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Saturday 23 May 2020

Colossians 4:10,11 - They have been a comfort to me

4:10
We get more names mentioned here. Obviously Paul, Peter, John and the other apostles were extremely important in the very early church, and had a unique role, but they weren’t the only ones working for the gospel, and the gospel was not entirely dependent upon them. There had been a split with Barnabas and Mark (Acts 15:36-41), but this rift had been healed. This reminds us that the early church was not perfect, disagreements did happen. It also shows us that disagreements can be healed. We need to have a mature view. It is a very weak view of unity that cannot cope with disagreement.




4:11

This verse shows that “Jesus” was a normal name. It seems that there were only a few Jews who were working with Paul at this point, and it was something that caused him great sadness. In Acts 28:28 Paul recognised that the gospel was going to the Gentiles and would receive much wider acceptance there. However, this is not the final state. There would always be a remnant, and at some point there would be a significant turning to Christ from the Jews (Rom 9-11), and the two or three Jews who were working with Paul for the kingdom gave him great comfort, serving as a reminder of the long term promise.

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