Colossians 4:2-6, “Make the Gospel Clear”

What is some good news you’ve heard this week? What makes it good? The gospel is good news. If you were to ask ten people to define the gospel, how many answers would you get?

What is the gospel in one or two sentences?

If we are praying and watching for God to open doors, He will give us wisdom and grace for gospel conversations with everyone.

Prayer Opens a Door for the Gospel

Colossians 4:2 (ESV)

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Continue steadfastly could also be “Be devoted”, or literally, “apply your power” to prayer…Paul says we do this in two ways.

1. Being watchful = “stay awake”…Isn’t it easy to fall asleep while we’re praying? Prayer can be taxing on our body, mind, emotions. Practically, there are ways to stay awake like kneeling on the floor or taking a walk. But the bigger point is to eliminate distractions and stay alert to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are keeping watch for Him, expecting the Holy Spirit to show up when we pray. He will prompt you to pray according to God’s will.

How do you practice watchfulness in prayer?

Paul suggests, “with thanksgiving”. Giving thanks makes us attentive to what God has done and is doing in our lives.

2. At the same time, praying for Paul and his gospel partners that God may open a door for the word to them so they they can declare the gospel clearly.

Colossians 4:3–4 (ESV)

At 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— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

What are some ways doors open and close to the word of the gospel?

When we realize the difference between Paul’s context and ours, there are some lessons to learn. Paul is asking God to open a door for him to share the gospel. Why? Because he’s in prison. The word he uses here is literally, “on account of which I am bound.” Then he repeats this word at the end of verse 4, “that I may make it (the gospel) clear, which is how I am bound”. The English translates the same word two ways, but he says twice, “I am bound” on account of the gospel. He can’t escape his calling to make the gospel clear to the world. Even in prison, he’s asking God to open a door for him to share the gospel with someone.

What’s different about our context?

None of us, I would guess, have ever been in prison on account of preaching the gospel. In fact, in our country, it is legal, and in some places encouraged, to share the gospel with others. Do we ever consider ourselves bound to make the gospel clear? Is making the gospel clear to others an inescapable calling on your life? Or is it optional? When you consider the freedom we have to do it, and how rare it is that we do it, what does that mean about the closed doors in our context? Many (not all) are self-imposed. Fear, doubt, insecurity about saying the right words, insecurity about our lifestyle that doesn’t match the things we say we believe.

To be fair, in some ways our context is more difficult than Paul’s because we are in a post-Christian culture. For Paul, no one had heard the gospel before so the good news was still news. In our context, people think they already know what the gospel is, and they don’t want to hear it again. The door is closed for the person with whom we want to share it. How do we deal with that? We pray that God would open the door for us into that person’s life.

We want to make the gospel clear.

What does that mean?

Paul says the gospel is the mystery of Christ. Words that make Jesus known, and deeds that make Jesus known.

Let Wisdom and Grace Lead

It’s no good to ask God to open a door we aren’t going to use.

Colossians 4:5 (ESV)

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

If we think Paul’s been talking only about his own ministry of the gospel, he makes it clear we all play a part in this. We each, and we all together, have a gospel ministry. Do we make time for that ministry to those outside the family of faith? Paul says we should walk in wisdom toward outsiders, and make the best use of the time. The word there is “redeem”, buy time back like a valuable commodity. Isn’t time our most valuable commodity these days? How are we redeeming it for gospel purposes? We need wisdom.

Why do we need wisdom when we walk toward outsiders? What does that wisdom look like?

Wisdom says to be diligent that we are more influential for the sake of the gospel in someone’s life than be influenced by them. But for too long, we have defended ourselves against outsiders more than we have walked toward them. Who are the outsiders I am walking toward for the sake of the gospel of Jesus? Where in my calendar am I making time for that?

When you get to them, what kind of words are you using?

Colossians 4:6 (ESV)

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

People outside the faith have so many objections, questions, doubts, fears, hurts, hangups. People have so many things they want to argue about, so much bitterness, anger. People have confusion or ignorance. Where should we start in answering all of that?

How do we know how we ought to answer each person?

Paul says we use grace. “Let your speech always be gracious…so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

Lead with grace. It will teach you how to answer people. Not only the words we use, but the way we say things. After asking for prayer that God would open a door for “the word” (the gospel) in verse 3, here in verse 6 he says literally, “Let your word aways be in grace, seasoned with salt…” There should be a correlation between our word and God’s word in the gospel.

What would be different in our witness to Jesus if we spent less time defending Him (and ourselves), and more time accosting people with His grace? Let them wrestle with that. Let them struggle to understand people who never answer a curse with a curse, but with a blessing. Let them fight against people who are quick to forgive. Let them spout off about doubts and unanswered questions and the problem of evil with someone willing to admit, I still have a lot of unanswered questions too, but I’ve learned His grace is sufficient for every weakness of mine, and He doesn’t mind followers who question and haven’t figured it all out yet. In fact, these are the only followers He has.

How do we make the gospel clear? We walk with wisdom toward outsiders and redeem the time we spend with them. We lead with grace and let grace lead us in our conversations. The gospel is a message of God’s grace to us in Christ.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

What is some good news you heard this week? What makes it good?

What are some things you’re praying for God to do? Is there a door you would like Him to open to you?

How does thanksgiving help keep us watchful in prayer?

Where is God opening a door for the gospel to you right now?

What are some ways our culture has made the gospel unclear? How can we make it clear considering those challenges?

Who are some outsiders we can walk toward? What does it mean to walk in wisdom toward outsiders?

What makes it challenging to always be gracious in our conversation with others? How do we overcome that challenge?

How will you respond to this passage?

Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?