Colossians 4:12

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, saluteth you, always striving for you in his prayers, that ye may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he hath much labor for you, and for them in Laodicea, and for them in Hierapolis.

EPAPHRAS

All of the comment on these two verses, almost, pertains to this distinguished worker who appears to have been a preacher and teacher for all three towns in the tri-cities mentioned here. Lockyer called him "a giant of prayer," saying that:

It is in his prayer ministry that Epaphras is conspicuous; he knew how to lay all before the Lord ... that the saints might be perfect and complete. He "strove earnestly in his prayers." He brought to Paul in Rome the report on conditions at Colossae that prompted this epistle. Like Epaphras, all of us should be concerned with the spiritual welfare of others[20]

Certainly, there must have been something extraordinary about the prayers of Epaphras, because, as Guthrie noted, "The word used is agonize, which may be some kind of allusion to the prayers of our Lord in Gethsemane. That kind of praying ranks a man high in spiritual nature."[21]

Servant of Christ ... Paul must have meant something very high and holy by this.

It is a title used by James and Jude (in their epistles), as well as by Paul himself, but given by him only to Timothy (Philippians 1:1), and to Epaphras here.[22]

[20] Herbert Lockyer, op. cit., p. 110.

[21] Donald Guthrie, New Bible Commentary, Revised (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 1153.

[22] Alfred Barry, op. cit., p. 117.