12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Col 4:12–13
I spent 24 years in a Bible-teaching non-denominational church, from age 25 to age 49. In that church I served as usher, teacher, musician, deacon, and elder. I was personally discipled by great men of the faith who founded the church, all playing key roles in my spiritual growth. I was knee deep in that church’s most vital time of ministry. I moved on when changes in leadership and the needs of my four teenage children became more important than the needs of the church. This was a divine nudging, but truth be told, somewhat of a rightful arm-twisting by my wife. As fate would have it, all four children met their mates at our new church, and another chapter was written.
I say all this by way of autobiography to express my understanding of Epaphras’ inner struggles, having apparently played a key role in founding the church at Colossae, but now separated from it, and knowing that it was under spiritual attack. There must have been some kind of major upheaval to move him on from the Lycus Valley, where Colossae and other prominent churches in Laodicea and Hieropolis were located, to seek out Paul in faraway Rome.
Now he could only toil in prayer for the church he still loved. Further, it seems apparent, since Paul did not choose him to carry his letter back to Colossae, that Epaphras would never return to his beloved church. This seems to be a principle of life. Because of its brevity, you can only be deeply involved in a few ministries in your lifetime, maybe only one. Similarly, I will always long for the “old days,” and mourn and wish for what was, but will never again be. While now with Paul in Rome, Epaphras’ mind was still in Colossae, and the dangers facing that church were of “deep concern,” for which he “labored earnestly” in prayer to the point of inducing pain. Certainly, what Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit was a huge consolation to the brooding “founding father.”
It’s much like having a grown child off at college in a hedonistic environment. You spend a lot of time on your knees. How fitting then the all-encompassing theme of Epaphras’ prayers, that the Colossian church might “stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.” “Perfect” means to become complete, or to grow to maturity.
It is interesting that the seven churches in Asia to which the Lord Jesus sent warning letters (Revelation 1-3) did not include the Colossian church, but did include the church at Laodicea just ten miles away! The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16 (KJV)
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. 19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:17-20
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