Colossians 4:11-18
<3588> [who.]
fellow workers <4904> [fellow-workers.]
a comfort <3931> [a comfort.]
Epaphras <1889> [Epaphras.]
a slave <1401> [a servant.]
always <3842> [always.]
is ... struggling <75> [labouring. or, striving.]
so that <2443> [that.]
[See on ch.]
<4137> [complete. or, filled.]
I can testify <3140> [I bear.]
Laodicea <2993> [Laodicea.]
Laodicea and Hierapolis were both cities of Phrygia in Asia Minor, between which, and equidistant from each, was situated Colosse. Laodicea was seated near the Lycus, about 63 miles east of Ephesus; and became one of the largest and richest towns in Phrygia, vying in power with the maritime cities. It is now called Eski-hissar, the old castle; and besides the whole surface within the city's wall being strewed with pedestals and fragments, the ruins of an amphitheatre, a magnificent odeum, and other public buildings, attest its former splendour and magnificence. But, when visited by Dr. Chandler, all was silence and solitude; and a fox, first discovered by his ears peeping over a brow, was the only inhabitant of Laodicea. Hierapolis, now Pambouk-Kaiesi, was situated, according to the Itinerary, six miles N. of Laodicea; and its ruins are now about a mile and a half in circumference.
Luke <3065> [Luke.]
Demas <1214> [Demas.]
Laodicea <2993> [Laodicea.]
church <1577> [the church.]
Archippus <751> [Archippus.]
See <991> [Take.]
ministry <1248> [the ministry.]
complete <4137> [fulfil.]
Remember <3421> [Remember.]
Grace <5485> [Grace.]
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. Colosse was a large and populous city of Phrygia Pacatiana, in Asia Minor, seated on an eminence to the south of the river Meander. It is supposed to have occupied a site now covered with ruins, near the village of Konous or Khonas, and about twenty miles N. W. of Degnizlu. By whom, or at what time, the church at Colosse was founded is wholly uncertain; but it would appear from the apostle's declaration, ch. 2:1, that he was not the honoured instrument. It appears from the tenor of this epistle to have been, upon the whole, in a very flourishing state; but some difficulties having arisen among them, they sent Epaphras to Rome, where the apostle was now imprisoned, (ch. 4:3) to acquaint him with the state of their affairs. It is remarkable for a peculiar pathos and ardour, which is generally ascribed to the extraordinary divine consolations enjoyed by the apostle during his sufferings for the sake of Christ. Whoever, says Michaelis, would understand the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, must read them together. The one is in most places a commentary on the other; the meaning of single passages in one epistle, which, if considered alone, might be variously interpreted, being determined by the parallel passages in the other epistle.
