Colossians 4:17 – Look to the Service

17 And say to Archippus: “Look to the service which you accepted in the Lord, that you may be fulfilling it.”

We encountered Archippus earlier in the letter to Philemon, where Paul calls him “our fellow soldier” (Philem. 2). This characterizes him as someone who was involved with Paul in the struggle for the Evangel. What exactly his “service” (diakonia) consisted of, Paul does not state. That it was public in character, however, is obvious. After all, the entire ecclesia is instructed to encourage Archippus in his service.

The connection with what precedes is also noteworthy. Paul had instructed them there to read the letter and to have it read in Laodicea as well. Immediately afterward, Archippus is addressed. Evidently, he had a service for the entire ecclesia and read Paul’s letter and passed on his teaching. Epaphras, from whom they had heard the Evangel (1:7), was, after all, with Paul. It is therefore quite conceivable that Archippus had taken his place.

Archippus had received this service “in the Lord.” Therefore: “Look to the service (…) that you may be fulfilling it.” Several translations add “also”: “that you may also be fulfilling it.” That can wrongly sound like a rebuke, as though Archippus had been negligent. But “also” is not there. The Colossians were instead to encourage their fellow soldier to fully carry out the service entrusted to him.

Share: