Where is this level of devotion today?

Yesterday, while I was studying my Bible in order to teach my students, I learned about a particular faithful Christian named Epaphras. Epaphras was one of the founding members of the church in the city called Colosse (to whom Paul's letter to the Colossians was written).

Colosse was located on a major trade route from the East to the West, therefore it had a steady influx of traders, merchants and travelers from the East. And of course, just like today when people from other cultures come to a new area, they bring with them all of their beliefs, philosophies, schools of thought, and practices, which in this case would have been a lot of Eastern thought like Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Added to this was the original Gentile (pagan) background and heritage with all it's teachings. Plus there was also a large Jewish community that lived there. Add all of these things together and throw some elements from Gnosticism, and what you get is a city that is fertile ground for every form of religious speculation, heresy, and false teaching imaginable.

And this brings me to the point of this post. The Church in Colosse was facing a major crisis, a crisis of Ideas. The church was beginning to be invaded by all these false ways of thinking; they were beginning to be deceived and taken captive by hollow and empty philosophies of men, rather than holding fast to the truth of God. Therefore, one man named Epaphras, took it upon himself to travel to find the Apostle Paul who could hopefully help the church in this time of crisis. This journey that Epaphras set out on was a 1,300 mile journey from Colosse to Rome where Paul was in prison... 1,300 miles!! That's the distance from Lake Erie in Northern Ohio to Miami, FL. And remember this was the ancient days... he didn't have any planes, buses, or even cars. He either walked or rode a horse or camel or something; either way that was one large journey! Why in the world would he do that??

1) Epaphras undoubtedly loved the church of Jesus Christ! Can there be any doubt about this? A man who was willing to sacrifice so much and put himself to such inconvenience... a man so desperate for help from the great Apostle Paul.

2) Epaphras also understood very well the dangers of false teaching to the church. Only someone who was extremely discerning about a situation would go to such lengths to solve the problem. Epaphras was one man who understood well just how important right belief is, and just how dangerous wrong belief is.

As I studied this, I thought about it... Where is this level of devotion and dedication today in the church? We have a hard time getting in a car and driving 5 minutes down the street to come to church to worship. Or we act like it's a big deal to get up at 9am on Sunday morning inorder to worship the Lord who has saved us. If someone mentions a mission trip or service opportunity, we frantically begin searching our brains for some lame excuse of why we can't participate. We will allow anything and everything to come before church. I'm not a legalist, but some of the things that we will allow to keep us from worship and service with the Lord's church does communicate something about the dedication and love in our hearts for our Lord and Savior.

You know, in all serious... (myself included) we really should be utterly ashamed of the laziness and lack of devotion that is so rampant today in the modern church. And for many of us, it's not a laziness toward other things, b/c we're the busiest generation to ever lived. No, then it becomes a matter of proiorities. How different the church would be if more people were like Epaphras! How much greater glory for the Kingdom of God and the spread of the Gospel could there be, if we had just a handful of people like Epaphras! May God break our hearts over our own lack of dedication and devotion to Him... and may He give us hearts that will put Him as the chief priority in our lives.