Colossians 4:7-18- Let Every Heart We come to our last week of studying the letter to the Colossians. Today we look at the final greetings that Paul has in his letter to the saints in Colossae. Generally speaking, we tend to overlook greetings in the Bible because we don’t usually see a benefit to us today. We read, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments,” from 2 Timothy 4:13; then we gloss over it because it doesn’t matter to us today. However, one chapter earlier, we are told that “all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). Even greetings are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Before we study the particular greetings that we find at the end of Colossians, let me give four reasons why greetings are good for us to study.
I. Overview
a. The church is a body with members
Greetings give us a bigger picture of the church. We find lists of people who served God faithfully and even placed their lives on the line for the gospel. We know about the ministry of Peter and Paul; however, they were not lone rangers, but they served with other saints who served Christ and his church with their personal giftings. Most of Church ministry is not seen by others. This does not mean ministry is pointless, but even from the beginning of the church, ministry has happened by faithful men and women who served God faithfully.
b. The church is connected
We can see churches listed in the greetings, and they did not see each other as competition but working together to advance the gospel. In the greetings in Colossians, we see four churches mentioned. There is no such thing as an autonomous church, but we are all united under the same mediator, Jesus Christ.
c. The church is historically rooted
The Bible was not written in a vacuum but was written by real men writing to real men, women, and children in history. Every name has a story, every name has a family, and every person lived within history. We may glance over names that are hard to pronounce, but we need to understand that they are brothers and sisters in Christ who served Christ with their life.
d. The church is diverse
Even in this short greeting in Colossians, we see eleven people from different backgrounds that served in various ways in the church. We see men and women. We see ministers and servants. We see prisoners and physicians. We see Jews and Gentiles. We see prayers and encouragers. We see teachers and hosts. Even the small church in Colossae was filled with diversity, all united under Jesus Christ. We genuinely see Colossians 3:11 in action, “Here there is not Greek, and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”
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