Colossians 1:7

καθὼς, i.e., in the manner in which. Paul thus sets the seal of his approval on the form of the Gospel which they had learnt from their teacher, and also on the teacher himself. Ἐπαφρᾶ. Epaphras was apparently the founder of the Colossian Church, ἐμάθετε referring to the same time as ἠκούσατε. He had remained in connexion with it (Colossians 4:12), and seems to have come to Paul to inform him of the teaching that was threatening its welfare. He is not to be identified with Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25 sq., Philippians 4:18), who was connected with Philippi. The name was common. ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν. This is probably the correct reading; Epaphras is a minister to the Colossians on Paul's behalf, since he has accomplished a task which belonged to Paul's sphere as the Apostle of the Gentiles. The reading ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν may be taken in two ways, either (preferably) that he was a minister of Christ for the sake of the Colossians, in which case we should probably have had ὑμῖν or ἐν ὑμῖν or simply ὑμῶν; or that he ministered to Paul as the representative of the Colossians, for which we should have expected “my minister” instead of “minister of Christ”.