Colossians 1:7

Paul, who wrote this letter to early Christians in the city of Colossae in what is now Turkey, is giving credit where it is due. A man named Epaphras — likely a native of Colossae itself — was the one who brought the message of Jesus to this community and taught them the faith they now hold. Paul calls him a 'dear fellow servant,' a phrase that signals genuine affection and mutual respect. The word translated 'minister' here doesn't carry a formal religious title; it literally means servant. By naming Epaphras specifically, Paul honors the truth that the gospel doesn't travel only through apostles and dramatic miracles — it travels through faithful, often unrecognized people who simply show up and pass on what they've been given.

Lord, thank you for the Epaphrases in my life — the ones who were faithful when no one was watching, who served without needing credit, who pointed me toward you simply because someone had once pointed them. Help me be that kind of person for someone else. Amen.

Somewhere in your life, there's an Epaphras. Maybe it's the grandmother who left a Bible on your nightstand without saying a word. Maybe it's a coworker who answered your hardest questions about faith without flinching. Maybe it's someone whose name you'd struggle to remember now — but whose quiet faithfulness cracked something open in you that never fully closed again. Paul didn't have to mention Epaphras. He could have written 'you've been taught well' and moved on. Instead, he names him, calls him dear, honors his work publicly in a letter that would be read aloud to the whole church. In a world that celebrates founders and frontmen, that's quietly countercultural. Who in your life deserves to be named like this? And are you being, for someone else, the kind of steady, faithful presence that changes the whole direction of a life?