Colossians 4:7-18 - Homiletics

Sect. 10. Personal messages and greetings.

The last section of this letter is of a more purely epistolary character, and is not, therefore, so directly available as the foregoing sections for public instruction, belonging to its framework or setting as a piece of Christian teaching. Nevertheless, these closing verses have their own peculiar interest and value—great value for historical and critical purposes, connecting the Epistle as they do by the most authentic notes of circumstantial association with the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, and bracing it firmly into the whole coherent structure of the history of the apostolic Church. Moreover, in the brief but pointed and striking notices here given us, aided by what we know from other sources of the persons mentioned, we may find not a little of indirect and incidental profit "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for discipline in righteousness" ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ).

I. ST . PAUL 'S ASSOCIATES .

1. Tychicus, the faithful messenger. (Verses 7, 8: comp. Ephesians 6:21 ; Acts 20:4 ; Titus 3:12 ; 2 Timothy 4:12 .) His association with the apostle in his last journey to Jerusalem, attended with so many affecting circumstances and terminating in his long imprisonment, seems to have led to a devoted attachment on the part of Tychicus to St. Paul. After returning home, as we may suppose, from Jerusalem, he had journeyed again to Rome, very possibly at the request of the Ephesian Church, to assist and comfort the imprisoned apostle and to bring back news of him. And he returns with these three priceless letters in his charge (Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon), with Onesimus whom he is to accompany as far as Colossae, and as the bearer of reassuring tidings from St. Paul. Again, some years later, when the apostle's friends were fewer and devotion to his cause still more hazardous, we find Tychicus employed on similar commissions.

2 . Onesimus, the converted slave. (Verse 9.) His position and character will be more fully discussed under the Epistle to Philemon.

3 . Aristarchus, the devoted comrade. ( Philemon 1:10 .) He was a representative of the Macedonian Churches ( Acts 20:4 ), who were dearest to the apostle of his children in the faith ( 1 Thessalonians 2:19 ; Philippians 1:5 ), in writing to whom he laid aside his official title and was simply Paul, whom alone he allowed to minister to his personal needs ( Philippians 4:10-18 ; 2 Corinthians 11:8-10 ). And he, along with Luke, shared the hardships of the apostle's perilous winter voyage to Rome ( Acts 27:2 ). Indeed, he had been with him before he set out from Ephesus, and was seized by the Ephesian mob at the time of the riot there, being evidently a person of some note and distinction. We know nothing more of his services to the cause of Christ, beyond this record of his assiduous and self-sacrificing attendance on St. Paul. How much the apostle, with his physical infirmities and his sensitive nature, owed to such friendship, and how much the Church owes on his account, we cannot tell. Those who may not have great gifts for public usefulness may serve Christ most effectually oftentimes by serving his servants, by their private friendship and aid cheering the hearts and strengthening the hands of those on whom fall the heavier responsibilities of the Church's care and strife, and who but for such timely help might haply sink beneath their burdens. Little as we know of this man, with what a bright distinction his name is marked, and what a place of honour will be his in the book of life, whom the apostle designates, "Aristarchus, my fellow captive, who has been a comfort to me"!

4 . Mark, the recovered friend. (Verse 10.) He, like Onesimus to his master, had been "aforetime unprofitable" to St. Paul ( Acts 13:13 ; Acts 15:36-41 ); and his unprofitableness had caused a serious breach between the two great Gentile missionaries. But now, and again at a later time, he is marked out as "useful for ministry" ( 2 Timothy 4:11 ). St. Paul's firmness and fidelity in refusing, at whatever cost, to take with him an untrustworthy man, had, we may presume, helped to rouse in Mark a better spirit.

5 . Jesus Justus, a Catholic-minded Jew. (Verse 11.) He is known to us here only; but as one of the three who alone "of the circumcision" were the apostle's "fellow workers unto the kingdom of God," and "a comfort unto him." Aristarchus and Mark were old friends and associates of St. Paul, attached to him by many ties. Jesus Justus, we are inclined to think, was a Christian Jew of Rome, and in that case was, it appears, the only member of that community—a tolerably large one, as we should gather from the Epistle to the Romans—who heartily supported the apostle in this hour of his need and danger. Many of the Jewish brethren at Rome openly opposed him ( Philippians 1:16 ); others regarded him with a cold and suspicious indifference. At a later period he has sorrowfully to say of his friends at Rome, "All forsook me" ( 2 Timothy 4:16 ). But, whether Jesus Justus belonged to Rome or not, the fact that he was found at this time by St. Paul's tide says a great deal for his courage, as well as for his largeness of heart and enlightened views. The three pillar apostles at Jerusalem rather acquiesced in St. Paul's principles and the policy he had pursued than actively supported them ( Galatians 5:1-26 .); and their professed followers in the Jewish Churches denounced them and set up a counter agitation. If for no other reason, then, it was fitting that the name of this Jesus should be honourably recorded. To the apostle who had been in so many "perils from his own countrymen" and "from false brethren" ( 2 Corinthians 11:26 ), every "fellow labourer of the circumcision" was an especial "comfort." His cognomen Justus attests his reputation amongst his compatriots for legal strictness and uprightness; and this high character would make his attachment to St. Paul the more valuable.

6 . Epaphras, the earnest minister. (Verses 12, 13.) With the name of Epaphras we are familiar already (see homiletics, sect. 1, II . 2). Though absent from his people, he is none the less concerned for their welfare. When he can do nothing less, he can pray for them all the more. We note:

7 . Luke, the beloved physician. (Verse 14.) Of all the apostle's friends, none was dearer to him or more serviceable than St. Luke. He was with him to the very last ( 2 Timothy 4:11 ). His writings, while they keep the writer's personality modestly out of sight, betray in him a man of a careful and diligent habit of mind, of considerable breadth of culture, and of a tender and sympathetic heart. The Acts of the Apostles show him to have been a warm and admiring, yet impartial, friend of St. Paul And his Gospel is penetrated with that Pauline universalism which both he and his master first found in Christ. The apostle probably owed not a little to Luke's medical care. And we are all indebted to this quiet and skilful physician, who understood so well St. Paul's peculiar temperament and the value of his life to the Church, and whose intelligence and special training made his companionship so pleasant and so useful to the apostle. The medical profession is that which stands nearest to the ministry of Christ in the honours of self sacrifice and devotion to humanity. There is no vocation that demands a higher combination of intellectual and moral powers, or that puts a greater strain upon a man's best qualities. It may bring, and often does bring, the physician into a sympathy with the mind and with the mission of Christ closer and more real in some respects than any other work can do. Its best services are beyond all material and earthly reward. Exercised by a wise and faithful Christian man, it becomes a ministry of unspeakable blessing to soul as well as body, reaching, as did Christ's miracles of healing, the soul oftentimes through the body. Medical men Christ, "the good Physician," claims above other men for his followers and fellow workers.

8 . Demas, the backslider. (Verse 14; 2 Timothy 4:9 , 2 Timothy 4:10 .) This man must have been valued greatly by the apostle, to be mentioned in such company. In his second imprisonment he urgently requires Timothy's presence, "because Demas had forsaken him." He appears to have depended hitherto upon Demas, and to have prized his aid. Demas had chosen his lot with the persecuted apostle, and for some time served him steadily and well; and then at the last, when the need was greatest, he deserted him, not through fear of danger, it appears, but for the sake of worldly gain—"having loved this present world." Whether he was ever restored to Christian fidelity or not, we cannot tell. His case is so much worse than Mark's, in that the latter gave way to fear under sudden impulse, and in the unexpected hardships and dangers of his first probation; while Demas seems to have forsaken the apostle deliberately and heartlessly, and when he was no mere novice in the service of Christ. He is an example of those in whom the good seed takes root and grows through the frosts of spring to a fair summer promise, and then "the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful" ( Mark 4:19 ).

II. THE MESSAGE TO LAODICEA . (Verses 15-17.) This passage assumes a peculiar interest in connection with the after history of the Laodicean Church, and the terrible rebuke addressed to it by Christ in Revelation 3:14-22 . It is the only instance in which the apostle salutes one Church in writing to another. If the letter received from him by the Laodiceans was our (so called) Epistle to the Ephesians, inasmuch as there is no particular greeting to any Church appended to it, we can understand why he should add this kindly salutation here. The Churches of the Lycus valley were so closely linked together that the state of one was to a large extent the state of all. We are not surprised, therefore, that the contagion of the Colossian evil spread to Laodicea. In that wealthy and luxurious city it bore disastrous fruit, in the corruption that Christ himself through St. John afterwards denounced in his Apocalyptic message.

III. THE APOSTLE 'S FAREWELL . ( Philemon 1:18 .) These brief, affecting words proceed from the author's own hand, the large and difficult characters themselves a reminder of his afflictions in the gospel.

1 . He bids the Colossians remember his bonds (comp. Philemon 1:10 , Philemon 1:13 ; Philippians 1:7 , Philippians 1:17 ; Ephesians 3:1 , Ephesians 3:13 ; Ephesians 6:20 ; 2 Timothy 2:9 , 2 Timothy 2:10 ; see homiletics, sect. 3, I. 4)—so sore a trial to him, so great an advantage and glory to them, calling for their tender and prayerful sympathy, and for their most regardful heed to all that he had written.

2 . He wishes them grace —grace first and last (comp. Colossians 1:2 , and homiletics); the grace they had received already ( Colossians 1:6 , Colossians 1:12 , Colossians 1:21 , Colossians 1:27 ; Colossians 2:6 ; Colossians 3:12 , Colossians 3:13 ; Ephesians 1:3 ) being the pledge and the earnest of all the fulness of that "superabounding grace" which reigns "through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" ( Romans 5:20 , Romans 5:21 ; 2 Corinthians 9:8 ; Ephesians 1:3 ; John 1:16 ).