Colossians 4:12 – Epaphras, One of You and a Slave of Christ

12 Greeting you is Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, always struggling for you in prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

We already encountered Epaphras at the beginning of this letter. Through him, the Colossians had come to know the Good News (1:7). He was “one of you,” Paul writes – a man from their own midst. Paul said exactly the same thing three verses earlier about Onesimus (4:9). So here are two men “one of you,” both of whom were now with Paul. Remarkably, they are described this way: Onesimus, the runaway slave, is called “the faithful and beloved brother,” while Epaphras is called “a slave of Christ Jesus.”

A slave belongs to another and is entirely at his disposal. Earlier, Paul had already called Epaphras “our beloved fellow slave” and “a faithful dispenser of Christ” (1:7). And in Philemon 23, he is called Paul’s “fellow captive.” Not because Epaphras himself was behind bars, but because he shared in Paul’s struggle and in his lot as a prisoner.

That motif of struggle returns here. Epaphras was “always struggling for you in prayers.” The word translated “struggling” is agōnizomai, related to our word “agony.” Epaphras knew the Colossians, and they were close to his heart. His prayers for them were anything but detached. He was intensely involved in the threats they faced. What his struggle in prayer specifically focused on, Paul tells us in what follows.

Share: