“Final Greetings-2”
We were created in God’s image. The image of God means more than the moral and spiritual capacities we possess. God, in whose image we are made, is a triune God. As one God made up of three divine Persons, our God is a community unto Himself. And the creation of man reflects that image: when God created man, He created male and female in His own image. The male is made in the image of God. The female is made in the image of God. And the male and together reflect the image of God. Consider the interesting way in which God created man. He made the man first. The woman is made out of the man, of the man’s rib, to be specific. And the two are joined together as one in the archetypal marriage.
Created in the image of the triune God, man is a social being in nature. Although at times we want to be alone and need to be alone, we crave for community. In our family we have the smallest, most intimate social unit. This most basic social unit can provide us with a sense of great comfort and security. But it is not all that we need or should have. It is the most basic, not the all-encompassing. Our family is a part of a larger community, in which we live. We have friends and neighbors, coworkers and colleagues. And God has established His church, which is made up of the confessing Christians and their children. Our local church is our spiritual family. If God established His church, it is because there is a deep-seated need we have for the communion of saints. He knows of this need of ours because it is He, who placed it in us.
So Paul declares, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son…” (
So let us take a look into the dynamics of Paul relationship with his “band of brothers”. We must first realize that these final greetings are not an appendix to the Bible, recorded in the Bible only because they were a part of the letter-writing convention at that time. Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have a legitimate place in the Christian Canon. Indeed, these final greetings provide us with a tangible picture of what our community should look like. God desires that we should have more than just vague, abstract ideas of our covenant community. He gives us definite shapes and forms to our understanding of the covenant community. Here we see what can happen when the gospel touches our lives and forms us into a covenant community. Here we have something to strive for, not just an impossible ideal. For we too have been touched by the same gospel that prompted them to form such a community. Let us remember that the same Christ, who worked in them, continues to work in us to grow and mold His church!
In Paul’s commendation of the couriers of his letter, Tychicus and Onesimus, we see a
bond of confident trust. As we saw last time, they were more than just delivery
men, physically carrying the letter from Paul to the Colossians. Their mission
included oral reports--how Paul and his coworkers were doing (v. 8) and
everything that had taken place with Paul (v. 9). We all know how things can be
so quickly changed and distorted when something is communicated orally from one
person to another, then to another, then to another. Things get added on as
well as omitted. And we also know all the subtleties and nuances that are
involved in communicating something accurately. To see this, all we need to do
is to have a meeting with others and elect someone to represent the group and
present the conclusion of the discussion. It would be rare to find someone, who
can do it without coloring the report with his own emphases. What would it take
for someone to be your faithful and true representative? He must be deeply and
personally knowledgeable about you. He cannot just know some facts about you;
he must know your heart. He cannot just listen to what you say but also
understand what you mean. And you must be confident that he genuinely has your
interest at heart.
Paul found in these two men--Tychicus
and Onesimus and possibly in Mark and others--someone
who could represent him faithfully and truly to the Colossians. And these men
were willing to suspend their lives to run an errand for their dear friend.
Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t you want that kind of relationship? And doesn’t it
make you wonder how such a relationship was fostered? What kind of relationship
are we supposed to have as members of the body of Christ?
Of course, it is only natural to assume that Paul did not
have this kind of relationship with all the Christians he knew. Although we
click with certain personalities better than with others, such a deep
relationship does not just happen. As it takes two to tango, both parties have
to work at it. And through various events and circumstances and even trials,
their character and faithfulness and authenticity are demonstrated, either to
deepen the relationship or to disrupt it. This is not to say that we must walk
on eggshells because we are always observing the others and being observed by
them, constantly testing and being tested by them. As we walk into a
relationship, we should all remember at the outset that we all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. This is true even of regenerated Christians. We
need God’s forgiving and renewing grace all the time. As we experience God’s
grace, we learn to extend that grace to one another. We saw a wonderful example
of this in Paul’s relationship with Mark--how their relationship was once
disrupted but now they were reconciled and now working together side by side as
fellow servants of Christ.
But should we not see in Paul’s relationship with Tychicus and Onesimus and Mark
and others something to strive for, something we desire deep down in our
hearts, something needful to make our life and ministry meaningful and rich?
What kind of community does God want His church to be? God laid down the
foundation of this church with the precious blood of Jesus Christ and His supreme
self-sacrifice. God did not love us from the throne of heaven. He sent His only
Son, who to Him was more precious than His own life because that is how a
father feels toward his own son. And the Son of God stepped into time and
space, taking upon Himself the frailty of our flesh. He stepped into our
shoes and walked under the law of God in those shoes. Though He fulfilled the
law perfectly, He took our place and was condemned. He suffered our
miseries and the punishment of our sin. He died our death. The Son
of God came and He came so close to us while we were yet sinners. What kind of
relationship does God expect among the people, who are all there in His church
because they have been loved so much by Him?
Of course, as long as we have our remaining sin in us, until
we arrive in heaven, we will not be able to enjoy perfect fellowship. But if
our hearts truly long for that perfect fellowship, we will not be able to sit
idly by and twiddle our thumbs until we get to heaven. We will work hard all
the more and do whatever necessary to experience the foretaste of our heavenly
fellowship, won’t we? Twice a month we have our communion service together. We
will have one next Lord’s Day. When we come together at the Lord’s Supper, what
are we confessing? What are we experiencing in our anticipation for the
heavenly banquet? We are a family, with God as our Father and with our Lord
Jesus as our Brother. In the presence of God we have a family meal together.
There can be no enmity, no jealousy, no ill-will, no
faction. If we hold such things in our hearts, we would be eating and drinking
judgment to ourselves. There at the table we can be open and vulnerable and
honest and true. For it is a meal of genuine love, reconciliation, forgiveness
and unity as we remember the body and the blood of Jesus Christ sacrificed for
us. The Lord’s Supper constantly reminds us and points us to the kind of
community Christ came to establish among His people.
When we look at one another and interact with one another,
what kind of relationship are we expecting? Is our congregation suffering from
the law of low expectation? Are we content to wade in the shallow waters of
superficial relationships because we are afraid to drown (in mutual
accountability)? Is our greatest concern not getting hurt by others and not
offending others in an obvious way? Are we in our fellowship with one another
looking for playmates, someone to have a picnic with? Instead, shouldn’t we
engage with one another with a view to winning someone to stand together as fellow
Green Berets against the enemy at the frontline of our spiritual battle? In
fact, isn’t that what we are called to be, fellow Green Berets and Rangers of
God’s kingdom? And if that is what we are looking for, wouldn’t it radically
change the way we deal with one another and the way we order our lives? Could
it be that we have what we have because we have the low expectation to begin
with, because we did not have the right standard to strive for?
Can you, do you, accept that this
is what God’s will is for His church, for us? And if so, we must strive to
fulfill His will for us. We must do so because we have received the grace of
God in Jesus Christ. God’s grace is not something that compromises His will and
lowers His perfect standard. Far from it! God’s grace is what enables fallen
sinners to accomplish His perfect will and to meet His perfect standard--this,
not by helping us do it but by having done it for us in our place! This grace
we have received in Jesus Christ. In His substitutionary suffering and death we
find the grace to forgive our sins. But this grace does not ignore the demands
of the law; it fulfills them through the vicarious obedience and life of Jesus
Christ! In Christ we find the complete grace of God, which not only justifies
us but also sanctifies us and glorifies us. And it is that awesome thought that
God is at work in us, which makes it so wrong for us to sit idly by and not
apply all our strength to obey God’s holy will for our lives, to work out our
salvation (Phil. 2:12). God’s grace is not just for the forgiveness of our
sins; it is to make us worthy children of God, holy and blameless.
We must remember that God’s will must
be obeyed because it is God’s will, not because it makes sense to us. Let’s
keep that straight: God is the One we are to obey, not
our reason! But this is not to say that God’s will is not gracious and good.
How great and many are the benefits of obeying God’s will for us! And God’s
will for us is to develop deep, authentic relationships with our fellow members.
When we obey this will, we experience the kind of things that we can never
dream of in superficial relationships!
In v. 11 Paul mentions how Aristarchus
and Mark and Justus, his three Jewish colleagues, were a comfort to him. This
shows how distressed Paul must have been by the hardened hearts of his Jewish
compatriots. Everywhere Paul went, he was confronted with stiff opposition and
even harsh persecution. Many came from the Gentile population. But the most
persistent and fierce opposition came from his fellow Jews. They opposed him at
the synagogues. They used their connection with the officials of the towns to
instigate persecution against him. They incited riots and stirred up mobs to
stone him. They accused him of seditious teaching and acts against
Yes, Paul, even Paul, needed encouragement! Do you remember
how the letter began? He said, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and
of the love that you have for all the saints…” (1:3-4). We
can find many other instances of such rejoicing in Paul. The enthusiasm
with which he rejoices in the good news of faithful Christians shows how deeply
he appreciated such encouragement. Yes, this Apostle had the heart of Jesus
Christ and there was nothing more encouraging to him than Christians holding
fast to their faith in their dear Savior! Of course, he served with his eyes
fixed on the Lord and his heavenly reward. But how encouraging it was for him
to see others do the same! For we all have ups and downs. How we need someone
to be there when we are down to encourage us and lift us up! And how rewarding
and satisfying it is to help someone, who is down, to regain his confidence in
the gospel, in His dear Savior! When you see your brother or sister faithfully
and joyfully serving the Lord, does it not stir up your heart to do the same?
God did not leave us as lone rangers but brought us together as a community so
that we could draw encouragement from one another as we walk by faith in the
Son of God!
Take, for another instance, Paul’s comments on Epaphras and his fervent, diligent prayers for the
Colossians. What an encouragement it must have been to Paul to see a brother of
his “always
laboring earnestly for [God’s people] in his prayers” (v. 12, NASB)! To
know that he was not alone in his ministry of prayer for God’s people--how
encouraging and comforting! If the
Epaphras must have got it! He
prayed for the church. No, he did not just pray but he labored in his prayers
as though he were engaged in a wrestling contest--that’s what that word means!
Why labor in prayer as though wrestling? If we love God, shouldn’t prayer be
natural and effortless? Yes, prayer is, no doubt, our spiritual oasis in one
sense as we find our refuge in the presence of God. But prayer is also the
battlefield on which our spiritual battle is waged. For our enemy tries to do
whatever is possible to derail our prayer life because our prayer life is
crucial to our spiritual wellbeing! He will not sit idly by while we draw our
comfort, joy and strength from the Lord through prayer! Epaphras
was no different from us; he was a man just like us. I am certain that, like
us, he had to wrestle against all kinds of distractions and racing thoughts;
wrestle against laziness and drowsiness; wrestle against the doubt of whether
his prayer mattered or not; wrestle against small and weak faith, against sheer
lack of godly imagination and ambition. But he did not give up. He labored in
his prayers as though wrestling a rival, who is trying to grab him and pin him
down all the time! And he labored in his prayers always! Oh, brothers and
sisters, should we not pray for one another! Should we not always labor hard
for one another in our prayers when we consider the spiritual battle we fight?
Should we not wrestle against our indifference and lack of sympathy, against
our self-absorbedness, against our laziness and drowsiness, against our
incessant distractions and racing thoughts? As we see our weakness and
failures, should we not go to God all the more in prayer?
But what motivates us is more than just the example of Epaphras. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ is praying for
us with efficacious prayers--they will not fail to materialize because He prays
perfectly according to God’s will. When we pray in the name of Jesus Christ
(seeking His will), we participate in the certainly and success of His perfect
prayers. That is why we must wrestle against our prayerlessness and doubt. That
is why we must pray!
As we conclude, let us consider the significance of Paul’s
final greetings. Do you see what Paul is doing in these final greetings? His
concern was not just about his relationship with the Colossians and
other congregations. He also deeply cared that these churches should be
connected with one another and support one another. As
they were small in number, they had to work together for the
Do you see the redemptive historical significance of what
Paul was doing? In the joining of God’s people as one, the effects of the Fall and sin were being reversed! At the Fall,
broken was man’s relationship not only with God but also with one another. At
the
All that Paul was doing was possible and legitimate because of the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Christ came as the second Adam and through
His perfect obedience He reversed the Fall of the
first Adam and his disobedience. And He suffered and died to bear away the
curse of the Fall. And in His coming and living and
dying and rising again from the dead, He fulfilled the mission of
We, too, must not lose sight of this glorious redemptive historical fact,
both globally and regionally and personally. Yes, the
This is important not only at the global and denominational level; it is
also important at the personal level as well. And that is what we see in our
passage. Paul reinforces the sense of Christian community by conveying
greetings from his coworkers to the Colossians and also asking the Colossians
to do the same to others on his behalf. Doesn’t he challenge the way we think
about our relationships? How often do we strive to foster that sense of
community among us, not only by reaching out to others ourselves but also by
connecting others to one another by providing a forum where people can come
together and get to know one another? How important the ministry of hospitality
is in this sense! Paul knew the importance of being a bridge among God’s people
because he himself had benefited greatly by it. After his conversion, Paul
tried to connect with the Apostles in
All these efforts of Paul’s were driven by the vision of Christ, “the Head,
from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and
ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God” (
Having considered all this, I hope we can never be content just to come to
church once a week on the Lord’s Day. I know that for some of you even that is
a challenge. But I hope you accept the fact that, when God called you to
Christ, He called you to a life much richer than a life of individual, isolated
Christianity. And those of us who come regularly, who are members, we cannot be
content with polite yet superficial relationships, can we? Because that is not
what God designed for us. Don’t we want something
deeper and more meaningful?
I hope that through Paul’s final greetings, we have caught even a little
glimpse of the kind of rich, meaningful community to which God has called us.
God has endowed each of us with so much grace and so many gifts. We can learn
so much from one another. We can grow so much through one another. And the very
nature we have as God’s image bearers makes us cry out for meaningful,
authentic relationships, don’t we, especially with our fellow saints? And even
the best of the relationships we enjoy now can be better if we grow more in the
knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, won’t they? May God spare us from
the law of low expectation, especially in our relationship with our fellow
members, our comrades in the spiritual battle! And as we look forward to that
day when we in heaven will enjoy our perfect communion with God and our fellow
saints, may we invest in our relationship with one another, to find in one
another our beloved brothers, our trusted coworkers and comrades, who are
willing to be in the trenches together through good times and bad times, to
genuinely share our joys and sorrows in the love of Jesus Christ!
© Copyright 2007 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.