All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95) published by The Lockman Foundation

One of the chief complaints that many western believers make about the condition of most Bible-believing churches is their lack of unity. Many churches seem to compete to gain attenders, and even individual churches are split into seemingly divided factions and cliques. And it seems that few churches that support the same missionaries actually work together themselves in their local ministries. But what if it’s possible for several churches in a given area to work together, to appreciate each other, and to partner alongside the same missionaries with united purposes and goals? This harmony and fellowship is vividly pictured by Paul at the end of his letter to the Colossians.

After explaining the wonders and glories of Jesus and the believer’s completion in Him, Paul winds down the letter by writing of personal concerns about himself and the people that he personally works with in his missionary efforts. He introduces the Colossians to his letter-bearer, sends the greetings of his associates at his current home, instructs the Colossians about their reading of his letters to them, and concludes the letter with a couple of personal requests. The last 11 verses of the letter give us a window into the personal relationships of Paul and his closest friends, and the way in which the assemblies he helped to plant worked together to support many missionaries, who in turn encouraged them. We can learn several lessons about Christian unity, missionary partnerships, and church leadership from this section.

This final passage can easily be divided into five messages from Paul:

  1. He’s Sent Informants for Them (vss. 7-9)
  2. The Circumcised Encourage Him (vss. 10-11)
  3. Their Slave of Jesus Earnestly Prays for Them (vss. 12-13)
  4. He Sends Greetings and Instructions to Them (vss. 14-17)
  5. He Seals the Letter with His Chains and Grace (v. 18)

This is what Paul writes in verses 7-18 of Colossians 4:

“As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information. For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your herats; and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number. They will inform you about the whole situation here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas’ cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him); and also Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved rto be an encouiragemnet to me. Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesuss Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house. When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. Say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.’ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.” – Col. 4:7-18

In this portrait of the brotherhood of a kingdom society, Paul starts by describing his informants for the Colossians.

He’s Sent Informants for Them

In chapter 2 of this letter, Paul mentions that the Colossians have never seen him in person. However, from this passage, it seems that Paul personally knew Epaphras, whom he describes as a prayerful leader of them. In chapter 1, he notes that Epaphras was the one who preached the gospel to them. Hence, the situation seems to be that Epaphras first learned the gospel from Paul in person, and then went to Colossae and made disciples there.

Although the Colossians had never been with Paul, they were evidently concerned about him, especially since Epaphras knew him personally. Thus, Paul says that he’s sent a brother named Tychicus to them to tell everything that’s going on with him. Tychicus is mentioned in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, in chapter 20, where he writes that Tychicus was from the Roman province of Asia, and traveled with Paul on his last journey before being detained in Jerusalem by the Romans. We know little else about him, besides the glowing accolades Paul gives him in this section.

To his description as a “beloved brother,” Paul adds that Tychicus is a “faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord” (v. 7). The Greek term for “servant” was usually used for a general servant who acted as a “steward” of his boss’s possessions. That’s why he’s characterized as “faithful” – faithful with the Lord’s resources. Secondly, Paul calls him a “bond-servant”, which is a mistranslation of the Greek word doulos, meaning “slave.” Paul is calling this man an obedient slave of Jesus, the Lord. In this case, the task the Lord has assigned him is to inform the Colossians of Paul’s condition and doings, and to deliver Paul’s letter to them, along with another man named Onesimus. By going to the Colossians on Paul’s behalf, Tychicus is to encourage the “hearts” of the Colossians through his words and example.

The second informant Paul has sent with Tychicus is Onesimus, whom Paul describes as “one of yours” (v. 9, my translation). According to Paul’s Letter to Philemon, Onesimus is a slave of one of the Colossian Christians (i.e. Philemon). In spite of his either present or former slave status, he’s still a “beloved brother,” just like Tychicus. Together, they are not only to explain Paul’s circumstances, but also to describe the “whole situation” in the city of Rome, where Paul is imprisoned.

Why did the Colossians need to know how Paul was doing, and how the rest of the believers in Rome were doing? Plainly, it was so they could know how best to pray for them, and to support them with workers and/or material resources. But there are other specific people that Paul wants the Colossians to know about next.

The Circumcised Encourage Him

In the next section of this passage, Paul passes along greetings from a few brothers who belong to a different culture than the Colossians. The Colossians were raised and lived as Greek-like, idol-worshiping pagans before they were converted. They were mostly ignorant of the Old Testament Scriptures, and of their God. They were both socially and religiously cut off from the Jews who studied and taught these Scriptures, and doubtless had some animosity against them. Which is why it’s important that Paul specifically sends a message from Jewish believers to the Colossians. As he already highlighted in verse 11 of chapter 3, both Jews and Gentiles are brethren in Christ, and members of God’s family. Therefore, they ought to know that some Jews see it this way.

Apparently, he had come into contact with another imprisoned Christian, since he says that the man named Aristarchus is a prisoner as well. He’s the first to greet the Colossians. In order to understand the significance of “greetings,” we need to briefly consider what this even means.

In our common interactions, “greeting” someone usually just means to recognize someone’s presence in your living space, without anything else necessarily being implied. But the Greek word for “sends greetings” literally means “to embrace”. It’s as if Aristarchus and these other brothers were hugging the Colossians from a distance. The second person is “Barnabas’ cousin Mark,” who is the one who abandoned him and Paul on their first missionary journey. Later, of course, he wrote the Gospel of Mark. Apparently, he was anticipated by the Colossians to visit them, and so Paul tells them to welcome him. Finally, Paul lists a man named “Jesus who is called Justus” (v. 11). When seeing someone with the name Jesus in the Bible, we need to remember that that was one of the most common Jewish names used, and also means “Joshua.”

As I already hinted at, all three of these brothers sending greetings are “from the circumcision” (v. 11). This means that they belong to the group called “the circumcision,” after their distinction of being circumcised people among uncircumcised Gentiles. In other words, they were Jews like Paul. But sadly, they were the only “fellow workers for the kingdom of God” who were also Jews. This seems to mean that they were the only Jewish believers that worked alongside Paul to spread and teach the gospel. As such, they encouraged him. And Paul wanted the Gentile Colossians to know that their Jewish brethren cared about them. But not nearly as much as their fellow Colossian, Epaphras.

Their Slave of Jesus Earnestly Prays for Them

After sending greetings from his Jewish co-workers, Paul next sends greetings from one of their main leaders, Epaphras (pronounced “ehp-uh-fruss”). His description of his attitude toward the Colossians is one of the highest commendations a leader can receive. He’s of course “one of your number,” being a native Colossian (v. 12). But he’s been purchased and enslaved by Jesus Christ, so he’s now literally “a slave” of Him. As such, he’s “always laboring earnestly” through prayer for his Colossian brethren (v. 12).

Epaphras’s chief concerns in his prayers for the Colossians are for their maturity and assurance. He regularly prays that God will first enable them to “stand perfect,” or “complete.” This is a petition for general maturity in Christlikeness. But his next prayer request is that they will also stand “fully assured in all the will of God”. Just as Paul wrote of his prayers for the Colossians in the beginning of the letter, so also Epaphras wants the Lord to give them full assurance of God’s will for them. If they know what God’s will is for them, then they can do His will, and fulfill His purposes in the world, including growing in their completeness and maturity in Christ.

He prays this way because he has a “deep concern” for them. And not just them, but also all the Christians in his home region. We know this because Laodicea and Hierapolis were cities in the same river valley as Colossae. So, Epaphras clearly had a large heart, and probably a wide reach to all these cities. Yet he focused specifically on his home fellow citizens in his prayers, among whom he spent the most time.

Paul next sends two extra greetings, and gives general instructions to the Colossians about their reception and use of the letter.

He Sends Greetings and Instructions to Them

The one last greeting that Paul passes along to the Colossians is from his “beloved physician” and another man who will become notorious at the end of his life. Luke accompanied Paul on his last two missionary journeys before his detainment, and chronicled a large part of his life in his Acts of the Apostles. As for Demas, Paul writes of him in his second letter to Timothy as having “loved this present world,” and forsaking him in his cell as he awaits the time of his execution (2 Tim. 4:9-10). However, at the time of writing Colossians, Demas was still acting the part of a faithful brother in Christ.

After sharing these greetings, Paul next gives a few final instructions, starting with the Colossians’ own greetings. He asks them to greet the Laodicean Christians, and then a believer either named Nympha (feminine), or Nymphas (masculine), who hosts an assembly of Christians in her home. Just as Paul was just encouraging the warm affection of brethren for the Colossians, he also wanted them to display their affection for brethren within their region.

Secondly, he instructs them to share the letter he’s writing with the Laodicean Christians. In exchange, they are to also read another letter that has previously been sent to the Laodiceans. Since Ephesus is very close to Laodicea and Colossae, it’s likely that the Letter to the Ephesians is the letter he has in mind here. We can infer this also from the fact that good manuscripts of Ephesians contain a blank space where the name “Ephesus” is in the others, showing that the letter was intended to be sent to multiple cities. Whether this was the case or not, it’s clear that Paul wanted even specialized letters to be read by assemblies that weren’t a part of the group originally intended to receive them. Hence, we have a great precedence for our profitable study of all the New Testament letters today, even though not directly addressed to us. Yet, in the Lord’s providence, he determined to preserve these letters for us today, in order to provide us with the teachings, beliefs, practices, and examples of the apostles and their assemblies.

Finally, Paul gives an intensely personal exhortation through the Colossians. It seems that there was a brother who had been in fellowship with the Colossians, but had ceased to consistently serve them. Thus, Paul commands the whole Colossian congregation to command this Archippus to “take heed” to the ministry the Lord gave him, so he can fulfill it. To “take heed” to something means to pay attention to it, or to deal faithfully with it. Therefore, Paul is asking the Colossians to execute a mild form of church discipline on this man, so that he’ll be convicted of his need to steward his service faithfully. This would serve as a warning to all the Colossians, since every believer has received some ministry from the Lord to fulfill.

He Seals the Letter with His Chains and Grace

Paul closes this whole letter to the Colossians with one of his usual final greetings. He first seals the letter with his signature, which is his own handwriting (v. 18). He says that he’s writing his greeting “with my own hand” because some of his letters were written down by a scribe called an “amanuensis”. The most likely reason that Paul used someone else to write down what he wanted to say was that he had a problem with his sight, evidenced by him writing with “large letters” in his Letter to the Galatians (6:11). It may have also been hard for him to write while he was literally chained to a Roman guard during this time of imprisonment. Whatever the case, Paul wrote the last part of the letter to certify that it was from him.

He then ends the letter with two short statements. First, he wants the Colossians to “remember” his imprisonment, or literally, his “chains” (v. 18). They needed to bear in mind that he’d been arrested and tried for preaching the gospel to Gentiles, which was the means the Lord used to bring the gospel to them. Therefore, they needed to pray for him, and also be warned that they would be in danger of persecution as believers in Jesus. Finally and fittingly, Paul closes the same way that he started his message. He wishes that “grace be with you,” as his main prayer for them. As a wish from an apostle, this is a sure promise that God’s grace, or favor, is with them.

The grace of God is one of the few main themes of the entire letter, since it was God’s grace that sent His Son; His grace that reconciled the world to Himself; His grace that saved the Colossians; and His grace that would empower them to carry out the instructions of the letter.

Missions, Mixing, and Ministering

Let’s review several of the main lessons that can be learned from this last section of Colossians.

Missions:

            First, Paul teaches us that missionaries need to keep in regular contact with the assemblies they’ve helped plant, and continue their partnership together. They should explain how they’re doing to their partner assemblies when doing this. Communication with supporting assemblies is one of the keys of successful missions.

Mixing:

            As with the “circumcised” Jews with Paul, there are some Christian groups today that tend to have a bad reputation or dangerous tendencies. These groups especially should be praised for their faithfulness, and given an open relationship with totally different groups, so any possible suspicions or stigmas can be eliminated. Christians need to see that every type of believer is fundamentally the same, and on their side.

Ministering:

            We see with the example of Epaphras that the chief work of church leaders is to labor earnestly in prayer for their brethren. They ought to have a burning passion to see their flock mature and sure of God’s will. This will come from a deep concern for their spiritual health and growth.

Second, assemblies ought to eagerly associate and partner with nearby assemblies, and wish and pray the best for them, as the Colossians did with the Laodiceans.

And finally, whatever your ministry, or “service,” you should diligently attend to it, so you can fill it out to the full. Be a faithful steward of your giftedness and resources.