- He prayed personally (4:12). Epaphras did not pray around the world for everybody in general and nobody in particular. He centred his intercession on the saints in Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. No doubt he mentioned some of them by name. Many times we pray Lord! Bless this city, that city or that country which is quite vague and scarcely answered. Prayer for Epaphras was not an impersonal religious exercise, for he carried these people in his heart and prayed for them personally.
- He prayed definitely: He prayed that the believers of the 3-three churches might mature in their Christian faith. Epaphras was concerned that these Christians know and do the will of God. But he wanted them to be involved in all the will of God, not just in part of it. (All is a key word in Colossians, used over 30-times.) He also wanted them to stand perfect and complete in God’s will. “Full assurance in the will of God” is a tremendous blessing! It is not necessary for the believer to drift away in life. He can know God’s will and enjoy it. As he learns God’s will and lives by it, he matures in the faith and experiences God’s fullness.
- He prayed sacrificially: (4:13) He prayed with “great zeal” or “much distress”. Real prayer is difficult. When Jesus prayed in the Garden, He sweat great drops of blood (Lk.22:44). Paul had “great conflict” (agony) as he prayed for the Colossians (2:1), and Epaphras also experienced “much distress.” This does not mean that we must wrestle with God in order to get Him to answer. If there is no burden, there can be no blessing. Prayer which costs nothing accomplishes nothing.”
Epaphras was the only one commended for his prayer ministry. This does not mean that the other men did not pray; but it does suggest that prayer was his major interest and ministry. Epaphras was Paul’s fellow prisoner (Phil.23), but even confinement could not keep him from entering into the courts of heaven and praying for his brothers and sisters in the churches.
Ex: E.M. Bounds was a prayer-warrior of the last generation. He would often rise early in the morning and pray for many hours before he began the work of the day. His many books on prayer testify to the fact that Bounds, Like Epaphras, knew how to agonize in prayer before God. (E. M. Bounds book: by all means do so.) (thoughts taken from Warren Wiersbe’s notes).
- Demas:Demas is mentioned only 3-times in Paul’s letters, and these three references tell a sad story. First he is called “Demas … my fellow labourer” and is linked with three good men Mark, Aristarchus, and Luke (Phil.24). Then he is simply pronounced “Demas,” but there is no special word of identification or commendation (4:14). But the 3rd reference tells us what he became: “For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” (2 Tim. 4:10).
At one point in his life, John Mark had forsaken Paul; but he was reclaimed and restored. But Demas forsook Paul and never came back. His sin was that he loved this present world. The word world refers to the whole system of things that runs this world, or “society without God.” In the first of His epistles, John the Apostle pointed out that the world entices the believer with “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 Jn.2:15-17). Which of these traps caught Demas, we do not know; perhaps he fell into all three.
But we must know that Christians today can succumb to the world just as Demas did. How easy it is to maintain a religious fervour, while all the time we are living for the things of this world. Demas thought that he could serve two masters, but eventually he had to make a decision. Unfortunately, he made the wrong decision.
It must have hurt Paul greatly when Demas forsook him. It also hurt the work of the Lord, for there never has been a time when the labourers were many. “but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn. 2:17).