NOTES for Col 4:4

⁴That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

Of what "mystery of Christ" does Paul speak? And how should it be "proclaimed"? It would seem that the answer is clear: the issue is Christianity, Christian teaching. And everything would indeed be clear if Jesus had left the world some teaching that His disciples and followers were to spread. But the point is that He left the world no teaching.

And the apostles, like their contemporaries, the representatives of the first Christian generation, knew this very well. Christian teaching, dogmatics, theology, morality, appeared later, after two or three centuries. The first Christians knew perfectly well what we today often forget: Christianity is not a new teaching, but a new life. Life with Christ in His Kingdom.

Of course, people living in the Kingdom can, and inevitably must, have their own specific perception of the world connected with the experience of this life. A perception capable of giving rise to a new morality and a new theology. But all this is secondary, while at the foundation of Christian experience lies precisely life, the life of the Kingdom. And it was precisely the mystery of the life of the Kingdom that Paul had to reveal to those to whom he bore witness about Christ and the Kingdom. Moreover, he had to do this while in prison. It would seem that imprisonment is not the best situation for preaching.

However, judging by the testimony both of Acts and of Paul himself, his imprisonment was not very strict. At least visits were permitted to him, and he used this permission quite actively. But the matter is not only the possibility of communication. If the issue were preaching one or another idea, one or another teaching, everything would be simpler. Words are words, ideas are ideas; what matters here is what a person says. Paul, however, had to show his listeners, even while in prison, not words and not ideas, but life. The very life of the Kingdom that is the main "mystery" of Christianity.

The apostle does not accidentally speak of a "mystery": the corresponding Greek word even in pre-Christian times meant something connected with another, unearthly life, the experience of which belonged to those initiated into pagan religious mysteries. Those initiated into these mysteries spoke of them little and reluctantly, not so much because they sought to hide them from the uninitiated as because they understood that their experience could be lived through personally, it could be demonstrated, but it could hardly be conveyed in words.

It is likewise very difficult to convey in words the experience of the life of the Kingdom. But if it truly exists, if a person lives this life, it cannot be hidden. Even when one is sitting in prison. People coming to an inhabitant of the Kingdom will see not the prison in which he is located, but the Kingdom in which his life takes place. The main thing is that it take place precisely there, even when physically one is in prison. This is what Paul asks prayer for.

Other notes

For Col 4:2-9

²Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

³Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:

⁴That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

⁵Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.

⁶Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

⁷All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord:

⁸Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts;

⁹With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

One of the first questions believers ask themselves is whether they should testify about Christ to unbelievers or “outsiders”... Read more

One of the first questions believers ask themselves is whether they should testify about Christ to unbelievers or “outsiders,” as the apostle Paul calls them in today’s reading. If they should testify, then how, and with what words? The apostle Paul answers these questions briefly and simply. First, he proposes that we always make use of the time, that is, let ourselves be guided by the specific circumstances. We should not regard unbelievers as an inert or aggressive mass, but, following Christ, address each particular person while taking account of his individual characteristics and problems. We should speak to each person in his own language, “wisely,” as the apostle writes. In another epistle Paul will write that he became “to those who are without law, as without law” (1 Cor. 9:19-23), and he calls his disciples to do the same. Second, Paul draws attention to the importance of how believers should address unbelievers. Speech with grace, seasoned with salt, is not empty argument, a desire to insist on one’s own way, or the destruction of everyone who disagrees. It is speech filled with truth, the speech of reason. Ultimately, it is the living Word that was in the beginning.

For Col 4:1-18

¹Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

²Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

³Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:

⁴That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

⁵Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.

⁶Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

⁷All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord:

⁸Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts;

⁹With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

¹⁰Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)

¹¹And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.

¹²Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

¹³For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.

¹⁴Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

¹⁵Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.

¹⁶And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

¹⁷And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.

¹⁸The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.

Like any letter, the Epistle to the Colossians ends with friendly wishes and instructions, greetings... Read more

Like any letter, the Epistle to the Colossians ends with friendly wishes and instructions, greetings from those who are near the Apostle, and brief news. Everything is as in an ordinary letter, apart from several aphoristic phrases that have become laws of Christian life. Again and again, Paul reminds us that a person's daily duty and need is prayer with thanksgiving—that is, unceasing communion with God, a dialogue in search of truth, and gratitude that this possibility has been given to us. We can continually contemplate the One who is Truth. Through this, our whole life is transformed into something wonderful and, as the Apostle puts it, we can conduct ourselves wisely toward outsiders.