I Exhort Euodia and Syntyche

Introduction to Philippians 4:2-3 and its Context

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, January 17th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn in your own Bibles to the book of Philippians, the letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi, as we continue our consecutive studies through this warm, intimate epistle written by the Apostle from Rome to those beloved Christians in Philippi. And follow, please, as I read chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.

0:58 Yea, I beseech you also, true yoke-fellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

1:15 Now in our consecutive expositions of this letter to the church at Philippi, we have come to that section in the letter, in which the Apostle is drawing the letter to a close, and in this closing section lays out various strands of exhortation, personal information, and final greetings. However, lest we approach this section less carefully and less attentively than the other sections that on the surface are more dense in rich teaching concerning Christ, and Christian duty, I would remind you that it is in this very section, Philippians 4, 2, through the end of the chapter, that we have given to us some of the most well-known, best-loved, and most frequently quoted text, excuse me, in all of the New Testament. We have in this passage the well-known text calling the people of God to continuous rejoicing. Verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. We have that well-known verse encouraging us continually to pray, and prayer being set forth as the great antidote to sinful anxiety.

2:41 Verses 6 and 7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And then that wonderful summary of Christian duty in verse 8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, etc. And then the great statement known by many, in which the apostle says that he has learned in whatsoever state he was in to be content. Verse 11, And then that great boast of the power of Christ to his people, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

3:19 Verse 13, And then that wonderful promise in verse 19, My God shall supply all your need, Think how many homes, Christian homes, are adorned with plaques, with a text taken from the closing section of a letter in which you have some general exhortations, some personal remarks, and some concluding greetings to the people of God. Well, it is just this section into which we now enter. And so I trust it will be with an eagerness and an anticipation, in some measure commensurate with the wonderful truths that God has given us, even, in this less formal, less logically structured section of the epistle. Now on the threshold of this section, we come this morning to these verses read in your hearing, in which the apostle is concerned about two women in the church at Philippi. He no sooner gives his ringing call to steadfastness in verse 1, a call to corporate steadfastness to the people of God, than he turns immediately to a problem of internal tension and friction in the church at Philippi. And on the surface of things, it may appear that there is no real connection, but indeed there is. For in a very real sense,

The Identity of Euodia and Syntyche

4:43 no church can stand fast in true biblical steadfastness in its corporate life apart from a context of, of internal harmony and unity. And there was perhaps very present in the mind of the apostle Paul, a direct line from the exhortation of verse 1, So stand fast in the Lord, my beloved, I exhort Oodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. Now as we attempt to open up the passage this morning, and then to apply, consider with me first of all, the identity of these women. The names set before us are Oodia and Syntyche. In our elders meeting prior to coming up to lead the service, Pastor Clark said he had once heard them referred to as Mrs. Oodia and Mrs. Tsun Tachi.

5:48 Mrs. Tsun Tachi. And you get the little play on words. Well, whether she was Mrs. Tsun, we do know that Syntyche along with Oodia is appealed to in this passage, or are appealed to by name. Now what do we know for certain about the identity of these women? Well, all we know for certain about them is what is told us in this very passage. And we learn two things about them.

6:18 Number one, that they were members of the church in Philippi. Paul assumed that when, when Epaphroditus went back to Philippi with the letter, that if anyone else would be present, these two women would be there when one of the elders, or Epaphroditus himself, would rise on a given Lord's Day, or a specially called meeting of the congregation, and read this epistle from the Apostle Paul to his beloved Philippians. It could well be that they were some of those noble women who formed the charter membership, of the church at Philippi. For you remember in the record in Acts 16, that Paul found a group of women by a riverside, holding a prayer meeting. And as he preached to them, the Spirit of God worked in the hearts of some, and these women became the nucleus, we might say, the charter members of the church at Philippi. But whether they were included in that number or not, we do not know. But in that section of Acts, Acts 16, and then on, into chapter 17, there is a strong emphasis in Luke's account of the progress of the gospel, with respect to the power of the gospel, conquering the hearts of what are described as noble women.

7:39 In other words, women who were of some great standing in society at that time, whether by wealth or by other means of influence, Luke is careful to record in Acts 16, 40, chapter 17, verse 4, and in verse 12, that in that section of Paul's missionary endeavors, there was more than an ordinary penetration of the gospel among the ranks of what we would call high society women. God's normal pattern of not many mighty, not many noble, seemed to be stretched to the limit in the case of that area of the progress of the gospel. And there in the church at Philippi, were these two women, Luodia and Syntyche. So that's the first thing we know about them. But then the second thing we know about them is this. They were helpers of Paul in his labors at Philippi.

8:37 Notice how they are described in verse 3. I beseech you also, true yoke fellow, help these women. And the construction is such that the these women, or these, just the feminine pronoun, can refer, to no other group, but the two women previously mentioned. Help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers.

9:08 So he describes them as those who labored with him in the gospel, literally, who were fellow soldiers with him in the conflict of the gospel. He does not use the ordinary word for labor, or fellow laborers, but one that has the strong connotation of a fellow soldier. So these were women whose hearts were not only inflamed with joy upon receipt of the gospel, but with zeal for the propagation of the gospel. And in a manner and by channels appropriate to their calling and station as women, they were fellow soldiers with Paul in the progress of the gospel.

9:51 And while not, usurping a place of rule or of proclamation in a mixed assembly, they nonetheless had a strategic place in the progress of the gospel at Philippi, so much that when the apostle describes them, he uses this terminology, they were those who labored with me, along with my other fellow laborers, among whom were Clement and other unnamed brothers in the world. They were the ones who were the leaders in the work of the gospel. So the identity of these women is clear from the passage, members of the church at Philippi, helpers of Paul and his companions in the labors of the gospel at Philippi. And every effort to know anything more about them is, in the language of one author, loves, labor, lost. So whatever fascination we might have with these two women, and we want to know, we want to know more. The only thing we can know for certain is what is given us in this passage, and I've given you a gist of it as to their identity.

The Substance and Assumption of Paul's Exhortation

11:03 Now then, consider in the second place, having looked at the identity of these women, the exhortation to these women. First of all, its substance, and then the assumption that lies behind that exhortation. The substance of the exhortation is clear. I beseech Euodia, and I exhort or beseech or admonish Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.

11:36 It is a call to each of the women individually, and notice how careful the translators of the 1901 were to underscore that Paul did not use one verb equally applicable to both, but he used the word, and he used the word, and he used the word, and he used the word, and he used the verb, I exhort or admonish or I entreat with each one. I entreat Euodia, and I entreat or admonish Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. It is a call to come to and to maintain oneness of mind in the Lord. In other words, it is a personal application to Euodia, and Syntyche, of the call that went out in general using some of the very same linguistic patterns in chapter 2 and verse 2. Make full my joy that you be, here it is, of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, doing nothing through strife or vainglory. So the call that went out to the brothers and sisters in general in chapter 2 to be of one mind, of one spirit, of one accord,

13:03 now comes home to distinct personal application to these two women. It is a call to realize experienced oneness connected with their common relationship to Christ. Look at the language. I exhort you, Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche to be of the same mind.

13:27 Now notice, not in their aesthetic inclinations, not in their personal tastes and preferences, no, but the same mind in the Lord. That is to be of one mind with reference to those things that derive from their common union with Jesus Christ. They are to be of one mind with reference to those things with respect to everything that pertains to that distinct saving union which they have with the Son of God and all of the activities and perspectives that grow out of that union. They are free to have a differing mind as to their favorite colors.

14:13 They are free to have a differing mind as to their preferences with respect to men, whether they like tall men, short men, fat men, skinny men, rich men, or poor men. They are free to have distinctive tastes with regard to whether or not they wind their spaghetti on a fork or chop it up and eat it with a spoon. In other words, this is not a call to the kind of wooden conformity that is the mark of all cults.

14:42 You see, one of the marks among many of a cult is that there can be no toleration of any differences at any level. There is a wooden uniformity that runs clean through every dimension of shared life. Not so true biblical Christianity. It can tolerate the widest diversity on everything that does not pertain to those distinct dynamics that grow out of our union with Christ and the implications of that union.

15:12 And so the exhortation to these women in its substance is a call to the realization of true Christian unity. Now, there is an assumption that lies behind that exhortation. And it is the assumption that a degree of friction had developed between these women necessitating this call. You will remember that Epaphroditus came from the Philippians sent by them to Paul in his imprisonment at Rome.

15:45 And he tells them in chapter 4 in verse 18, I have all things and abound. I am filled having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you. And we learned earlier in our studies of chapter 2 that Epaphroditus is called the messenger of the church at Philippi. A servant of that church.

16:12 So in bringing the gifts, he also brought news. Paul loved these people and as he sat and talked with Epaphroditus, how is brother so-and-so doing? And how about sister so-and-so? And how is pastor so-and-so doing?

16:25 And how about this one? Sooner or later, the conversation came around to these who were his fellow workers. He had a special intimacy with them. These were no ordinary women.

16:37 He even elevates them beyond the level of mere fellow workers and says they were fellow soldiers. They stood with me shoulder to shoulder in the great conflict of the progress of the gospel. And Paul, who had such a large heart into which he took so many friends in deep, intimate friendship, sooner or later had to ask, and how is dear, who are you doing? And how is Mrs. Soon-Touchy doing?

17:08 And one can just imagine, perhaps for a little bit, Epaphroditus not wanting to burden the apostle, avoided the issue and said, oh, let me tell you how Mrs. So-and-so is doing. And the apostle came around and said, yes, that's fine, good, but I asked you about Geodia. How?

17:23 She's doing fairly well. And how about Syntyche? Oh, she's doing quite well. And how are they doing with each other?

17:33 And then the truth came out. Something had developed to bring a rift between these two women, who, when they labored with the apostle, stood shoulder to shoulder with him and with one another. But now he's heard that some distance is between them. Something has soured their affections for one another.

17:55 A barrier has been raised. And when he becomes privy to that knowledge, as he brings his letter toward its concluding section, he pours out his heart, I beseech you, Odea, I beseech you, Syntyche, be of the same mind in the Lord. Perhaps what was their very strength became the occasion of their sin. They were no ordinary women.

18:27 They were women of tremendous spiritual stature and gift and earned reputation and no doubt were strong in faith and courage. And when you get people who have some degree of stature and gift and earned reputation, strong in faith and courage, they have the ability to be something for Christ. They also have more than enough ability to be what they ought not to be when they act in a manner that is, contrary to the norms of Scripture. Someone said of David, he loved God greatly.

19:00 He served God greatly, but he also sinned greatly. And great servants of Christ are often great sinners. The very energy that carries them in the direction of virtue when turned aside from virtue carries them with greater force in the direction of vice and of sin. And it could well be that that was the condition with these dear women.

19:23 Because they were women of sin, such part spiritually and in their whole demeanor. When they had a falling out, it was no little falling out. For it's quite clear that the apostle assumes with respect to them the general exhortation of chapter 2 wasn't going to do it. And he didn't have any information that it hadn't done it.

19:43 It's not as though another letter came back and Paul said, well, the general exhortation to be of the same mind didn't work, so we'll up the dosage of medicine. Give him a little more. No, in the very letter in which he gives the general exhortation, he gives the specific. And the assumption is that there is a rift between these women.

The Entreaty Made on Behalf of These Women

20:01 It is a deep rift and it will not easily be overcome. So much then for the identity of these women, the exhortation to these women. Now notice in the third place the entreaty made on behalf of these women. The entreaty made on behalf of these women, verse 3.

20:22 Yea, and this little particle, yea, clearly ties in verse 3 with verse 2. So we know that he's referring to the same subject. Yea, it's intensification. I beseech you also, true yoke fellow, help these women.

20:42 Now just a word about the recipient of this entreaty and then the substance of the entreaty. Who is the recipient of this entreaty in verse 3? Well, he is someone called true yoke fellow. And here I could give you some interesting information on trying, on what people have done in trying to ascertain who this man was.

21:07 Some have suggested that Paul was using a play on words. For the word for yoke fellow with just a little change can be a proper name. And so some have said in the midst of proper names he's speaking of Oodia, Syntyche, and then Clement. Why would he just speak indefinitely of someone who was a true yoke fellow?

21:29 And so they say what Paul has done is to use a play on word like he does with Onesimus and speaks of Onesimus who is profitable and he addresses this man, Syzygus, and says, and I beseech you, true yoking man, you who are a true yoke fellow, be what you are in your name with respect to these women. And others counter and say, no, you nowhere find that name in any of profane literature as a proper name and therefore it's unlikely it would be found in the church at Philippi. And others come back and say, well, why do we have to say it had to be a common name? And so they debate it back and forth for pages.

22:12 I have literally read pages in preparation about the identity of this man. Well, all we can say for certain is this, that when Paul dictated or wrote his letter in the prison at Rome, knowing he would send it by the hand of Epaphroditus, he was confident that when he wrote true yoke fellow, the people at the church would know who he was talking about and the true yoke fellow would know and if anyone had any questions, they could ask Epaphroditus who had it straight from the horse's mouth in Rome. So as far as I'm concerned, that's beginning, middle, and end of the whole discussion. So the recipient was a proven man.

22:48 Now that's the thing that's clear. He is a true, proven, bona fide yoke fellow. He was no novice. He was a man in whom the apostle had confidence to appeal in this critical situation.

23:06 So the recipient is this man who is true yoke fellow, called to help. And the substance of his entreaty is just that. Help these women. And in the particular voice in which this verb is used, it's found only one other time in this voice, to my knowledge, in the New Testament, you have a, a beautiful illustration of what he asks this true yoke fellow to do.

23:30 If you look at Luke 5 and verse 7, here's the verb found in a gospel setting.

23:40 I should say a setting in the gospel record. Luke chapter 5,

23:48 beginning with verse 6. They had let down their nets, having toiled all night and caught nothing. The Lord says, put down your nets. Verse 6, and when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their nets were breaking.

24:04 And they beckoned unto their partners in the other boat that they should come, and here's our verb, and help them. Can you get the picture here? They've got such a catch of fish that the nets are about to pop and here they've been working all night and caught nothing and they're excited and they don't have enough hands and they cry out, fellas, come and help us! And they come along and they lend all of their strength and influence and knowledge of how to deal with such situations to assist them in that task.

24:36 Now that's the substance of Paul's entreaty. He says to this true yoke fellow, I beseech you also, true yoke fellow, come alongside these women. Draw near to them in their present state of alienation. Get near to them in their present circumstance of distance.

24:58 Draw near to them, assuming, that they will take my exhortation to heart. The situation is such that I believe they're going to need help. They're not going to be able to do it on their own. Again, reading between the lines, could it be they are women of such perception and strength and conviction that Paul's convinced they'll just come to a dead end if they try to resolve it themselves.

25:22 So he says, true yoke fellow, help these women. Help them how? Not in a generic sense, but help them in this very instance. Effort at reconciliation.

25:34 Now that's an unpleasant task and often a dangerous task. Occasionally you've seen what's happened with the poor referee in a prize fight. Someone lets go a roundhouse and he gets caught in the chin and he ends out down on the deck for the count. Some of you have seen humorous things like that.

25:53 Someone goes in to break up a fight and he's the only one that goes away with a puffed eye and a bloody lip and a bent nose. And that often happens in human experience as well. The poor fellow that gets between a couple of women who have a rift between them, he ends up getting it from both of them. They only had it from one.

26:11 He ends up getting it from two. But nonetheless, no matter what the risks were to him personally, the apostle entreats this man to draw alongside and to help in the reconciliation of these two women. Well, that's basically the teaching of the...

The Crucial Importance of Christian Unity

26:31 these two verses. Now, what are we to learn from this portion of the Word of God? Well, as time permits, I want to draw out four very simple but vital lines of application. And first of all, I would ask you to note how crucially important is the grace of Christian unity in any assembly of God's people.

26:56 How crucially important is the grace of Christian unity in any assembly of God's people? Paul gave this subject a prominent place in this epistle. Explicitly in chapter 2, as we have already noted, that beautiful, epic description of the humiliation and exaltation of Christ grows out of his passionate concern that there at the church at Philippi there be this oneness of mind that nothing be done through strife or through vain glory. And one of the most powerful statements on Christian unity to be found anywhere in the Bible is here in this letter. Not only that, but he has alluded to the matter of unity. In chapter 1 in verse 27, he says that whether I see you or be absent, I may hear of your state that you stand fast in one spirit, with one soul, striving, striving for the faith of the gospel. In chapter 3 in verse 17, he alluded to unity again.

28:07 He calls the church to a joint imitation of himself, to experience unity in patterning their lives by the apostolic standard. And yet now he is so concerned with this matter that he is willing to do something that I'm convinced was intensely painful for Paul. You see, in spite of the depth of his convictions, Paul, as we saw in an earlier study, along with Epaphroditus, had a great capacity for empathy. Empathy is the ability to get under another man's skin and to have his nerve endings become yours.

28:48 It's the ability to get behind another man's eyeballs and to see through his eyeballs. And the apostle well knew what it would mean for these two eminent godly women to sit there one Lord's Day morning, their hearts running out with the epistle, no doubt their spirits soaring when he spoke of that great exaltation of Christ, and then their hearts thrilled as Paul gave his testimony in chapter 3 and pointed them afresh to the righteousness of Christ as their only hope of salvation. Imagine the shock when having heard the words, Stand fast in the Lord, my beloved, suddenly Herodias hears her name read, and Syntyche hears her name read, and there follows the reading of their names, not a commendation, but a public exposure of the fact that they needed help to get the sparks from their own relationship. And I'm convinced that Paul knew that something of the redness would come up the back of their necks and flush into their ears and across their faces, and they would feel chagrined and embarrassed that there, with all of the burdens upon his heart at Rome, Paul had to be concerned about their rift and had to single them out.

30:16 I say that was not pleasant for him. But the matter of unity in the church is of such crucial importance that Paul was willing to subject himself to the pain of knowing that he would cause them pain. And why did he do this? There's no indication that this was like the church at Corinth, where people were so disunited that they had the Peter party, the Apollos party, they had the Paul party, the Jesus party.

30:47 Why this concern when they obviously seem to be one of the most united churches in the New Testament? They are outgoing in their missionary passion and concern, in their benevolence concerns. He says, You're the ones who remembered me and my need. You're the ones who stood with me in the beginning of the Gospel.

31:06 Why is he so passionately concerned with just this little rippling on the waters with respect to this matter of disunity? Paul understood the statement of the wise man in Proverbs. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. What happens when there's just a little fissure at the top of the wall of a dam?

31:33 Just a little crack. And the water begins to cascade through that crack. It gets larger and larger and larger until the pressure behind that and the erosion that comes as the water comes down ultimately inundates the whole countryside. Paul understood that.

31:51 And he knew that if the blessing that had rested upon this church was to continue, that there must be spiritual unity. And he understood this from his knowledge of the Old Testament. We sang the 133rd Psalm prior to the opening up of the Scriptures. Where does the Lord command blessing?

32:12 He commands blessing where the brethren dwell together in unity. And again Jesus said, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. And I'm also convinced there's a delicate connection between the warnings of chapter 3. Beware of the dogs.

32:32 Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the flesh mutilators. He warned us. He warned them against the legalists, against the perfectionists and the sensualists.

32:41 And he knew that people are always more vulnerable to error when there is disunity in the church. You children, let me illustrate this for you. My wife has a place where she hides pencils. And I snitched her pencils this morning.

32:59 Now I have two, four, six, eight, about nine pencils all bundled together. Now if I try to break one of those pencils and they're all bundled together, I think I could, but I'm exerting a lot of pounds of pressure on those pencils right now. And they're not breaking. But if I take one out of the group, it's vulnerable to very slight pressure from my fingers.

33:29 And that's the way the people of God are. When we are bound together in those bonds of unity forged by the Holy Spirit, not a carnal, fleshly, social unity, nor a carnal unity produced by some super personality that binds people to himself, but a unity produced by union with Christ and maintained by the enablement of the Spirit, there is tremendous strength in our being bound together. And the apostle knew that if that church became fragmented and Yodia, and Syntyche were separate from one another, you don't have two prominent people at odds with one another in a church and isolate that. It isn't long before the people that feel Yodia is right in this issue rally around Yodia. And the people that are convinced Syntyche is right in this issue, they rally around Syntyche. And it isn't long before Yodia and Syntyche have become the pivots around which a fragmented congregation turns.

34:46 That's why the apostle Paul was willing to subject himself and these two women to the pain of public exposure because he understood the crucial importance of unity in any congregation of God's people. And surely the application is plain, how we rejoice that God has given us in this, really the celebration of our 15th year. It was 15 years ago next week that Trinity Church was born. And what a wonderful thing God has done in giving us unity.

35:31 Oneness of vision and purpose and delight in each other. But oh dear people of God, this is of such crucial importance that if there is any Yodia and Syntyche here this morning, I beseech you, Yodia, I beseech you, Syntyche, be of the same mind in the Lord. And all you true yoke fellows lend all of your spiritual wisdom and energy to help the Yodias and the Syntyches to be of the same mind in the Lord. It's very interesting, isn't it, that next to holiness, the thing we're to pursue with greatest zeal is peace.

The Tragic Possibility of Disunity Among Mature Christians

36:13 Hebrews 13, 14. Follow peace with all men and the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. But then the second observation I would make from the text is this. First of all, how crucially important is unity.

36:33 Secondly, how tragically possible it is for proven, mature Christians to fracture the unity of the Spirit. How tragically possible it is for proven, mature Christians to fracture the unity of the Spirit. These women were not at odds with one another because they were spiritual babes. They were Paul's fellow laborers.

37:02 They were people of tremendous stature. They were not those described by Paul in one of his letters to Timothy when he speaks of women who are busybodies, silly women laden with lust, running around gossiping and picking up gossip. These were noble, godly, mature, spirit women. And yet he has to write to Euodia and to Syntyche.

37:30 And what do we learn from that? Well, we learn in the language of 1 Corinthians 10, 12, Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.

37:58 How tragically possible it is for proven, mature Christians to fracture the unity of the Spirit. As you pray for your leaders, for proven men and women in this assembly, pray that we will tolerate not for a moment anything that fractures our unity in Christ. But then in the third place note in our text how beautifully tactful is Paul's effort to restore the fractured unity. How beautifully tactful is Paul's effort to restore the fractured unity.

Paul's Tactful Effort to Restore Fractured Unity

38:38 This kind of business is spiritual neurosurgery. One slip and you've killed a patient. When the neurosurgeon's going after that tumor on the brain, just one slip of one slightest deviation from the proper path, and if the patient is not killed, he may be seriously impaired for the rest of his life. Well, when you start bringing together two people who have resisted the general and normal means of grace to work out their difficulties, and there are deep-seated tensions that warrant this kind of public dealing, I tell you it's no easy thing to sort all of that out and get the two back together again. But notice how beautifully tactful is Paul, first of all, in addressing his exhortation equally to both women. Look at the text. He didn't say, I exhort Jodea and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.

39:41 Syntyche would have sat back and said, good, when Jodea takes that seriously, she'll come to me. And Jodea would have sat back and said, good, when Syntyche takes it, each one would have shoved the responsibility off on the other. So what did Paul do? He used the word, I admonish, I exhort, I beseech with both of them.

40:00 Jodea, I beseech you to be of the same mind with Syntyche. Syntyche, I beseech you to be of the same mind with Jodea. In other words, he bound the conscience of each woman and each of them with explicit words so that they could not sit back and wait for the other to take the initiative. You know, like teenagers, when they're just getting over that nervousness of boy-girl relationships, I love to see that.

40:31 Boys are not quite yuck to the girls and girls are not quite yuck to the boys, but they aren't quite yummy yet either. They're halfway between yuck and yummy. And they're in a social situation and the boys are on one side of the room and, you know, their feet have just begun to grow about a half inch a week and their arms and feet, and they feel like they're all hands and feet and pimples. And they're on one side of the room and the girls are on the other side and there's that sort of nervous tittering and hee-hee-hee-hee and all the rest.

41:00 And you just can't, so you have to have what in that? You have to have mixer games when we talk about mixer games. Well, all of the humor aside, how tragic it is that so often this is what happens when differences arise amongst God's people. Two people, conscious that there is a fence between them and yet the one party waiting on one side of the room for the other to cross the room and come to him.

41:29 And likewise, the other waiting for the party to cross the room to come to him. And the Apostle Paul, with his great knowledge of human nature, says, I must overcome that natural tendency and so I will lay this upon the conscience of Yodia. You, Yodia, are responsible to be of the same mind in the Lord with your sister Syntyche. And Syntyche, you are responsible.

41:52 I say that's beautiful, a beautiful stroke of tact. But then notice in the second place his securing the help of a proven man. He didn't leave it with verse 2, but he said, I beseech you, true yoke fellow, help these women. Now what was he doing?

42:10 He was immediately letting Yodia and Syntyche understand that if they had to confess, we've tried to get this thing too diffused and we've come to a dead end, they wouldn't have to humble themselves to acknowledge that publicly. Paul's already assuming that might happen. And so he very tactfully says, it may well be you need the help of another person. And yet he shows his tact in not just saying, somebody do it, because often the person who thinks he's most qualified is least qualified.

42:41 In almost every realm, them what thinks they got it don't. And them that does don't think they have it. Almost invariably, sometimes through false zeal, sometimes through the naughtiness of pride. But Paul doesn't leave this to chance.

42:58 He calls upon the true, the proven yoke fellow, the experienced man, another stroke of tact. And then we see likewise in using conciliatory language. He doesn't say, and I beseech you also, true yoke fellow, admonish them. He doesn't say, rebuke them.

43:19 He says, draw alongside. The net of fish is too big for them. Lend a hand. Help these women.

43:25 You see the tact that he uses? And then he uses it further when in the course of describing these women, he speaks of them as the ones who labored with him, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers. Here he's been naming all these individuals, Iodia, Syntyche, Clement, the true yoke fellow, and lest he offend these others that are just called fellow workers. He said, I may not have mentioned your name, but your name is known where it counts most, whose names are in the book of life.

43:55 Why was that stuck in there? I believe it's an expression of holy tact. He's saying, I may not have time to mention your names, but you unnamed fellow workers, your names are known where it counts most. You see, sometimes in solving a problem over here, you can say things that create a problem over here.

44:15 And Paul realized human nature. And rather than give any opportunity for these people to feel, huh, he names Clement, but he doesn't name us. And then he got another problem. He puts the problem to rest before it arises, whose names are in the book of life.

44:31 Oh, if you pray for anything, pray that God will make you wise in being a peacemaker. Anyone can cause a fuss in any family, any church, without half trying. But Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers and how desperately we need to cry to God that we shall know something of the holy tact that Paul knew in his treatment of this problem. And then finally, notice from this passage how glorious a thing it is to have one's name enrolled in the book of life.

The Glory of Having One's Name Enrolled in the Book of Life

45:10 What is the most wonderful thing Paul can say about these unnamed fellow workers? He says whose names are in the book of life. And what does that mean? Well, if you trace through with the concordance, you will find that this concept of the book of life is a figure beginning in the Old Testament and coming through to climactic expression in the New Testament, in which the role of the true people of God is likened unto a book.

45:40 And those whose names are inscribed upon it are those who are the heirs and possessors of eternal life. And in the book of the Revelation, chapter 13, verses 7 and 8, we find these words, And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him.

46:06 Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain. Now there is a translational problem should it be in the book of the Lamb who is slain from the foundation of the world or written from the foundation in the book of life. But this much is clear. The names of some are written in a book.

46:37 And they are written in a book that is a book of life. And it is a book of life in conjunction with the slain Lamb. And that much is clear. My friend, the book of life, to use the biblical imagery, the book of life is the book in which God has enrolled the names of those who are the heirs of life.

47:00 And how are they the heirs of life? Because they have come into living union with Him who is the Lamb of God who alone takes away the sin of the world. They have come to see that they have no life in themselves. In themselves they are death.

47:17 They are sinners estranged from God. And in the consciousness of that estrangement crying out as Euodia and Syntyche and Clement and the true yoke fellow and the apostle Paul they have cried out what must I do to be saved? And the answer of God has been look out of yourself. Look to Him who alone is able to save sinners.

47:41 Even the Lord Jesus Christ who was God's appointed Lamb from the foundation of the world but who in time according to chapter 2 of Philippians took the form of a servant and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself becoming obedient unto death even the death of the cross. He died the death we deserve to die. God raised Him from the dead seated Him in His own right hand and now says all who will acknowledge themselves to be sinners turning from their sin and trust in what they can do casting themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ will be received will be welcomed will be pardoned will be given eternal life. And in the reception of Him who is life we then discover that our names are written in the book of life. How could Paul know that these people had their names in the book of life? God did not send the book out of heaven by the hand of an angel and have Paul look up their name in the proper alphabetical arrangement.

48:51 No, what he is saying is from what I have seen in these people of their glad confession that they have no hope for salvation in themselves all of their hope is in Christ and what I have seen in them of faith working by love giving them a desire to be holy and obedient to Christ I have every reason to conclude their names are in the book of life because I see the very saving life of God in them. And my friend you may sit here this morning with a name that is quite well known in some public register who is who in this field or that field a name that may be very obscure known only to your closest friends but it matters not on what spectrum you find yourself in the books of men's estimation if you are not in the book of life your name is excluded from the one register that really counts. Oh dear friend may it be said of you whose names are in the book of life that wonderful little stroke of tact becomes as it were a platform to proclaim the heart of the message of the gospel and that is why Paul appealed to Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind where in the Lord they had a common faith in Christ a common union with Christ and division and friction

50:18 and schism were a contradiction of what God had done in grace. And I make that my closing appeal to you as the people of God here at Trinity without I trust any measure either of inaccurate assessment or of carnal boasting God has kept us from being a Corinthian church. Through all of our years we've never known what it is to have the church divided up into parties. God has given us blessed unity.

50:49 God has given us that kind of unity that has made it relatively easy and natural for us to be taken up with gospel concerns and the concerns of the spread of his truth to the ends of the earth a thing that never happens in a divided congregation. But oh dear children of God if God has given us that unity then the slightest crack must be dealt with as Paul dealt with Iodia and Syntyche. It must not be tolerated. And if you sit here this morning and there is any brother or sister against whom you have ought and it may well be that tonight I shall turn to some of those practical directives in Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 and Ephesians 4 what do we do where the rubber meets the road if there is an Iodia if there is an Iodia and I am a Syntyche how can I be reconciled to my sister, to my brother but whatever the mechanics may be usually 98% of the problem is not the mechanics it's getting over the rationalization oh well it's just a little division it's not big oh it's so evident that the problem's all hers or all his I'm not under obligation to deal with it and oh how we rationalize but the word of God comes to each of us I beseech you I beseech you

52:16 be of the same mind in the Lord let us pray Our Father we never cease to marvel at the richness the perennial freshness of the word of God and we thank you that this very practical counsel written by the apostle nearly 2,000 years to go 2,000 years ago leaps over those years and comes to us as the living word of God and we pray that each of us may have an ear to hear what the spirit is saying to this church give us hearts to embrace and obey all that you have spoken and for those who sit amongst us who have no reason to believe their names are in the book of life we pray oh God that you would so speak to them that they will have no rest nor peace until they know that their names are written in the book of life because they have come to faith in the land slain from the foundation of the world seal then your word to our hearts may it bear its holy fruit in each of our lives for the glory of your beloved son

53:45 we ask in his name Amen