NOTES for Col 4:1-18
Paul concludes the discussion of the Kingdom and spiritual life in his letter to the Colossian Christians with a call to prayer, so that when witness is required, everyone, including the apostle himself, may prove to be a worthy witness (vv. 2-6). This call of Paul's echoes another, in which the apostle calls his Colossian brothers to keep the word of Christ (Col. 3:16). Such a call is quite traditional with regard to the understanding of the sacred text and its role in spiritual life. Indeed, in Paul's day the rabbinic tradition saw in the Torah not only a text that required study and fulfillment, but also a way of communion with God and knowledge of God, which reading the Torah was for the believing Jew. Normal and full spiritual life required everyone to cultivate in his heart what was called the inner Torah: the spiritual core of the person, based on the practice of keeping the commandments and bearing witness to faithfulness to God and to the Torah, not only by word but by one's whole life.
Paul, however, as it appears, transfers this traditional idea of the inner Torah to those relationships of the faithful with Christ without which there is no Christianity. The inner Torah was always thought of as something inseparable from constant communion with God, so much so that in the Gospel era rabbinic circles even discussed the question of whether unceasing prayer was obligatory for the believing Jew. Paul also advises the Colossian Christians to remain constantly in prayer, perhaps having in mind some practice of this kind (v. 2).
Yet in this case the apostle considered the chief task to be not only the formation of the inner Torah in the hearts of his addressees, but also their rooting in the life of the Kingdom. This was the continuation of the former tradition, newly understood in the light of the new messianic revelation and the experience of the life of the Kingdom. And now the faithful were called to bear witness not only to their faithfulness to God and to the Torah, but also to the Kingdom of which they had become partakers. The apostle calls his Colossian brothers to such witness, considering it the chief task of every Christian in our transforming world, which has not yet been transformed to the end.