Colossians 4:7-18
There are all kinds of hidden treasures in this passage. Paul is wrapping up his letter but sending out personal greetings from the people who are ministering with him and to him while he is in jail. He is sending the letter with Tychicus and Onesimus. This is the first treasure: Onesimus was the subject of Paul's letter to Philemon - a Christian land-owner. He was a runaway slave who had met Paul and committed his life to serving Christ and Paul was sending him back to Philemon with the request that Philemon would send Onesimus back to serve Paul. It would seem from this letter that Philemon did just that.
Epaphras is the another hidden treasure. His deep desire and concern for the churches is evident by what Paul says about him: he is always wrestling in prayer for them that they might stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. He is praying in such a way that he feels physically exhausted and wrung out when he is done. I wonder who the people are who are wrestling in prayer for me and the youth in this way - that put their whole body into praying for us. I know that I am certainly not praying in this way. I want to feel for my students and for the Church. I hope to learn from Epaphras.
The last hidden treasure is the instruction to Archippus. I wonder what the work was that he was to complete. I wonder if Paul's words were a rebuke ("get back to work!") or an encouragement ("keep up the good work!"). God has given me a work to do here in Lethbridge and my desire is that I would complete it well.
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1 comment:
that would be pretty insane if we prayed until we were exhausted. I don't pray like that either, and sometimes in all my busyness I forget about prayer. Then I start to rely on myself. We need to know what God wants and where he is going, we need to be constantly wrestling with him. May God give us the discipline to sit in his presence, to wrestle with him and for us to become exhausted praying for those in our ministry.
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