Epaphras: A Faithful Servant Who Strove in Prayer

A man of the New Testament era

Epaphras belongs to the New Testament, an era placed at around 4 BC to AD 33 on Ussher's chronology (1650). He is named three times in all of Scripture, and never more than once in a row: Colossians 1:7, Colossians 4:12 and Philemon 1:23. Three verses, three passages, two books. That is the whole of his written record. He is a man whose name survives inside other people's letters, carried along in a commendation and two greetings.

Three mentions, and what kind of mentions they are

It is worth saying plainly at the start: there is no scene about Epaphras. No episode is narrated, no words of his are recorded, no journey is described. Every appearance is a passing note inside a letter addressed to other people. What we have of him is what someone else says about him in a single line.

The first note comes in the opening chapter of Colossians. The readers are told that they learned something "even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf" (Colossians 1:7). Four things stand in that half verse. He is beloved. He is a fellow servant, set alongside the one writing rather than under him. He is faithful. And his service is described as being on the readers' behalf, not merely near them or among them.

The second note comes at the close of the same letter: "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" (Colossians 4:12). Here he is identified as one of the readers' own, a servant of Christ, and a man at work in prayer. The word chosen for that work is striving. Prayer is described in the language of exertion, and its aim is given with unusual precision: that they may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. He is not praying for their comfort. He is praying for their completeness.

The third note comes in Philemon: "Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you" (Philemon 1:23). The writer speaks in the first person and calls him a fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus. Whatever the circumstances behind that word, Scripture here gives us the fact and not the story. The man who strove in prayer for others is, at this point, himself in chains alongside the one writing.

Read together, the three lines hold a shape. A servant of Christ, faithful, belonging to the people he serves, laboring for them in prayer, and finally a prisoner. Nothing more is said, and nothing more should be added.

No failure is recorded

Scripture is not shy about the sins of its people, and honesty about a man requires reporting what is said and what is not. In the case of Epaphras, no fault, no lapse and no rebuke appears in any of the three verses that name him. That silence is not a certificate of sinlessness; it is simply silence. The text gives commendation and gives no complaint. To manufacture a failure would be as dishonest as covering one up.

What we do not know

The gaps here are wide. Scripture does not name his parents. No children are named. No tribe or people is given for him. We are told he is one of the readers of Colossians, and that is the only belonging assigned to him. There is no account of how he came to faith, no record of anything he said, no report of what became of him after the greeting in Philemon 1:23. Those who want a biography of Epaphras will not find one in the Bible, and the honest reader lets the blanks stay blank.

The line to Christ

Every one of the three verses ties this man directly to Christ, and it is the only thing they all do. He is called "a faithful servant of Christ" (Colossians 1:7). He is called "a servant of Christ" (Colossians 4:12). He is called "my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus" (Philemon 1:23). Servant, servant, prisoner: the three descriptions climb rather than repeat, and Christ is the fixed point in each.

His prayer aims at the same center. He strives that others "may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God" (Colossians 4:12). His service is described as being on their behalf (Colossians 1:7), and his chains are described as being in Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:23). A man with no recorded scene is nonetheless given a recorded identity, and it is entirely bound up with the One he serves.