A Comfort unto Me. Colossians 4:11. Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus were the only Jews with Paul in Rome at that time. It may have been that some Jewish Christians in Rome were afraid because of the opposition to Jews in the city and wanted to hide their faith in Christ. Still, for some reason, according to Philippians 1:14-15, the Christian Jews there were not friendly toward Paul. The Jewish believers may have wanted to be less noticeable to those around them out of fear of opposition and persecution. Paul, on the other hand, was known to be in prison, and even there, he was preaching the Gospel to guards who were daily exposed to the message of salvation by faith alone, not by adding law-keeping or works of any kind. Colossians was written before Philippians, but there was likely some avoidance of him, so these men were a comfort to him in a special way because of their heritage.
We have special connections with certain people who seem more like-minded to us than others. Some aspects of them feel more familiar or more aligned with what we're used to, often because they come from the same community or share the same nationality. Due to that bond, shared interests, and a certain sensitivity to the events around us, we become personally concerned. When issues of cultural or national significance arise, we tend to turn to them because of what we have in common. However, regarding the kingdom of God, there is no distinction, for with every believer, we have all been saved from an eternal death sentence.
Sometimes, when we meet people for the first time, we can tell by their accents that they come from the area where we grew up. When we get together, we find we have a lot in common. We knew some of the same people and had mutual connections with others we knew in the past. Some of the landmarks we both knew and the same places we visited made a connection with them possible, even though we were strangers. We knew what people worked there and how they made a living.
But within the kingdom of God, our spiritual family grows to include men and women from this region and from foreign lands we've never visited. Sharing with people whose education and cultural heritage are similar to ours brings a special comfort when we connect over common experiences for an hour. Nostalgia offers a kind of comfort in reflecting on the past, and there's no denying that cultural identities endure. However, in the kingdom of God, a completely new life becomes available to us, offering a greater and more profound impact than the occasional natural connection we share with someone from the past. A "Maranatha," or "Thank the Lord," is much different from a simple "How are you" when greeting another person.