Colossianschapter 4
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Speaks with:Ephesians 6×6Philemon 1×62 Timothy 4×31 Thessalonians 5×22 Thessalonians 3×2Colossians 2×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal. Continue in prayer; watch in the same with thanksgiving. Pray for us. That a door of utterance be opened. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without; let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt. Tychicus and Onesimus will bring news. Greetings from Aristarchus, Mark, Jesus called Justus, Epaphras, Luke, Demas. The Epistle to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Henry reads the chapter as the apostolic farewell to a Lycian valley church.
Context
Epistle · Paul — Colossians overview
- A. 1–6 Pray for an Open Door; Season Your Speech With Salt
- B. 7–9 Tychicus and Onesimus, One of Your Own
- C. 10–18 The Company Around Paul, and Epaphras Wrestling in Prayer
The outline
A.Pray for an Open Door; Season Your Speech With Saltvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Tychicus and Onesimus, One of Your Ownvv. 7 to 9
Read vv. 7 to 9 →C.The Company Around Paul, and Epaphras Wrestling in Prayervv. 10 to 18
Read vv. 10 to 18 →
The world behind this chapter
Colossians 4The history
Tychicus is the carrier, and Onesimus travels with him. Onesimus is described as one of your own — which lines up with the separate short letter Paul sent to Philemon at Colossae about a runaway slave returning home. The two letters went by the same hand on the same road.
Paul's instruction to exchange letters with Laodicea, and to read the one coming from there, is one of the earliest signs of Christian writings circulating between churches. The Laodicean letter itself has not survived under that name, and identifications of it with other letters are guesses.
The greeting list carries small biographical facts found nowhere else: Mark is Barnabas's cousin, and the churches are told to welcome him — a quiet resolution of the split back in Acts. Luke is called the beloved physician, the only place his profession is named. Demas is greeted here without comment; a later letter says he deserted.
Nympha hosts a church in her house at Laodicea, another reminder that there were no church buildings and that women of means often provided the room.
Epaphras is described as always struggling in prayer for them, and as having worked hard for Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis — the three towns of the valley.
What it meant to them
The practical advice at the top of the chapter is easy to skip and was not easy to do: walk in wisdom toward outsiders, make the best use of the time, and let your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, so you know how to answer each person.
The last words Paul writes in his own hand are four of them: remember my chains. A letter about the supremacy of Christ over every power ends with the reminder that the man who wrote it was under guard.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Colossians 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.