Colossians 4:12

Colossians 4:12. Epaphras (see chap. Colossians 1:7), who is one of you (see Colossians 4:9), etc. His salutations could not be omitted. Evidently he was a Gentile by birth.

A servant of Christ Jesus. ‘This title, which the Apostle uses several times of himself, is not elsewhere conferred on any other individual, except once on Timothy (Philippians 1:1), and probably points to exceptional services in the cause of the gospel on the part of Epaphras' (Lightfoot).

Always striving, etc. See chaps. Colossians 1:29; Colossians 2:1. The wrestling prayer was due to the zeal of Epaphras and to the danger of the Colossian Church.

That ye may stand, etc. The purpose and purport of the ‘prayers.' ‘Stand' points to firmness and constancy, and is further explained by the phrase: perfect and folly assured in all the will of God. (The rendering, ‘fully assured,' is sustained by decisive external evidence.) ‘Perfect' points to maturity, ‘fully assured,' to a permanent state (Greek, perfect participle) of confident persuasion; ‘in all the will of God' may be more exactly explained: ‘in every thing that is the will of God,' and indicates the sphere of their completeness and confidence. (Others with less propriety join this phrase with the verb.) The petition of Epaphras takes its tone from the errors which endangered the Church he had founded.