COLOSSIAN LIFE AND LABOUR
G. C. McKay
I have been encouraged, dear brethren, by what our brother has said so encouragingly to us as to what is above, to allude to these scriptures. They have been brought to mind by certain features that I believe have characterized our dear brother who has been taken. It is not that we are here to eulogise—the eulogies in Christianity belong to Christ, the glory belongs to Him. Our brother would have had it so, I believe, that whatever proceeds, the glory would belong to Christ. Nevertheless, the Lord in taking our brother has called attention to him and to features that have marked him, and I wondered if we might be encouraged in that. How encouraging it is that we are burying a beloved saint, one in whom the work of God is complete, one in whom the Holy Spirit has operated so that there has been something worked out in him,
something that will not be lost, something that goes through to eternity. That is a wonderful thing. We are not without hope. For people who are unbelievers death seems the end of everything, but not so for the believer—we shall be manifested with Him, it says, in glory.
Now Epaphras in Colossians 4 is borne witness to by the great apostle for his labour. One of the things I believe that has marked our brother is that he was not idle or unfruitful. He was severely limited in his circumstances and in his health, but then he was not sitting back, not idle, not unfruitful—he laboured, and he was marked in his activities by love for the saints. I believe he was marked by Colossian affections, by love in the Spirit, by love for all the saints.
His communications and words of encouragement were a sign of that, that the outlook he had was towards all the saints, as we read in the first chapter of this epistle. Well, here is Epaphras, and he is limited in God’s ways; he is not out on service, but he is praying. That marked our brother; I believe there is testimony to that. He had time at his disposal and he used it. It is one of the most valuable things that you can do for anybody, to pray for them. I doubt if there are many in this room he has not prayed for. That may come home to us. The relatives, of course, would feel that, that they would be mentioned often and often again in our brother’s prayers. The grandchildren would think of that, ‘He prayed for me’.
What a thing it is to have someone praying for you! Many of us are here today because someone prayed for us. We need persons to pray for us, and Epaphras filled that out. He prayed, and he did not give up. He combated in prayer, meaning that he kept on at it whatever might oppose, whatever the circumstances. Now that marked our
brother and it is something we should take up, to pray for one another. And I believe also that it should have a bearing on us that our brother prayed for us, because Epaphras’s prayers were not only about practical things, health and so on (though no doubt they would include these things), but he appears as one that was combating “to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God”.
So if we think that our brother prayed for us we should think also of the intent of his prayers, that we should be perfect and complete in all the will of God. The great apostle was combating himself, as he says, earlier in the epistle, but Epaphras was too. You might say he was a lesser person, not nearly so prominent in service, but he was praying and combating earnestly. And he was not only praying for his own brethren, as “one of you”, one of the Colossians, but his affections were extending to those around, the saints in other places. That marked our brother. I think we should pause to think of what prayer means, that someone has prayed for us, because it raises the challenge with us as to whether those prayers have produced that result in us, this intent that we might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Now I thought of Colossians 3 because, again, a feature that characterised our brother was that his mind was on the things above. Even if his health affected his mind and memory, it did not affect this, that his mind and affections were on the things above, where Jesus is. That is where his affections were. It is a very important thing, where your affections are, where your mind is, what you are setting your mind on, and it is clear that our brother set an example in this, that his mind was always moving in that realm. He was always thinking of divine things,
the things that are above. That is a challenge to us—How much are our minds set on the things above? No doubt the Lord used our brother’s circumstances and sufferings to bring this out, how he devoted himself in this kind of way. Those of us who are more active and able to go to business, and so on, have our minds taken up so much with other things, but this is what our minds should be set on as believers, “the things above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”.
And then, “your life is hid with the Christ in God”—a wonderful thing!—and the future is glory—“When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”. That is where the future of the believer is, in glory—presently obscurity, presently what cannot be understood by the world; the life he has that is hidden. It is what our brother was referring to, a realm of divine affection, “hid with the Christ in God”—a realm of divine affections and divine interests. But the time will come when our brother, and every believer, will be manifested with Christ in glory. It is not now the time of manifestation, but we look forward to it and are encouraged by these things. Glory is the end for the believer. It is a question of what lies ahead now, and what lies ahead for our brother is glory; present blessedness and future glory. Well, may our hearts be encouraged, for His name’s sake.
Words at the burial of Mr. Drummond Wallace, Glasgow, 19 February 1985
(The first word given on this occasion was published in the August issue).