Colossians 1:7 · World English Bible
Colossians 1:7 Meaning Even as You Learned of Epaphras
even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf,
What does Colossians 1:7 mean?
The gospel arrived in a town no apostle ever visited, carried by one of their own men and undamaged in the carrying. Fellowservant puts a local teacher and an apostle under the same owner, differing in assignment, not in worth.
From the Protestant reading below.
Colossians 1:7 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Protestant
PROTESTANT
Protestant
The gospel arrived in a town no apostle ever visited, carried by one of their own men and undamaged in the carrying. Fellowservant puts a local teacher and an apostle under the same owner, differing in assignment, not in worth.
Minister names a household servant, so what recommends this man is his faithfulness to Christ. He worked on their behalf, and the Christ he announced is the Christ the apostles announced. A church founded at second hand stands with God as securely as any other, since their standing comes from trusting Christ, whoever first told them about him.
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Protestant lens
Live Colossians 1:7 today
- Think of who first told you about Jesus, probably someone with no training and no platform. Thank God for them by name today.
- Send a short message to the ordinary person who passed something real on to you, a parent, a coworker, a friend from years back, and tell them it took. They may have no idea.
- When you feel like the second-rate version, the one who came in late or through a side door, let that go. Where you stand does not depend on how impressive the person was who told you.
Who handed you what you now hold, and have you ever told them?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
The lamp is lit from another lamp, and the second flame gives exactly the same light as the first. Nothing is thinner for being passed along.
Judaism
The teaching is handed down through a chain of ordinary people, each receiving and passing on, and what the last one holds is what the first one gave. The chain is long and the content is whole.
Sufism
The water tastes the same whether you drink from the spring or from the channel that brought it to your village. What matters is that it arrived uncontaminated.
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