Salute the brethren in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the assembly which [is] in his house.
Paul's letter is closing, and he turns from teaching to names. He greets believers in a nearby town, and one person whose home served as a meeting place. Two questions follow: how far does Christian love reach, and what is "the church in her house"?
The greetings reach past Colossae to the next town. One commentator turns that into a claim on the reader:
His love was in no way inactive or limited. There was no such idea as caring only for the saints in his own particular place. Paul narrowed himself to no local ties, and neither should we allow such a thing for an instant. All the saints belong to us, as we belong to all of them.
These closing lines are not filler. They preserve a snapshot of how believers related to each other before things fell apart:
The salutations that close the letter give a beautiful picture of Christian love. They show believers taking a real interest in one another's circumstances, and a tender regard for the spiritual welfare of the Lord's people. Such was the Christian circle in the days before the church, as a united witness for God, became ruined, and the people of God became divided and scattered.
The phrase is not describing a Christian family. It describes a meeting:
This does not mean only the Christian members of the household. It means those who were used to meeting there as gathered to the Lord's name. That appears to be the force of the phrase wherever it occurs (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15). There were many Christian households. But the assembly in any given house meant that people met in that house.
Nymphas is one of several people in the New Testament remembered for opening a home:
Those who had suitable houses opened them for the service of the Church. Some, such as Philemon at Colossae (Philemon 2), and Nymphas at Laodicea (Colossians 4:15), threw them open for the assembly to meet in. In this work Aquila and Priscilla took part. At Corinth they had opened their house for this purpose (1 Corinthians 16:19), and when they moved to Rome, believers there found a suitable room under their roof (Romans 16:5).
Nymphas' gathering was too small to receive a letter of its own. That did not put it outside Paul's care:
It appears that Christians were not many at Laodicea. The apostle greets the believers there. Some met in the house of someone named Nymphas. They were not in a position to have a letter addressed to them in particular, yet the apostle does not forget them. What he says here is almost certain proof that he had not sent any letter to them. He would not have sent greetings to the believers in Laodicea through the Colossians if he had written them a special letter at the same time... This little assembly in Nymphas' house was not to be forgotten. It was to profit from the letters sent to other, larger assemblies whose condition called for a letter.
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Paul does not call this group "the church in Laodicea". One commentator weighs that wording:
Suppose this had been the only company gathered to the Lord's name in the city. Then it would naturally have been called the church "in Laodicea", not the one "at Nymphas' house."
That leaves room for more than one meeting in a single city:
The unity of all the saints in Laodicea in no way hinders or denies the assembly at a certain saint's house... Each meeting no doubt had its own local responsibility; but there was none the less unity for all in the city.
The host's name is uncertain in the old copies. Some read "Nymphas" and "his house". Others read "Nympha", a woman, and "her house" — the reading the ESV follows. Several editors read "the church which is in their house" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The town greeted here is the same one the Lord addresses in Revelation:
Laodicea was in the neighbourhood... The very name has a sad sound about it in view of what the Lord has to say to this church in Revelation 3:14-22. Paul and Epaphras prayed and struggled on their behalf. The apostolic letters circulated among them. Yet it fell to the lowest depths.
- Reach. Paul's affection did not stop at Colossae; all the saints belong to us, as we belong to all of them.
- Room. "The church in her house" means a meeting, not a family — a home given for believers to gather in.
- Remembered. A company too small for its own letter was still named by the apostle and still fed by letters sent elsewhere.
- Unity. The wording sets this small meeting apart from the wider church at Laodicea: one church in a city, gathering in more than one home.
- Warning. The same Laodicea greeted here is the church the Lord rebukes in Revelation. Greetings are no guarantee of a good end.
And when the letter has been read among you, cause that it be read also in the assembly of Laodiceans, and that *ye* also read that from Laodicea.
Paul ends his letter with a simple instruction: send this letter on to the next town, and read the one that comes back. Behind that small errand lie big questions — who is Scripture for, what was "the letter from Laodicea", and does a letter we no longer have leave a hole in the Bible?
Paul's letters were not written for a few leaders. He wanted them read aloud when the whole church met.
I need not notice every letter, because each repeats the same thing: they are addressed to all the faithful. One expression in the first letter to the Thessalonians shows this clearly. Paul says at the end of it, "I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers." Colossae and Laodicea were to exchange letters, and they were to be read in the churches.
Paul asks for the letter from Laodicea, not the letter to Laodicea. Commentators have long weighed what that means.
Was this letter the one commonly known as the letter to the Ephesians, which has a circular character? Or the one to Philemon, who likely lived in or near Laodicea? Or does it refer to a letter no longer in existence? Learned men have long argued over these questions. Two remarks seem clear and certain. 1) "The letter from Laodicea" would be a very strange way of describing a letter written to the church there. It fits well if it meant a letter that was there at the time and intended for the Colossian saints too, whoever it was addressed to. 2) There is nothing to forbid the view that there were more letters than we have. God preserved only those designed for the permanent guidance of the saints.
Another writer leans towards Ephesians, while admitting the point cannot be pressed.
The one "from Laodicea" is, I have no doubt, one they were to receive from that assembly. Paul wrote it, and the saints at Colossae were to profit by it — perhaps the letter to the Ephesians, which he may have had passed on to the Laodiceans... Paul may well have written one letter, or a hundred letters, to others which God did not purpose to keep for the universal assembly. But here there is no proof that he had written a letter to the Laodiceans.
Suppose the letter is one we no longer have. That still leaves the Bible whole.
Suppose it is a letter that has not been preserved for us. Then we know it was written for that time only. The Spirit did not give it for the church in every age.
Only a few believers met at Laodicea, in a house. The letters that reached them were written to other towns.
But this little assembly in the house of Nymphas was not to be forgotten. It should profit by the letters sent to assemblies larger than itself — assemblies whose condition called for a letter, or gave occasion to write one. The apostle ordered those letters to be passed on to Laodicea.
Laodicea ended up shutting Christ out. The cure had already reached them.
If the Laodiceans had received the truth about Christ as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God, they never would have put Christ outside the door. If they had paid attention to the letter to the Colossians, which was to be read "in the church of the Laodiceans" (Col. 4:16), it would have saved them from making everything of man and nothing of Christ. It would save people who profess religion today in the same way. There they would have learned the glories of Christ in connection with all created things, and that Christ "is all, and in all."
Paul kept sending news, greetings and letters between towns. It tied believers in different places to one another.
Titus, Timothy, Apollos and other servants of the Lord travelled from one assembly to another. They brought news of joys and sorrows, and so linked the Lord's beloved people together. One letter went to all the churches in Galatia (Gal. 1:2); the one to the Corinthians took in all the saints in all places.
- Read it. Paul wanted every believer to hear the letter read aloud, not just a few. He charged the Thessalonians the same way.
- Pass it on. Colossae's letter was to travel to Laodicea, and Laodicea's letter back to Colossae. Truth given to one gathering belonged to the next.
- From, not to. "From Laodicea" says where the letter was, not who it was written to. Commentators differ on which letter it was: Ephesians, Philemon, or one not preserved.
- Nothing lost. God kept the letters meant to guide His people in every age. Anything not kept was for that moment only, so the Bible has no gap.
- Heed it. Laodicea had the cure for putting man first and Christ last. It ignored the letter, and ended with Christ outside the door.