I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.  I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.  For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.  I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon. (Philippians 2:19-24)   In some ways these next bits of the letter are just personal letter sorts of things.  A bit about Timothy, a bit about Epaphroditus, a bit about travel plans and reasons and things.  In that sense, these verses give us a more intimate portrait of the more mundane details of how the relationships flowed.  It's easy here to recognize that we're reading someone else's mail.  But I don't think these little details are entirely pedestrian.  Paul has not left the faith talk aside.  I think Paul means to use this talk of Timothy to reveal a portrait of someone living exactly what Paul has been talking about.  Paul has talked about those who preach Christ out of "selfish ambition" and he has told of the way that Jesus reveals a different way: a humble way that does not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.  Throughout there has been an invitation to the Philippians to walk in this same way of Christ: with humility, valuing others above themselves, looking out for the interests of others. Paul has attempted to show how he is partnering with the Philippians in this way of Christ.  But Paul is… well, he's Paul.  And who of us is like Paul?  It's a pretty dauntingly high standard to live up to—it's a pretty long shadow that Paul casts.  So it's helpful to hear some examples of normal people living out the Christian life.  People that we can relate to a bit—people more like us.  Certainly that was as true for the Philippians as it would be for us.  And so Paul tells the story of Timothy.  Here's someone they know who grew up outside of Israel in the Roman world, as they had.  Who had a Greek father, as many of them probably did.  Someone who wasn't an apostle, or some wise elder, but a young guy that normal people could much more easily relate to.  And look: this guy Timothy is serving together with Paul and the Philippians in the way of the gospel under the same pressures of suffering, he's living the humble, self-less way of Christ, and he's genuinely concerned for the welfare of others, including the Philippians.  Normal people can do this too! Paul has attempted to persuade the Philippians in all sorts of ways to walk in the way of Christ.  But teaching about it and talking about it only get so far.  To live it ourselves, we also need to see it.  We need models, role-models of a faithful Christian life.  And they can't just be the important or famous people who live impossibly far beyond us.  Even the lives of the pastors we have known aren't that helpful—because, try as they might, they just aren't normal people like the rest of us.  No, the truth of these words have to put on flesh and walk around in the real world we live in.  When we see other normal people like us live like Christians, we can imagine how it looks in our own lives too.  We can follow.  We can apprentice.  We can learn.  We can do it too. It is my conviction that faith is caught in this way of apprenticeship far more than it is taught.  We don't need perfect examples.  But we do need examples.  Who have been the Timothys in your life? Who have been those Christian examples that you have sought to follow?  And, just as importantly, who is watching you?  Who are you an example of the Christian faith to?  You may not always feel like a good example, but that doesn't mean others aren't watching, learning, and following you as you work out what God has worked in.  

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