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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Colossians 4:2 - 4:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Col_4:2-4
2Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; 4that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.
Col_4:2
NASB, NRSV "devote yourselves to prayer"
NKJV "continue earnestly in prayer"
TEV "be persistent in prayer"
NJB "be persevering in your prayers"
This is a present active imperative, "continue to devote yourselves to prayer." Prayer is not optional. Prayer is crucial for effective Christian living and ministry (cf. Eph_6:18-19; Rom_12:2; Php_4:6; 1Th_5:17). If Jesus, being God incarnate, was characterized by both public and private prayer, how much more do believers need to pray for the gospel, for themselves, and for one another? See Special Topic: Effective Prayer at Eph_6:19.
NASB, NRSV,
TEV "keeping alert"
NKJV "being vigilant"
NJB "stay awake"
This is a present active participle functioning as an imperative. Prayer takes planning, persistence, and vigilance. It needs to become a lifestyle, not an event.
▣ "thanksgiving" Notice the three aspects of prayer in Col_4:2. Also, remember Paul was imprisoned, yet this letter emphasizes "thanksgiving" (cf. Col_1:3; Col_1:12; Col_2:7; Col_3:15-17; Col_4:2). Biblical truth (worldview) radically change ones perspective on life (cf. Rom_8:31-39). Thanksgiving is a characteristic of a Spirit-filled life (cf. Eph_5:20; 1Th_5:18).
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Col_4:3 "praying at the same time for us" Paul needed intercessory prayer. In Col_4:3-4 (cf. Eph_6:19-20), he prays for three things related to his preaching the gospel.
1. an open door to preach (cf. Act_14:27; 1Co_16:9; 2Co_2:12; Rev_3:8)
2. an ability to explain the mystery of the gospel
3. the ability to speak the gospel clearly
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▣ "that God will open up to us a door for the word" See Special Topic following.
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▣ "the mystery of Christ" See note at Col_2:2 and Special Topic at Eph_3:3.
▣ "for which I have also been imprisoned" If current scholarship is correct Paul was imprisoned in Rome in the early a.d. 60's (cf. Col_4:18). Paul was not in Rome nor on trial before Caesar by accident! This was predicted at his conversion (cf. Act_9:15-16; Php_1:13).