CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Colossians 4:12. Always labouring fervently for you.—R.V. “always striving.” Lit. “agonising.” Like the mighty wrestler who held the Angel till daybreak, Epaphras intercedes for his Colossian brethren. Complete in all the will of God.—R.V. “fully assured.” “From the tenor of the letter it appears that the Colossians needed a deeper Christian insight and more intelligent and well-grounded convictions respecting the truth ‘as in Jesus’ ” (Findlay).
Colossians 4:13. Zeal … for them that are in Laodicea.—Here then is one who differs from the Laodicean spirit of St. John’s time.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Colossians 4:12-13
The Model Pastor.
Nothing is known of Epaphras beyond the few but significant notices which connect him with Colossæ, of which city he was a native. Acting under the direction of St. Paul, probably when the apostle was residing for three years at Ephesus, Epaphras was the honoured agent in introducing the gospel into Colossæ and the neighbouring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis; and it is evident he regarded himself as responsible for the spiritual well-being of all these places. The dangerous condition of the Colossian and neighbouring Churches at this time filled the mind of Epaphras with a holy jealousy and alarm. A strange form of heresy had appeared among them—a mixture of Jewish formalism with the speculations of an Oriental philosophy—and was rapidly spreading. The distress of the faithful evangelist was extreme. He journeyed to Rome in order to lay this state of things before the apostle, and to seek his counsel and assistance. The apostle bears testimony to his profound anxiety for the spiritual condition of the newly founded Churches on the banks of the Lycus. He had much toil for them, and was ever fervently wrestling in prayer on their behalf, that they might stand fast and not lose the simplicity of their earlier faith, but might advance to a more perfect knowledge of the divine will. In the verses now under consideration we have Epaphras brought before us as the model pastor.
I. The model pastor is distinguished by a suggestive designation.—“A servant of Christ” (Colossians 4:12). This title, which the apostle uses several times for himself, is not elsewhere conferred on any other individual, except once on Timothy (Philippians 1:1), and probably points to exceptional services in the cause of the gospel on the part of Epaphras (Lightfoot). A true pastor is not the servant of the Church to echo its decisions and do its bidding; but he is the servant for the Church to influence its deliberations and decisions, to mould its character and direct its enterprises. He is a servant of Christ, receiving his commission from Him, ever anxious to ascertain His will, and ready to carry out that will at whatever sacrifice. Such a service involves no loss of self-respect or manliness, no degradation, but is free, honourable, and rich in blessing.
II. The model pastor is incessant in zealous labour.—“For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis” (Colossians 4:13). The zeal of Epaphras urged him to extend his Christian labours beyond the limits of Colossæ: he visited the adjoining cities, which were much larger in population and wealthier in commerce. Laodicea, rising from obscurity, had become, two or three generations before the apostle wrote, a populous and thriving city, and was then the metropolis of the cities on the banks of the Lycus. Hierapolis was an important and growing city, and, in addition to its trade in dyed wools, had a reputation as a fashionable watering-place, where the seekers of pleasure and of health resorted to partake of its waters which possessed valuable medicinal qualities. The rare virtues of the city have been celebrated in song:
“Hail, fairest soil in all broad Asia’s realm;
Hail, golden city, nymph divine, bedeck’d
With flowing rills, thy jewels.”
Into the midst of these populations the fervent Epaphras introduced the gospel, and spared no pains in his endeavour to establish and confirm the believers. It was on their behalf he undertook the journey to Rome to confer with St. Paul as to their state; and the apostle testifies to the unceasing exercise of his great and holy zeal for his distant but ever-remembered flock. When the heart is interested and moved, labour is a delight; and it is the way in which the heart is affected towards any work that gives to it significance and worth. Canon Liddon writes: “Are we not very imperfectly alive to the moral meaning of work and the moral fruits of work as work?” The true pastor, with a heart overflowing with zeal for the glory of God and the good of men, cheerfully undertakes labour from which the ordinary worker would timidly shrink.
III. The model pastor is intensely exercised in prayer for the people of God.—“Always labouring fervently [wrestling, agonising] for you in prayers” (Colossians 4:12). The faithful minister has not only to teach his flock—a task which involves vigilant observation, extensive reading, and anxious study—but he has also to plead earnestly at the throne of grace on their behalf. In times of spiritual dearth, disappointment, embarrassment, and distress, prayer is the all-efficacious resource. There are circumstances in which the minister can do nothing but pray. Difficulties that defied all other means have vanished before the irresistible power of persistent and believing intercession. Prayer attains what the most conclusive reasoning, the most eloquent appeal, the most diligent personal attention, sometimes fail to accomplish. It sets in silent but stupendous operation the mightiest spiritual agencies of the universe. It opens the fountain of divine grace, and its streams flow in full-tide velocity through the hitherto arid wilderness of human hearts, and life, freshness, fertility, and beauty spring up in its reviving course. It is God only whoso help is omnipotent, and on this help faithful prayer lays hold and uses it in effecting its wondrous transformations.
IV. The model pastor is constantly solicitous that the people of God should be firmly established in the highest good.—“That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12)—perfectly instructed and fully convinced in everything willed by God. The great aim of all ministerial anxiety is not only to instruct his people in the full and accurate knowledge of the divine will, but to produce such a persuasion of the supreme majesty and authority of that will as to induce steadfast continuance in practical obedience. The will of God and the highest good of man are always in harmony. Whatever threatens to disturb the stability of the believer, or to retard his development towards the highest moral excellence, whether it arises from his personal unwatchfulness and indifference or from the subtle attacks of error, is always a subject of keen solicitude to the faithful pastor. He knows that if his converts fall away they are lost and the truth itself is disgraced. To be established in an unswerving obedience it is necessary to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. This blessedness is the grand scope and crowning glory of the Christian life.
Lessons.—
1. The office of pastor is fraught with endless anxieties, great responsibilities, and rare opportunities.
2. The true pastor finds his purest inspirations, his most potent spiritual weapon, and his grandest successes in prayer.