For I bear him record
The apostle was an eye and ear witness of his fervent prayers,
his labour of love, and zealous affection for these saints and
others; and therefore, as he judged he ought, he bears a
testimony for him,
that he hath a great zeal for you;
for their spiritual welfare, that the Gospel might continue with
them, and they in that, against false teachers, and their
attempts to subvert them; that they might grow in the grace of
the Gospel, and walk worthy of it, and be at peace among
themselves:
and them that are in Laodicea, and them in
Hierapolis;
cities in Phrygia, which lay near to Colosse, the one being
situated by the river Lycus, and the other by the Maeander; here
were many believers, for whom Epaphras had a like zeal and
affections as for the Colossians, and to whom very likely he had
been useful, either in conversion or edification, or both. The
apostle takes no notice to the Colossians of Epaphras being his
fellow prisoner, as, he does in his epistle to ( Philemon
1:23 ) it may be for this reason, lest they should be over
much distressed and cast down with it.