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We read that Priscilla and Aquila had such both in their house at Rome (Romans 16:5) and in Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:19), and that Philemon had one in his house at Colossae. This may have been the families, or small congregations meeting in these houses. The expression gives us a glimpse of the primitive elasticity of Church order and fluidity of ecclesiastical language. The word Church had not yet been fixed to its present technical sense. There was but one Church in Laodicea, and yet within it was this little Church — an imperium in imperio — as if the word had not yet come to mean more than an assembly, and as if all the arrangements of order and worship of later days were undreamed of yet. The life was there, but the forms which were to grow out of the life, and to protect it sometimes, and to stifle it often, were only beginning to show themselves, and were certainly not yet felt to be forms. If the Church in the house of Nymphas consisted of —

I. HIS OWN FAMILY AND DEPENDENTS, it stands for us as a lesson of what every family which has a Christian man or woman at its head ought to be. Little know ledge of so-called Christian households is needed to be sure that domestic religion is woefully neglected to-day. Family worship and instruction are disused, one fears, in many homes, the heads of which can remember both in their fathers' houses; and the unspoken atmosphere of religion does not fill the house with its aroma as it ought to do. If a Christian householder have not "a Church in his house," the family union is tending to become "a synagogue of Satan." A like suggestion may be made if this Church —

II. INCLUDED MORE THAN FAMILY AND DEPENDENTS. It is a miserable thing when social intercourse plays freely round every other subject, and taboos all mention of religion; when Christian people choose society for worldly advantages, and for every reason under heaven — some times a long way under — except those of a common faith, and of the desire to increase it. It is not needful to lay down extravagant, impracticable restrictions, by insisting that we should limit our society to religious men, or our conversation to religious subjects. But it is a bad sign when our associates are chosen for every other reason but their religion, and when our talk flows copiously on all other subjects, and becomes a constrained driblet when religion comes to be spoken of. Let us strive to carry about with us an influence which shall permeate all social intercourse, and make it, if not directly religious, yet never antagonistic to religion, and always capable of passing easily and naturally into the highest regions. Our godly forefathers used to carve texts over their doors. Let us do the same in another fashion, so that all who cross our threshold may feel that they have come into a Christian household, where cheerful godliness sweetens and brightens the sanctities of home.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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KJV: Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.

WEB: Greet the brothers who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the assembly that is in his house.