Colleen and Nikki discuss the second part of chapter four of Colossians. Paul sends greetings from the church family in Rome to the church in Philemon’s home. Transcription by Gwen Billington.
Nikki: Welcome to Former Adventist podcast. I’m Nikki Stevenson.
Colleen: And I’m Colleen Tinker.
Nikki: Today we are finishing up Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae. But before we get started, I just want to remind you if you have any questions or comments for us or even ideas for future podcasts that you’d like us to consider, you can write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can also visit proclamationmagazine.com to sign up for our weekly emails containing new online articles, links to current podcasts, and other ministry news. If you’re interested in coming alongside Life Assurance Ministries with your financial support, you can find a donate tab there as well. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and please consider writing a review wherever you listen to podcasts, as it does help to extend our reach. So, Colleen, this has been one of my favorite studies through Colossians.
Colleen: Me too.
Nikki: It’s been great. And not just because we’ve examined its rich doctrinal content in light of our Adventist background, but also because of the snapshots of history we find here. I’ve never really spent much time thinking about the backdrop of this letter, but those details have added so much depth for me. Now, today we’re covering chapter 4, verses 7 through 18, and it’s going to offer us more of that history as we examine Paul’s final greetings to this church. We really do get a picture of family as we read these portions of the epistle, and to be honest, as an Adventist, these parts of Scripture weren’t that interesting to me. I usually just skimmed past them. What did you think of passages like this as an Adventist, and how has that changed for you now as a believer?
Colleen: Oh, such a good question. Just like you, Nikki, I used to skim past them. I didn’t take the time. It seemed to be unrelated to anything concerning my salvation. It was a bunch of foreign-sounding names that I wasn’t always sure how to pronounce, and it meant nothing to me, really. It’s been quite an interesting thing as a believer to start to see these people as not dead.
Nikki: Yeah.
Colleen: These people are alive in Christ. They exist, and they’re part of the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ doesn’t die. That’s something I still am trying to wrap my head around, but the Body of Christ is a complete organism that began on the Day of Pentecost, and all of the people who have believed in Jesus since that day onward are alive in Him, and I’m alive in Him with them, and these are my brothers and sisters, so it’s changed a lot for me. And then just reading through these passages in Paul’s epistles where he says his farewells and sends greetings, I realize how much emotion and how much shared life he had with people all over the areas that he’s planted churches. So it’s a completely new thing to me, and I feel like understanding a little bit about these people means when I meet them in the kingdom, I’m going to sort of know them!
Nikki: Yeah. [Laughter.]
Colleen: [Laughter.] What about you, Nikki?
Nikki: Well, the same, really. You know, I think when I used to come to Scripture, I really did come with a mindset of “What must I do to be saved?” And so as I read, I was looking for sort of those fortune-cookie slogans that I could pull out and apply to my life. You know, try to be the best I could be to be acceptable to God. And so when I would hit places like this, it was like, okay, I’ve finished the chapter. I don’t need to – you know, I got what I can get out of this, this is just him wrapping it up. I didn’t – like you, I thought of them, these people were dead. You know, they didn’t exist. And I also didn’t have a foundational understanding that I was a daughter of God. I believed I was His child in the way that I believed all people are God’s children, you know?
Colleen: Yes.
Nikki: But I didn’t understand that I had been adopted, created anew, born again, and was in the family of God, and so I didn’t recognize these people as being a part of my family tree.
Colleen: I love that phrase.
Nikki: Yeah, once you understand your position in Christ and you understand, like you said, the position of the church in Christ all down through from Pentecost, you start to grasp that this is your family and you will have conversations with them one day.
Colleen: [Laughter.] Yes.
Nikki: They’re in our inheritance, truly. So when I get to these, it still takes some work, some digging, which has actually – it’s a lot of fun, especially after our study through Acts that we did at Former Adventist Fellowship. Acts really opens up the epistles. If people haven’t studied Acts, I strongly encourage you to go and read it and learn it. That was boring to me too as an Adventist, but it’s all different in the Body of Christ.
Colleen: It is. Well, why don’t we read the passage so that all that we have talked about becomes real? [Laughter.]
Nikki: [Laughter.]
Colleen: We can hear the names of these people. So, Nikki, would you read verses 7 through 18 of Colossians 4, please?
Nikki: “Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions – if he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, ‘See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.’ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.”
Colleen: Such a mouthful of names. [Laughter.]
Nikki: It is. [Laughter.]
Colleen: Especially for us, with our American ears. [Laughter.] Why don’t we just look at these people one by one and talk about what we can know about them from other places in Scripture. It is interesting for me to discover how Paul has really shared the nuts and bolts and the nitty-gritty of ministry with these people. They’ve been in the trenches together. They’ve shared love and support and shared vision for the kingdom of God and the blood of Jesus. So why don’t we start with verse 7, Nikki, with Tychicus. Now, you’ve told us some about Tychicus already, but when you were studying for this, what did you learn about him?
Nikki: Well, I learned that Tychicus was the one who was going to bring the letters to the people of Colossae and Ephesus, including the letter to Philemon. We see here just right in the text that he’s a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. He’s someone who is in ministry with Paul.
Colleen: Um-hmm.
Nikki: We see in Acts 20:4 that he’s named among the Asians who met with Paul in Troas after his three months in Greece, and he’s mentioned in the greetings in Ephesians. When Paul is in prison in 2 Timothy, we see that he sends Tychicus to minister in Ephesus, so he was very, very useful to Paul. He even told Titus that he would send Tychicus to him as well, so he’s sent all over the place for the work of the gospel.
Colleen: Yeah. It’s very interesting. I read in one source that he is actually mentioned five times in the New Testament, which is kind of a lot for someone who is not one of the apostles. We learn in Titus 3 that Paul was intending to send either Tychicus or another brother named Artemis to Crete to give Titus a break, so that Titus could visit Paul in Rome. And we also learn in 2 Timothy that Paul was sending Tychicus to Ephesus to give Timothy a break, so Timothy could come and visit him in Rome. It’s just interesting. It turns out that Tychicus sort of functioned as an interim pastor in these places and that he was sent by the will of Paul, by the apostle’s mandate. So he was a faithful friend, a faithful preacher, a trusted messenger, and Paul placed great confidence in him. And it’s interesting how much the person of Tychicus is rounded out by just reading about these assignments that Paul gave him. But you know, until I actually looked to see what I could find out about him in particular, these references all blurred together or were disjunct from one another, and I had no concept of Tychicus, but now I see him in a whole new, different way. He kind of is three dimensional. And what an amazing person he was.
Nikki: And he really stayed with Paul clear to the end, because Paul wrote 2 Timothy while he was in prison. It was one of his last letters.
Colleen: It was.
Nikki: And so we know clear to the end of his ministry Tychicus was in service to him and with him.
Colleen: That was a lot of years that he traveled with Paul, served Paul, ministered to the churches. It’s pretty cool. So then we come to verses 8 and 9, and we hear the name “Onesimus” again. Paul doesn’t say a whole lot about Onesimus in these two verses, but we learn that with Tychicus he is sending Onesimus back to Colossae. Why don’t you refresh us, Nikki, about who Onesimus was and why he was going back to Colossae?
Nikki: Sure. Onesimus was the bondservant of Philemon, who hosted the church in Colossae, and he had run away, and while he was in Rome he encountered Paul, and Paul brought him to faith. And so when Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon, he sent him with a letter, you might say a recommendation. He’s reiterating here to the people in Colossae, who would know the dynamics, that he is one of them, that he is a beloved brother and that he’s faithful. So he’s letting the congregation in Colossae know that Onesimus is a believer, he’s a brother in Christ, and they’re to receive him as such.
Colleen: That’s a really interesting thing because if you were in the church of Colossae and you had known that Onesimus had run away and the host of your home church was without his bondservant, and now if you were there and suddenly he shows up, returning as a brother –
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: – not as a Roman bondservant, a pagan, but as a beloved brother, you would have to shift the way you thought too. I really see that being alive in Christ means we have to subject our normal way of analysis and thinking to the Lord because He asks us to receive everybody who’s born again as an absolute equal in Him, and this wouldn’t have been the way he left.
Nikki: No. And it’s interesting that at the end of verse 9, when he says they will tell you of everything that has taken place here, he is giving Onesimus the authority to report information.
Colleen: Yes!
Nikki: He’s not just someone that they’re to accept. He’s someone they’re to accept and listen to and believe. He is equal with Tychicus here in this sentence.
Colleen: That’s a really important point, because he didn’t leave Colossae in that standing. That’s how he was returning.
Nikki: And he wasn’t redeemed to a lesser level. He wasn’t on trial. It wasn’t wait and see. It was, “He’s your brother. He’s one of you, and he’s going to tell you what happened here. Listen to him.”
Colleen: You know, it just makes me think again of our podcast last week where we talked about bondservants and some of Ellen White’s comments and how Ellen White’s comments, which let’s admit it, she reflected a lot of the present thought of her time –
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: – but the fact is Ellen White wrote things that today really chafe, because they should –
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: – about the differences between White people and Black people. But if she were really a prophet of God, she wouldn’t have said this. And like you said last week, Nikki, I think it’s so important for us to remember she was not just excusable because she reflected her time. She wasn’t reflecting Adventism. She shaped Adventism, because she was the prophetic voice.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: She claimed that everything she wrote was either from God or from the devil, and because she herself said that about her writings, we have to respect that and see them that way too. So if she said something opposed to the Bible, we have to know this came from Satan.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And we can’t excuse her in any sense or say Adventism shaped her. No, she shaped Adventism, and any way that her racism affected the current standing and the current ideas, even if they’re subliminal, within Adventism, we have to know that this is not a result of God because the apostles wrote long before Ellen, and our command is to listen to the apostles’ teaching, not to a post-prophetic, post-biblical prophet.
Nikki: And we do see the fruit of her thinking. She, in a sense, moralized the division between the Black church and the White church in Adventism, and we see that fruit now. All we have to do is read Philemon or Colossians and see that division is never moral. It’s not God’s will for the church.
Colleen: That’s our proof right there, that there’s no room for excuse for a woman who called herself “more than a prophet” and established the interpretation of Scripture on which the Adventist organization was founded. So then we come to another name in verse 10, Aristarchus. Who was Aristarchus?
Nikki: Well, we see in the text that Aristarchus was his fellow prisoner, but he was somebody who had been in ministry with Paul for a very long time. The story of Aristarchus in Acts is one that I’ll never forget studying with our FAF group. We can read about Aristarchus in Acts 19. During that time, there was a man named Demetrius who was a silversmith in Ephesus, and he was losing business because their ministry of spreading the gospel was so effective, people weren’t buying idols, and he was upset. And so he went to the people who created these idols of various kinds, and he rallied the people against Paul, and he created this big ruckus, and the people were angry and chanting, and they actually dragged Aristarchus, along with Gaius, into a theater. It was just chaos. I think they were chanting for a couple of hours, and someone had to come out and stop them and tell them, “We’re guilty of riots and opposing Roman law.” He actually was taken up, and when Paul wanted to go in there and rescue them, they were saying, “Don’t come.” They were protecting Paul from the mob. He was very much a part of Paul’s work. We see that he was Paul’s companion when he went to Rome, that he was accompanied by Aristarchus. He says that he’s his fellow prisoner, and I wonder if they were together in their house arrest. But they had some way of communicating because he does greet the church at Colossae.
Colleen: For Aristarchus, yeah. It’s true. I don’t know what the circumstances were, but we do know that Aristarchus was a traveling companion of Paul, was with him on his third missionary journey and his second missionary journey. It’s interesting to learn in Acts 20 that Aristarchus was accompanying Paul on this third missionary journey when they went back to Macedonia, and Tychicus was traveling with them. So these men who are named in this passage, they weren’t just unknown to each other, with Paul as the common hub.
Nikki: Right.
Colleen: Many of them worked together with Paul. They were brothers in the truest sense.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: They knew each other and shared ministry, which is very cool to me. Sometimes I think about, you know, this is such a microcosm of the church, but our little ministry of Life Assurance Ministries – and it’s interesting how the Lord gives us the work to do that He has prepared in advance for us to do, and I think sometimes of our little board that meets. We have Dale and his wife Carolyn, and we have Martin Carey and his wife Sharon, and Sheryl Granger and her husband Woody, and Carel and you, and then Richard and me, and how over the years we’ve faced a lot of hurdles together.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And we’ve trusted God in a lot of ways together, and when we meet there’s a really very real sense of the Holy Spirit being with us and of everybody wanting to do the Lord’s will. Just understanding how it has been inside of this ministry, I have a sense of what it must have been for these men who traveled with Paul and planted churches together and shared the burdens. What a wonderful gift. And then that God allowed these things to be written down so we can see them, we can find encouragement from just seeing how they shared their lives together.
Nikki: Yeah.
Colleen: Then in verse 10, we read about Mark. Who was Mark? That’s a name most of us know, but not always about the details that are hidden under his name.
Nikki: Well, this is John Mark, and he’s Barnabas’ cousin. One of the things that I thought was interesting in Acts 12, after Peter was sentenced to prison by Herod, who was intending to bring him before the people after Passover, I think maybe to kill him, an angel came to Peter and released him from prison during the night, and Peter went to Mark’s mother’s house, where the church had been praying, and this is where that story of that young girl named Rhoda came down to see who was knocking at the door, saw Peter, and in all her joy ran away from the door, didn’t even open it, and went upstairs and told everybody, “He’s here! He’s here!” [Laughter.]
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: I love that story. But that was John Mark’s mother’s home, so even his mother was a minister in the church. I mean, she facilitated the gathering of the church. And Mark was sent, along with Paul and Barnabas, into ministry.
Colleen: Well, in Acts 12:25 we learn that Mark had accompanied Barnabas and Paul on Barnabas and Paul’s first missionary journey, and he didn’t last. For some reason, we’re not told exactly why, you know, he was young maybe, he was overwhelmed at the spiritual opposition that they experienced on the first part of the journey, or whatnot, he deserted Paul and Barnabas partway through the missionary trip. After Mark left, Paul and Barnabas really experienced the hardships of that journey.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: You were enumerating some of them for me, Nikki, earlier. Can you tell us some of what Paul and Barnabas experienced after Mark left them?
Nikki: He left them as they were going into Pamphylia. He parted ways with them. And while they were there, Peter gave this incredible sermon, and many Jews came to faith. But they were eventually driven out with persecution by the leading men of the city and devout women of high standing is what it says. That persecution led them to other towns, where they were also driven out. And in fact, while they were in Lystra, after they had healed a man, the people began worshiping them, and they called Paul “Zeus” and Barnabas “Hermes,” and it was there that the Jews persuaded the crowds to stone Paul, so we’ve all heard the story of Paul being stoned to the point of death. He was taken outside of the city, and the disciples came around him and he got up and they went on. And they just continued their work, no matter how much persecution they encountered from town to town. And then in Acts 15, they were sent to Jerusalem, to the Council of Jerusalem, where they were begging the question, “What do we teach the Gentiles?”
Colleen: So after they completed that first missionary journey, after they’d been back in Jerusalem for a while, Paul wanted to go back and visit those churches they had established on their first journey, and he said to Barnabas, “Let’s go. Let’s go visit those churches and encourage them, see how they’re doing.” And here comes one of the most interesting little details of the very early church, it just kind of makes me understand better some of the things we see in local churches today. Barnabas wanted to call Mark back and take him along, and Paul said “No. No, he deserted us, he wasn’t with us through all those hard times, he didn’t know these people, he wasn’t part of this work. He is not coming.” On one hand, I can’t blame him. I would have felt very reluctant to take the person that had deserted us back on a grueling missionary journey, but Barnabas, Mark’s cousin, obviously had some personal investment in him that maybe Paul didn’t share.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And plus Barnabas’ personality was different. Barnabas is known as the son of encouragement, and he really felt compelled to nurture and minister to Mark and bring him along. So what happened was that Paul and Barnabas parted ways, and Paul picked up Silas, and the journey of Paul and Silas began, and they started Paul’s second missionary journey. And Barnabas and Mark went on a different journey. Barnabas took Mark to Cyprus. Paul and Silas returned to Syria and Cilicia and encouraged the believers there who had already been established in churches. It looks like later in life Paul and Mark had a reconciliation. At the end of 2 Timothy, which is the last letter Paul wrote, and he was nearing the end of his ministry, nearing death, to be honest, and he was alone in a prison in Rome, he wrote to Timothy, and he asked him to come and see him and to bring Mark with him because, he said, “He is helpful to me in my ministry.” What a wonderful thing to hear Paul say about the young man who had deserted him all those years before, whom Paul had really not had much faith in for a while, but here he’s asking for him to come. He had become a trusted coworker. And then eventually Mark wrote the gospel of Mark. It’s really cool to see that his life, which began a little bit badly as a missionary, ended with strength because of the work of the Lord Jesus in his life and the patience of those godly men who nurtured him. And then, in verse 11, we find one more name that’s interesting because we don’t know much about him. Who is that?
Nikki: This is Jesus who is called Justus, and I really couldn’t find anything about him.
Colleen: I couldn’t either. What we do know is what Paul says right there in the verse. He says that these three, who are Aristarchus and Mark and Justus, were the three from the circumcision, or the three Jews, believing Jews, who were with him and were working for the gospel with him and were an encouragement to him. So we see that he had three believing Jews in part of his ministry team, even as he was there in Rome as a prisoner. We were talking earlier, Nikki, about the names and how Aristarchus doesn’t sound like a Jewish name.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: But Aristarchus was from Asia, or what is now called Asia Minor, so it seems quite apparent that he was what we would call a Hellenistic Jew, a Jew who had grown up in Roman territory in a culture that was not primarily Jewish. He was a Jew, he was raised a Jew, but he was influenced by Greco-Roman culture, much like Paul had grown up in Tarsus. So it’s just interesting to me that he had these three Jewish men with him. Mark was from Jerusalem, Aristarchus was from Thessalonica, in the region of Macedonia, and Justus, Jesus who is called Justus, sounds a little more Jewish, but we don’t know anything about him or where he originally came from, but we do know that these three Jews were Christians who ministered to Paul and with Paul. And then, the next name is Epaphras. Now, you’ve already told us some about Epaphras in the past. He kind of features prominently in the delivery of this letter. Do you want to talk a little about who Epaphras was, just remind us, Nikki?
Nikki: So Epaphras was in Ephesus when Paul was giving the gospel and teaching there for three years, and he came to faith, and he went on and planted the church in Colossae. And we learn in this letter that he has also been a minister to the church in Laodicea and Hierapolis. I’m not sure how many he planted, but he’s definitely involved in ministry work in that area.
Colleen: We also learn that he was from Colossae. In the Book of Philemon, Paul mentions him as his fellow prisoner. We learn here that Epaphras loved the Colossians and always labored earnestly for them in his prayers. It’s interesting that Paul identifies Epaphras’ earnest labor for the Colossians, as well as for the surrounding areas of Laodicea and Hierapolis, that his labor was his prayer for them. He was always praying that they would be perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. And I just think, what a wonderful thing to know that the person who had brought the gospel to this little community, to this little congregation in Colossae, earnestly prayed for them all the time. What a neat legacy. What a wonderful, comforting thing, to know that this person that had taught you the gospel was also praying for you. To me there is something wonderfully supportive about that. And then we come to a man in verse 14 that I especially admire because he was a Gentile. Who’s that, Nikki?
Nikki: This is Luke the beloved physician.
Colleen: What books did he write?
Nikki: He wrote the Book of Luke and Acts.
Colleen: Isn’t that so cool? Acts is the one book of history in the New Testament where we really learn how the early church was planted and grew, and it was Luke, the Gentile, who wrote about that, and we learn in the book of Acts that Luke was present with Paul on a great deal of his missionary journeying. And we learn in the book of 2 Timothy that Luke alone is with him as he’s nearing the end of his life in prison. What a comfort it was, and what a comfort it must have been to him as he was suffering physically so often after he would be attacked by the Jewish mobs, stoned, shipwrecked, beaten, flogged, and to have this physician who was committed to him and traveled with him and who recorded everything so we could know what this was like. I just love that the Lord picked a Gentile to write the history of the church.
Nikki: I do too.
Colleen: One thing we also know about Luke, because of his manuscripts, is that he had an excellent command of Greek. Sometimes his writing even approached the Greek of classical Greek, and sometimes he was very Jewish sounding. But he knew a lot about sailing, he was well educated, he was observant, and he was a careful writer. And he did accompany Paul during much of his later ministry, and we’re thankful that the Lord has allowed us to know as much as we know about the end of Paul’s ministry because of Luke. Now, 14 brings us to also one other name, which has a sadder end than Luke, and that’s the name of Demas. What do we know about Demas?
Nikki: Well, we know he’s there with Paul in Rome at the time that he was writing Colossians and Philemon and Ephesians, but we learn in 2 Timothy 4:10 that he was in love with the present world and deserted Paul and gone on to Thessalonica.
Colleen: It’s really sad because here at the end of Colossians, he’s considered a ministry partner with Paul, and Paul sends greetings from Demas to the church at Colossae, and then at the end of his life we learn that Demas deserted him. And according to one source that I read, the Greek is such in that word he “deserted” him that it wasn’t just deserting, but he just left Paul in the lurch. He abandoned Paul when he was at his most needy. He was in prison, facing a death sentence, and Demas picked that time to leave. It was not just a physical leaving. It appears that it was a spiritual departure as well, because of the fact that he loved the world, Paul says in 2 Timothy, more than he loved the gospel and the work of the gospel, and he abandoned the apostle, and I just think, poor Paul, and poor Demas. What was he thinking? And I’m glad we can leave that to the Lord, but it is interesting to me that God included that story in His eternal word. There are, as Paul called it, sometimes false brothers, and it’s extremely painful when you feel that effect. It happens, and I’m thankful that the Lord knows us and keeps us and that we don’t have to worry we’ll accidentally fall away. Now, in verses 15 and 16, Paul asks the Colossians to greet the Laodiceans for him. Now, what do we learn about the connection between Laodicea and Colossae and the letters that Paul was writing at this time, from those couple of verses?
Nikki: Well, he wanted them to share their letters.
Colleen: Right.
Nikki: The message in both of those letters was for both churches.
Colleen: We don’t have the letter he wrote to Laodicea, and we don’t know what happened to it. We don’t know if it was lost or whatever, but one thing we can know for sure and that is that the Lord God, who supervised the construction and putting together of His eternal word, did not see fit to include that letter in this word. Now, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a message from the Lord to the church of Laodicea. It was from the Apostle Paul, and it was for both churches. But we don’t know what it said. But we do know what it says in Colossians, and it was intended for Laodicea as well, so we can surmise that the two churches might have been struggling similarly with similar things, and we do know that nothing was left out of the Bible that we need for our eternal security. Now, who was Nympha? She’s also mentioned in these couple of verses.
Nikki: Well, all I was able to find about her was that she hosted the church of Laodicea in her home.
Colleen: Isn’t that something? Now, I think it’s really wonderful that this is a woman, a woman’s name, and at the end of Romans, when Paul lists the people that he’s greeting and who are sending greetings, he has a few women in that list as well, so it’s a wonderful thing to know that in the church women have ministry. It’s not exactly like Judaism, it’s actually where men and women receive the sign of the covenant, the new birth, the sign of the New Covenant and then the continuing sign of the Lord’s Supper in equal ways. In Judaism, women were not circumcised, but in the New Covenant women do receive the circumcision of the heart, just like believing men. And here we find an example, where Nympha is named. And I heard one commentator saying, “Think about it, it’s one thing to have the whole church in your home once in a while, but she had the whole church walking through her house every week.” [Laughter.] That’s a big job.
Nikki: [Laughter.] Yes it is.
Colleen: The next person we learn about is another one we know little about, but it was fun to find out what we can, and that’s Archippus. What did you learn about Archippus, Nikki?
Nikki: Well, Archippus is mentioned in the introduction to Paul’s letter to Philemon. He’s mentioned as a soldier. And here we see that Paul tells them to see to it that he’s faithful to the ministry that he received in the Lord. Archippus had been commissioned with ministry. Paul was encouraging him. And there is some speculation that perhaps Archippus was Philemon’s son.
Colleen: Isn’t that interesting? Philemon, who is not specifically mentioned in this part of the letter, but we know that Onesimus is returning to Philemon, and we think about Philemon hosting the church of Colossae, and then here’s a mention of Archippus, and if he was Philemon’s son, there’s a sense here of Paul preparing the way for this household, who will be receiving back a bondservant who is now a believer, and that’s going to be a shift in all the dynamics of that Colossian church, not to mention the actual household of Philemon. And then at the same time, Paul is concerned about the young man, Archippus, and he’s saying, “You’ve received a gift.” And this is clearly, whatever it was, this gift of ministry was a gift from God, and he’s saying, “Don’t neglect this. Do fulfill the ministry.” In light of all the stuff that’s going on, all the upheavals, the return of Onesimus, the visit from Epaphras, the letter from Paul, the excitement, Paul is mentioning this young man specifically and saying, “Don’t neglect this gift. Make much of it.” It’s sort of personal.
Nikki: I do wish that I could be a fly on the wall as this letter was read in that house, with everything going on, and you think about the kind of heresy that Paul takes on in this letter and how he corrects false ideas about Christ and what He’s done and what they have to do as believers now in their walk of faith, and I imagine that there were some people sitting in that house at the time of the reading who were promoting all of these false teachings that he was confronting. I just imagine a lot of surprise from the congregation as they listen.
Colleen: Just knowing what we know about churches today, I’m sure you’re right.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: Interesting dynamics all of this suggests. And then Paul concludes this letter by saying he’s writing this ending with his own hand. What was that about?
Nikki: It was a way of authenticating the authorship of the letter.
Colleen: Exactly. It appears that Paul used a scribe or, what the technical word is, an “amanuensis,” to actually write his letters, but it is typical of him in all of his letters that he signs it. He does the closing and the signature with his own hand, so they know it’s from him and so that future people can know it’s from him too. So he writes this with his own hand. Now, Nikki, as we end this and we see the care with which Paul names these people, what’s your reaction when you think about all of these names, the things that we’ve learned about them, and Paul’s commitment to them? What’s your personal reaction to them?
Nikki: Really just that I can’t wait to sit and speak with each one of them and ask them my questions about their ministry with Paul and what that looked like. We have pieces of it here and there. Most of the detail comes from Acts, and just bringing that to them and saying, “Hey, tell me about this.” I’m just really looking forward to that. And I do want to know what happened with Demas. I hope he’s with the Lord.
Colleen: I know. I know. I feel the same way. It’s interesting to me to think about these men and women and to realize that these are part of what Hebrews 12:23 called “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.” And the author of Hebrews tells us that when we trust Jesus, we come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God, where these people already are. So even though we’re here on earth in mortal flesh, when we have trusted Christ, our spirits are, even now, not only with Jesus but with this whole church of the firstborn. These are our brothers and sisters, and we will know them when we get there. It’s exciting to think about. And I just want to say, if you haven’t trusted Jesus, if you don’t know for sure that you’ve been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son, we ask you to just consider, go back and reread Colossians, the things that you can know about Jesus, about who He is and what He’s done, and what you can know about yourself, that we are born dead in sin, condemned, by nature children of wrath, but when we trust Jesus, we are made alive, we are transferred by God Himself out of that domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son, and we are eternally secure. When we have believed, we will never die, even though our bodies die, as Jesus told Martha at the tomb of Lazarus. So we ask you, have you trusted Jesus? Are you alive? Do you know these people are your brothers and sisters? And if not, why don’t you make it so today?
Nikki: And if any of the language that we use as we talk about the new birth and this new life in Christ is still confusing to you, I want to encourage you and urge you to join us as we walk through the letter to the Ephesians, beginning with our next podcast. If you have any questions or comments for us, you can write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can also visit proclamationmagazine.com to sign up for our weekly emails and to get links to new online articles and current podcasts. If you’re interested in coming alongside Life Assurance Ministries with your financial support, you can find a donate tab there as well. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and please consider writing a review wherever you listen to podcasts. We’ll see you next time.
Colleen: Bye.
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