Daily Thoughts from Philippians (13): Your Modeling Career – Philippians 2:17-24

Donnetta Cole is a wife, mother of two and works part time as a registered nurse. She also serves in various ministries of her church from working with the youth, ministering to young moms, leading the music and being a girl’s soccer coach for the Upward Soccer league through the church.  And she writes for Crosswalk.com and wrote this:

My mother-in-law was sick. My daughter decided on her own that she would make her a card. I later saw her with a Bible in her lap copying words from it. This is not uncommon as she enjoys sitting and copying books word-for-word to another paper.  However, I soon learned she was copying from the Bible into the card for my mother-in-law. Here is what she copied:
Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.  He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea (Acts 10: 5- 6).
Do you find yourself chuckling? We did! It has nothing to do with my mother-in-law’s illness and the “Get Well” wishes contained in the card.  I often include a Scripture in the cards I send. I love God’s Word and want to share it with others. Obviously, she has not yet connected the fact that I try to send a Scripture that also pertains to the message of the card that I am sending.  What she sees is a Bible open on my lap as I copy from it into the card. She was modeling what she had seen me do so many times. Her actions reminded me; I am a model. The question is… What am I modeling?

Paul knew the power of models.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.  (Philippians 2:17–24, ESV)

As Paul mentions himself he takes another opportunity to set a model in front of them of how he sacrificially offers himself in service to them and finds joy in that.  They should rejoice even if he ends up dying because of this persecution because it is an offering to Christ on their behalf and on behalf of believers everywhere.  He is all about the gospel and their benefit.

Then Paul offers another example or model of Christlike humility of mind.  Timothy.  Yes, he is mentioning Timothy and his own travel plans, but he uses the wording of 2:3,4 to describe Timothy.  This is an obvious attempt to give them further motivation to abandon their own selfish agendas for the sake of the gospel.  Timothy is concerned for their concerns, their needs.  He is not, like others, seeking his own interests but is considering theirs more important than his own.  He has been a gospel servant to Paul and to the Philippians.  There is no one like him.

If the Philippians too will see the priority of the gospel and be willing to sacrifice anything for it, even their own self-interests, there will be no fighting among them.

Paul will follow these examples with the example of their own leader, Epaphroditus, whose humility of mind is  also a model for the Philippians and for us.  Who do you have in your life that you can imitate and so grow in likeness to Christ?  Who can you follow as a disciple?  Paul is attesting the importance and necessity of having people in our lives whom we can emulate.  We need pictures, in-the-flesh models, to shape us in the right image.  And we need to become those models whom others can look at and say, “That is what it means to follow Christ.”

Discussion Questions for Small Groups

1. If you could be a famous person who would you like to be and why?
2. In what way did Paul want the Philippians to be like Jesus, himself, and Timothy?
3. Who do you know that is like Timothy, genuinely concerned for others’ welfare and not seeking his own interests but those of Jesus Christ?
4. Who are you being a model for, wittingly or unwittingly?
5. What are those you are modeling to learning from your life?
6. How do you want to improve as a model?