Colossians 4:17,18

And say to Archippus, "See that you complete that piece of service which you have received from the Lord to do." Here is my greeting in the handwriting of myself, Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you.

The letter closes with an urgent spur to Archippus to be true to a special task which has been given to him. It may be that we can never tell what that task was; it may be that our study of Philemon throws light upon it. For the moment we must leave it at that.

To write his letters Paul used a secretary. We know, for instance, that the penman who did the writing of Romans was called Tertius (Romans 16:22). It was Paul's custom at the end of a letter to write his signature and his blessing with his own hand--and here he does just that.

"Remember my bonds," he says. Again and again in this series of letters Paul refers to his bonds (Ephesians 3:1; Ephesians 4:1; Ephesians 6:20; Philemon 1:9). There is no self-pity and no sentimental plea for sympathy. Paul finishes his letter to the Galatians: "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). Of course, there is pathos. Alford comments movingly: "When we read of his chains we should not forget that they moved over the paper as he wrote (his signature). His hand was chained to the soldier that kept him." But Paul's references to his sufferings are not pleas for sympathy; they are his claims to authority, the guarantees of his right to speak. It is as if he said, "This is not a letter from someone who does not know what the service of Christ means or someone who is asking others to do what he is not prepared to do himself. It is a letter from one who has himself suffered and sacrificed for Christ. My only right to speak is that I too have carried the Cross of Christ."

And so the letter comes to its inevitable end. The end of every one of Paul's letters is grace. He always ended by commending others to that grace which he himself had found sufficient for all things.

FURTHER READINGS

Colossians

T. K. Abbott, Ephesians and Colossians (ICC; G)

J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon (MmC; G)

C. F. D. Moule, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians and to Philemon (CGT; G)

E. F. Scott, The Epistles to Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians (MC; E)

Abbreviations

CGT: Cambridge Greek Testament

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

MmC: Macmillan Commentary

TC: Tyndale Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text