Philippians 2:27 - A darned good thing...

"For even he was strengthless nearly to death, but rather God mercied him, but not him only but rather also me, in order that not grief upon grief I should have." 

-So here Paul clarifies just how sick Epaphroditus really was.  He almost died.  And yet he didn’t start wearing around his ‘have-pity-and-mercy-on-me’ badge.  No, instead he lived into others-first (which is what Paul has been exhorting and illustrating this entire chapter).

-And now we get a glimpse of the great and mighty headwaters of others-first: the tender mercies of God, this grand and indescribable trait of compassion and leniency when it is in one’s purview to punish, when you have an opportunity to exact justice or consequences or harshness or to leave someone to their own devices - and you don’t.  God’s mercies not only compel us to live for Him (cf Romans 12.1-2), but also to be like Him.  When the Lord first began to formally relate to His people after the exodus, He instituted a seat a mercy, a place in the tabernacle where they would ultimately find forgiveness and undeserved favor.  Here we see the ultimate expression of others-first: the thrice-holy almighty God, so pure and wholly set apart as to be untouchable and unseeable and unapproachable, so deserving of devotion and so justified were He to exact punishment on the waywardness and rebellion and idolatry of the ones He created in His own image to worship Him - it is all about Him - and yet He inaugurates a way to be forgiven, a way for His image-bearers to avoid the punishment they so richly deserve.  The Lord sets aside His wrath and need for exact justice and put these others (us) first, making a substitute way for them to not simply survive but to have an incomparable relationship with Him Who is beyond compare.  Which is entirely in their own best interests - others-first.  Psalm 145.8-9 - ‘The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.  The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.’  Merciful is the Name the Lord spoke over Moses, the very first trait He ascribes to Himself after His formal Name ‘Yahweh’, declaring not only Who He is but what He is like, His very essence (cf Exodus 33.18-19, Exodus 34.6-7 - the hebrew word ‘racham’ rendered as ‘compassion’ in the exodus passage is rendered as ‘mercy’ elsewhere, cf Romans 9.15).  Full of mercy is what God is like first and foremost, and it follows that we are most like Him when we show mercy to our fellow man.  Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Matthew 5.7).  Learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy...’ (Matthew 12.7).  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6.36).  Which one of these proved to be a neighbor to the man?  ‘The one who showed mercy to him.’  Then Jesus said, ‘You be going and do the same.’ (Luke 10.36-37).  God showed mercy to Epaphroditus (and to Paul) by healing him.  That is what He does.  That is Who He is.  His mercies never come to and end - they are new every morning (Lamentations 3.22-23).  And it’s a darned good thing...