Aristarchus my fellow-captive salutes you, and Mark, Barnabas's cousin, concerning whom ye have received orders, (if he come to you, receive him,)
Paul ends his letter with greetings, and the first two names carry a story: a friend who shared his chains, and a worker who had once walked out on the job. The short note in brackets, asking the church to welcome Mark, opens one of the Bible's clearest pictures of a failed servant restored.
Scripture names Aristarchus only a few times. Each time he stands in a harder place than the last.
When this letter was written, Aristarchus was a fellow-prisoner with the Apostle. He had been a companion in Paul's travels (Acts 19:29). He was a fellow-sufferer in the shipwreck (Acts 27:2). He was a fellow-labourer in service (Philemon 24). And at last he is a fellow-prisoner in the Apostle's chains.
Nothing forced him into that position. Neither Luke nor Aristarchus was a prisoner when Paul sailed to Rome. They went with him anyway: "Love led these to join him in the face of shame and danger" (William Kelly).
The letter to Philemon, sent at the same time, calls Epaphras the fellow prisoner instead. One writer passes on a possible reason for the difference, but only as a suggestion.
It is not exactly "prisoner," as Paul speaks of himself in this and in other letters... Yet it is a word of force, and means a captive, or war prisoner. Meyer, following Fritzsche, suggests that some of the apostle's companions chose to share his prison by turns. It was the turn of Aristarchus when Paul wrote to the Colossians, and of Epaphras when he wrote to Philemon.
The verse names Mark as the cousin of Barnabas. That family tie once pulled the other way. Mark had turned back from the work, and Barnabas had taken his relative's side against Paul (Acts 15:37-39). Notice which of the two men Paul now counts among his fellow workers.
It is striking that he should say, "These only are my fellow-workers", and yet Barnabas is named in verse 10. It is not Barnabas to whom he is calling attention but Marcus. Barnabas had apparently ceased to be a fellow-worker with Paul... It is striking that the very man who was the cause of the difficulty now comes in as a fellow-worker.
Paul does not repeat those instructions in this letter.
They had already received instructions about Mark that did not need repeating, and were probably not suited to a public letter. Paul wanted them to know how fully Mark had regained his confidence, by specially commending him for their welcome if he came to them.
The welcome itself was no formality. Paul knew what the church's memory of Mark could cost him.
How beautiful too is the grace which clearly commanded the reception of Mark! Otherwise, remembrance of the past would have forbidden a warm welcome to him, and so must have hindered his ministry among the saints... real love is as generous as it is faithful. It acts at all cost for the Lord, and where needed, despite what it costs nature. But it is glad to praise aloud and warmly where the grace of God has stepped in to remove the obstacle.
This verse is a stage, not the finish. Paul went further than a welcome.
The apostle had already joined Mark with himself as one of the few fellow-workers for the kingdom of God who had been a comfort to him. In the same letter to the Colossians he refers to instructions they had received to welcome him if he came to them (Col. 4:10-11). But now he goes further. He restores him to close personal service with himself — the very thing in which he had failed at the start. In nature a breakdown is beyond repair; not so where grace prevails.
And the end of the story is better still. Look at the man God chose to describe the perfect Servant: "How touching it is that the unfaithful servant was chosen to portray THE faithful Servant, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark was chosen to write the Gospel that bears his name" (A J Pollock).
- Fellow. Three words run through this chapter: fellow-servant, fellow-prisoner, fellow-worker. One writer sums up the letter's teaching in them: "working together; moving together; being knit together" (George Davison).
- Cost. Aristarchus lived out those words the hard way: travel companion, shipwreck survivor, fellow worker, and at last a sharer of Paul's chains. He chose every step of it.
- Grace. Mark's name here shows the old breach is over. The man who caused the split now stands among the few who comforted Paul.
- Welcome. Paul does not just forgive Mark in private. He clears Mark's path with the whole church, so an old memory cannot block a restored servant's ministry.
- Usefulness. The line runs from "welcome him" to full restoration in close service, and on to the writing of a Gospel. In nature a breakdown is beyond repair — but not where grace prevails.
and Jesus called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These [are the] only fellow-workers for the kingdom of God who have been a consolation to me.
Paul ends his letter from prison in Rome by naming his helpers, and the list of Jewish believers is painfully short. That raises two questions: who was this Jesus called Justus, and why does Paul mark these men out as Jews at all?
One reference work sums up his whole record in a sentence:
Jesus called JUSTUS. A fellow-worker who had been a comfort to Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome. Col. 4:11.
Commentators differ over whether he is the Justus of Acts 18. One writer gives the little that can be said, and rules that link out:
Of Jesus called Justus we know no more than that. Like Mark, he was of the circumcision. And like Mark, he comforted the apostle as a fellow-servant — something rare among men used to the law and its prejudices. The Justus of Acts 18:7 was a Gentile who had adopted the Jewish faith. Barsabbas, who was put forward for a place among the apostles, was of course a Jew and had the same surname, but he was not called Jesus like the man here.
In Paul's letter to Philemon, Justus is left out and Luke comes last. One writer draws a lesson from that:
The mention in Col. 4:11 gave enough honour to the name of "Jesus that was called Justus", which is left out here. There was no need to send Philemon the greeting of someone so little known. … Luke, called "the beloved physician" in Col. 4:14, comes last here among the fellow-workers. That is clear proof that the order does not mark, as men do, the spiritual value or the honourable rank of those named.
One writer points to a tension in Paul's own words:
It is worth noting in that connection that Paul says of Justus that he was "of the circumcision". Yet in Colossians 3 he had taught that in the new man there was neither circumcision nor uncircumcision.
His answer is that two things are true at once:
We have to note a clear distinction there; it is "in Christ Jesus" that there is neither Jew nor Gentile. A Jew converted to the Christian faith would not stop being a Jew as to flesh and blood conditions. We have to distinguish between what we are as "in Christ" and what we still are in the body.
Paul's Jewish helpers were few, and the rest of his circle came from elsewhere:
It is not certain whether "Jesus who is called Justus" is the same person mentioned in Acts 18:7. But he and the others mentioned before were the only Jewish helpers with Paul in the work. They were an encouragement to the apostle in his trials. Others spoken of later seem to be Gentiles.
Set against thirty years of labour, that is a bleak accounting:
It was a very low point for them — at the centre of the civilised world, after thirty years of tireless labour and suffering to spread Christianity. But after a while even these last few fellow-workers scattered. Duty or death called some away, and others like Demas had fallen away from the truth.
One writer sets Mark's earlier failure against grace:
We know how deeply Mark's desertion in early days grieved Paul, and how it even led to a break with Barnabas. But the healing goodness of God had long since blotted this out. The apostle had already joined Mark with himself as one of the few fellow-workers for the kingdom of God who had been a comfort to him… In nature a breakdown cannot be repaired. Where grace prevails it is not so, for "we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37).
Paul took courage as he looked at those who stood with him. One writer makes that a habit worth copying:
It is good to note these things. At times we may have to notice and comment on the lack of interest in certain ones. That is not because we want to develop a complaining spirit. If we do have to mention that lack of interest, let us not forget the ones who are deeply devoted to the Lord's interests. If Paul needed encouragement, and took courage as he looked at them, let us look at such and take courage.
- Few. Only a handful of Jewish believers were still working with Paul in Rome. The rest of his helpers came from outside Israel.
- Unknown. Justus is named here and nowhere else. One mention was honour enough, and a place in a list never measures a servant's worth.
- Restored. Mark had once walked out on the work, yet Paul counts him among the comforters. What nature cannot repair, grace can.
- Distinguished. Being "of the circumcision" describes what a man still is in the body. In Christ that distinction is gone.
- Courage. Paul took stock of the devoted few and took heart. Do the same, instead of only counting who has drifted.