In The Same Book

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

IN THE SAME BOOK

Phil 4:2-3

2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

NIV

This seems to be a rather strange, yet personal note in this letter. Our scholars have found so much to say, however, point out many have made many conjectures as to who these named individuals are, but with no evidence, it is useful to propagate conjecture. What we can tell from the scripture, at least on the surface facts, is there are two women in the church who have some kind of disagreement and Paul is asking some fellow minister in the Lord to work with them to iron out their differences. We think it might be important for us to consider what family life was like in Eastern culture at that time. Our culture today has a far different view of the role of women, even in the church, then they did in Philippi at that time. Were these women opposing each other in open debate within the church over some doctrinal issues? Was there a more subtle opposition between them that waged within a family structure? We know nothing and everything is conjecture. Again all we know is they are opposed to each other about something and because Paul is exhorting agreement, we would have to think their disagreement has to do with doctrine. Nevertheless, the point here is there should not be any disagreement in the body of Christ. We do not know if theirs was even over a doctrinal issue, they could have been arguing over what type of music is played, or how the seats were set up, or over some other mundane subject. We have no clue, only that they were so opposed to each other, they needed someone to break in and arbitrate their differences. It would certainly seem these two women worked alongside or aided Paul in his ministry while he was in Philippi. It might be natural, in the flesh, for us believers to have some disagreements, or differences in opinions regarding the truth of the scriptures, or in the style of music in the service, or how the church looks, in fact, many choose which church to attend based on appearances, or style of music, or the personality of the pastor or pastors. The mere fact, we contend with a multiplicity of denominations proves all us believers cannot agree on the truth, or have doctrinal differences. What is all comes down to is that whoever has their name written in the book of life, is a solid believer in Jesus Christ and we should see that unites us rather than divides us. For once all of us whose names are written in the Book of Life are resurrected into the presence of our Lord, we are all going to be praising and honoring our Lord together as one people. Any differences will immediately fade into oblivion in the light of our Lord. Therefore, as Paul admonishes these two women to attend to their differences with the help of another, we too should see our brothers and sisters in the Lord as just that, our brothers and sisters and see each other in agreement, both within the same church, as well as within different churches. If we are in the Book of Life, our names are altogether right next to each other’s, in the same book.