Quartus

I really feel sorry for Quartus! When you look at the different translations of the words at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans it looks as if the translators tried their best for Quartus. My Study Bible says 'of Quartus nothing is known'. One of the older versions of the Bible simply says 'Quartus a brother'. But the ' a 'should really be 'the' - Quartus the brother. Some even suggest Quartus may have been a brother of Erastus but that is unclear. Some versions translate the words as 'a Christian brother' or 'our good friend Quartus'. At any rate he was sending his greetings to his fellow Christians in Rome. Judging from his name he was probably a slave maybe employed by Erastus. We just don't know.

But the point is this: Quartus was a Christian. Whether he was prominent or not in the congregation where Paul was at the time (Ephesus) is not important. He belonged to Christ; he was a brother in Christ to all the other members of the church and that made him as special as all the other members.

Usually our congregations have quite a variety of people in them and we may be tempted to think some are more important than others. That would be wrong. In one sense God has no favourites he loves every one of his people and he knows everything about them.

Prayer

Dear Lord, please help me to treat every Christian as special. Amen.