Colossians 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study

The apostle Paul then singles out some particular thing – our petitions for preachers. The word ‘withal’ simply means ‘also’, or ‘at the same time’. Praying also for the servants of the gospel. It is so vital, and is a solemn duty for us all. It is a measure of our hearts for the lost that we pray for them and that we pray for the Lord’s servants as they preach to them.The apostle was in prison and he reminds us of this in this very verse. ‘For which I am also in bonds.’ He asks prayer for opportunities, as he had preached to Felix and Drusilla, and then to Porcius Festus. He had preached before authorities and kings and he asks for a door of utterance. What can you do in a prison cell? How can you speak to many people? The Apostle pleads for prayer and as a result people responded and he had his door of utterance repeatedly. He tells us in the opening verses of Philippians, the effect through Caesar’s household and through the authorities in Rome, and that was because people had prayed for him and opportunities had been given and the word had gone out and it had altered the lives of numerous people.‘That God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ.’ What does Paul mean by that term: the mystery of Christ? Generally, by the secret of Christ or the mystery of Christ, he means two things. First, he means the calling of the Gentiles. That the Gentiles are being called into fellowship with God, the mystery of Christ. That I may speak to Gentiles as well as to Jews. But other times he means simply the realisation that the way of redemption promised to the Jews over so many centuries would be nothing less than the eternal Son of God becoming incarnate and going to Calvary and bearing away the punishment of sin himself. All the promises would be fulfilled in him. He is the end of the mystery; he is the secret. He uses the term because it is a mystery to people. They do not understand, they do not see it. Oh, pray for opportunity that these things will be explained.