Colossians 4:10 Commentary and Bible Study

From verse 10 we find those who are around the apostle Paul who wish to be made known and to send their greeting to the Colossians. Aristarchus salutes or embraces you; he wishes to pass on his fondest greetings to you. Aristarchus was a Jewish convert from Thessalonica. He was with Paul at Ephesus when he preached there, and in Acts 19 Luke describes how he is seized by the furious mob, and he and Gaius are man-handled and bundled into the big amphitheatre at Ephesus. He was with the apostle Paul too on the last leg of that third missionary journey. What is he doing here, in prison in Rome? He had joined himself with Paul and would have been treated as a prisoner – though he was not under arrest – on that voyage to Rome and was in that vessel and in the shipwreck, so Aristarchus is a great companion of Paul. In the Letter to Philemon, Paul only mentions Epaphras as his fellow prisoner, so Aristarchus probably was not there all the time. The general conjecture is that Aristarchus was a voluntary prisoner. Paul’s first imprisonment was a little more lenient than the others, but it would seem that Aristarchus chose to be imprisoned with him as his companion. Perhaps he had liberty to come and go to some extent, but while he was with the apostle helping him as his companion, he had to be treated as a prisoner, and at night he had to be chained for security, and he had to know the same rigours. This, it seems, was the degree to which some of Paul’s fellow preachers would go to serve the Lord. I think that is a wonderful challenge and example to us. In Philemon he is also called my fellow slave, fellow worker. Aristarchus loved the Lord, and loved souls, and loved not his life or his comforts unto death. He is another who received noble commendation. Literally, the word translated ‘prisoner’ is a war captive or, as we would say, a prisoner of war. What Paul is reminding us is, ‘I am not a prisoner as a criminal, guilty of offences, would be. I am here in the war being fought for Christ and the gospel, and I have been taken, as it were, for the time being as a prisoner of war.’ Marcus, Mark, that is John Mark – what word shall we give to John Mark? He was a conqueror, Mark. Twelve to fourteen years previously he had deserted the mission. He had been given the great privilege as a young man of being appointed together with Paul and others to take the gospel to the Gentiles, but in Pamphylia he abandoned the work and he went back to Jerusalem. Paul wouldn’t have him again on the next missionary journey and Barnabas wanted him because he was a cousin probably and there was a contention between them. But in subsequent years, Mark conquered his problems and his weaknesses. He was scared in Pamphylia, I think, he was a bit soft, He didn’t want the threat of persecution and difficulty and ill treatment, so he proved unreliable, but since then he has changed. He has repented of that, he has applied himself, he has overcome his fears.