The Fellow Workers
10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you received instructions, “if he comes to you, receive him”), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for God’s Kingdom who are of the circumcision, men who have been a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 13 For I testify about him that he has great zeal for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.
Six names, and among them a man once rejected, a doctor, and a man who will not last.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you. He had been seized in the Ephesus riot Acts 19:29 and sailed with Paul toward Rome Acts 27:2.
And Mark, the cousin of Barnabas — with an instruction attached: if he comes to you, receive him. The note is doing repair work. Mark's departure had caused so sharp a disagreement that Paul and Barnabas parted over it Acts 15:37–39, and Paul is now writing ahead to make sure the churches welcome him. Years later he will ask for him by name as useful for service 2 Timothy 4:11.
Epaphras gets the longest notice, and it is about prayer: always striving for them, that they may stand complete. The verb is the contending word of Colossians 1:29, and complete is the goal Paul named for his own ministry Colossians 1:28. The founder is still fighting for the church from a distance.
Then Luke, the beloved physician — the only place Scripture gives his profession — and Demas.
Demas is named without comment here and again in the letter Onesimus carries Philemon 1:24. In Paul's last letter the entry reads: Demas left me, having loved this present world 2 Timothy 4:10.
settled What this mark means