Colossians 4:2-6
Character-Commands for A Strong Christian Witness
I. \\#1:1-2:23\\ The Person of God Displayed through Christ
A. \\#1:1-12\\ Introduction
1. \\#1-2\\ Paul’s Salutation
2. \\#1:3-8\\ Paul’s Recognition
3. \\#1:9-11\\ Paul’s Prayer
B. \\#1:12-2:3\\ The Person of Christ
1. \\#1:12-14\\ Paul’s Thanks
2. \\#1:15-22\\ Paul’s Message
a. \\#15-17\\ Who Jesus is in Creation.
(1) \\#15\\ Jesus, the image of the invisible God.
(2) \\#15\\ Jesus, the firstborn of every creature.
(3) \\#16\\ Jesus, the Creator of all things.
(4) \\#17\\ Jesus, the One before all things.
(5) \\#17\\ Jesus, the One by whom all things consist.
b. \\#18-21\\ Who Jesus is in the church
(1) \\#18\\ Jesus, the Head of the body.
(2) \\#18\\ Jesus, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
(3) \\#19\\ Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead.
(4) \\#20\\ Jesus. the Peacemaker.
(5) \\#21\\ Jesus, the Reconciler.
(6) \\#22\\ Jesus, the Presenter.
3. \\#1:23\\ Paul’s Challenge
4. \\1:24-2:3\\ Paul’s Ministry
a. \\#1:24\\ Paul Enduring
b. \\#1:25-28\\ Paul Entrusted
c. \\#2:1-3\\ Paul Expected
C. \\#2:4-23\\ Warnings to the Church
1. \\#2:4-7\\ Don’t Be Beguiled
2. \\#2:8-15\\ Don’t Be (Spoiled) Ruined
3. \\#2:16-17\\ Don’t Be (Judged) Condemned
4. \\#2:18\\ Don’t Lose Your Reward
5. \\#2:19-23\\ Don’t Lose Your Christ
D. \\#2:10-23\\ The Solution is to Remember
1. \\#2:9-10\\ Who Christ is.
2. \\#2:11-15\\ What Christ has done.
3. \\#2:16-23\\ What we should do.
II. \\#3:1-4:18\\ The Person of God Displayed through the Believers
A. \\#3:1\\ A Condition
B. \\#3:2-4\\ A Correlation
C. \\#3:5-4:6\\ Commands
1. \\#3:5-17\\ For A Growing Christian
a. \\#5-7\\ We must kill some things.
b. \\#8-9\\ We must "put off" some things.
c. \\#10-17\\ We must "put on" some things.
2. \\#3:18-21\\ For A Godly Home
3. \\#3:22-4:1\\ For Good Business
4. \\#4:2-6\\ For A Strong Christian Witness
a. \\#2-4\\ Pray
b. \\#5\\ Walk Wisely
c. \\#6\\ Speak Graciously
I. \\#3:5-4:6\\ Commands
A. \\#3:5-17\\ For A Growing Christian
B. \\#3:18-21\\ For A Godly Home
C. \\#3:22-4:1\\ For Good Business
D. \\#4:2-6\\ For A Strong Witness—The commands for this topic are a little
different than those given earlier. Those earlier were commands to help
the Christian help himself. Now Paul gives some commands to help the
Christian help others.
1. \\#2-4\\ To be a strong Christian witness, we must pray. In this
section, Paul gives five instructions relating to prayer. I will
discuss those, but in doing so, I also want to give you six things
which prayer is.
a. Paul’s first command here is to pray
(1) Prayer is communication with God.
(2) Prayer at its most basic level is just talking to God.
(3) God wants us to talk to Him about everything.
(a) Young people, think of God as Facebook in your head.
(Whereas some of your Facebook friends may not want
to hear every thought that you have, God does.)
(b) Christians should talk to God more than they talk
to, text to, or post to anyone else!
b. \\#2\\ Continue (Stay) in Prayer.
(1) To continue means to stay at praying.
(2) Prayer is a discipline; that is, it is something that you must
both learn and master.
(a) No one naturally prays.
(b) It is not native to our sinful nature.
(c) Prayer is like artistry or music, once saved we have
an ability for it; but we must work to develop that
ability and to use that gift.
(3) Paul’s emphasis in this statement is not so much to pray long
but to pray regularly.
(a) To do so will require discipline.
i. Discipline means to control.
ii. To pray, we must control or change the daily habits
of our lives.
iii. That means we must train ourselves to pray.
(b) Paul’s point is that we have to stick to praying.
i. To pray requires a conscious effort.
ii. The fact that we have to consciously work to continue
to pray tells us some things.
aa. Prayer is not easy. It is hard work.
bb. Prayer does not quickly give its final results.
(Matt 7:7 in the Greek is continuous action.)
Mt 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
(4) Praying is to become a way of daily living for the Christian.
c. Watch in Prayer.
(1) Prayer is a tool.
(a) Prayer is talking but it is not JUST talking.
(b) Prayer is a versatile tool in the Christian arsenal.
(c) By versatile, I mean it has been applications. It can
be used in many different ways.
(d) Paul mentions one here.
(2) Prayer reveals the unseen.
(a) Prayer is like NIGHT VISION glasses.
(b) You can see things in prayer that you would not normally
see. (Things that are there but to which we are blind.)
(3) So we are to be watching as we pray.
(a) We are watching for the devil’s snares and temptations.
(b) We are watching for God’s leading.
(c) We are watching for understanding, wisdom, illumination.
i. One of the best times to understand Scripture is
while praying.
ii. As I seek understanding of a situation, God often
brings Bible verses to my mind to explain what is
happening.
d. Thank in prayer.
(1) Prayer is a courtesy.
(2) God has done wonderful things for you.
(3) Thank Him for them.
e. \\#3-4\\ Make petition for those serving in prayer.
(1) \\#3\\ Prayer is aid.
(a) Paul makes a personal request in this verse.
(b) He asks that His readers pray for him.
(c) It has been awhile since I mentioned it, but Colossians
is a prison epistle (Philippians, Ephesians, Philemon,
and Colossians).
(d) That being the case, Paul not only had needs but unique
needs, and he asks these believes to petition heaven on
his behalf.
(e) While it is too late for us to pray for Paul, we can
and should pray for others in similar conditions.
(2) Paul requests prayer aid in two areas.
(a) Pray for "a door of utterance."
i. That is, pray for an opportunity to share the gospel.
ii. That makes prayer is ministry.
iii. Perhaps some doors can be made, but most have to be
opened from the other side. (God is the One who can
get into the heart of the hostile to open it.)
iv. Paul learned quickly that being in prison was no
excuse to quit preaching.
v. Wherever there are people, there is a mission field.
vi. Paul just needed the right setting to speak to the
other prisoners and the guards.
(b) \\#4\\ Pray "that I may make it manifest, as I ought."
i. That is, pray for the presentation.
ii. Not only do we need the opportunity, we need the
right words.
aa. Every Christian should learn how to "present"
the gospel.
bb. Your presentation does not have to be (and
should not be) a memorized, cold, rehearsed
speech.
cc. However, you should have a planned, memorized,
logical, and ordered arrangement of Bible
facts, verses, and explanation.
iii. Simply…
aa. …know the truth,
bb. …be able to back it up from the Bible,
cc. …and know generally how you want to say it.
iv. And we need the right spirit.
aa. We are not going to argue or to anger.
bb. We are going to show and to help.
cc. If they are not willing to listen, the door is
not open.
dd. Sometimes the best presentation is to thank them
for their time and walk away gracefully.
ee. Not always—sometimes there is nothing to lose by
being a little forceful.
ff. Try not to close the door for the next seed
sower.
2. \\#5\\ To Be A Strong Christian Witness We Must Walk Wisely
a. Paul’s instruction breaks down into three parts:
(1) walk in wisdom,
(2) toward those without,
(3) redeeming the time.
b. It is interesting that Paul did not intend the thoughts of this
verse to be considered separately but together.
(1) To "walk in wisdom" means to live a wise life, to behave
wisely.
(2) "Toward them that are without" - Means especially toward the
unsaved, those without Christ and His blessings.
(3) And when you do, you are able to "redeem the time." That is,
you are not wasting your time, your life, your opportunities.
c. If you want to make your life count, do it right!
(1) Purpose to live wisely.
(2) Where does wisdom come from? The Word of God.
(3) Hence to live wisely is to live as God teaches us to live.
(4) If you will do it that way, you will not lose a single moment;
but you invest them into eternity where you will be
handsomely rewarded.
3. \\#3\\ To Be A Strong Christian Witness We Must Speak Graciously
a. To speak graciously is not so much a thought of WHAT you say but
of HOW you say it.
(1) Certainly, what a Christian says is important.
(a) God gives many commands that a Christian’s speech is not
to be vulgar, unclean, untrue or anything like it.
(b) So CONTENT is very important to God and should be to us.
(2) Yet, sometimes a Christian must say some harsh things.
(a) Paul’s thought here is not the CONTENT but the STYLE and
ATTITUDE with which we say it.
(b) Even when what we say is harsh, it should be said
graciously.
(c) Perhaps I should say that ESPECIALLY when what we must
say is harsh, it should be said graciously.
(3) I have known some who had the nicest way of correcting you.
(a) Jessica Morris
(b) I myself do not excel with this gift. I fear too much the
person not getting the message so that I tend to be too
blunt, too easily understood.
b. Paul compares the delivery of an unsavory message to that of having
to eat an unsavory food. To do so, one seasons it with salt.
(1) The idea behind seasoning was not just to make a food taste
different. It was to make a food taste better.
(2) In those days, you ate some things not because you liked it
but because it was what you had.
(3) In fact, you might be eating something you did not like at all
but if it was what you had, you did the best you could with
it.
(4) To help eat that disliked food, they added seasoning to it—
salt, pepper, whatever.
(5) So Paul is telling us that when we have to deliver a message
that will not be particularly enjoyed, deliver it with grace.
c. NOTICE - This is "how ye ought to answer every man."
(1) Those who deal with the disagreeable have to a special
anointing of grace to do it right.
(2) Remember, anyone can speak the truth. It takes a messenger of
grace to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE \\#Eph 4:14\\.
d. Might I say that speaking with grace is another of those traits
that God gives but man must develop.
(1) The Holy Ghost will teach us WHAT to say and even give us an
idea of HOW to say it.
(2) The task is then for us to receive His grace and do it.
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
