Colossians 4:15 – The Ecclesia in Her House

15 Greet the brethren in Laodicea, and Nympha and the ecclesia at her house.

Laodicea was already mentioned earlier. Epaphras had much concern not only for the Colossians, but also for the believers there and in Hierapolis (4:13). The distance between Colosse and Laodicea was only about fifteen kilometers. It is therefore not surprising that close contacts existed. Paul explicitly sends greetings here to the brethren in Laodicea.

He then mentions Nympha and “the ecclesia at her house.” We know nothing further about Nympha. We do know that she made her house available for the gatherings. Elsewhere as well, we read of an ecclesia gathering in a house. Thus, with Prisca and Aquila we find “the ecclesia at their house” (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19), and with Philemon likewise an ecclesia in a home (Philem. 2).

This shows how simply and on what a small scale the ecclesias functioned in those days. They had no church buildings but gathered in homes. These generally cannot have been very large groups. It is striking that Paul simply calls such a gathering an “ecclesia.” Scripture knows no separate category of “house church,” any more than it does “local church.” Ecclesia is an honorary title. A gathering in a house bears the same name as the great whole: the part is named after the whole that it represents.

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