June 28 - Colossians 4:10-11

June 28 - Colossians 4:10-11

“My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)  Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.”

We get a chance to meet a few more of Paul’s friends.  Aristarchus is a fellow prisoner.  While this might mean that he is taking care of Paul while Paul is imprisoned, more than likely he has also been arrested and is in jail beside Paul. 

He is from Thessalonica and traveled with Paul on his third journey.  We meet him in Acts 19:29, Acts 20:4 and then again in Acts 27:2.  Paul speaks of him in Philemon 24 as well.

The poor man was in Ephesus during the riot that occurred because the craftsmen were upset at Paul for turning people away from buying silver shrines of Artemis.  I can’t imagine an entire city erupting because of this, but it sounds like craziness took hold of the Ephesians and they wanted justice immediately.  They dragged Gaius and Aristarchus to the theater – a large outdoor meeting area.  Paul wanted to show up and talk to the crowd, but most wouldn’t let him go because there was so much chaos.  They were certain everything would get much worse if he were to show up.  Fortunately for everyone, a sane man was in the position of city clerk and was able to talk them out of making things worse.  (Acts 19:23-41)

Mark is the one we know as the author of the second Gospel.  He traveled with Paul for awhile and was a cousin to Barnabas.  We know that he grew up in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12, 25) and traveled with Barnabas and Paul on the first missionary journey.  At some point, Mark took off and headed back to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13).  Paul got mad and wouldn’t take him on the next journey.  That ticked Barnabas off and left with Mark while Paul took off with Silas (Acts 15:36-41).  By this point, though Mark and Paul were back to normal and we see in Philemon 24 that Paul calls him a fellow worker and in 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul asks for Mark to be brought to him.  Mark also ends up traveling with Peter (1 Peter 5:13) and tradition has it that Peter is the one who gave him the information for the Gospel that he wrote.

The third man in this grouping is Jesus, known as Justus.  We don’t know much about him except that he, along with Aristarchus and Mark are the only Jews that traveled with Paul.

The word ‘comfort’ in this verse is translated from the word ‘paregoria’ which means relief or consolation.  This is the only time that it is used in the New Testament.  These men have offered strength to Paul during a time when he especially needs it.