Colossians 4

CHAPTER 4THEME: Fellowship of believers is heartyWe are in the section of this epistle which is dealing with holiness on the job, at the place of employment. Chapter 3 concluded with exhortations to servants or to employees. Chapter 4 will continue with exhortations to masters or to employers.

Colossians 4:1

“Masters"Paul has something to say not only to the servant but also to the masters, to the bosses. “Equal” means not to level down but to level up. The master is to do right by his servant. “Knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.” The master will stand before Christ someday. Every Christian employer, as well as employee, will stand before God. This does put the gospel in shoe leather, does it not? It gets right down where the rubber meets the road. Or, in this case, it gets right down where your foot is walking in the factory or in the office. Whatever you’re doing, you are to do it unto the Lord, because you are going to answer to Him if you are His child. Now the next few verses present three more areas of Christian conduct which are important. They are prayer, our public walk, and speech.

Colossians 4:2

These two words go together: Pray and watch. They are very important. They remind us of the experience of Nehemiah. When the enemy tried to stop him from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he didn’t just throw in the towel and cry out that he couldn’t do the job. Nor did he simply say, “Well, we’ll make it a matter of prayer,” and then go on as he had been. No, this is what Nehemiah said: “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them” (Neh_4:9). This is what Paul tells us here: Watch and pray. An old pastor in Georgia used to make this statement: “When a farmer prays for a corn crop, God expects him to say ‘Amen’ with a hoe.” If you are praying about a certain matter, get busy with it. I’m afraid we hear a lot of pious nonsense about prayer. I received a letter from a preacher who has cancer. He said, “I’ve been to Mayo Clinic. They found that I have cancer, and they recommend an operation. But I have come home and decided that I would do like you did: I will just trust the Lord.” I sat down and wrote him a letter in a hurry. I said, “Brother, I did trust the Lord but that wasn’t all that I did.

I went to whom I think is the finest cancer specialist out here on the West Coast. My case was brought up before the UCLA Medical Clinic and was discussed there. They recommended the best thing that medical science knew to do. I have had two operations for cancer. My Christian brother, if you want to be an intelligent Christian (and I think you are), then you go back to Mayo Clinic as quickly as you can and tell them to operate if that is what they think is best. Then you trust the Lord, and He will bring you through it.

That is what I did.” Watch and pray. Be on the job. This is so practical. “With thanksgiving.” Be sure and thank God always because He is going to hear and answer your prayer. Maybe it won’t be the answer you wanted, but He will answer. This is like breathing: inhale by prayer, exhale by thanksgiving.

Colossians 4:3

“Withal praying also for us"Paul says, “Don’t forget to pray for us.” My friend, you can’t help Paul any longer by praying for him, but you can help your pastor and other Christian ministries. “That God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.” Paul was in prison when he wrote this. He wanted to be released and go out through an open door that he might preach the gospel. I consider every aspect of my ministry to be a door, and I ask God to keep the doors open. He has promised that He would. This is the verse that I have chosen for my ministry: “…behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name” (Rev_3:8). He has set a lot of open doors before me, and I ask Him to open even more doors.

Colossians 4:5

“Walk in wisdom.” The child of God has a responsibility before the world today. Don’t be foolish as a child of God. We hear so much pious nonsense in our day. There are those who said the Lord would return by 1980. I don’t know where they got such information. There were probably a lot of embarrassed folk with red faces in 1980. Christians have no right to make such statements before an unsaved world. Nor should we say we are trusting the Lord when our actions show that we really are not trusting Him. We should not do foolish things before the world. A woman in Southern California wrote me a letter and rebuked me for going to the doctor for treatment of my cancer. She said that that was not trusting the Lord. She wrote, “I have cancer and I am trusting the Lord. I don’t go to the doctor.” They buried her not long ago; she died of her cancer. I’m afraid at times we are guilty of causing our neighbors to smile and say, “This Christianity is a foolish sort of thing.” We need to learn to “walk in wisdom toward them that are without.” “Redeeming the time.” Buy up your opportunities. When you see an opportunity, pray that the Lord will lead you. Don’t force yourself on people. Just pray and ask the Lord to open the door,, and He will open it. I wish I had space to tell you how many times this has happened in my life and in the lives of others. Let Him open the doorbefore you make the mistake of putting your foot in your mouth. I knocked on many doors when I was a pastor, and I often stepped in and put my foot in my mouth the very first thing. Since then I have learned to do a lot more praying before I walk in.

Colossians 4:6

Some people think this verse says, “Let your speech be salt,” and they really sting you with their little sarcastic remarks! But what it says is, “always with grace, seasoned with salt.” A child of God should have a conversation that deters evil. It should withhold evil rather than promote it. I think it also means that a Christian should not be boring. We should be enthusiastic"That ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

Colossians 4:7

FELLOWSHIP OF BELIEVERS IS HEARTYWe come now to a remarkable list of names of people whom Paul knew. They are men and women who lived back there in the first century. They walked down the Roman roads, lived in Roman cities, and were under Roman rule. They were in the midst of paganism, but they were God’s children. Many of these people lived in Ephesus. When I was in Ephesus, I climbed up in the theater there and from that height I could look down that great marble boulevardI would call it Harbor Boulevard, because it leads right down to where the harbor was in that day. I thought, This is where one could have seen Paul come walking up the boulevard. There would be Tychicus coming up the way; and there’s Onesimus and Aristarchus and Epaphrasall those fellows. They were all Christians. They were God’s men back yonder in the first century. The interesting thing is that Paul had never been to Rome nor had he been to Colosse, yet he gives a list of people that he knew, and many of them are from those two cities. This reveals that Paul had led many people to Christ who returned home to cities that he never was able to reach directly or personally. His ministry was a tremendous, far-reaching ministry. “Tychicus” was the pastor of the church in Ephesus. He is mentioned in Eph_6:21, Act_20:4, and 2Ti_4:12. He was a wonderful brother in the Lord.

Colossians 4:9

“Onesimus” was a slave of Philemon in Colosse. He had run away from his master, had been led to the Lord through the ministry of Paul, and was now being sent back to his master by him. Paul wrote a letter to Philemon when he sent Onesimus back, and he tells Philemon that Onesimus is his “beloved brother.” You can see from this that there is a new relationship in Christ. Master and slave are now brothers in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 4:10

“Aristarchus” was a fellow prisoner with Paul, and he was his friend. “Marcus” is John Mark, the nephew of Barnabasthe son of his sister. He is the writer of the Gospel of Mark. You will remember that Mark left Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, and because of this Paul didn’t want to take him along on the second missionary journey. Paul was wrong in his judgment of John Mark. The boy made good, and Paul acknowledges that here. Paul gives the Colossians instructions, “Don’t reject him like I did. You folks receive him.” Paul mentions John Mark again in his second letter to Timothy: “…Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry” (2Ti_4:11).

Colossians 4:11

“Jesus, which is called Justus” would be the name Joshua in the Hebrew language. Being “of the circumcision” indicates he was Jewish. This shows us that there were a few Israelites in the church in Colosse. However, there were not many; the Colossian church was mostly Gentile. These men were wonderful brethren, helpers of Paul, and great missionaries themselves.

Colossians 4:12

“Epaphras” was the pastor in Colosse. Now he is in prison, so he has a new ministry, the ministry of prayer. I received a letter from a young preacher who is paralyzed and cannot preach any more. He wrote a most discouraged letter. I answered him like this: “I have a job for you: Pray for me.” Prayer is a ministry, too. If God takes you out of active service, pray for God’s servants. It simply means God has given you a new ministry; He has something different for you to do.

Colossians 4:13

These three cities were very close together. Hierapolis and Laodicea were about six to ten miles apart; they were both near Colosse. There were churches in all three places.

Colossians 4:14

“Luke, the beloved physician.” Isn’t that a wonderful designation for him? When Paul first mentioned Demas, he called him a fellow worker. Here he simply says, “and Demas”; I think this may indicate that Paul isn’t really sure about him at this time. Later on Demas will forsake Paul. How tragic that is.

Colossians 4:15

These cities had great heathen temples, but the Christians met in homes. I used to hold the viewpoint and I still doalthough I don’t emphasize it today as I did at one timethat as the church started in the home, it is going to come back to the home.

Colossians 4:16

“The epistle from Laodicea.” Paul does not say that he had written an epistle to the Laodiceans. Apparently the letters of Paul were circulated around, and the Laodiceans had read one of them. A great many of the scholars believe that this might be a reference to the Epistle to the Ephesians. Paul is telling the Colossians to read that epistle also and to share theirs with the Laodiceans.

Colossians 4:17

“Archippus” is another man on Paul’s list in this letter. We do not know anything more about him than is mentioned here. He is a man who had a gift, and Paul is urging him to use that gift.

Colossians 4:18

Paul dictated most of his letters. (The letter to the Galatians was written in his own hand.) Here he gives his signature to the letter which he has dictated. This is the second time that Paul says, “Remember my bonds"or, “Pray for me.” “Grace be with you. Amen.” Isn’t this a wonderful letter that we have read? Paul wrote to a church that he had never visited, but he knew many of the people and had led them to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.