Colossians chapter 4

vs 10

Paul wasn't imprisoned alone, which is helpful to remember. I usually imagine him alone in a dungeon type thing.

Mark is Barnabas' cousin! That's another easy thing to forget. We can see here that Mark is to be welcomed. So Paul obviously has positive feelings for Mark.

vs 11

So only 3 jews. That's not many. But Paul finds them comforting. Not sure why. Perhaps he likes the jewness of their attitudes? Or likes the freshness of their outlooks, having all become Christians.

vs 12

Epaphrus may be the one who sparked this letter in the first place, by bringing information from Colossae to Paul. He might have even been sent from Colossae on behalf of the church to comfort Paul and serve him during his imprisonment.

vs 13

Although he is far away from those churches, he is working hard for them. It's interesting that Paul focuses primarily on his prayer role in the last verse, so we don't know what else, if anything, he was doing.

vs 14-15

Some more greetings both ways. Nympha has a church in her house - there really is no end to influential women in the early church.

vs 16

This little verse does heaps to show us that, even at their original writing, the early NT letters were designed to be passed around from church to church. Unfortunately, we don't seem to have the letter to the Laodecians. In fact, it seemed to drop out of circulation, because there isn't much mention of it anywhere. But that's ok.

vs 17

Although it's a relevant verse for any Christian, it's healthy to recognise that it is written to a specific individual! What was his job? I have no idea. But it was important enough that Paul wrote specifically about it.

vs 18

Typical Paul ending. Yay. Colossians is a good book.