Bible Version: New International Version (NIV)
Application Notes: Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
COLOSSIANS 4
1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Further Instructions
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Final Greetings
7 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. 9 He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) 11 Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. 14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
17 Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”
18 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
Application Notes
4:1 Masters were to provide what was right and fair. Similarly today, employers should pay fair wages and treat their employees justly. Paul's instructions encourage responsibility and integrity on the job. Christian employees should do their jobs as if Jesus Christ were their supervisor. Christian employers should treat their employees fairly and with respect. Can you be trusted to do your best, even when the boss is not around? Do you work hard and enthusiastically? Do you treat your employees as human beings made in the image of God and not as a means to an end? Leaders should take care of their volunteers and not abuse them. If you have responsibility over others, make sure you treat them justly and fairly. Remember that no matter whom you work for, and no matter who works for you, the one you ultimately should want to please is your Father in heaven. You are accountable to him.
4:2 Have you ever grown tired of praying for something or someone? Paul says we should devote ourselves to prayer and be watchful in prayer. Our persistence in prayer expresses our faith that God answers prayer. Faith shouldn't fade if the answers come slowly, for the delay may be God's way of working out his will in our lives. When you feel tired of praying, remember that God sees you, knows what you need, always listens, and wants to do a great work through you. He will always answer you-maybe not in ways you expect, but in ways that he knows are best.
4:3 The "mystery of Christ" is Christ's Good News of salvation, the gospel (also see the note on 1:26-27). The whole focus of Paul's life was to tell others about Christ. explaining and preaching this wonderful mystery.
4:4 Paul asked for prayer that he would proclaim the Good News about Christ clearly, and we can request prayer--and pray ourselves--that we might do the same. Paul was in chains, so he couldn't travel or preach from prison. But he still shared the Good News with his guards, and he wrote letters of encouragement to the churches. We may not preach or write theological treatises like Paul, but we can use other ways to share God's love, like befriending neighbours, greeting new people at church, and sharing meals with non-Christian friends. Often, we make it too difficult on ourselves when we think of sharing our faith. Begin with an easy question: "What's your name?" "How was your day?" "Can I help you with that?" Then listen for answers that reveal more about the person's needs than the surface answer to your question. As you show how you care, he or she may become open to a conversation about what you believe and why. Pray now that God will bring people into your life who will be interested in knowing more about Jesus.
4:5 In our increasingly secular world, Christians may become more and more in the minority. Paul and other believers in the early church faced a similar situation as part of a small, new movement in the Roman Empire. Paul suggests that we need to be alert and smart, looking for opportunities to tell others about Christ. We should be more loving and creative than ever before in our interactions with nonbelievers, making the most of our opportunities to share Christ's love. Look for opportunities this week to show Christ's love to others; then be alert to when God prompts you to move from showing his love to them to verbally sharing it
4:6 When we tell others about Christ, kindness counts! No matter how much sense the message makes, we lose our effectiveness if we are not courteous. Just as we like to be respected, we must respect others if we want them to listen to what we have to say. "Seasoned with salt" means that what we say should be ·tasty· and should make people thirst for further dialogue.
4:7 Tychicus was one of Paul's personal representatives and probably the bearer of the letters to the Colossians and Ephesians (also see Ephesians 6:21-22). He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the collection for the church (Acts 20:4).
4:10 Aristarchus was a Thessalonian who accompanied Paul on his third missionary journey. He was with Paul in the riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:29), and he and Tychicus were with Paul in Greece (Acts 20:4). He also went to Rome with Paul (Acts 27:2).
Mark started out with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 12:25), but he left in the middle of the trip for unknown reasons (Acts 13:13). Barnabas and Mark were relatives, and when Paul refused to take Mark on another journey, Barnabas and Mark journeyed together to preach the Good News (Acts 15:37-41). Mark also worked with Peter (Acts 12:12-13; 1 Peter 5:13). Later, Mark and Paul were reconciled (Philemon 1:24). Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark. His profile is on page 1909.
4:12 Epaphras founded the Colossian church (see the note on 1:7), and his report to Paul in Rome caused Paul to write this letter. Epaphras was a hero of the Colossian church, one of the believers who helped keep the church together despite growing troubles. His earnest prayers for the believers show his deep love and concern for them.
4:13 Laodicea was located a few miles northwest of Colossae; Hierapolis was about five miles north of Laodicea. (For more on Laodicea, see the note on 2:1.)
4:14 Luke spent much time with Paul, not only accompanying him on most of his third missionary journey, but also sitting with him in the prison in Rome. As a medical doctor, Luke may have been especially helpful to Paul during his confinement. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. His profile is on page 1917.
Demas was faithful for a while, but he later deserted Paul because he "loved this world" (2 Timothy 4:10).
4:15 The early Christians often met in homes. Church buildings were not common until the third century AD.
4:16 Some suggest that the letter to Laodicea may be the book of Ephesians, because the letter to the Ephesians was circulated to all the churches in Asia Minor. It is also possible that there was a special letter to the Laodiceans of which we have no record today. Paul wrote several letters that have been lost (see, for example, 2 Corinthians 2:3 and the note there). Since the whole Bible was written by the inspiration of God, the letters we do have in Scripture are the ones intended by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
4:17 Paul's letter to Philemon is also addressed to Archippus, whom Paul called a "fellow soldier" (Philemon 1:2). He may have been a Roman soldier who had become a member of the Colossian church, or he may have been Philemon's son.
4:17 Paul encouraged Archippus to make sure that he completed the ministry he had received from the Lord. There are many ways that we might leave our ministries unfinished: It's easy to get sidetracked morally; we can become exhausted and stop; we can get mad and quit; we can let our work slide and leave finishing it up to others. But we should see to it that we finish God's assignments, completing the work we have received.
4:18 Paul usually dictated his letters to a scribe or secretary and then often closed them with a short note in his own handwriting (also see 1 Corint]:lians 16:21; Galatians 6:11). This assured the recipients that false teachers were not writing letters in Paul's name. It also gave the letters a personal touch.
4:18 To understand the letter to the Colossians, we need to know that the church was facing pressure from a heresy that promised deeper spiritual life through secret knowledge (an early form of Gnosticism). The false teachers were destroying faith in Christ by undermining Christ's humanity as well as his divinity. In addition, living in the pagan Roman Empire put pressure on the believers to conform to non-Christian values.
Paul makes it clear in this letter that Christ alone is the source and substance of our spiritual life. He is the head of the body of believers. He rules both the physical and spiritual worlds. We don't find the path to a deeper spiritual life through religious duties, special knowledge, or secrets. We find it by keeping connected to the Lord Jesus Christ. We must never let anything come between us and our Saviour.
Taken from Life Application Study Bible - Third Edition - (NIV)