THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS
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not mere babes, but full grown men) and fully assured in all the will of God.” He would have them not vacillat- - ing, now carried this way and now car ried that, as ■ regards God’s will but “ fully assured,” clear as day as to God’s will in everything (cf. Eph. 4:14). Paul’s prayer for them was much to the same effect (cf. ch. 1 :9). There is nothing more vital in Christian life than that we know the will of God and do it. Paul goes on to bear witness to Epaphras that he had “ much labor” (R. V.), i. e., in prayer, for them in Colossae and also for those in Laodicea (twelve miles away) and for those in Hierapolis (six miles from Laodicea). The word rendered “ labor” (in the A. V. “ zeal” ), is a strong word, indicat ing painful toil. There is nothing more needed today than men and women who have “ much labor” in prayer for the saints of God and for the unsaved. True- and effective prayer is “ labor,” it is painful toil. It takes effort, it takes much out of a man. But the prayer of the average believer is not labor, it is not painful toil, it is the easiest thing in the world, and also the most ineffect ive. THURSDAY, Dec. 19. Col. 4:14. Luke also sends greeting. It is notice able.that the writers of the second and third Gospels, Mark and Luke, were both with Paul at this time (cf. v. 10, Phile. 24). They were also both with him at a later day, toward the very end of his life (2 Tim. 4:11). Luke had accompanied Paul to Rome (cf. the “ we” in Acts 27 and 28). Luke was a “ physician” by profession. His medical knowledge comes out in various places in the Gospel of Luke and in the Acts. Paul’s attitude toward the medical pro- ession was certainly not that of some of our day who class “ doctors, drugs and devils” together, or else he dould never have spoken of Luke as “ the beloved physician.” But it is certainly forcing matters too far on the other hand to suggest that “ Luke may have joined Paul partly-in a professional capacity. St. Paul’s motive in specify ing him as the physician may have been t o emphasize his own obligations to his medical knowledge.” There is^ not a hint of this in the record. Wherever there was any healing done when Paul and Luke were both present, as far as the record goes, Paul did the healing and Luke simply did the recording (Acts 28:7-9). Paul also mentions
Demas as saluting them, but there is not a word of commendation of any kind. This silence is suggestive when we note what is said about the others. Perhaps his lack of whole-hearted devo tion, that afterwards resulted in his going back into the world, was already apparent in a 'measure (cf. 2 Tim 4- 1 0 ). FRIDAY, Dec. 20. Col. 4:15, 16. We now come to the close of this wonderful letter. Paul sends saluta tions to the brethren in Laodicea, twelve miles away. There was evidently a close fellowship between the church in Colossae and that in Laodicea. A special salutation is sent to Nymphas who‘seems to have been a man of means - and who opened his house for the use of a regular gathering of believers (“ the church that is in their house” ). The early churches assembled for the most part in the houses of individual believers (cf. Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Phile. 2). There is no record in the first century of any house l>eing set apart exclusively for purposes of Christian assembly and worship. Special cham bers in a. house were sometimes thus - set apart. While this letter was writ ten primarily to the saints in Colossae its great fundamental truths were for all believers, and Paul directs them to “ cause it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans” (cf. 1 Thess., 5:27). Little did Paul realize that it was to he read for centuries to come in churches throughout the world and by millions of individual believers. When one sur renders himself to be an. instrument of the Holy Spirit God alone can tell how far his words will travel. The saints in Colossae on their part were to read the epistle that came from Laodicea. What was this epistle? Many think that it was the epistle that we now have as the Epistle to the Ephesians. This let ter, though primarily written to and intended for the church at Ephesus, was also adapted to be a circular letter to various churches. There is good evi dence in the manuscripts that it was thus used. Probably this is the letter to which Paul here refers. So the two epistles, the one to the Colossians and the other to the Ephesians, "supplement one another. They have, as we have already seen, striking points of like- . ness, but they have also very striking points of difference. Each contains great doctrines not contained in the
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