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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Col_4:3. Comp. Eph_6:19 f.
ἅμα καὶ περὶ ἡμ .] while your prayer takes place at the same time also (not merely for yourselves, for others, and about whatever other affairs, but at the same time also) for us, includes us also. This ἡμῶν , not to be referred to Paul alone, like the singular δέδεμαι subsequently and Col_4:4, applies to him and Timothy, Col_1:1.
ἵνα ] contents of the prayer ἵνα ] contents of the prayer expressed as its purpose, as in Col_1:9 and frequently.
θύραν τ . λόγου ] is not equivalent to στόμα (Beza, Calvin, Zanchius, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, Bengel, and others, comp. Storr and Böhmer)—a singular appellation which Eph_6:7 does not warrant us to assume—but is rather a figurative way of indicating the thought: unhindered operation in the preaching of the gospel. So long as this does not exist, there is not opened to the preachers a door for the word, through which they may let it go forth. Comp. 1Co_16:9; 2Co_2:12; Dion. Hal. de vi Dem. p. 1026. 14: οὐδὲ θύρας ἰδὼν λόγος , also Pind. Ol. vi. 44; πύλας ὕμνων ἀναπιτνάμεν , Bacchyl. fr. xiv. 2. The παῤῥησία of the preaching (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact), however, lies not in the θύρα and its opening, but in what follows. Hofmann incorrectly holds that the closed door is conceived as being on the side of those, to whom the preachers wished to preach the word, so that it could not enter in. This conception is decidedly at variance with the immediately following λαλῆσαι κ . τ . λ ., according to which the hindrance portrayed (the door to be opened) exists on the side of the preachers. Moreover, in this ἵνα ὁ Θεὸς κ . τ . λ . the wish of the apostle, as regards his own person, is certainly directed to liberation from his captivity (comp. Phm_1:22), not, however, to this in itself, but to the free working which depended on it. It was not the preaching in the prison which Paul meant, for that he had; but he longed after the opening of a θύρα τοῦ λόγου ; God was to give it to him. Perhaps the thought of liberation suggested to himself the choice of the expression. Nor is the plural ἡμῶν and ἡμῖν , embracing others with himself, at variance with this view (as Hofmann holds); for by the captivity of the apostle his faithful friend and fellow-labourer Timothy, who was with him, was, as a matter of course, also hindered in the freedom of working, to which he might otherwise have devoted himself. This was involved in the nature of their personal and official fellowship. Observe how it is only with δέδεμαι that Paul makes, and must make, a transition to the singular. This transition by no means betrays (in opposition to Hitzig and Holtzmann) the words διʼ ὃ καὶ δέδεμαι , ἵνα φαν . αὐτό to be an interpolation from Eph_6:20. The fact, that Paul elsewhere (Rom_7:2; 1Co_7:27; 1Co_7:39) has δέειν in the figurative sense, cannot matter; comp., on the contrary, the δεσμός and δέσμιος which he so often uses.
λαλῆσαι κ . τ . λ .] infinitive of the aim: in order to speak the mystery of Christ. The emphasis is on λαλῆσαι : not to suppress it, but to let it be proclaimed. Comp. 1Co_2:6; 2Co_4:13; 1Th_2:2.
τοῦ Χριστοῦ ] genitive of the subject, the divine mystery contained in the appearance and redemptive act of Christ (comp. Eph_3:4), in so far, namely, as the divine counsel of redemption, concealed previously to its being made known by the gospel, was accomplished in Christ’s mission and work (Col_1:26, Col_2:2; Eph_1:9; Rom_16:25). Thus the μυστήριον of God in Col_2:2 is, because Christ was the bearer and accomplisher of it, the μυστήριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ .
διʼ ὃ καὶ δέδεμαι ] διʼ ὅ applies to the μυστήρ .; and the whole clause serves to justify the intercession desired. When, namely, Paul wishes λαλῆσαι τὸ μυστήρ . τ . Χ ., he therewith desires that, which is in such sense his entire destination, that on account of this mystery—because, namely, he has made it known—he also bears his fetters. This καί is consequently the also of the corresponding relation, quite common with relatives (Baeumlein, Partik. p. 152).