Colossians 4.4-Paul Requests Colossians Pray That He Make Fully Known the Mystery of Christ Because Its His Obligation
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday March 5, 2017
Colossians: Colossians 4:4-Paul Requests Colossians Pray That He Make Fully Known the Mystery of Christ Because Its His Obligation
Lesson # 108
Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned 4 that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. (NASB95)
Colossians 4:4 presents the content of the intercessory prayer in Colossians 4:3 which records Paul requesting that the Colossians continue to make it their habit of occupying themselves in prayer on behalf of himself, Timothy and their companions in Rome.
Specifically, verse 4 presents another request which is in addition to the previous request in verse 3.
Paul wanted the Colossians to pray that the Father would make possible for himself, Timothy and their companions in Rome an opportunity to communicate gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, here in verse 4, Paul presents a second request which is that he and his companions in Rome would make known this gospel of Jesus Christ as they should.
“I may make it clear” is composed of the following: (1) verb phaneroō (φανερόω), “I may make clear” (2) intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “it.”
The verb phaneroō means “to make fully known, to cause something to be fully known by revealing clearly in some detail.”
The first person singular form of this verb is a reference to the apostle Paul.
It is used of the mystery which is concerning the one and only Christ as indicated by Paul’s reference to it in Colossians 4:3.
Therefore, here in verse 4, the verb phaneroō expresses the idea of Paul “causing” this mystery concerning the one and only Christ “to be fully known by revealing it clearly in great detail” to the people in Rome.
The intensive personal pronoun autos means “it” referring to the noun mustērion, “the mystery,” which appears in Colossians 4:3 since these two words agree in gender (neuter) and number (singular).
The latter describes Jesus Christ in relation to the unsaved or unregenerate.
Jesus Christ is a mystery to those are not initiated into the Christian way of life, which is accomplished by being declared justified by the Father through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
“In the way I ought to speak” is composed of the following: (1) particle hōs (ὡς), “in the way” (5) verb dei (δεῖ), “ought to” (6) personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ), “I” (7) verb laleō (λαλέω), “speak.”
The particle hōs means “because” since the word is used as a marker of cause meaning it is presenting the reason why Paul wants the Colossians to intercede in prayer for him that he would make fully known the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Rome.
Usually this word functions as a comparative particle which here would indicate that it is marking a comparison between Paul making the gospel of Jesus Christ fully known to the citizens of Rome and his obligation to do so as an apostle to the Gentiles.
However, the causal idea is much more explicit than this comparative idea.
Paul wants the Colossians to intercede in prayer for him by praying that he would make fully known the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Rome because for him to communicate this gospel is an obligation.
The verb dei means “to be obligatory, to be required by obligation.”
The subject of this verb is the possessive personal pronoun egō, which refers to the apostle Paul.
Therefore, this verb dei expresses the idea that it is an obligation for Paul to speak by making fully known to the people of Rome the mystery concerning the one and only Christ or in other words, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The verb laleō refers to the act of the Paul speaking or communicating verbally to the unsaved in the city of Rome regarding the mystery of Christ.
In other words, this word speaks of him verbally communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ to the unsaved in the city of Rome.
Colossians 4:2 Each of you must continue to make it your habit of being dedicated to persevering in prayer while continuing to exist in a state of being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. 3 Also, each of you at the same time continue to make it your habit of occupying yourselves with prayer on behalf of each one of us. Specifically, that the Father would make possible for each of us an opportunity for our unique message, namely, to communicate the mystery, which is concerning the one and only Christ because of which, I am in fact imprisoned. 4 Furthermore, each of you at the same time continue to make it your habit of occupying yourselves with prayer that I would make it fully known because for me to communicate it is an obligation. (My translation)
Colossians 4:4 presents another implicit command for the Colossian Christian community which is in addition to the previous one in Colossians 4:3.
Here he wants each of them to continue to make it their habit of occupying themselves with prayer by specifically praying that he would make this mystery concerning the one and only Christ fully known to the people of Rome.
Then, he gives the reason why he wants them to offer up this prayer to the Father, namely because for Paul to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ is an obligation.
What Paul says in this causal is communicated by him to the Roman and Corinthian Christian communities respectively in Romans 1:14-15 and 1 Corinthians 9:16.
Romans 1:13 Now, I absolutely do not want all of you to be ignorant spiritual brothers that I have often planned to come to all of you in order that I might also produce some fruit among all of you and was prevented so far. 14 I am at the present time obligated to both the Greeks and the barbarians, to both the wise and the ignorant. 15 Consequently, as far as I am concerned I am eager to proclaim the gospel to all of you who are in Rome. 16 For I am never ashamed of the gospel for it is, as an eternal spiritual truth, God’s power resulting in deliverance for the benefit of everyone who, as an eternal spiritual truth, believe, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. 17 For, by means of it, the righteousness originating from God is, as an eternal spiritual truth, revealed from faith to faith just as it stands written, for all of eternity, “But the righteous shall choose for himself to live by means of faith. (Author’s translation)
Therefore, in verse 4, Paul is requesting prayer for himself and not his other companions in Rome and the reason why is that he was under house arrest in Rome when he wrote this epistle.
Timothy and the others were not under arrest like Paul and in fact, Paul was not only under house arrest but he was awaiting his appeal before Caesar.
Thus, he is making this request in verse 4 knowing that he would stand before the highest authorities in the Roman government and even Nero himself, the Emperor.
Paul had two Roman imprisonments: (1) A.D. 60-62: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon (2) A.D. 68: 2 Timothy, Hebrews.
The apostle Paul wrote Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon during his first Roman imprisonment while he was awaiting his appeal before Caesar and he was actually permitted to have his own rented quarters in Rome with a Roman soldier guarding him (See Acts 28).
As we noted in our study of Colossians 4:3, this “mystery concerning the one and only Christ” refers to the gospel of Jesus Christ but from the perspective that in relation to the unsaved, Jesus Christ is a mystery.
He is a mystery to those are not initiated into the Christian way of life, which is accomplished by being declared justified by the Father through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
In relation to the non-Christian, this message which is the gospel, is God’s victorious proclamation of His love in delivering the entire human race from sin, Satan, his cosmic system and eternal condemnation and has reconciled them to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
This reconciliation with God and deliverance and victory over sin, Satan and the cosmic system that God accomplished through His Son’s crucifixion, burial, death, resurrection and session is received as a gift and appropriated through faith in Christ (John 3:16-18; Acts 16:31; Romans 5:1-2).
Paul’s request of the Colossian Christian community in Colossians 4:4 is echoed in Ephesians 6:19-20 because in this passage he makes a similar request of the Ephesian Christian community.
Ephesians 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (NASB95)
Here in Colossians 4:4, Paul is also presenting this prayer request to the Colossians because he was personally commissioned by the resurrected Christ to be the apostle to the Gentiles (See Acts 9:15; 22:21; Romans 11:13; 15:16; Galatians 1:15-16; 2:2, 7-9; Ephesians 3:1; 1 Timothy 2:7).
The answer to this prayer request in Colossians 4:4 would enable Paul to fulfill this divine commission.
By presenting this prayer request to the Colossians here in Colossians 4:4, Paul is basically expressing his total and complete dependence upon God to enable him to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Rome and the highest authorities in the Roman government including Nero, the Emperor.
Incidentally, during his second and final Roman imprisonment Paul asserted in 2 Timothy 4:17 that Jesus Christ Himself empowered him to publicly proclaim the gospel to each and every unregenerate Gentile present during his first defense through the omnipotence of the Spirit.