The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

Colossians 4:1-6

4 Masters, treat your bondservants^[a] justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Further Instructions

² Continue steadfastly in Prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. ³ At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— ⁴ that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

⁵ Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ⁶ Let your Speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s instruction to wives, children and bondservants, similar to those he gave to the Ephesians.

N.B.: This is another long post, so do grab a cuppa and a snack.

For whatever reason, Paul gave his final instruction to bondservants’ masters at the beginning of Colossians 4, telling them to treat their slaves justly and fairly, being aware of the Master in heaven (verse 1).

John MacArthur says:

In other words, do unto others as you would have the Lord do unto you. Treat them fairly as God, you would hope, would treat you.

Matthew Henry’s commentary has more specifics, however, his was an era when more household servants abounded (emphases mine):

Here observe, 1. Justice is required of them: Give unto your servants that which is just and equal (v. 1), not only strict justice, but equity and kindness. Be faithful to your promises to them, and perform your agreements; not defrauding them of their dues, nor keeping back by fraud the hire of the labourers, Jam 5 4. Require no more of them than they are able to perform; and do not lay unreasonable burdens upon them, and beyond their strength. Provide for them what is fit, supply proper food and physic, and allow them such liberties as may fit them the better for cheerful service and make it the easier to them, and this though they be employed in the meanest and lowest offices, and of another country and a different religion from yourselves. 2. A good reason for this regard: “Knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. You who are masters of others have a Master yourself, and are servants of another Lord. You are not lords of yourselves, and are accountable to one above you. Deal with your servants as you expect God should deal with you, and as those who believe they must give an account. You are both servants of the same Lord in the different relations in which you stand, and are equally accountable to him at last. Knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him,” Eph 6 9.

MacArthur reminds us of the purpose of Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

Now, remember that the book of Colossians is a defense of the sufficiency of Christ.  False teachers had come into the city of Colossae and were trying to deny that Christ was sufficient.  They were trying to deny that all you needed was Jesus Christ, and they were saying, “No, you need Christ plus a certain human philosophy.  You need Christ plus the Mosaic Law.  You need Christ plus certain mystical relationships to angelic beings.  You need Christ plus a certain life of self-denial.”  And so they were really denying the sufficiency of Christ.  And in rebuttal to that, the great climax of the book comes in two passages.  One was alluded to earlier; it’s in the first chapter, where he discusses the sufficiency of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, and by Him were all things made, and He has all power, and so forth and so on.  And the second great climactic statement is in chapter 2, verse 10, which says, “And you are complete in Him.” 

So the argument of the book, then, is that in spite of the errorists’ teaching, Christ is indeed sufficient.  Christ is all we need, and he establishes that in the first two chapters.  Now, having established that Christ is sufficient, he begins, then, in chapter 3 to show what it means to have that sufficiency in Christ.  If Christ is sufficient to redeem me, if He has given me new life, if He has given to me eternal life or resurrection life, what does that mean to me?  Well, such a new life, says Paul, demands a new lifestyle.  And so chapter 3 and chapter 4 discuss the new lifestyle of the new man in Christ ... 

To that end, Paul gives the Colossians his final instructions.

MacArthur says that these verses pertain to Christian speech:

Now, in our text, Paul picks out four areas of the mouth, or related to it.  Four kinds of speech, here they come: the speech of prayer, the speech of proclamation, the speech of performance, and the speech of perfection.  Four distinct elements related to the mouth for the Christian lifestyle: the speech of prayer, the speech of proclamation, the speech of performance, and the speech of perfection ...

Paul encourages the Colossians to continue steadfastly in prayer, ensuring that they are careful to give thanks (verse 2).

Henry says that verse is connected to the first. In other words, masters should create a devout household with consistent prayer:

If this be considered as connected with the foregoing verse, then we may observe that it is part of the duty which masters owe their servants to pray with them, and to pray daily with them, or continue in prayer. They must not only do justly and kindly by them, but act a Christian and religious part, and be concerned for their souls as well as their bodies: “As parts of your charge, and under your influence, be concerned for the blessing of God upon them, as well as the success of your affairs in their hands.”

Henry explains why continuing in prayer, including thanksgiving, is so important:

And this is the duty of every one—to continue in prayer. “Keep up your constant times of prayer, without being diverted from it by other business; keep your hearts close to the duty, without wandering or deadness, and even to the end of it: Watching the same.” Christians should lay hold of all opportunities for prayer, and choose the fittest seasons, which are least liable to disturbance from other things, and keep their minds lively in the duty, and in suitable frames.—With thanksgiving, or solemn acknowledgment of the mercies received. Thanksgiving must have a part in every prayer.

MacArthur says:

First, the speech of prayer; a new lifestyle with a new man will mean a new mouth filled with a new kind of conversation … 

Prayer is the means by which the grateful soul pours out its spontaneous praise before the throne of God.  Prayer is the voice of the weeping soul calling on the sympathetic high priest in the time of need.  Prayer is the intercession of the concerned Christian, who calls on divine resources in behalf of another’s trouble.  Prayer is the simple conversation of the beloved child with the caring Father, as they talk of love ... Prayer is toward God.  Prayer is to be in line with the Holy Spirit … 

… basically what it’s saying here – and we’ve gone through this – is to have a general God consciousness, so that you see everything that happens in reference to God.  You see, the accident that happened to our young man in the high school department, somebody came by, no doubt, and drove by and said, “Poor kid, he probably ought to be careful on a motorcycle.”  Or, “Boy, it’s too bad”. 

But somebody came by, and got out and went over because he was a Christian, and knelt down and prayed, and he saw it all different than anybody else saw it.  Because he had a God consciousness, and anything and everything became cause for communion with God.  God-consciousness means that if I see something bad, I pray for those involved.  If I see something good, I praise for Him who has brought it about.  You see, it’s that conscious flow of God-consciousness …

I started chasing around that word “continue” in prayer, and the root word here, one word, kartere.  It’s a very interesting word.  It basically comes from a noun that means “strong” – strong.  The verb means to be steadfast, to endure, to hang in there.  That’s kartere, but the word used here is proskartere.  And anytime – and I’ve told you this before – you add a preposition to the front of a verb in Greek, you intensify the Greek verb.  So he’s saying if the word kartere means to be strong and steadfast, this means to be super strong, and super steadfast, and really hang in there.  It’s the idea of perseverance.

… It’s a strong commitment to something, where you are steadfast, and you endure, and you don’t bail out, and you don’t give up, and you don’t quit …

Regular readers of this column know that nothing pleases me more when Forbidden Bible Verses tie in with Sunday readings.

Today, we have not only one but two examples of such serendipity.

MacArthur calls our attention to Year C’s Gospel for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, which I wrote about yesterday.

Of continuing steadfastly in prayer, he says:

Now that’s an exciting dimension of prayer.  Well, let me give you some illustrations.  You say, “MacArthur, I don’t know whether this fits in my theology.”  Well, let me do that for you, I’ll slide it right in there.  Luke 18 – Luke 18, this is the great joy the Bible teacher has, is just the freedom not to get locked in a box, because the Bible isn’t. 

You just get everything organized in one little corner, and all of a sudden something explodes at the very opposite end, and you’ve got to release a little bit there.  “He spoke a parable unto them to this end” – Well, what was Your purpose, Lord?  Why this parable?  “That men ought always to pray and not faint.”  The whole purpose of the parable, people, is to do exactly what Paul said.  It’s so that you’ll keep praying and not fall asleep, and not quit, and not just hold your list up before God.  He said, “There was in a city a judge, and he feared not God, nor man.  And there was a widow in the city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Avenge me of mine adversary.’”  Somebody did something wrong to me, I want to bring it into court and get a just disposition of this, and I want it to be avenged for the wrong. 

“And he wouldn’t for a while.”  The judge wouldn’t do it.  “But afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wears me out.’”  Okay, okay – I’ve had it.  Now, you say, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you mean that has a divine application?”  Sure, verse 6: “The Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said’” – you listen.  “Shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?  I tell you, He will avenge them speedily.”  God is going to do things to make things right, to gain His own honor, and to give you the place of blessing, when you cry out to Him day and night.

That’s one reading.

The second is the alternative First Reading from Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God and overcomes, thereby earning the name of Israel and divine blessing.

MacArthur continues:

Virginia Stem Owens wrote a most interesting article in a recent issue of Christianity Today, in which she said this – and I want to read you part of it because I think it’s so related to this.  She said: “This is not a cosmic teddy-bear we are cuddling up to,” speaking of God.  “As one of the children describes Him in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, ‘He’s not a tame lion.’”  Jacques Ellul is convinced, he says, “that prayer for persons living in the technological age must be combat.  And not just combat with the evil one, with one’s society, or even one’s divided self, though it is all of these, but his combat with God.  We must struggle with Him just like Jacob did at Peniel, where he earned his name Israel; and Israel means ‘he who strives with God.’  We too must be prepared to say, ‘I will not let you go till You bless me.’”

Amazing.

MacArthur concludes on this point:

You say, “Well, what is all that trying to say?”  All that is trying to say something that’s true: prayer is a matter of struggling and grappling with God.  Prayer is a matter of proving to God the deepest concern of your heart. 

MacArthur cautions us about what we pray for, because we might just receive it — and not always in the way we expect:

Somebody told me this week, “You know, I get so much trouble in my life, just trouble all the time.”  And they said, “You know, I pray and I say, ‘God, all I want is Your will, and I just want to be what You want me to be.  O, Lord, make me what You want me to be.’  And all I ever get is trouble.” 

I said, “Yeah, that’s a dangerous prayer.  You say, ‘God, make me what You want me to be,’ and He says, ‘Okay – and it will be My way, and you may come away limping.’” 

That is a reference to Jacob’s limping away after his night-long wrestling match with God.

MacArthur has more on verse 2:

There’s a tension, I know, between claiming and persisting on God’s power, and God’s grace, and at the same time, waiting on His will.  But listen to this, it is resolved not by holding your persistence; it is resolved by accepting His answer.  That’s important.  Well, I kind of got wound up on that; I knew I would.  It’s a lot for continuing prayer, but that’s what he is saying; back to Colossians 4:2 …

“Continue in prayer” – and I like this – “watch in the same.”  You know, one thing you can’t do is pray without watching.  Now, you know what this simply means?  Just I mean the basic thing that it means?  Stay awake.  You can’t pray in your sleep; very difficult.  Matthew 26, there’s a good illustration of that.  The disciples fell asleep in prayer meeting.  Matthew 26 – it tells the story.  Jesus came into the garden, took with Him Peter, two sons of Zebedee, James and John, and they were there.  Jesus was praying.  Verse 40: “He came unto the disciples and He found them asleep.  And He said, ‘Peter, you couldn’t stay awake for one hour?’”  The word “watch” here means stay awake.  “You couldn’t stay awake one hour?” …

But the thought here is broader than that.  It isn’t just that; that’s very obvious.  But when he says, “Watch in the same,” I think he’s carrying over to what Peter said, in 1 Peter, chapter 4, and verse 7: “But the end of all things is at hand: be sober minded, and watch unto prayer.”  And what Peter means there is basically sober minded is the idea of knowing the priorities, and when he says, “watch unto prayer,” he means look for the things that you ought to be praying about …  

MacArthur offers us a real-life illustration of that and how well it worked:

I hadn’t been at Grace Church very long when a man came up to me and he said, “I’d like to pray for you.”  And I said, “Well, wonderful; I sure would appreciate that.”  He said, “Yes.”  He took out a notebook, and he just opened it up, and he said, “Let’s see, why don’t you give me four things to pray for?” 

And I said, “Okay.”  “Oh, just a minute [mumbles] – he wrote them all down.  He had this page divided in the middle, and he had all these request things on there, and he wrote it all down.  And then he walked away, and I thought, “A little strange.”  You know, that’s very uncommon.  So about two weeks later, I met him in the patio again; we were in the other building, there was another patio.  And he walked up to me, and he said, “Say,” he said, “by the way,” he said, “I’ve got these four requests, and I’ve been praying for two weeks.  Could you tell me what happened on those?”  And I said, “Yeah,” and he said, “Well, just a minute, uh-huh – what day was that?  Oh yes, uh-huh, the 12th of February.” 

He wrote the whole thing down on the right hand column.  And there was this big spiral notebook.  You know I had an occasion later on to be in his home, and I looked at his bookcase.  You want to hear something interesting?  There were 13 other books on the bookshelf all filled; this was number 14.  That’s what I call watching to see what you’re praying about.  You know, if you said to him, “Say there, Frank, do you believe God answers prayer?”  “Yeah, what kind would you like to know?  Uh-huh, we got – you know – I’ve got 485 of those, 796 of these” – see, that’s watching unto prayer.  You’ll never be persistent with God about something you’re not concerned about, and you’ll never get concerned about something until you know what something needs to be concerned about.  And we’ve got to watch.

That is very strange to read, because I am in a similar situation right now, praying for the well-being of someone I haven’t seen in years and might never see again, but I had an urge last year to begin praying for that person and have done so every day since with equal fervency. That’s never happened to me before.

MacArthur tells us why we should express thanksgiving in prayer:

Be thankful for your salvation, be thankful for your growth, be thankful for your fellowship, be thankful for your service.  And here he says, in verse 2, of chapter 4, “Be thankful.”  Be thankful that when you pray, you have the guarantee that God is going to answer in accord with what’s best for you.  Be thankful.  You know, no matter what happens in a prayer, you can be thankful.  When you’re praying – you know, I was trying to think, “Now, what am I thankful for when I pray?” 

Number one, the first thing I’m thankful for as I pray is God’s presence, because if it wasn’t there, it wouldn’t do me any good to pray.  So I thought, “No matter what He says or does – yes, no, maybe, wait, whatever – I’m thankful that He’s listening.  I’m thankful for His presence.”  The psalmist understood that.  Psalm 75:1: “Unto Thee, 0 God, do we give thanks.”  Why?  “That Thy name is near.”  I’m just thankful You’re there.  Whatever Your answer is, it’s just great to talk to You.

Second thing I thought of, I’m thankful not only for God’s presence, but I’m thankful for God’s provision.  You know there is no such thing as a prayer that doesn’t get answered?  He always provides an answer, always, always, always.  And I’m thankful for that.  He always provides my bread; He always provides a place to stay.  He always provides the needs of life, and that’s His promise, and I’m always thankful.  And maybe I’m asking for things beyond the needs, and I can be at the same time thankful that the needs I know are going to be met.  And as I pray, I’m not only thankful for His presence and His provision, but I’m thankful for His pardon.  Romans 6:17: “Thanks be unto God, that whereas we use to be the servants of sin, we’ve become the servants of righteousness.”  I’m thankful that He saved me.

And then I thought of a thing that kind of sums it all up.  I’m thankful for all those things, and all the things I showed you in Colossians, but I think the thing that’s just really exciting is I’m thankful for His promise.  I just – it excites me when I read 1 Corinthians 15:57.  “Thanks be to God, who always gives us” – what – “the victory.”  Man, that’s exciting.  I can pray, and no matter what the answer, no matter how God works, no matter whether I come away like Jacob, limping, no matter whether it costs me my life, or the life of somebody around me, I can come away and say, “The victory is mine,” always; because “All things are working together for” – what – “good.”  That’s God’s purpose for me.

Second Corinthians 2:14: “Thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph.”  You can’t lose in prayer.  You may not get what you ask for, but you won’t lose, because God knows that what He got you was better than what you asked for.  So no matter what happens, we’re thankful.  That never changes.  So Paul is telling us something very important about prayer.  He’s saying, “Look, pray.  And when I mean pray, I mean pray.  Get in there and wrestle with it.  Get in there and persist at it.  And keep banging until he gives you the bread.  Hold on till you’re blessed.” 

Then Paul asks for prayers for himself, not for his well-being but for preaching the Gospel message.

He asks the Colossians to pray for him in prison, that God may open a door for the word, that he may declare the mystery of Christ (verse 3).

He wrote of the mystery of Christ in Ephesians 3:

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

3 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— ² assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³ how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. ⁴ When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. ⁶ This mystery is^[a]that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

With that in mind, Henry says:

The people must pray particularly for their ministers, and bear them upon their hearts at all times at the throne of grace. As if he had said, “Do not forget us, whenever you pray for yourselves,” Eph 6 19; 1 Thess 5 25; Heb 13 18. That God would open to us a door of utterance, that is, either afford opportunity to preach the gospel (so he says, a great door and effectual is opened to me, 1 Cor 16 9), or else give me ability and courage, and enable me with freedom and faithfulness; so Eph 6 19, And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds; that is, either the deepest doctrines of the gospel with plainness, of which Christ is the principal subject (he calls it the mystery of the gospel, Eph 6 19), or else he means the preaching of the gospel to the Gentile world, which he calls the mystery hidden from ages (ch. 1 26) and the mystery of Christ, Eph 3 4. For this he was now in bonds.

MacArthur says that Paul is moving on to his second type of Christian speech. After prayer, comes proclamation. Note that his translation is different to the ESV, but the message is the same:

Here is Paul in prison, still thankful.  So the mouth of the new man, then, has the speech of prayer coming from it.  It is strong prayer, persistent prayer, watchful prayer, and grateful prayer.  Let’s look at the second.  The second element of speech is the speech, not of prayer, but verse 3 and 4, the speech of proclamation – the speech of proclamation.  The new man’s mouth utters this – notice in verse 3 – and Paul links it up with prayer as a prayer request: “Praying also for us, that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in prison: That I might make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” 

Twice you see the word speak.  Once you see the word utterance.  Once you see the word manifest.  And here is the speech of proclamation.  Here is the apostle Paul saying, “Pray for me that I may open my mouth and proclaim.”  And by allusion here – not, of course, by a direct statement to us – we see that another element in the speech of the new man is the speech of proclamation.  Notice the phrase at the end of verse 3: “For which I am also in prison,” or “bonds” …

So we find the apostle Paul in that two year imprisonment when he writes the book of Colossians.  He uses his chains as a means to accomplish his ministry.  He gets a lot of letter-writing done, because he’s not doing much traveling.  And another thing he gets a lot of done is a lot of evangelizing of soldiers.  The soldiers that came and went were no doubt evangelized.  He says in Philippians 1:13 – he also wrote Philippians during the same two years – “So that my bonds or my chains in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places.”  He says, “This is the greatest platform I’ve ever had.  They just keep sending me soldiers, I keep winning them to Christ and sending them back, and they keep winning others.” 

And crowds of people were coming to his own hired house, and he was preaching the gospel.  Philippians 4:22 says, “All the saints greet you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.”  He had even won some of the people in Caesar’s household.  Now, if you were to go backwards again, to the last verse of the book of Acts, Acts 28:31, it says this; “During the two whole years, he was preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence” – and this great statement – “no man forbidding him.”  For two years, with imprisonment as a platform, he preached and taught, and the prayer request in chapter 4 was answered, so that he had an open door, and nobody, during that whole time, ever forbid him to preach.  All the time of his bondage was a time of proclamation …

He was always proclaiming.  The only time his voice was silent was when the axe cut his head off.  What a great lesson.

He also requested that the Colossians pray that he would be able to explain the mystery of Christ clearly (verse 4).

MacArthur explains:

I see two thoughts in that phrase “I ought to speak” – that’s the ought of doing it, and that’s the ought of speaking it the way it ought to be spoken.  I’m afraid sometimes that a good message proclaimed in a bad way will do just about as much as a bad message.  Paul wants prayer about his own motivation, to speak the way he should, and about doing it right, to speak the way he should speak about the gospel.

Paul’s teachings were always about Christ, doctrine and behaviour. He did not make false promises about Christ making us personally happy or making us rich or relieving us of all our problems. He spoke and wrote of faith and salvation, emphasising perseverance.

Paul closes this section with final words of advice for the Colossians.

He tells them to walk in wisdom with those who do not know Christ and making the best use of time when those opportunities occur (verse 5).

This is the third type of Christian speech, MacArthur says, that of perfomance:

The new man, then, is going to have the speech of prayer, and the speech of proclamation.  Thirdly, verse 5, the new man is going to have the speech of performance – the speech of performance.  Now, this departs from the mouth a little bit, but really is the most essential speech of all … 

The most important thing you say is not what you say, it’s what you are.  Is that right?  Because it’s what you are that gives credibility to what you say … Walk comes before talk.  Now he says, “Walk in wisdom.”  What is wisdom?  Properly evaluating circumstances and making godly decisions.  Walk with a carefully planned, consistent, Christian lifestyle.  And if you have any question about what that walk is, you can just look at the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, 5 and 6, and it will tell you all about it. 

You have been saved, you have been given wisdom; you need to be filled with that wisdom that you might walk in it.  You know, a Christian can walk like a fool.  And then when he tries to talk, nobody believes him – nobody hears, nobody listens.  We’ve been given wisdom.  Sometimes we turn our back on it …

You want to be foolish?  Then work in the flesh.  Function in the flesh, operate in your own strength, or live for money.  There’s just a couple of ways that a Christian can play the part of a fool.

Another way is in James 3, where he says, “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?”  I’ll tell you who –“The one who shows out of a good life his works.”  You know how you can tell a wise man?  The way he behaves.  “But if you have bitter envy, strife” – hmm, that’s not wise.  That’s foolish – “confusion, every evil work.”  Oh, we see another way the Christian can play the fool – by envy, strife, division, confusion.  You see, these are just ways the Christian can play the fool in his lifestyle.  But Paul is saying here, “Don’t do that.  Walk in wisdom.”  And what is wisdom?  Right here, isn’t it?  Set your priorities according to the book.  Set your priorities according to God’s pattern.

Let me just give you four hints that will help you, four ways to get wisdom.  Number one: worship – worship.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of” – what – “wisdom,” Proverbs 9:10.  When you begin to really worship God, that’s wise.  That’s where wisdom begins.  Secondly, prayer.  James says, “If any man lack wisdom, let him” – what – “ask.”  Worship, ask; I’ll tell you another way.  Study.  You will gain God’s wisdom when you study God’s truth.  Colossians, chapter 2, verse 2: “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, Christ; In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  All right, it’s in Christ that all wisdom exists …

Through the act of worshipping God, God imparts to us His wisdom.  Through prayer, through study, through instruction from godly teachers, that wisdom is available, that wisdom is to be maintained, and that wisdom is to issue in a wise lifestyle …