Colossians 4:17

καὶ. Probably continuing the immediately preceding subject of their relations with Laodicea (vide infra).

εἴπατε. “Forms belonging to εἴπα stand without var. in those persons of the imperative which contain τ (εἴπατε, εἰπάτω, -τωσαν)” W.H. Append. p. 164; cf. Blass, Gram. § 21. 1.

There seems to be no parallel in the N.T. for sending a message to an individual through the community addressed. It suggests therefore some special responsibility on the part of the community towards Archippus.
But we can hardly suppose that he was set over the Colossians spiritually, for, surely, it would be unseemly both for St Paul to give them, and for the Colossians to deliver, a message that would be virtually, “Do your duty towards us as our minister.” If, on the other hand, they had entrusted him with spiritual work on their behalf elsewhere St Paul would naturally be glad to recognise their zeal by sending the message through them. The mention of Laodicea in the preceding verse suggests that this work lay there.

Ἀρχίππῳ. Philemon 1:2†, where συνστρατιώτης indicates that he was engaged in aggressive work for Christ.

He was evidently known personally to St Paul. It may, however, perhaps be assumed that he had had no recent intercourse with St Paul; for, from his apparently intimate relations with Philemon, there would then have been little necessity for St Paul to write so fully about Onesimus.

βλέπε. “Look to the ministry … that thou mayest,” etc. The construction, a direct object with the addition of ἵνα designating the purpose, is found also in 2 John 1:8. But perhaps ἵνα does not depend on the preceding words, but takes the place of an imperative, see Moulton, Gram. Proleg. 1906, p. 178.

τὴν διακονίαν. Its nature is undefined. We are not justified in limiting so common a term to the technical diaconate at this early date (cf. Colossians 4:7, note).

ἥν παρέλαβες. At whose hands (see note on παρελάβετε, Colossians 2:6) he had received it is not stated (for Chrysostom’s interpretation see next note). The fact that St Paul had never been to Laodicea or Colossae (Colossians 2:1), and, further, the improbability that he had seen Archippus lately, make it unlikely that Archippus had received this charge from him. Perhaps he had received it from Epaphras (e.g. when the latter left for Rome), but even if so εἴπατε suggests (see note) that the Colossian Christians were largely responsible for it. It is therefore questionable whether the immediate reference of the παρά be not to them as a body rather than to any one person.

ἐν κυρίῳ, Colossians 4:7; Colossians 3:18; Colossians 3:20. Removing the charge wholly out of the sphere of any merely mundane duty. “In the Lord” is at once a mark of holy obligation and a pledge of success. Chrysostom says curiously (414 B), πάλιν τὸ, ἐν, διὰ κυρίου ἐστίν· αὐτός σοι ἔδωκε, φησὶν, οὐχ ἡμεῖς. Bengel says rightly “παρέλαβες, quod accepisti vocatione mediata. Non enim sequitur a Domino, coll. 1 Corinthians 11:23, sed, in Domino.”

ἵνα (see note on βλέπε) αὐτὴν πληροῖς, i.e. fill up to its ideal content (see note on πληρῶσαι, Colossians 1:25). Cf. Revelation 3:2; Acts 12:25; cf. 2 Timothy 4:5.