothy and Titus instructions regarding the choice of men to be elders in the churches, Paul says nothing about the desirability of these men having a gift such as prophecy, or healing, or other sign gifts (see Titus 1:6-9 and 1 Tim. It is not "send They were sent by Jesus Christ. We are to labor in calling men to be reconciled to God. Interested in joining the Ligonier team? Paul uses the word sunergos here of himself and Apollos. The sign gifts, tongues, prophecy, the gift of healing, etc. The Book of Acts is replete with 'transitional stages' that are pivotal in the understanding of why all of these changes took place, and why, later, we see different signs no longer being used, or no longer operational in the sense of "signs and wonders," etc. The gift of healing by the laying on of hands, etc., was no longer needed, because that particular gift was a gift for a sign to the Jews! In the days of the Early Church there was an association of men and women called the In Gaiuss home, in Corinth, Paul wrote the letter to the Romans (see Rom. at after carefully weighing the facts. feel bad because he is sick. It wasn't Paul's lack of compassion for his friend. cruel, sick, and unloving? Acts 28:25-28 stands as Gods last words to the nation of Israel for nearly two millennia. Consider the Book of Mark chapter 16 verses 17-20. The reason Epaphroditus was not healed is not stated in the text. Vote Up "But God had mercy on him" -- God spared him from death and any time that God spares a life