Colossians 4:2–6: "New Habits for the New Self-Pray & evangelize”

 Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the book of Colossians. We are continuing our verse-by-verse study of this book in our series “Preeminence.” We come today to a passage—Colossians 4:2–6—that emphasizes in equal measure both prayer and evangelism. Let’s talk about those two important “New Habits of the New Self.”

One of the most famous missionaries who ever lived was a man named Hudson Taylor. Taylor was a nineteenth-century missionary who dedicated his life to the evangelization of China. He founded what came to be known as the China Inland Mission. And Taylor was also a great man of prayer. He saw God answer an amazing number of prayers throughout his life.

And Taylor had helped recruit missionaries and set up these mission stations throughout China. And there was one mission station that was particularly blessed with converts, far above all the others. And this result didn’t really make sense, because the other stations were doing the exact same things that this station was. They were equal in devotion and in ability.

And Taylor was pondering this when he traveled to England to speak. And once after a meeting, a man came up to him and began to ask him about that particular station—the one that was so fruitful. Then he began to ask many personal questions about the person leading that station. It turned out that this man had been the college roommate of the missionary at that station many years earlier, and he had committed himself to daily praying for the work there. Taylor now realized what differentiated this station from all the others.

Now, it’s pretty easy for me to get up here and preach passionately about the truth of God’s Word. That’s red-meat for our Messiah Bible Church crowd. I could preach about the importance of praise and worship too, and the majority of this church would say, “Hallelujah. Amen.” But the subject matter for today’s message can sometimes elicit a tepid response from God’s people—prayer and evangelism.

And the irony of that is that most scholars believe that this passage of Scripture (Colossians 4:2–6), closes out the body of the book of Colossians. Everything that follows is greetings and salutations.

So Paul closes out the body of the book of Colossians talking about prayer and evangelism. Paul closes out his discussion on the new self with five verses on the habits of prayer and evangelism. This must be important to Paul. This must be important to the church in Colossae. This must be important to God. This must be important for us.

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Go ahead and write this down in your notes, church. I want to give you this morning four new habits for the new self in Christ Jesus. Here’s the first.

1) Prayer mixed with thanksgiving (4:2)

Paul says in verse 2,

² Continue steadfastly in prayer,

This statement here is a command just like “husbands, love your wives” (3:19) was a command. This is a command like “set your minds on things that are above” (3:2) was a command. We, as Christians, are called to pray continually… steadfastly… relentlessly… constantly.

And there are a lot of instructions in the Bible on how to pray. The Bible teaches us how to pray privately and how to pray corporately. The Bible teaches us why we pray. Jesus gives us help and instructions. The OT gives us actual prayers prayed as examples. Paul has several commands in the NT on how to pray. But Paul doesn’t give that here. He really only gives us two qualifiers for our prayer times, apart from the expectation to do it continually.

Look at the end of verse 2.

² Continue steadfastly in prayer, [1] being watchful in it [2] with thanksgiving.

So be watchful in prayer. And be thankful in prayer. Let’s look at both of those.

What does “being watchful” mean? I think it means don’t get distracted. I think it means don’t lose heart. I think it means press on through the challenges of prayer. I think it means don’t let your ADD kick in and all of a sudden you start thinking about the tasks for the day or the football game or the television program you watched the night before.

Jesus rebuked his disciples after he told them to be watchful and they failed. What did they do? They fell asleep. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:6,

“So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.”

Peter said,

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

So while praying, you’re attentive to the Lord. You’re fighting distractions. You’re fighting the temptation of the enemy. You’re alert. You’re fighting sin. You’re fighting sleep. You’re pouring out your heart before the Lord, and Satan is going to do everything in his power to stop you. The church father, John Chrysostom said once, “The devil knows, yes he knows, how great a good prayer is.”

I know how that feels to many of you even as I say it. It feels burdensome. It feels guilt-inducing. I know that’s how I felt when I read this and studied this this last week. I told the Lord, “Lord, I have failed at this again and again and again. I’m horrible at maintaining vigilance when I pray.”

If that’s how you feel right now, let me help you with that. 1) We are not saved by our vigilance and prayer. So don’t feel the guilt of condemnation. Feel the goodness of conviction. 2) Paul gave this as a command at the end of this book because he knows it’s hard. He knows how distractions can disrupt your prayers. He knows how busyness can lead to prayerlessness. So he says aggressively and commandingly…

² Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful

Don’t feel the guilt of condemnation. There is not condemnation in Christ. Feel the goodness of conviction. And let it motivate you to pray.

And then Paul says wonderfully at the end of this verse…

² … with thanksgiving.

That ties into a theme that runs through Colossians. Paul emphasizes thanksgiving at least seven times in this book (Col 1:3–5, 12–14; 2:6–7; 3:15–17; 4:2). This is the last of those seven. Essentially we should do everything as a Christian with an attitude of gratitude. We should worship with gratitude (Col 3:16). We should remember our salvation with gratitude (Col 1:12–14). We should grow as a Christian with gratitude (Col 2:6–7). We should let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts with gratitude (Col 3:15). Paul says in Colossians 3:17 that whatever we do in word or deed should be done in gratitude. And just to put a cherry on the top of this thanksgiving theme in Colossians, Paul says in Colossians 4:2, make sure your constant prayers are constantly laced with thanksgiving.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible, one of the passages of Scripture that I have recited from memory more than any other is probably Philippians 4:6.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication… with thanksgiving…”

For whatever reason—I don’t know why—but whenever I recite that passage I sometimes forget to state that prepositional phrase. But we’ve got to emphasize that… “with thanksgiving.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6–7).

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What are the new habits of the new self? First of all there is prayer mixed with thanksgiving. Let’s stay on the subject of prayer a little longer, because Paul does. Here’s a second habit.

2) Prayer focused on evangelism (4:3–4)

Paul writes in verse 3…

³ At the same time,

In other words, while you are praying persistently and vigilantly and filled with thanksgiving…

pray also for us,

Paul said earlier in the book of Colossians, “We are praying for you” (Col 1:9–14). Now he says, “You pray for us.” It’s sanctified quid pro quo. You pray for us. We’ll pray for you!

And the “us” in verse 3 probably refers to both Paul and Timothy, but it may also refer to the others listed in the next passage: Tychicus, Aristarchus, Mark, Justus, Onesimus, Epaphras, Luke. More on them next week.

³ 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— ⁴ that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

That’s an amazing prayer request right there from the Apostle Paul. What a privilege this church had to pray for the ministry and the work of the Apostle Paul. And what an example Paul sets for the church here. Pray for evangelism. Pray for my witness. Pray for the gospel to spread.

Now let me say a few things about this prayer request. First of all notice that Paul prays for an open door. Everyone see that in verse 3? What does that mean—an open door? It means openness for the gospel. It means favor from God to spread the gospel. And notice too that God has to open that door. And notice too that we can pray for God to open a door.

A door for what? A door for the word. A door for the logos. A door for the gospel, which Paul describes here as “the mystery of Christ.” What is the “mystery of Christ”? Let’s be clear about that. Paul asks for prayer that he can make the gospel clear. I pray right now, “Lord, help me to make the gospel crystal clear right now for someone who needs to hear it.” Amen!

The gospel is this. The mystery of Christ is this. Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, the second person of the Trinity was born into this world as a baby. God the Father saw the state of humanity. He saw our sinfulness and our fallenness and our lostness. He knew there was no hope for us apart from his intervention. So he sent his Son to earth to be born as the Christ, the incarnate God, the Messiah. And that child born in Bethlehem grew up and became the most amazing teacher/healer/prophet who ever lived. And as part of God’s plan, the people of this world rejected him. They arrested him. They brutalized him. They crucified him. And three days after his crucifixion, he rose from the dead. And instead of destroying all of humanity for their insolence and violence toward him, he instead offers us eternal life. And those who repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ shall be saved. If that’s you this morning, put your faith in Christ and be saved.”

That’s the word, the message, of the gospel. That is the mystery of Christ that Paul declared. And what’s fascinating about this verse is that Paul says in verse 3, “on account of that gospel, I am in prison!”

on account of which I am in prison—

That’s true. Everywhere that Paul went throughout the Roman Empire he preached the gospel. And Jews and Gentiles both opposed him. And because of his faithful preaching, he was imprisoned in Philippi (Acts 16:19–40), imprisoned in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27–23:30), imprisoned in Caesarea (Acts 23:31–26:32), imprisoned in Rome twice (Acts 28:16–31; 2 Tim. 1:16–17; 2:9; 4:6–8, 16–18).

And Paul was in prison in Rome was when he wrote Colossians. He was under house arrest in Rome as the end of the book of Acts makes clear (Acts 28:16–31). He had some measure of freedom at this time. It wasn’t like his later imprisonment when he wrote the book of 2 Timothy. But he was still chained to a Roman guard.

And why was Paul imprisoned and chained to a guard? Did he break the law? Did he start an insurrection? Did he kill a Roman citizen? No. He preached the gospel. And yet even in prison, God was using him to preach the gospel and write Scripture and do all kinds of amazing things. And Paul says, “Pray for me, Colossians, that I can continue preaching the gospel even while in prison.”

It’s amazing, by the way, how some of the greatest things ever written in human history were written from prison. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress from prison. Martin Luther King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail from … wait for it… the Birmingham jail. Richard Wurmbrand wrote from prison. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote from prison. And Paul wrote five of his thirteen NT letters from prison. He wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon during his first prison stint in Rome. And then he wrote 2 Timothy during his second prison stint in Rome. God can do amazing things in the midst of suffering.

And Paul is asking the Colossians here, “Pray for me while I’m in prison to keep getting awesome gospel opportunities… and also…” Look at verse 4.

⁴ that I may make it [the gospel] clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Paul probably had a tendency to lose his listeners with his impressive and extensive learning. Paul may have struggled at times to share the gospel clearly with his Gentile listeners, because he would lose them with his extensive explanations of the OT Scriptures that they didn’t know or understand. That last statement is a bit speculative. But I think the prayer request here and Paul’s heart in this matter should impact our thinking—keep the gospel clear. Keep the message clear. Don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t lose your audience with too many complicated or intricate details. Have a method. Have a plan for evangelism. And practice like crazy.

When I see someone struggle in evangelism and overcomplicate things, I don’t think that person is so smart they can’t keep it simple. I think that person needs practice. Brevity is the soul of wit. Clarity is the soul of conversion. Keep it clear and simple. Not simplistic… but simple.

Spurgeon once rebuked his pastor friends for overcomplicating their sermons. He said this: “Christ said, ‘Feed my sheep … Feed My lambs.’ Some preachers, however, put the food so high that neither sheep nor lambs can reach it. They seem to have read the text, ‘Feed my giraffes.’”

Of course the context of that statement is preaching to the converted at church. The context of Paul’s statement here is the unconverted. Either way, the goal is clarity and intelligibility. You want your listeners to understand.

Pray for that with your listeners. Pray for that for your pastor and others who make a concerted effort to preach the gospel.

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Write this down as #3 in your notes. Here’s a third new habit of the new man.

3) Conduct marked by wisdom (4:5)

Paul says in verse 5:

⁵ Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Walk here is a command. We are commanded by Scripture to walk in wisdom. How do we get wisdom? We fear God. We read God’s Word. And we pray for God for it.

But notice the context of our wisdom. And notice the context of our walking. Paul says,

⁵ Walk in wisdom toward outsiders,

Who are the outsiders? What’s the in-group and what’s the out-group here? Well, the Greek word here is ἔξω (exō) which is typically a preposition meaning “outside.” An exoskeleton is a skeleton that is on the outside of an animal. But here ἔξω is nominalized meaning “the ones outside” or “the outside ones.” They are people on the outside of the in-group. And Paul is using this term to essentially describe the opposite of ἀλλήλων (allēlōn) meaning “one another.”

So in the church, you have the ἀλλήλων—the “one another” believers. And then you have the ἔξω—unbelievers. You have those inside who are the church, and you have friends, neighbors, classmates, coworkers, etc. outside the church, who are unconverted. But you want to see them get converted. These are the people you want to reach with the gospel and draw to Christ. Paul says elsewhere

“do not be conformed to the world” (Rom 12:2).

But he doesn’t want believers to remove themselves completely from the world. That would go against the clear teaching of the Great Commission. We are to go into all the world and make disciples (Matt 28:18–20).

In many ways, verse 5 flows naturally out of the evangelism emphasis of verses 3–4. Paul’s basically saying, “And speaking of evangelism and the gospel… make sure you walk in wisdom toward unbelievers, because you want to make a good impression on them… you want to lead them to Christ… you want to evangelize them, just like I’m doing in prison in Rome.”

What does “walking in wisdom” toward outsiders mean? It means fearing God. It means living a holy life. It means rejecting worldliness and carnality. It means working hard and living out a faithful witness before others.

It means Matthew 5:16,

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

It means Romans 12:1–2:

“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

It means Philippians 2:14–16:

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.”

It means 1 Peter 2:12:

“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that... they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

It means Ephesians 2:10:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

And notice the motivation that Paul gives us at the end of verse 5.

⁵ Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

In other words, time is short. Eternity is racing toward us. You’ll be dead soon. I’ll be dead soon. Christ is returning soon. The time for evangelism and good witness is now!

Paul’s like, “I’m in prison right now. I’ve had one foot in the grave for years! I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. I’m going to make the best use of the time. You do that too!”

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. Here’s why we redeem the time. Everything in eternity will be better than it is now. Everything! Our lives will be better. Our bodies will be better. The environment will be better. The food will be better. The worship will be better. The company will be better. No more crying. No more grief. No more pain. No more suffering. Everything, everything, everything will be better.

Except for this. The opportunities for evangelism won’t be better. In fact, they will be nonexistent. Now is the time for evangelism. Now is the time for preaching the gospel and walking in wisdom toward outsiders. There won’t be any outsiders in heaven. There won’t be any unbelievers to evangelize in heaven. They will be in hell separated from us for eternity. Now is the time to act! Redeem the time.

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And in that same vein, write this down as #4 in your notes. Here’s a fourth new habit for the new life.

4) Speech seasoned with salt (4:6)

Paul writes in verse 6:

⁶ Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Again the context of this is outsiders. Paul is saying here, “Be gracious in speech toward unbelievers. Don’t be obnoxious. Don’t be rude. Don’t be unnecessarily inflammatory. Season your speech with salt.”

Why? Why does Paul want us to behave like that? So that we can build bridges for the gospel.

Some of you know that I’ve recently started playing pickleball. I told myself that I would never play that game. But I can’t play basketball without getting injured, so I decided to give pickleball a try. And it’s been going well. I haven’t gotten injured yet. But I have had a few run-ins.

The other day, I reserved a court. And when I showed up to play, there were some guys playing there. And I told them, “Time’s up. We’ve got a reservation.” And these guys gave me some grief. They said, “Let us just finish our game.” And I said, “Sorry, no. I’ve only got a one-hour reservation for this court. Beat it.”

And they got really hot and bothered about this. And one of the guys, I could tell, wanted to get into it with me. And carnal Tony wanted to get into it with him. And I could just see the headlines in the San Antonio Express-News, “Local pastor gets into it with a group of ruffians over pickleball.”

And so, Christian Tony got the better of carnal Tony in that moment. And I maintained my cool… I haven’t always done that by the way… And at least in that instance I was obedient to Colossians 4:6.

⁶ Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Should our speech only be gracious and seasoned with salt toward outsiders and unbelievers? No. Perish the thought that we would speak with grace and kindness toward unbelievers at work and then go home and speak viciously toward our spouses and our kids... or toward our church family. No, let me invoke the how much more argument again. “If Paul commands us to speak graciously toward unbelievers, how much more should we speak graciously toward believers.”

And the objective here is clearly stated at the end of verse 6. The objective of sweet and salt-seasoned speech… not salty speech, that’s different… the objective is that we may “know how to answer each person.”

Answer what? What’s Paul talking about?

I think this is a reference again to evangelism. We need to be ready to answer concerning our faith. Why do you do the things you do? Why are you like that? What is a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian? Why don’t you behave like everyone else at work? You think you’re better than us?

How are you going to answer those questions, Christian? How are you going to answer stronger objections to Christianity? Why are Christians so judgy? Didn’t Christians invent slavery? Aren’t Christians responsible for all the atrocities of the world? Didn’t Jesus say, ‘judge not lest you be judged’? If God is good, then why is there so much evil in the world? Why are Christians so hypocritical?

If you haven’t heard those objections, you will. And there are good answers to all of those questions and all of those objections. Some of the finest minds in human history have dedicated themselves to answering those questions wisely and intelligently and accurately. And we can do that too. The Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15,

“Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”

Paul’s focus here is less on having the right answers or building the right apologetics. I’m all for that, by the way… but Paul’s focus here is on tone and affect, not facts.

⁶ Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

The metaphor of salt is intriguing here. Jesus talked about his followers as being the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13). Jesus said,

“Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another” (Mark 9:50).

What does that mean? Well, salt makes things better. Salt makes things taste better. To be “seasoned with salt” means to be warm and winsome and appetizing in our conversations with others. You want to elicit in your listener a thirst for listening.

One of our elders who shall remain nameless had to give up salt in his diet recently. Doctor’s orders! And the suffering he has had to endure since then has been legion.

Why? Because salt makes things tastier. Every morning I eat eggs for breakfast. And unsalted eggs are blech! Salt makes food better. It preserves things. It brings out the best in something. “Let your speech be like that,” says Paul. Let your speech toward unbelievers (and believers) be gracious and appetizing.

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I’ll close with this. Years ago, there was a young boy from northern Ireland who grew up in the Anglican church. But after the death of his mother, he rejected Christianity altogether. He became a convinced atheist. And this man was brilliant. He was a professor at Oxford. He was a specialist in medieval literature.

But while at Oxford, he crossed paths with two brilliant Christians who influenced him greatly. One of those people was the famous J.R. Tolkien whose deep faith was matched by his humility and intellectual honesty. The other person was a man named Hugo Dyson who became a great friend to this man—Clive Staples Lewis… better known to us as C.S. Lewis.

And Lewis started to move from atheism to agnosticism to theism to eventual Christianity. He referred to himself in his writings as England’s most reluctant convert. And Lewis later admitted that these friendships with Christians made it increasingly difficult to dismiss Christianity as irrational or merely emotional. The conduct of these believers gave credibility to the message they proclaimed.

Now, I believe that God is sovereign in these matters. He opens doors. He changes hearts. For every C.S. Lewis out there, there may be some other person whose heart gets harder and meaner when Christians represent Christ well. Like I’ve said before, “To some we are the aroma of Christ and we smell good. To others, we stink like death.”

It’s not our job to do the saving. We leave that to the Lord.

But we are his witnesses. We speak. We pray. We walk in wisdom. We represent Christ as best we can as long as we can until Christ calls us home… and we leave the results to God.

And praise God, sometimes, we get to be used by him to bring someone to Christ. I live for those moments. Let’s practice what Paul preaches here. Let’s pray and evangelize. Pray with me.