Colossians 4:6-18--Final Greetings

Colossians 4:6-18
English Standard Version

6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Final Greetings

7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 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.

10 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), 11 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. 12 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. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 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. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”

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

---

Somehow, I missed verse 6 as part of yesterday's passage on "Final Instructions," so I've included it here today.  Paul saves this instruction for last for the Colossian church--"Let your speech always be gracious , seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer each person."  This echoes a lot of the teaching from the Psalms and Proverbs that encourage our words to be sweet like honey, but Paul encourages our words to be well-seasoned with salt so that they not only "taste good," but make people thirsty for the gospel and the Lord.  Our words are a reflection of what is going on in our hearts, "Out of the heart the mouth speaks."


Luke 6:45
English Standard Version45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Also we are told in the book of James that the words that come out of a person's mouth can tell us a lot about if a person is regenerate or unregenerate, and also that small words have big consequences.


James 3:1-12
English Standard VersionTaming the Tongue3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Now I hope you see why I did not want to pass by this instruction, for our speech is important not only in telling people the gospel, but showing other the power of the gospel as the gospel will change our hearts and will therefore change the very words we speak and the tone with which we speak to others.

Let's now move onto some of the final greetings that Paul makes at the end of his letter as is common to many of his letters that we've already studied.  It seems like Tychicus is the letter-carrier here and that the will relay some things to them verbally that Paul didn't want to put in writing about what has been going on in Paul's life.  We've seen his name before in Ephesians and we'll see his name in the book of Acts, 2 Timothy, and Titus.  He doesn't seem to be a major player, but he seems to be important to Paul and his ministry at this point in Paul's life.  We also get introduced to someone named Onesimus, but we won't really know his story until the book of Philemon (Onesimus is a slave that ran away from Philemon--a crime which deserved the death penalty--and found Paul and became a Christian during the time that he was a fugitive.  Paul will plead for Philemon, the master, to take Onesimus back as a brother in Christ, but that if he doesn't want him back to let Paul keep him as a fellow minister of the gospel because he has been a great help to Paul).  We can only assume this means that Philemon is part of the Colossian church and that Paul is sending Onesimus home.

Along with these that accompanied the letter, Paul sent greetings from Aristarchus, a fellow prisoner who either was jailed for the gospel as well or who was converted in prison (I think it would be fair to say that Paul definitely had one of the first prison ministries since he seemed to be in prison quite often and I can't imagine if he was singing hymns that he wasn't also preaching and teaching too).  Paul also sends greetings from John Mark (yes, the same Mark that wrote the gospel of Mark and accompanied Peter for some of his missionary journeys.  John Mark and Paul didn't get along so well as the beginning of Paul's ministry, but the Holy Spirit used this to send Paul and Barnabas into different areas of the world as Barnabas took John Mark and Paul took Silas.  Later on Paul realizes that he needed to invite John Mark back to work with him and the relationship between the two seems to have been healed.  Paul made sure that they got special instruction regarding if John Mark came to visit--probably related to what I just said to not bring up the fact that he had deserted Paul earlier because he had gotten homesick, and to make sure he was welcomed as a valued member of the team.  Paul also sends greetings form one called Jesus (a popular name as it was the Romanized version of the name Joshua) that preferred to go by the name "Justus" or "Justice."  These two men (John Mark and Jesus called Justus) were the only Jews working with Paul at this time and I'm sure it was comforting to him to have a couple people like him to work alongside him among so many that were of other ethnicities and cultures.

Paul then adds greetings from some of His Gentile co-workers.  He first sends greetings from Epaphras (we've talked about him several times before).  We lean here that Epaphras is what we might call a "prayer warrior" who has struggled and battled in prayer for the needs of the local churches, specifically the Colossian church, according to Paul, and not just their church but other churches in the surrounding area, specifically the churches in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

Paul also sends greetings from Luke (yes, the writer of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts) who accompanied Paul on many of his missionary journeys--probably as both historian and doctor as it seems like Paul was always getting beaten, whipped, stoned and so on (we see him "brag" about this in other epistles), so having a doctor on staff might not have been such a bad idea for Paul--especially now when he's in prison.  Paul likewise sends greetings from Demas (Demas will not remain faithful and will desert Paul and the gospel as it becomes more and more apparent that Paul is heading to death row and Demas doesn't want any part of that, so he heads home to Thessalonica sometime between the books of Colossians and Philemon (probably written at the same time--I'm assuming Onesimus carried the letter to Philemon with him) and the book of 2 Timothy where Paul calls out Demas for his desertion.

Paul then gives instructions to the Colossian church to send greetings to some others in the area and some of the other congregations in the area and to pass this letter along to some of the other churches as well.  Paul specifically gives instructions for them to give greetings to the churches in Laodicea, and to Nympha (not sure where she is from) and the church that meets in her house--this is not to say that she was a pastor, but that she was probably a businesswoman (maybe like Lydia) who had a large enough house to hold a church service in.  Paul asks them to send a copy of the letter to the church in Laodicea and for them to make sure that they also read the letter that had been sent to the church in Laodicea (we don't have this letter in the New Testament, but that shouldn't bother us).

Paul finally has one last person he wants to speak to and that is a brother named Archippus who needs to be encouraged or corrected or both with the words, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”  This is a good word to each of us too whether it mean "keep up the good work" or "get to work" or "Don't stop working."  All of these are probably appropriate ways to read this message.

Paul ends the letter by saying that he has written this letter with his own hand from prison and asks the church to remember him and his imprisonment (his chains) and gives a benediction asking for the grace of God to be upon those that read the letter.