(REFLECTIONS ON Colossians 4:7-18)

Why are church life and corporate Christian living so important? It is because through relationships we are able to fulfill Jesus’ command to love one another, and in loving one another, we learn to love God. It is also through the ups and downs of human relationships that we learn to let go of our own ego and learn to work together with mutual trust and understanding.

Is it always easy? No, and it was not easy for Paul either. As we look at the list of names in today’s Scripture, we see the appearance of Barnabas’s cousin, Mark.

In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas planned to revisit the churches they had ministered to earlier. Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them again, but Paul strongly objected because Mark had previously left them during the first missionary journey.

However, we now see them working together once again as co-workers, implying that they worked through their conflict and were able to grow into a relationship marked by mutual trust and understanding. In today’s passage, Paul also showed mutual trust and understanding toward Tychicus, Onesimus, and Aristarchus.

We see the names of Justus, Epaphras, and Luke appear as well, showing that Paul was not a one-man show, but part of a group of co-workers displaying mutual trust and understanding. Paul trusted them enough to send them to the church in Colossae.

Not only this, but Paul also expected the churches of the Laodiceans, Nymphas, and the Colossians to live in unity, to share his letters with one another, and to demonstrate mutual trust and understanding between different regions and churches.

Brothers and sisters, this reminds us that we too must learn to work together, trust one another, and move toward mutual trust and understanding in order to do God’s kingdom work. Again, it is not easy, and there will be conflict, misunderstanding, and hurt feelings.

However, if we continue forward firmly linking ourselves to one another through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, rather than through our own broken flesh, then we will see that mutual trust and understanding is a work of the Lord, and is in and of itself a miracle.

Let us also learn to pursue this mutual trust and understanding between churches and denominations, rather than keeping everything focused inwardly within our own church alone. Yes, this adds a level of complexity and vulnerability, but this is the path of discipleship that Jesus Christ left for us to follow, and that Paul himself portrayed through his life and ministry.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Colossians 4