Don’t neglect to labor in prayer
Within the greetings of fellow believers shared by the Apostle Paul is the greeting of Epaphras, a believer from Colosse who came to visit Paul in prison and who was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only did Epaphras send greetings to his fellow believers, he prayed for them. Paul said to the Colossians that Epaphras was “always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.”
Epaphras’ prayers for the church at Colosse, as well as those in Laodicea and Hierapolis, were not brief, passing addendums. He labored fervently in prayer for them. He was continually wrestling with God and imploring God’s mercy and grace upon his fellow believers that they would not turn away from the truth and fall from saving faith in Christ Jesus but stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. He prayed that they would be brought to spiritual maturity and be filled up in all things pertaining to God’s will.
His prayer is similar to the desire of the apostle Paul for the believers at Ephesus, recorded for us in his letter, Ephesians 4:11-16: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”