WORD STUDY - Word studies truly open up the Word of God from skimming the surface to digging for jewels. I am encouraged with what God gave me in this study and I trust it will encourage you the same.
At the end of Colossians, Paul is commending several servants of the Lord. There is much to be learned in our service for the Lord when we study out each of these men. This is not my thought here, but one we can all study out.
"Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) 11 And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me." (Colossians 4:10-11)
In my study of words in this passage I was stopped at "comfort" in verse 11. The word "comfort" in its different English spellings is used 47 times in the New Testament. However, in doing a word study of "comfort" in verse 11, I found this to be the only place the particular Greek word for "comfort" is used. This struck my interest to study deeper into this word and the context of the passage.
In context, Paul is using this word for those "of the circumcision" who he calls his "fellowworkers" (Aristarchus, Marcus and Justus). We know that the other men in the passage were equally his "fellowworkers" but apparently not in the same context or same moment, and those reading this letter knew fellwell what Paul was saying. Realize, these men "of the circumcision" were ones who are Jews that were now Christians, they were ones who had been then rejected by their families and friends and no doubt persecuted alongside of Paul. In studying I thought, how then were they a "comfort" to Paul if they were obviously in need of "comfort" as well? I found the answer to become crystal clear in my word study.
The word for "comfort", by definition, means "a source of encouragement." This shows that their comfort was not as much physical as it was emotional or physiological or moral. Looking deeper into the word I saw exactly how they were a "comfort." The Greek word is a compound word. The prefix is the preposition "para" which means "to come alongside or beside" and the noun is "agora" which means "street or marketplace assembly, or it could be any assembly." Now the definition of "comfort" is becoming clear. We know that Paul spent his time soul-winning in "the market" which is what "agora" is translated as in Acts 17:17.
Putting this together, I see through this word study that their "comfort" was "encouragement" and moral support, and the place of their "comfort" was "the market." These Jews who were now Christians and now stood unashamedly shoulder-to-shoulder with Paul in the public marketplace giving him the "comfort" and encouragement he needed to have the boldness to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who did not want to hear it, to those who were persecuting him for sharing it.
What do we learn from this? DON'T LET THE MAN OF GOD STAND ALONE! His boldness and power to proclaim the Gospel comes as "two or three are gathered together" in the name of Jesus (Matthew 18:20). Stand by your pastor; support your pastor; soul-win with your pastor. YOUR PASTOR NEEDS YOU JUST AS MUCH AS YOU NEED HIM! You may not have the gift of preaching or exhortation, but every Christian has the ability to hold up the arms of the ones who do (Exodus 17:11-12)!
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