Think of a time someone did something for you that you’ll never forget because of how loved you felt. It could be something very small. Maybe out of the blue a friend texted that they were praying for you. Maybe a neighbor randomly dropped off some cookies. Even small acts like these speak volumes about someone else thinking about us and looking out for our welfare. We desperately need people like this to surround us and we are called to be people like this.
Phil. 2:19-30 gives us a picture of what it looks like to know people and be people who look after the welfare of others. Paul shows us that this is the oxygen he breathes saying the welfare of the Philippian church will cheer him. He says his friend, Epaphroditus, was distressed that the Philippians might be distressed. Paul says God spared him sorrow by healing his friend so that Paul wouldn’t have to lose a good friend. Paul says he wants the Philippian church to be able to rejoice at seeing this friend.
The oxygen Paul shows he seeks to breathe is the oxygen of having joy in the good welfare of others. This is what marked those close to and surrounding Paul: “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 (Phil. 2:20-21). Paul was surrounded by people who were genuinely concerned for his welfare and the welfare of others, not those seeking their own interests.
Where does this come from? It comes from knowing Jesus. Notice Paul says that to be self-interested is to not line up with the interests “of Jesus Christ”. To seek the welfare of others is to line up with the interests of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus is interested in the good welfare of others. He wants salvation and life for you, your friends, and your family. When we look at Jesus by faith, we are looking at someone who “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant“.
We are called to be like Jesus in this way, in the way of putting the interests of others before our own, seeking their good. We are designed to actually be “cheered by” hearing about the welfare of others. We are designed to hurt simply because someone else hurts. In Luke 15:7 Jesus says, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” God takes joy in the welfare of others.
Surround yourself with people secured in the love of Christ and able to find joy in the welfare of others. Be secured in the love of Christ, receive the love of others, and be the kind of person who seeks the welfare of others. And in everything, look to Jesus who came on a rescue mission for you. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).
