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On the other hand consider the exhortation of Paul to Timothy:
"Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of (fully carry out) thy ministry"
(II Tim. 4: 5),
which seems to imply a continuous ministry. Whether the ministry given to Archippus
was continuous or a special service only, it is possible that the duty of the Colossian
church was to "keep him up to it", hence Paul's word to Archippus via them. Does not
this duty divulge upon all the members of the body of Christ, to lovingly see that those
who minister to them, "take heed that they fulfil their ministry"?
Archippus is called, in Philemon, "our fellowsoldier" sustratiotes, a word used in
one other place only of Epaphroditus (Phil. 2: 25), who for the work of Christ was "nigh
unto death". It is evident that Paul did not use the word lightly, for the contexts of its
cognate words speak of "enduring hardness" and non-commitment in the world, of
"overthrowing strongholds" and "leading every thought captive unto the obedience of
Christ" (II Tim. 2: 1-4; II Cor. 10: 3-5). Whatever "the ministry" of Archippus was it
deserved the association of warfare, into which only those of "full age", and whose
"house is in order", may enter. Compare the O.T. qualifications for a soldier, which
set forth in principle what is stated in II Tim. 2: 4, and implied in Eph. 6: (after the
instructions concerning the home).
"From twenty years old and upward (mature), all that are able to go forth to war"
(Numb. 1: 3).
"What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it . . . . .
planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it . . . . . betrothed a wife, and hath not
taken her . . . . . that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return unto his house"
(Deut. 20: 5-8).
Every soldier needs encouragement and support, and Archippus, Paul's and Timothy's
"fellowsoldier", was no exception; the church at Colosse was to remind him to "take
heed to the ministry", for it had been received "in the Lord".
"and to the church in thy house" (2).
The church in the house is mentioned in Rom. 16: 5; I Cor. 16: 19; Col. 4: 15.
Acts 12: 12 also has some bearing upon these references, where in the house of John
Mark's mother, Mary, "many were gathered together praying".
During the Acts period, whilst the "hope of Israel" prevailed, believers continued to
worship in the temple (3: 1) and to enter the synagogues (13: 14, 15; 15: 21), for the
intention was not to overthrow these institutions, but, by the preaching of the truth, to
reform them from within, so preparing the congregations for the return of the Messiah.
The early epistle of James actually assumes the existence in a synagogue of believers in a
position to say to others, "Stand thou there, or sit here" (James 2: 1-3 where the word
`assembly' is actually `synagogue'). Believers during this period were looked upon as a
Jewish sect. But there were towns where no synagogue existed (Philippi seems to have
been one such, Acts 16: 12, 13), and even where they did, the synagogue service could