"7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfil the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”
18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you."
Colossians 4:7-18
The apostle, as he does in each of his letters, rounds off this epistle with an epilogue in which he conveys warm greetings from himself and his co-workers and gives some final instructions. Having completed the substance of what he wanted to say, Paul now sends messages and greetings from those associated with his 'prison' ministry in Rome to the congregation of the house church in Colossae. And although it might, at first, appear that this final section of the letter is simply a list of touching personal good wishes, there is much that we can learn from what is written about pastoral care within the Body of Christ and about the kind of man the apostle Paul was. Throughout this epilogue there are all sorts of indications of a warm and deeply concerned pastor's heart. It can be all too easily forgotten, as we study the detail of what Paul has written, as we are caught up in the glory of his theology and as we are challenged by the practical implications of that theology; it can be all too easily forgotten that everything the apostle writes is motivated and directed by an intense pastoral concern for the welfare of the Colossian believers, despite the fact that he has never met them personally (2:1).