and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
Paul ends this personal letter by sending greetings from four men who were with him while he was a prisoner. Each name carries a story: a helper Paul once refused, a friend who chose danger, and a man who would later walk away.
A title, not a polite word
Paul calls all four men his fellow workers. One writer weighs what that title was worth, coming from Paul:
C E StuartPaul alone has given us Luke's name, and here he described him by the honourable title of "fellow-labourer." We call it an honourable title considering who Paul was. But it is one shared with others, in this letter and elsewhere.
Paul used the same kind of title for Philemon and Archippus:
Truth & TestimonyPhilemon was counted among Paul's co-workers, and Archippus as a fellow soldier. These terms are not used lightly. That would not suit the dignity of the apostle. Paul puts their ministries alongside his own. They were united in common service for Christ. They had known toil and conflict in the same field, in the cause of Christ.
The order means nothing
Luke's name comes last in the list. That says less than it seems:
William KellyLuke, called "the beloved physician" in Col. 4:14, comes last among the fellow-workers. This is clear proof that the order does not rank these men by spiritual value or honour, as a human list would.
Mark, once written off
Mark had not always been welcome beside Paul. One writer tells what happened, and how it ended:
C E StuartBarnabas wanted his relative Mark to go with them on their second missionary journey. Paul disagreed, because Mark had left them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work. So they parted company… Yet the great apostle to the Gentiles has left on record how much he valued his former helper in later years. Twice he commended him to the Colossian believers as a man who belonged among his honoured fellow-labourers (Col. 4:11; Philemon 24). That commendation held to the end of his life. In his last letter, the second to Timothy, he wrote, "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry" (2 Tim. 4:11). It is pleasant to find that by true service Mark had won back the apostle's esteem.
Here Paul makes no mention of that failure. He simply names Mark among his fellow workers.
Aristarchus, who chose the danger
Aristarchus travelled with Paul and stayed with him on the sea voyage:
William KellyWe see at once that Luke is with the apostle on his voyage, and Aristarchus also… Aristarchus has come before us from time to time in the book of Acts as the companion of the apostle (Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4). His name appears again later in Col. 4:10 and Philemon 24. Neither appears to have been a prisoner at this time. Both took their place beside the man who was treated that way. Love led them to join him in the face of shame and danger.
Paul describes the same man differently in his letter to Colosse:
William KellyIn Colossians, Aristarchus shares the apostle's captivity, and in Philemon it is Epaphras who does. In Philemon, Aristarchus is called a fellow-labourer of the apostle along with others, while in Colossians Epaphras is spoken of at least as a servant of Christ. They may have shared the apostle's imprisonment one after another, as someone has suggested.
Demas, honoured here and missing later
The fourth name is the sad one. Paul's last mention of Demas reads nothing like this one:
Edward DennettIn Philemon he calls him a "fellow-labourer," along with Mark, Aristarchus and Luke. In 2 Timothy he has to say, "Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me." Nothing can be sadder than this last word about a man who had stood so close to the apostle Paul, a man who carried such a testimony. The final break with Paul may have been sudden. But we may be sure his soul had been slipping away long before… A gradual decline of spiritual life and energy always comes before an open failure.
Standing this close to Paul was itself a test:
Hamilton SmithIt spoke well for the apostle that no one who loves this present world could stay with him.
Commentators differ on how far Demas fell. One reference work says this "may mean, not that he had given up the faith, but that he had fallen away from Paul's line of service through love of this present age" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Summary
- Fellow. One word covers all four men and sets their labour beside Paul's own — a weighed title, not a courtesy.
- Level. Luke comes last in the list, yet the order ranks no one above another.
- Restored. Mark once quit the work, yet Paul names him here with no mention of that failure.
- Costly. Aristarchus was no prisoner. Love still brought him alongside a man in chains, into the shame and the danger.
- Warning. Demas holds the same honourable title here, yet he later walked out on Paul — open failure follows a long, quiet decline.