Epaphras is one of those names that only appears three times in the whole Bible (Col 1.7, 4.12; Phm 23), and yet he was a spiritual giant whose example we would do well to follow. He was a church planter and the pastor of the churches in at least Colosse, Laodicea and Hierapolis, if not in other towns in the Lycus valley of Asia Minor. Paul describes him in Col 1.7 as a ‘beloved fellow-servant’ and a ‘faithful minister of Christ’.

It’s so easy to skim over the ‘minor characters’ in Scripture, isn’t it? Men and women whose names are mentioned only once or twice – about whom very little is said. Epaphras is one of those names that only appears three times in the whole Bible (Col 1.7, 4.12; Phm 23), and yet he was a spiritual giant whose example we would do well to follow. He was a church planter and the pastor of the churches in at least Colosse, Laodicea and Hierapolis, if not in other towns in the Lycus valley of Asia Minor. Paul describes him in Col 1.7 as a ‘beloved fellow-servant’ and a ‘faithful minister of Christ’. In Col 4.12 he is referred to as a ‘servant of Christ Jesus’ – a phrase that Paul uses of only two other men: himself and Timothy. So this is a man who was exceptionally highly regarded by the apostle Paul. Why? What marked him out as a ‘faithful minister of Christ’? Paul mentions three things:

1. Faithful preaching. Paul says that the Colossians heard ‘the word of truth, the gospel’ (Col 1.5) and that they ‘understood the grace of God in truth’ (Col 1.6). How did they come to know these things? Col 1.7: ‘…you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.’ When Epaphras preached the gospel to these people he didn’t just give them a few bullet points—he taught the gospel comprehensively and deeply, carefully explaining its truths and unpacking its applications. This is probably one of the reasons why Luke could say in Acts 19.10 that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord—because men like Epaphras came to hear Paul declaring the whole counsel of God at the hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus (Ac 20.27) and then re-preached what they heard back at home. This should be one of the marks we look for in a faithful minister of Christ—he preaches the word of truth, the gospel so that people understand the grace of God in truth.

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