For one last time this coming Lord’s Day, we will open the Word of the Lord to the Epistle to the Colossians. Our sermon text will be Colossians 4:7-18, and with our consideration of this passage we will bring our series of messages on this letter to a conclusion.

On Sunday we will take a closer look at the final section of the Epistle where the Apostle Paul says farewell to his friends from his place of confinement in Rome. And this is a lengthy section, composed of 12 verses, more than half of the final chapter!

As we study the conclusion to the letter, we should remember that this was the typical thing that the Apostle Paul did in just about all of the New Testament letters he wrote. It was not uncommon for him to conclude his letters by listing a number of friends and associates, and offering some final exhortations and greetings. You might remember, for example, that his Epistle to the Romans ends with an extensive list of at least 35 co-laborers, and friends! And here in this final chapter of the Colossian Epistle, we discover a list of 10 names! And in most cases, there is a brief word about each person.

As we read these final 12 verses of the letter, we might be asking ourselves, Is this really a critical and necessary part of the Word of the Lord? Is this ending of the letter, which is composed largely of just a list of people’s names, really worth our time to read and study? Is this passage profitable, and how?