Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions-if he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. “ Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. So let’s take a look at these men and see what we can learn from their stories. There was nothing special about these guys, in fact some of them had some pretty unremarkable pasts. So while Paul was a mighty man in the faith and accomplished much for the kingdom, he would never have been able to leave the lasting impact that he did without the help, assistance, and support of these often under recognized heroes of the faith.īut who were these men? And what’s so special about them? I’m sure that not all Paul’s helpers and assistants are mentioned in the Bible, however, we are given a handful of names at the end of Colossians that gives us a small picture of who these men were. The pastor and personal letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon would never have made it to their recipients and great books of history like the gospel of Luke and book of Acts would never have been written. The letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Thessalonians would not have reached their intended audience and thus, would not have been copied and preserved for future generations. Without these humble servants we would not have the majority of the New Testament. However, the truth is that he was surrounded by an army of helpers. Reading through the New Testament and seeing the many letters Paul wrote and exciting adventures he undertook throughout the book of Acts, it’s easy to focus only on Paul and attribute all his success in ministry and mission work just to him.
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