Colossians — Chapter 4

Authorship & Background

Map & Geography

• Laodicea (v.13, v.15, v.16): City in Asia Minor; one of the seven churches in Revelation.

Places on this map

• Laodiceanear Denizli, TurkeyA wealthy banking and textile city in the same valley, with one weakness: its water had to be piped in from miles away and arrived lukewarm, which is the image the letter to it uses. Wikipedia
• Asia MinorTurkeyThe peninsula between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, a high dry plateau ringed by mountains with the Greek cities on its western coast. Roman Asia, the province Paul worked from Ephesus, was only its western end. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from prison, most likely in Rome around AD 60–62, to a young church in Colossae, a small town in the Lycus River valley of Asia (western Turkey today), a little over 100 miles inland from Ephesus. Paul had never visited. The church was planted by Epaphras, a Colossian who had come to faith under Paul's ministry, probably during the Ephesus years (Acts 19:10). Some teaching was pressing the believers toward special knowledge, food rules, festivals and angel worship, and Paul has answered it by showing Christ as supreme and sufficient. Chapter 3 turned that truth into everyday life, ending with how wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters should live. Chapter 4 finishes that household teaching, calls the church to prayer and wise witness, and closes with one of the longest lists of names in Paul's letters.

Rules for Christian Households (v1)

• The chapter break comes in the wrong place. Verse 1 is the last line of the household section that began in 3:18. Chapter divisions were added more than a thousand years after Paul wrote, and here the break cuts a pair in half: slaves were addressed in 3:22–25, and now their masters are.
• "Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly" (v1). "Justly" means giving what is right and owed. "Fairly" is isotēs, "equality" or "equity," the same word Paul uses for evening out the burden between churches (2 Cor 8:13–14). Roman law gave a master almost unlimited rights over a slave's body. Paul does not argue law. He tells masters to treat slaves as people with a claim on fair treatment.
• "Knowing that you also have a Master in heaven" (v1). In Greek "master" and "Lord" are the same word, kyrios. The master is himself a slave of the true Kyrios, who will judge without favoritism (3:25; Eph 6:9). That one sentence quietly levels the household.
• Onesimus is in the room. The man carrying this letter with Tychicus is Onesimus, a runaway slave now returning to his Christian master Philemon, who lived in Colossae (v9; Philem 1–2, 10–16). When this verse was read aloud in the house church, everyone would have known exactly whom it touched.
• Did Paul approve of slavery? He did not campaign to abolish it, and Christians have wrestled with that. But he planted truths that undermined it: master and slave are both under one Lord, "there is not… slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all" (3:11), and he asks Philemon to receive Onesimus "no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother" (Philem 16). Later Christian abolitionists drew directly on these texts.
• Commentators: Henry says masters owe "not only justice… but strict equity and kindness," and should treat servants as they hope God will treat them. In his comments on the next verses he adds that masters should pray with their servants and care for "their souls as well as their bodies." JFB stresses the reciprocity: slaves owe duties to masters, and masters "equally owe to them" theirs.

Further Instructions (vv2–6)

• "Continue steadfastly in prayer" (v2). The verb is proskartereō, from a root meaning "strong" or "steadfast": to adhere firmly to something and keep at it. Luke uses it of the first church, which "devoted themselves… to prayer" (Acts 1:14; 2:42), and of the apostles, who refused to let serving tables crowd out prayer (Acts 6:4). Prayer here is a habit held onto, not an emergency measure.
• "Being watchful in it" (v2). "Watchful" (grēgoreō) is the word Jesus used in Gethsemane when the disciples kept falling asleep: "Watch and pray" (Matt 26:41). It is also the standard New Testament word for staying alert because Christ will return (Matt 24:42; 1 Thess 5:6). So it means both staying awake in prayer and praying with the Lord's coming in view.
• "With thanksgiving" (v2). Thanksgiving runs through this short letter (1:3, 12; 2:7; 3:15–17). For Paul, a prayer life without gratitude is missing something essential.
• "Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word" (v3). An "open door" is Paul's picture for an opportunity to preach (1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Acts 14:27). Notice what he does not ask: he does not ask them to pray for his release. He asks for opportunity, and a prisoner chained to rotating guards had a captive audience (Phil 1:12–13).
• "The mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison" (v3). In Paul, a "mystery" is not a puzzle but something once hidden and now revealed: that Christ lives in Gentiles as well as Jews, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (1:26–27). That message is literally why he is in chains. His arrest began with a charge that he brought a Gentile into the temple (Acts 21:28–29).
• "That I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak" (v4). The great apostle asks plain believers to pray that he will be clear. Clarity, not cleverness, is his aim (compare Eph 6:19–20, a close parallel written at the same time).
• "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders" (v5). "Outsiders" means those outside the church. Believers in a small town were watched closely, and their behavior either opened or shut doors for the gospel. Paul turns from praying for his open door to the doors in front of them.
• "Making the best use of the time" (v5). Literally "buying up the opportunity." The verb exagorazō is used in Galatians of Christ redeeming us (Gal 3:13), but here, in the middle voice with "the time," the lexicon gives "to buy up for oneself." The picture is a shopper at the market snapping up a bargain before it is gone. The word for time is kairos, a fitting moment, not just the passing of hours.
• "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt" (v6). "Gracious" is literally "in grace": kind and pleasant, but also shaped by the grace of God. Salt both flavors and preserves (Matt 5:13; Mark 9:50). Greek writers also used "salt" for wit, so the idea may be speech that is lively and worth listening to, not dull or stale. Paul pairs these with Ephesians 4:29: speech that builds up and gives grace to those who hear.
• "How you ought to answer each person" (v6). "Each person" matters. There is no single script. Wise speech reads the person in front of it, as Jesus spoke differently to Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman and the Pharisees. Peter says much the same: be ready to give an answer, "with gentleness and respect" (1 Pet 3:15).
• Commentators: Guzik and Henry both make prayer the frame for witness. Guzik ties "watchful" to the disciples sleeping in Gethsemane and warns against drowsy, half-hearted prayer. Henry: "Thanksgiving must have a part in every prayer," and even the ablest Christians need the prayers of others. On v5, Henry says diligence "commends religion to the good opinion of others." JFB reads "wisdom" as "practical Christian prudence," since the world will make none of the allowances fellow believers make. On v6 Henry writes, "Grace is the salt which seasons our discourse, and keeps it from corrupting." Guzik notes commentators who read "salt" as wit or charm, and the Tyndale notes add that the rabbis sometimes called wisdom "salt."

Final Greetings (vv7–18)

• Why so many names? This greeting list is unusually long. Paul had never been to Colossae, so he links the church to people they knew or would meet. The Tyndale notes suggest it also tied them into Paul's trusted circle, a guard against the false teachers. Five of the six men who send greetings (vv10–14) also appear in Philemon 23–24, written at the same time and carried by the same messengers.
• Tychicus (vv7–8). He was from the province of Asia and traveled with Paul carrying the collection to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). Paul calls him "beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant." He carried this letter, Ephesians (Eph 6:21–22, almost word for word the same commendation) and Philemon. Later Paul sends him to Ephesus and possibly Crete (2 Tim 4:12; Titus 3:12). He was the kind of man Paul could send anywhere. His job here was to give the news in person "and encourage your hearts," because a letter cannot answer every question.
• Onesimus, "our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you" (v9). A runaway slave, under Roman law liable to severe punishment, is introduced without a word about his past. "Faithful" is a quiet pun: his name means "useful," and Paul plays on it in Philemon 11 ("formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful"). "One of you" means a Colossian, but it also tells the church he belongs among them now as a brother. The full story is in the letter to Philemon, delivered on the same trip.
• Aristarchus "my fellow prisoner" (v10). A Macedonian from Thessalonica, he was dragged into the Ephesus theater riot (Acts 19:29), traveled to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4) and sailed with Paul to Rome (Acts 27:2). The word synaichmalōtos properly means a fellow captive of war. He may have been arrested too, or he may have chosen to share Paul's confinement to look after him. Interestingly, in Philemon 23 it is Epaphras who is called "fellow prisoner," which suggests friends took turns staying with Paul.
• "Mark the cousin of Barnabas" (v10). John Mark had quit the first missionary journey partway (Acts 13:13). Paul then refused to take him again, and the argument was so sharp that Paul and Barnabas split up (Acts 15:37–40). Now, about twelve years later, Mark is at Paul's side, and Paul tells the churches to "welcome him." Later still Paul writes from his final prison: "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry" (2 Tim 4:11). Tradition holds that this same Mark worked with Peter (1 Pet 5:13) and wrote the second Gospel. The word anepsios means "cousin," not "nephew" as the KJV's "sister's son" has it. The "instructions" the Colossians had already received are not recorded anywhere.
• "Jesus who is called Justus" (v11). Jesus (Hebrew Yeshua, "the LORD saves") was a common Jewish name, so he went by his Latin name Justus, "just." He appears only here.
• "The only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers" (v11). Of Paul's Jewish co-workers in Rome, only these three stood with him. It is a sad line. Paul loved his people (Rom 9:1–3) and felt their absence. "Comfort" is parēgoria, used only here in the New Testament. It gives English the old medical word "paregoric," a soothing medicine.
• Epaphras, "who is one of you" (vv12–13). He founded the church at Colossae (1:7) and likely those at Laodicea and Hierapolis, the two larger cities a few miles away. Now he is in Rome, probably having come to ask Paul's help against the false teaching. "Struggling on your behalf in his prayers" uses agōnizomai, the word for an athlete straining in a contest (1 Cor 9:25), the same word Paul used of his own labor (1:29). His prayer is the letter's goal in one line: that they "stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God" (compare 1:28). He shows that someone far from his people can still serve them hard, on his knees.
• "Luke the beloved physician" (v14). This is the only verse that tells us Luke was a doctor. Since Paul has just named his only Jewish co-workers, Luke was most likely a Gentile, which would make him the only Gentile author of a New Testament book. He wrote Luke and Acts, and the "we" passages of Acts place him with Paul on the voyage to Rome (Acts 27:1). In Paul's last letter: "Luke alone is with me" (2 Tim 4:11).
• "As does Demas" (v14). Every other name gets a warm word. Demas gets none. In Philemon 24 he is a "fellow worker." A few years later Paul writes: "Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me" (2 Tim 4:10). Whether the plain mention here already hints at trouble is only a guess, but the three references together are a sobering line from coworker to deserter.
• "The brothers at Laodicea, and… Nympha and the church in her house" (v15). There were no church buildings for nearly two centuries. Believers met in homes large enough to hold them, and the host was often the church's patron. Manuscripts differ on whether the name is Nympha, a woman ("her house"), or Nymphas, a man ("his house"); some read "their house." The ESV and most modern scholars follow "her house," which is the harder reading for a scribe to have invented. Like Lydia at Philippi (Acts 16:15, 40), she was a woman who opened her home to a church.
• "Have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans… read the letter from Laodicea" (v16). Letters were read aloud to the gathered church, and apostolic letters were passed around and copied, which is how the New Testament began to be collected (1 Thess 5:27; 2 Pet 3:15–16). The "letter from Laodicea" is a letter Paul wrote that the Laodiceans were to pass on. There are three main views: a lost letter of Paul; our Ephesians, if it was a circular letter to several churches in Asia (some early manuscripts of Ephesians lack "in Ephesus" in 1:1); or, less likely, Philemon. A short Latin "Epistle to the Laodiceans" exists, but it is a later patchwork of phrases from Paul and the early church rejected it. About thirty years later the risen Christ himself addresses Laodicea as the lukewarm church (Rev 3:14–22).
• "Say to Archippus, 'See that you fulfill the ministry'" (v17). Philemon 2 calls him "our fellow soldier" and names him with Philemon and Apphia, so he was likely part of that household, perhaps their son. Some think he led the church while Epaphras was away. What his ministry was is not said. "Fulfill" means to carry it through to completion. Paul says it publicly, through the church, so the whole congregation shares in encouraging him.
• "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand" (v18). Paul dictated his letters to a trained scribe and then took the pen for the last line as a signature, proof that the letter was really his (2 Thess 3:17; Gal 6:11).
• "Remember my chains" (v18). Picture a chain rattling across the page as he writes. It is not mainly a plea for sympathy. It reminds them to pray for him (v3), and it carries weight: this is what holding to the true gospel costs. "Grace be with you" closes the letter as it opened (1:2). Grace, not the false teachers' rules and rituals, is what holds them.
• Commentators: All three see grace at work in Mark's restoration. Henry draws the lesson that past faults, once repented of, should be forgiven and forgotten, and Guzik sees Paul's own softening as fruit of that grace. Henry notes that Onesimus's former station and sins did not stop him being called "a faithful and beloved brother." On Demas, Guzik and Henry both read the later desertion as a warning that well-known believers can drift away. JFB, on v11, rightly infers that "Epaphras, Luke, and Demas… were not of the circumcision," and on v15 notes the manuscripts split between "their house" and "her house." JFB thinks the Laodicean letter was a separate letter, not Ephesians, though it allows Ephesians is possible. Henry and Guzik both mention the lost-letter and Ephesians views, and Guzik adds that a lost letter does not leave Scripture incomplete. On v17 JFB says ordinary believers may admonish their ministers, meekly. Guzik reads "Remember my chains" as a claim to the authority of his suffering more than a request for pity.

Pointing to Christ

The chapter is full of people and their stories: a slave made a brother, a quitter made useful, a church planter wrestling in prayer, a doctor who stayed, a man who later left. What holds them together is the "Master in heaven" (v1) and "the mystery of Christ" (v3) that Paul is chained for. Jesus is the Lord whom masters and slaves both serve, and he is the one who welcomes back the Onesimuses and the John Marks. The letter that has lifted him above every power ends with that grace landing on ordinary names in ordinary houses.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers prayer, wise witness, gracious speech, and the personal greetings with their historical significance.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Colossians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• Continuing Steadfastly in Prayer (v.2) — Paul calls believers to devote themselves to prayer with watchfulness and thanksgiving, not treat it as an occasional emergency measure. Is prayer a steady rhythm in your life, or something you reach for only when things go wrong?
• Walking Wisely Toward Outsiders (v.5) — Believers are told to act wisely toward those outside the faith, making the most of every opportunity. How do the people around you who don't yet follow Christ actually experience you — wise and inviting, or careless and off-putting?
• Speech Seasoned With Grace (v.6) — Paul wants conversation that is always gracious and seasoned with salt, so believers know how to respond well to anyone. Where does your everyday speech need more grace or more substance?
• A Second Chance for Mark (v.10) — Paul commends Mark, a man once rejected as unreliable but now restored to trusted ministry. Is there someone you've written off after a failure who deserves the same kind of second chance you've been given?
• Fulfilling the Ministry You've Received (v.17) — Archippus is urged to pay close attention and complete the ministry entrusted to him in the Lord. What has God called you to, and are you giving it the attention it deserves or letting it slide?