-paul couldn’t visit them. but he could send timothy. timé-theos, meaning one who honors/values God. we’ve already seen from acts 16 where the Lord had uniquely paired timothy with paul and they had been used to help plant this church. needless to say, both paul and timothy had a lot invested in the lives of those in philippi.
-and so right on the heels of this great section about avoiding me-first me-better, and then letting go and going low in pursuit of others-first others better, we find that paul is already all about that. he is in chains, but he wants to know how the philippians are doing. and it’s not the kind of others-centeredness you get sometimes when somebody turns the conversation away from themselves and onto you primarily because they are uncomfortable talking about themselves. rather, in this case, you have paul who really does care about these believers and wants to know how things are for them, so much so that even tho he is in some pretty extreme circumstances himself, he still is living out a focus on the things of others. he is staring death in the face, but he is concerned about them, for their sakes. i really want to know how things are going for you and how you are doing because i care. i really care about you and value you as a person. i care about you all as an assembly of believers whom i also deeply care about as individuals. i am not asking out of curiosity or because i’m supposed to. i really do care about you.
-the only way paul will currently be able to find out about how things are for the philippians is to send a surrogate, someone who, simply put, is free to travel all the way to philippi and back. as we will see, paul doesn’t want to send just anybody. and so his first choice is timothy, this trusted and valued disciple and co-worker who helped him plant this assembly in the first place. certainly timothy knows the way and he knows the city and he knows and cares about the people AND of course he is greek. but for some reason at this point timothy cannot go in paul’s place. so we read that paul ‘is hoping in the Lord Jesus’ to send timothy quickly. since the Lord Jesus was paul’s big-’L’ Lord and Master, Jesus was in charge of the when and the what. paul not only knew that Jesus was in charge, but he was submitted to and respectful of that. our mantra in any and every situation should be, when and ‘if the Lord wants’ (jam 4.17), for in Him we live and move and have our being (act 17.28). we cannot even take our next breath unless He allows it and gives it to us (act 17.25). truly all things are from Him and through Him and for Him (rom 11.36). it is a mystical dance of glory, to be sure, but one where Jesus leads. we have an active part to play in the dance. in fact the more active we are in our role, the better the dance. we are not to be completely passive fatalists, but neither are we to get ahead of ourselves and try to lead. it’s like we’re on dancing with the stars. Jesus is the pro, and we are the amateur. it would be foolish and ugly for us to try and lead. but the more we can let go and let Him lead and really cooperate with Him to do all that He asks us to do, the more glorious the result (cf phil 2.13).
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