Colossians 4:1-6 [NLT]
February 13, 2013
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Colossians Bible Study
Paul’s teaches on how Christians should pray and interact with others:
In ch1-2 Paul was all about exalting Christ and the sufficiency of Christ for salvation and for walking and living out our faith!
We learned last week that ch3 is not Paul’s support of HIS list of things over the false teacher’s list of things…but it is a list of what one’s life IN CHRIST should look like or reflect… not a list of things to DO but a list of things that should BE!
Tonight we begin ch4 and the home stretch in the book of Colossians. As we begin ch4 we see Paul continuing in his teaching on what the life of a believer should look like and what the world should see from one who is IN CHRIST!
We have been chosen by God and saved and God has called us to lay aside the sinful attitudes and acts of our old nature and has called us to dress ourselves with the Christ-like clothing called heartfelt compassion, humility, kindness, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness of one another! But Paul teaches us that the ONE most important aspect for one who is IN CHRIST is that we LOVE as Christ loved.
Paul calls for our lives to be a message to the world… that the world see us living FOR Christ and that our lives would speak volumes about Jesus! In fact in 3:16 Paul urges that our lives reflect the Messiah… he says let Messiah dwell richly among you! In other words, let Him shine forth in His love and reflecting His grace, mercy and forgiveness… OUR LIVES must reflect Christ!
Tonight we begin ch4 and it continues where we left off in ch3 last week. We had spoken about servants and how they were called to be submissive to their masters and work for their masters NO MATTER how their masters had acted!
Paul told the servants to work as if they were working for Jesus… that is because when we are IN CHRIST we ARE working for Jesus, in whatever we do…so tonight we see how Paul addresses the other side of this issue as he speaks directly to the masters…
In v1 Paul states very clearly:
1Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Paul turns the tables on the masters. I am sure that there were many masters who agreed with Paul about the servants obeying their masters, but they were not expecting THIS! In fact, this subject was hardly EVER addressed!
Who told a master how to treat his own possession? Who had the authority to tell a master how to treat his slave? Paul had taught that ALL who are IN CHRIST were equal under the sight of God…
God shows NO favorites! SO… masters living right and showing the love, mercy and grace of the Savior applies to YOU TOO!
So he says, treat them fairly and justly… Now I want us to ONCE again realize to whom this letter was intended! Was Paul speaking to slave owners NOT in the church? NO! Paul’s letter was addressed to the fellowship in Colossae, not to those businessmen OUTSIDE of the church!
This means that within the church at Colossae that there were those who were servants or slaves and then there were those who owned servants or slaves! Here in v1 Paul is speaking to this last group! He was speaking to slave owners within the fellowship!
What Paul says to these slave owners does not sound terribly forceful, but let’s look at his words again:
1Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
The word that is translated as ‘treat’ or many translations have it translated as ‘supply’ or ‘give’… it is the Greek word pah-reck’-oh which basically means to be the source of… or to cause to happen…
When we look at what Paul is saying here he was instructing these slave owners to become the source of what is right and fair to those servants under their charge!
In other words, you MUST live out your faith by being the cause of what is fair and just with those who work for you… you are NOT to be a source of pain or suffering, but a source of goodness and fairness…
This was NOT the norm in the society Paul lived in… the master was the FORCE… the master was the BOSS… and he could do as he pleased. Usually this meant treating people ANYWAY he pleased to suit himself or profit for himself! And usually this was NOT good news for the servants… who would be abused.
But Paul was challenging this KING like attitude for the masters and telling them that instead of thinking for themselves and what would profit THEM the most, that they were to live out their Christ-like qualities and be the source of goodness and justice!
This was a great challenge for these masters but Paul understood that they HAD to change how they were living so that Christ would be exalted! He also challenges these masters to do this because they too have a Master in heaven and this MASTER in heaven was the source of GOOD and JUSTICE for them!
They were saved, washed clean of their sin and redeemed by this master… forgiven and loved… and so they should live out their lives as a reflection of their OWN master… Jesus Christ!
After addressing that issue Paul turns back to the congregation as a whole and begins to teach how they should be praying…
2Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
This is also translated as “Devote yourselves to prayer” but the point is clear! Paul is calling all the believers to be faithful in their prayer lives. Faithful in both the act of prayer… and the spirit of prayer!
He says, be ‘watchful’… what does he mean here by ‘be watchful’ in our prayer life? The Greek word is gray-gor-you-oh which when translated as ‘watch’ is more of a metaphor. In this context it means to be cautious and careful in your approach to prayer life… lest the enemy come in and something terrible comes to pass…
We get a picture of vigilance when we read Paul’s words here… remain vigilant in your prayer life is what Paul is saying here!
Vigilant, but yet Paul shares that that vigilance must be tempered with an attitude of thanksgiving. So often our prayer life is so focused and vigilant that we can lose sight of the blessing we have in Christ and thus tend to have an unthankful attitude…
Prayer and thanksgiving go hand in hand and for those who approach the throne of Grace in prayer with thanksgiving, God has promised blessing and peace!
In Phil 4 Paul speaks of a peace that passes all human comprehension that is ours when we pray in thanksgiving!
Here Paul is saying the same thing… prayer with thanksgiving is powerful and it recognizes the One you are praying TO!
3At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
In v3-4 Paul is asking for prayer for both him and his team! Why? So that they can minister! What makes this so special? Well we need to remember where Paul is at the time of this writing!
He was writing this letter from a prison cell. However, we find that Paul’s request for prayer from the Colossians is NOT for them to pray for his release, but he wants them to pray that God would give him more opportunity to serve FROM PRISON!
Paul wants God’s blessing and open doors to minister to those who imprison him… He wants to minister to and evangelize all those he comes into contact with… Paul does NOT see this as a problem or burden… Paul sees this a grand opportunity to serve God and see souls saved!
So ask yourself, how often do you find yourself in a bind or tight spot and ask others to pray for you. We usually pray for ourselves and NOT those who oppress us! However, praying in this manner is what made Paul tick… he understood that the lost could not save themselves, that they needed God.
It is human nature to see the grass on the other side of the fence as greener… we have the tendency to always see what we DON’T have and what we WISHED we had rather than being thankful and grateful for what we DO have!
Here Paul is asking for prayer FOR him, but NOT for his benefit but for the benefit of the kingdom. How often do we pray that God would use us for HIS glory? How often is it that we pray for God to bless OUR desires and make OUR wishes fit into His kingdom?
If you have prayed a prayer such as that… you are NOT a hopeless reprobate! It simply means that you are human and you are residing in your fleshly desires.
Now as a believer, you are called to lay those desires aside and clothe yourself with Christ! We can overcome such selfish prayer, but only through the strength of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us…
Paul then moves back to how the believer should live OUT their lives to the world around us… let’s look at vv5-6:
5Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
5Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Paul says to ‘walk in wisdom toward outsiders…’ which is direct instruction TO believers on how they are to present themselves to the outside world!
The term ‘walk’ here is a term of life…of the living out of one’s life! In other words Paul is saying ‘live’ out our lives in a godly wisdom… The wisdom Paul speaks of here goes beyond just earthly wisdom and knowledge but relies upon God to lead and guide!
We can look to Solomon’s advice here… when he wrote in Proverbs 3:5-6:
5Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
God does not expect us to lean on our OWN wisdom, but instead wants to provide us with the wisdom we need for our journey! Here Paul encourages these believers to live their lives in such a way!
What does that mean preacher? How does that apply to me? Well, let’s think about it? What is godly wisdom?
Proverbs 15:14(ESV) “The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.”
Let’s put it another way, an intelligent person purposefully seeks after knowledge, but fools nibble randomly, vacantly chewing on words and ideas that have no value, no flavor, and no nutrition.
In other words, what do we seek to put in our minds? Do we seek to put God in our mind and saturate our hearts with His Word? Or are we striving to fill our minds with the trivial nonsense of today’s society: entertainment at any cost, senseless violence, portrayals of immorality, placing enjoyment before responsibility!
We look for this in the world… we expect this of the world… after all sinners do what sinners do… they SIN and live sinful lives! BUT, what of us believers?
Preacher are you saying we cannot have any fun? Absolutely NOT, but we are called to be WISE in our choices… wise about how we live our lives… wise about what we take in and absorb through our life experiences!
We can love those in the world, but if we are NOT careful we find ourselves beginning to love the world as well! We have to be wise in our actions is what Paul is saying here!
He is telling the believers that we are called to live holy, separate lives and YET still be IN the world. This is a challenge to say the least, and anything that is this challenging is going to need wisdom to see it through.
However, worldly wisdom only leads to compromise and a fall on our part! Paul says we must walk WISE and the implication here is in the godly wisdom of our Heavenly Father! Walk wisely in the wisdom of God and you will not fall!
Not only are we to walk wisely to the outside world BUT we are to make the most of our time!
5Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
WOW! This hits really close to home for me… BUT we have to understand that making the most of one’s time is a definite extension of walking wisely in one’s life!
How many here have trouble redeeming the time in your day? Have you EVER ran out of time on a project or in doing something really important?
Why is that? Why is TIME such an important issue for Paul here in this verse? Well time is a finite resource that we all have the same amount of… we ALL get 24hr in a day… we ALL get 60min each hr and we ALL get 60sec in each minute
The question is NOT how much time do we have… the question is always ‘how did I use the time I had…’
This goes back to walking wisely as a believer. Those who understand walking wisely will understand the importance of time and how we should not WASTE our time!
Have you ever sat around ‘killing time’? I know I have… do you know that you NEVER get that time back? When you miss out on time… it is gone forever!
Time is a commodity that believers cannot waste!
So we are called to walk in godly wisdom as regards to the outside world and we are to make the most of our time… use our time wisely for the Lord, but Paul continues:
5Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Paul calls believers to ‘let their speech ALWAYS be gracious, seasoned with salt…’ What does Paul mean by this statement?
The Greek here helps us to grasp the incredible breadth of Paul’s instruction here. Paul speaks to our ‘speech’ which he uses the Greek word logos which is the term John used in John 1 to describe Jesus!
Jesus was the WORD or the LOGOS of God… Jesus was God speaking in this world! Jesus was God’s voice speaking to His creation. The logos Paul speaks about here is our voice, our representation of Jesus in this world.
Does this apply to our speech and the words of our mouth? YES, but I want us to understand that this instruction from Paul goes FAR beyond just the words of our mouth! Literally what Paul is saying here is that our lives speak so much louder than the words from our mouth!
With that in mind, we can now see why Paul says before this to walk wisely among outsiders! In other words, live a life that reflects holiness and godliness… and THAT will speak VOLUMES about the grace of God that is in your life.
But I can also see that Paul’s words apply to what we DO say with our mouths. How often do we say things that we regret later! Let your speech always be gracious… the Greek word is khar-riss and it is where we get our English word ‘charity’ from…
What is charity but love and care for those you don’t know! Our speech is to be loving and caring toward everyone, especially those we don’t know!
6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Paul then says let our speech be ‘seasoned with salt’ but what does he mean by that… I mean if you have a cut and salt gets in the wound, what happens! IT STINGS!
Is Paul telling us that our speech should be like salt poured into a wound… well if that is what Paul is saying then that would be really dumb since he had just said our speech should be tempered by grace!
No… the ‘seasoned with salt’ comment here by Paul is his way of saying that our words also have to reflect our heart and our lives!
What we SAY, even when we hit our finger or stub our toe has a lot to say about the life we live! Now this doesn’t mean that you will NEVER say anything abrasive or crude as a believer, but when we begin to live out our lives through both our actions and our words… we must make wise choices in how we live and what we say!
To have our words seasoned with salt, we must be salting our minds each day with a daily dose of God’s word… we must be salting our soul each day with daily quiet time with the Lord.
When we have these things then we can know that God is leading us AND when God is leading us our words and actions bring glory to Him!
Paul calls us to be ready to share Christ both with our words and with the actions of our lives… and we are called to do this ALL the time!
