Open Handed Faith (Philippians 2:19–24)
Paul writes, “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you” (Phil 2:19).
Timothy had become one of Paul’s closest companions. He was from the region around Lystra and Derbe, born to a Jewish mother and Greek father, and appears to have been raised more within Greek culture than Jewish custom. Paul met him during his second missionary journey and eventually took him in as a kind of student and understudy. In 1 Corinthians, Paul even calls Timothy his “child in the Lord.”
Timothy traveled with Paul, spent time with him in prison, and appears in at least five of Paul’s letters.
Timothy in Ephesus
Tradition places Timothy in Ephesus, serving the church there for around fifteen years before being killed sometime near the end of the first century.
Ephesus is important because it was home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the great religious centers of the ancient world. Artemis worship was woven together with the city’s identity, economy, politics, festivals, commerce, and public life. Worship included sacrifices, processions, festivals, public professions of devotion, songs, ceremonial dress, and practices that reinforced the social order.
Rome was very comfortable with local religion as long as it supported Roman power. Rather than simply erasing the religions of conquered peoples, Rome often absorbed and reshaped them. Local gods became connected to Roman gods, religious festivals became civic festivals, and worship became a way of reinforcing loyalty to the empire. This is what we call it civil religion.
Timothy and Paul
Paul recognizes that Christianity is vulnerable to the same thing. He writes about Timothy, “I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:20–21).
Even in the first generation of Christianity, people were already discovering that religious language could be economically and politically useful. The symbols and teachings of faith could be turned into tools for money, influence, status, or political power. This has happened repeatedly throughout Christian history. Enslavers distributed edited Bibles that emphasized obedience while removing passages about freedom. High-control churches often emphasize texts about submission and authority while avoiding Jesus’ teachings about enemy love, humility, nonviolence, and care for the poor.
The question Paul raises is wether or now we are seeking our own interests, or the interests of Jesus Christ? Timothy stands out because Paul trusts that his concern for the Philippians is genuine, meaning he actually cares about them.
Then Paul explains his plans, but he does so with surprisingly open hands. “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon.” Later he says, “I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.”
Paul is awaiting sentencing and he doesn’t know whether he will be released or executed. So he wants Timothy nearby until he knows what is going to happen, perhaps because if death is coming, he simply wants his friend with him. It is a very human moment, heavy with emotion when you understand what is happening.
Paul still makes the plans, but he no longer pretends that he controls the outcome. This may be one of the deeper ways the Gospel has reshaped him, by teaching him that he has far less control over what happens in his life than he (or we) is assumed to have. Much of our anxiety comes from trying to control things that do not actually belong to us. We want to control outcomes, relationships, people, institutions, and even the future. But love requires us to surrender that kind of control.
Control uses fear. Love uses invitation.
Paul has learned to name what he hopes for while holding the outcome loosely. He can make plans without pretending that those plans belong to him. He can say what he wants without demanding that the world comply. It’s a difficult kind of faith that takes our hopes seriously without turning them into demands. It means working toward what is good while accepting that we cannot control other people or guarantee outcomes.
Paul makes plans, but he holds those plans of it with open hands.
House Church Discussion Questions
Timothy seems to stand out because Paul trusts that he genuinely cares about people rather than using ministry for his own interests. Who have you known who made you feel genuinely cared for like that? What was different about them?
Where have you seen religion become mixed together with money, politics, status, or power? How did that affect the way you experienced faith?
Paul says some people were seeking “their own interests” rather than the interests of Jesus. What helps you tell the difference between someone serving others and someone using religion to serve themselves?
Paul makes plans, but he keeps saying, “I hope” and “I trust.” Where in your life right now are you having to hold something you really want with open hands?
The sermon says that control works through fear while love works through invitation. Have you experienced the difference between those two ways of relating to people? What did each one feel like?