Colossians 4:7-17 – With Friends Like These
Turn with me to the book of Colossians, almost for the last time. Today we are looking at Paul’s list of friends, as found in 4:7-17. Next week we wrap up the book, looking at 4:18, thinking of Paul’s chains, and our own. Today we will see the qualities that Paul considered helpful in his friends.
Maybe you’ve heard the one about the ship that sank in the ocean, and so three men ended up stranded in a lifeboat. They floated around for days without food or water. One afternoon a bottle floated up to the boat. The men grabbed the bottle and when they pulled the cork out of the bottle, a genie appeared.
“I'll grant each of you a single wish,” said the genie.
“I wish I was home,” said the first man. Then, poof! he disappeared.
“I wish I was home, too,” said the second man. Poof! He disappeared too.
The third man looked around. “Gee, I'm kind of lonely,” he said. “I wish my friends were here with me.”
Paul describes his friends in this passage in this passage – those who had helped or were currently helping him. One preacher had put them into 3 categories: those who stayed, one who prayed, and one who strayed.
We won’t spend long on the one who strayed, but I’ll mention him. His name is Demas – v14. We don’t know much about him, but we catch a glimpse of him maybe 3 years later. 2 Timothy 4 tells us that Demas “loved this world”, and had deserted Paul. Whatever level of service he was accomplishing for Paul and for the Lord at the time that Colossians was written, that vanished. I don’t say this to scare or threaten, but simply as a reminder that we can lose our effectiveness. We must not allow ourselves to fall into a trap of laziness. The resurrected Jesus told the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:5: “Repent, and do the things you did at first.”
Now, moving on to this passage… Paul sends some personal greetings to the believers in Colosse, and commends some as especially helpful to him and to the cause of Christ.
First, Paul tells us about Tychicus, who was a believer from Asia. Paul describes him with glowing terms: a loved brother, a faithful servant and minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. As well, Tychicus was trustworthy enough that Paul committed him to relay an important message of encouragement.
Paul also mentions Onesimus in verse 9. We know a little about this guy, whose name means “helpful”. Onesimus was a slave, we’re told in Philemon 16, belonging to a wealthy citizen in Colosse named Philemon. Onesimus defrauded his master and ran away to Rome. There he found Paul, whom presumably had been talked about by the Christian Philemon. Onesimus became a believer in Jesus, and Paul sent him back to Philemon to serve him in Colosse. From a runaway fraud to a useful believer, Onesimus was to Paul trustworthy and faithful brother in the Lord.
Next, Paul mentions Aristarchus, Mark, and a fellow named Jesus or Justus, who all send greetings. What Paul says about them carries a hint of sorrow: they were the only Jewish Christians among his co-workers. That’s tragic. Jesus was a Jew, and his own people rejected Him. Paul was a Jew, and the Jewish leaders tried unsuccessfully to kill him too. Sometimes the worst loneliness can come from inside your own 4 walls, from your own family. The times of greatest difficulty in living the Christian life are often when we try to witness to our own flesh and blood. The worst rejection comes from the ones you love the most. Paul was thankful to those who stuck by him in difficult times.
Next, Paul tells us about Epaphras, who was quite a guy. Back in Colossians 1:7, he is mentioned as the one who actually introduced the people in Colosse to Jesus. Likely, it was Epaphras who began Christianity in Colosse. And here he was, still wrestling in prayer for them. Without taking glory away from the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus, who loved us and reached out to us when we were still sinners, still, Epaphras played no small role in the faith of the Colossian believers.
And he was working hard for them too. He was praying and working. He was the one who prayed. You know, most of us fall into one ditch or the other when it comes to this. We either work hard, or we pray hard, but to find balance where we do both is tricky. As someone once said, “Work as if it all depended on you, and pray as if it all depended on God.”
Next we see Dr. Luke and Demas tucked in the list. Paul just wanted to let the Colossians know that they say “hey!” Well, well wishes of course, but we don’t see too much here.
Next up, a lady named Nympha, who had believers meeting at her house for church. She was exhibiting hospitality, which was such an important role in Middle Eastern culture. If not for hospitality, the early believers would have had no place to meet together to worship; church buildings wouldn’t come around for another 300 years, when Christianity was allowed to be a legally sanctioned religion. The early Christians were kicked out of the Jewish synagogues because of their views of Jesus, so where could they go? To houses. People like Nympha became the means by which Christianity spread in the first century.
V16 carries a note that many of the NT letters were to be circulated from church community to another, and v17 ends this section with a note to Archippus, that he complete the work that the Lord gave him. Starting a task is easy enough, but to carry it on to completion is a challenge. Giving up, giving in, throwing up your hands… it’s so easy to do. Sometimes it’s the right thing to do – like when you’re in an argument, and it’s getting nasty, and you need to let it go. I guess there’s something to be said about not getting involved in something you shouldn’t be doing, right from the start. Ask, Is this worth doing? Is this worth my time and my effort? Is this worth the commitment?
So, here we have, once again, a list of things to do and be. It would be so easy to craft a sermon around it. Something like… Here is the list of people that Paul found useful. This is the list of things that he commended them for. They were dear, faithful, servants of God. They were helpful and trustworthy. They comforted him, and stuck by him in times of dark sorrow. They prayed earnestly and worked hard for God. They exhibited hospitality, in opening their homes for the spread of the gospel. And they never gave up in the work they were supposed to do.
And this sermon would continue… And this is how we have to be as well, brothers and sisters. We need to be just like them. So go out and invite people to your home. Make sure you come back on Wednesday for midweek service and we’ll pray earnestly for the work of the Lord. Go out there and live the kind of life that will make people want what we have.
I have preached that way before, for most of my ministry, actually. Here’s what the text says, so go do it. But the problem is this. It is a list of rules that we have to do in order to be good Christians. It is a series of do’s and don’ts that are required for us to show ourselves worthy. Do be hospitable, don’t be untrustworthy, do pray, don’t give up. It’s the problem with verse by verse preaching, that a preacher often doesn’t mention the whole book, or even the verses before and after.
But really, the books of the Bible were not divided into verses and chapters until many years after they were initially written. So Paul never meant to separate the fruit of Christian living – faithfulness, trustworthiness, earnest prayer, hard work, and so on – from the source of Christian living. Which would be Jesus.
Colossians 1:6 – the gospel is bearing fruit. The gospel, the good news, the truth was changing lives, not people were changing their lives. Jesus inside the believers was making the difference.
Colossians 1:11 – His glorious might was strengthening the believers. They didn’t have to muster up enough strength to do it themselves, because God was giving them the power to do it.
Colossians 1:20 – we are made right with God, we are reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus, not by our good deeds. We are not in fellowship with Him because of how well we line up our lives according to some list, but by the shed blood of the cross. Don’t ever forget how you are made right with Him.
Colossians 1:22 – it is Christ’s body that presents us holy, without blame and free from accusation, not our actions. You can’t live a life good enough to be holy, but Christ inside you empowers you to live a holy life. And verse 23 says it’s faith that makes it that way. If you believe what is true about you, that you are holy and set apart, you will experience new freedom in your Christian life.
Colossians 1:29 – Paul worked hard for Jesus, but not in his own strength. Paul said it was God’s energy within him that worked so mightily. Too often, we try in our own power to be good, to live good lives, to have good works, but we miss the point. If we realized the power of God living inside our hearts because that’s where Jesus is, we would probably not make such a big deal about ourselves.
I think of the verses in Ephesians 3:20-21, where Paul says that God’s power is at work within us, and that glory deserves to go to Jesus. Here’s the thing. When we try to do all the right things, all our good deeds, all our checklists for being good Christians, when we do these in our own strength, we bring glory to ourselves.
“Look at all the things I’ve done. Look at how I am following this list of things. Look at how well I’m following the pastor’s sermon.” And even if we don’t say it out loud, we feel kind of smug
about it.
But if we use God’s power within us, realizing who we are, who we have become, believing what God’s word says about us, and experiencing the power that God has for us who believe, then we walk straight, in confidence of God’s power to change and transform, and we bring him glory. I mean, I can do what I can do, and you can do what you can do, but when we do what Christ inside us can do – be pure, be holy, be victorious over sin, be loving, be grace-filled – then our lives reflect that.
So don’t look at this passage as a checklist for good Christian living, a list of things to do or avoid. Look at this list as a prayer opportunity. Lord, I am not able to do this myself, but by Your power within me, I can. Lord, I want to be faithful, so I ask that You make me that way. I see now that I don’t pray as I should, but would you change me from within? Would You grant me the desire, the hunger and thirst to pray? Lord, would You do the things within me that I haven’t been able to do on my own? Would You show me where I need to change, and then, as I agree with You, You do the work inside me?
