EXTENDED GREETINGS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.

Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.

Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

Colossians 4:10-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Most people share greetings at the beginning of a letter but as we look at the closing verses of Paul’s epistle to the Christians in Colossae, we find a lengthy list of greetings at the end as the Apostle writes “in his own hand”.

Although he was the author of the correspondence as he was in the chains of Roman incarceration, Paul wasn’t alone and there were others who wanted to extend their own greetings to the Colossians as well as the believers in Laodicea which included a church that met in the house of Nympha, a Colossian Christian. And so Paul makes sure he mentions everyone so the Jesus followers who read the letter were aware of all who were concerned for them.

It’s interesting that Paul starts by mentioning the Jews who are with him as it reinforces what he proclaimed in his understanding of the Gospel. You may recall these words from his letter to the Romans:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile (1:16).

Once a fervent Jew before his conversion to Christianity, Paul understood the special relationship God had with the Jewish people well before Jesus came. The Israelites were God’s chosen people and He was to be their sole God. It was an exclusive relationship of divine proportions and we know God sent targeted messages to His people through the prophets that promised Jesus, the Messiah, would be coming to save them.

So with this, Paul mentioning the Jews first before the Gentiles was simply paying tribute to history and respecting how the Jews were first the people of God before the inclusiveness of the new covenant was unveiled once Jesus came, an inclusiveness that brought salvation to anyone who would believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile.

In regard to greetings, Aristarchus is mentioned first and identified as a “fellow prisoner” but he was a lot more than that. For as we look at Acts, Chapter 19, we find that he was a Macedonian who served as a missionary alongside Paul while the Apostle was in Ephesus:

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together (Vv. 23-29).

Aristarchus would then accompany Paul back to Macedonia as we see in Acts 20:

When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days (Vv. 1-6).

And so we see Aristarchus was very involved in the work of the Gospel and would end up traveling to Rome with Paul which is what led to him being Paul’s “fellow prisoner”:

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us (Acts 27:1-2).

Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, was a Jew who extended greetings. He was often referred to as John Mark and was the author of the Gospel of Mark.

In regard to Gospel spreading in the Book of Acts, we first find Mark mentioned in chapter 12 as the mother of Mary who had the house in Jerusalem that Peter went to after his miraculous release from prison (v. 12). Later in this same chapter and into the next, Mark is mentioned as a helper who accompanying Barnabas and Paul as they embarked on their first missionary work:

When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark (12:25).

The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper (13:4-5)

Mark would later desert the missionary team in Pamphylia, much to the displeasure of Paul who refused to allow Mark to come back. This led to him and Barnabas splitting up with the latter taking his cousin Mark with him. Paul went forward with a new partner, Silas:

Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches (Acts 15:36-41).

Mark would eventually end up with Paul, also imprisoned in Rome. Paul calls him a “fellow worker” in his closing remarks to Philemon (v. 24) and so it would appear that Mark had matured as a Christian missionary and once again gained Paul’s respect, so much so that he encourages the Colossians to welcome him if he came to them.

The last Jewish co-worker “for the kingdom of God” that Paul mentions is “Jesus who is called Justus”. This is the only place in the scriptures that we read of Jesus/Justus but we know he was involved in Gospel work and was a great comfort to Paul during his imprisonment.

After mentioning his fellow Jews, Paul then sends greetings from the Gentile Christians who were with him, starting with Epaphras who we know was a Colossian believer and “servant of Christ Jesus’ who came to Rome as a representative from the church in Colossae (Colossians 1:7). Paul wanted the Colossian Christians to know that their emissary was “always wrestling in prayer” for them so that the church and its congregants would “stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured”. Paul went on to let the believers know that Epaphras was working hard for them while in Rome.

Paul next mentions a mutual “dear friend”, the doctor Luke who we know not only authored a Gospel book but the Book of Acts as well. He was the only Gentile who wrote a part of the New Testament and was obviously a close acquaintance of the Apostle who refers to him as a fellow worker like Mark (v. 24).

In the Book of Acts, we find Luke joining Paul during his second missionary journey:

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days (16:11-12).

Of course, since Luke wrote Acts, his use of the word “we” shows that he was in company with Paul and the others. Luke would leave the group in Philippi before rejoining the missionary team during the third journey. This is indicated by him not referring to the team as we and us before resuming:

After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.

When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue (16:40-17:1).

Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days (20:3-6)

Paul would then write this in his letter to Timothy, indicating that Luke was in Rome with him:

Do your best to come to me quickly... Only Luke is with me (2 Timothy 4:9, 11).

Finally, we find Paul sending greetings from Demas. Here we find Demas as a fellow Gospel-sharing missionary with Paul who was mentioned in the same context as Mark, Aristarchus, and Luke (Philemon 24).

But something happened after Paul’s first Roman incarceration in the company with Demas because going back to his letter to Timothy, he informs his ministry protégé that Demas had deserted the Apostle and gone to Thessalonica “because he loved this world” (1 Timothy 4:10). We don’t hear of anything about Paul’s fellow worker afterwards.

And with that, Paul finishes his greetings which contain a lot of background content a person could easily gloss over. It shows us the importance of enjoying each morsel of scripture and the understanding it contains.

As for this study of Colossians, we should embrace the final exhortation Paul sends to Archippus, his fellow soldier for the cause of the Gospel (Philemon 2):

“See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”

Indeed, let us do just that and may grace be with us as we do.

Amen.  

In Christ,

Mark

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