What is a yokefellow in the Bible?

He adds a request also to his true yokefellow. I suppose the reference is to Epaphroditus, of whom he had spoken with ardent affection in Philippians 2. "Yoke" in Scripture is a badge of union or of subjection, as the case may be, in service. Thus, in 2 Corinthians 6, the believer is told not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Many narrow that scripture to the natural relationship of marriage. But though the marriage tie between believers and unbelievers is evidently not according to God, yet I doubt that there is any particular allusion to it in that scripture. The object there of the Spirit of God is to take up the commixture of the believer with the unbeliever in the service and worship of God. The Apostle brings forward the temple of God as well as individual matters, and shows that we are not to have fellowship corporately any more than individually with unbelievers. I only refer to it now because it is often put aside from the consciences of the children of God through the mistaken habit of referring it to marriage; whereas, it is plain on the face of it that the direction the Holy Ghost gives would not strictly apply to marriage.

Then he also exhorts the "true yokefellow". We may not be able to say who he was, but he was someone whom the apostle could so name, and the saints would know to whom he was referring.

We have thought that it could refer to Epaphroditus; others have thought that it might be the jailer, but what I like about the reference is that the saints would instinctively know to whom Paul referred. This brother must have given definite evidence of this feature in his association with Paul. So that he simply says "True yokefellow", and all would know the brother in view. The characteristic qualities of the man are stressed, not his name. He was one who had definitely gone on this line, had laboured at it consistently, a "true yokefellow".

Paul evidently felt how important it was that these excellent Christian women should be lifted out of their dispute, and he entreats one whom he calls a ‘true yokefellow’ (probably Epaphroditus) to help them seeing that they were saints of no mean worth who had laboured with him, or shared his conflicts, in the gospel.

Paul evidently felt how important it was that these excellent Christian women should be lifted out of their dispute, and he entreats one whom he calls a "true yoke-fellow" (probably Epaphroditus) to help them seeing that they were saints of no mean worth who had laboured with him, or shared his conflicts, in the gospel.

"Yes, I entreat even thee, true Yoke-Fellow, take-hold-along-with them, (these women), in that they struggled along with me in the Gospel" (Phil. 4:3).

There is a very beautiful change from the word Paul used to address Euodia and Syntyche, to the word he uses to his "true yoke-fellow". He gives what is almost a command to Euodia and Syntyche: but of his colleague he asks a favour. Only in his letters to his beloved Macedonian Christians (in Philippi and Thessalonica) does Paul use the more gracious word. (1 Thess. 4:1, where both words are linked together; 1 Thess. 5:12; 2 Thess. 2:1).

Another Scripture that may have come to Paul at this time is Prov. 18:19. "A brother offended is harder to be won than a fenced city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle"; cold, straight, unbending; bedded in cold, hard stone; and they cannot come together. But, bring heat enough and soon they can be close to each other. That, I think, is partly why there was such burning love in Verse 1. Paul well knew the danger and the difficulty: and so he turns to his "true yoke-fellow", and entreats his help in this most difficult and delicate matter. For sisters are as hard to win as brothers. I have little doubt that the "true yoke-fellow" was Epaphroditus. Very likely he was writing the letter at Paul's dictation, just as Tertius wrote the letter to the Romans from Paul's dictation (Rom. 16:22). You remember how in that letter Tertius interrupted the dictation to send a little message of his own. My own thought is that similarly Paul broke off his dictation to say to Epaphroditus, "Yes, I entreat even thee, true Yoke-fellow, help them, (these women) who struggled along with me in the Gospel". Undoubtedly Paul and Epaphroditus had talked this whole matter over, and Paul may already have suggested to Epaphroditus that he help them in their difficulties. Quite likely, Epaphroditus was alarmed at such a prospect, and this would give us to understand the apostle's word, "Yes!" — "Yes! Epaphroditus, you help them!" "Oh, not I!" perhaps he replied: "Yes! I entreat even thee, true yoke-fellow! Take hold along with them; for they struggled along with me in the Gospel". And Epaphroditus wrote it down, even though perhaps he was not meant to, and how glad we are he did! The word translated help is the same word used when Simon Peter got that wonderful catch of fish in Luke 5: they beckoned to their partners to take hold along with them to bring in the fish. Here in Phil. 4:3 it is in the "Middle Voice", which intimates doing something for oneself: so may suggest that Euodia and Syntyche were, at least, wanting to get the old strife settled.

(2) Euodia I exhort, and Syntyche I exhort, to mind the same thing in [the] Lord; (3) yea, I beseech thee also, genuine yokefellow, help them, seeing that they shared my conflicts in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

Euodia I-urge, and Syntyche I-urge, to-mind the same-(thing) (or, to-be-of the same mind) in (the) Lord. Yes, I-entreat even thee, true Yoke-Fellow, take-hold-along-with them, (these women), in-that-they struggled-along-with me in the gospel, with Clement also and my remaining fellow-labourers, whose names (are) in (the) book of-life.

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and (with) other my fellow-labourers, whose names (are) in the book of life."

Verse 3. "Thee also, true yokefellow." It was, doubtless, the one who carried the letter, Epaphroditus. Literally, "Help them [those] who have contended along with me." It is a recommendation to help the women who had contended in the gospel. Euodia and Syntyche were of that number.

‘Yea, I ask thee also, true yokefellow, assist them, who have contended along with me in the glad tidings, with Clement also, and my other fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life’ (Phil. 4:3). When Euodia and Syntyche ‘contended along with’ Paul (the same Greek verb translated ‘labouring together’ in 1:27) it seems they got on fine, but when he was no longer with them (compare 2:12) they started to contend against each other. Some brothers and sisters do exercise a unifying effect on their brethren but really, having the same Lord, we should be ‘of the same mind in the Lord’ (4:2), and if we were more conscious of His abiding presence — ‘The Lord is near’ (v. 5) — rifts like the one between these two sisters would not occur. It was a blot on the testimony and a potential catalyst for further and wider disunity, so Paul exhorts them both in equal measure because both are responsible for letting it develop. Each needs to judge her wrong thoughts, words, actions, etc. — and without waiting for the other to do so. But sometimes things go so far that we need help to do this. Being in Rome, Paul cannot complete what he has begun by exhorting them in this epistle, so he calls on his ‘true yokefellow’ in Philippi to share the burden with him and fill the blessed role of peacemaker there (Matt. 5:9). Evidently, this unnamed person was someone for whom he felt a special affinity in the Lord’s service and could trust to act solely for the glory of God and the blessing of His people.[3] But he makes his appeal known, not of course for interference or gossip — the matter is to be handled spiritually (Gal. 6:1) and with discretion and care — but so brethren can be exercised and pray. His reference to Clement, meaning ‘mild’ or ‘merciful’, and to other fellow-labourers (the same word as in 2:25), should touch the consciences of the sisters. Once they had expended their energies in the advancement of the gospel in light of the fact that their ‘names are in the book of life’. Why waste them on contention now?