Scripture Reading: Col. 3:18-25; 4:1-6
In this message we shall consider 3:18—4:6. This portion of Colossians contains matters that are crucial for our Christian life. We should not isolate this part of the book from the foregoing chapters and verses. On the contrary, we need to see that it is a continuation of all that Paul has covered. We have pointed out again and again that Colossians reveals who Christ is and what Christ is. Eventually, in 3:10 and 11, we see that Christ is the new man. Because Christ is the new man, we and Christ are one. This is the basic and most crucial point in this book.
In chapters one and two Paul covers many aspects of Christ. Christ is the portion of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation, the firstborn from among the dead, the One in whom the fullness of the Triune God dwells, the mystery of God’s economy, the mystery of God, the indwelling hope of glory, and the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In chapter two Paul goes on to declare that Christ is the reality of all the shadows. Because such a Christ is all and in all in the new man, of which we are a part, Christ eventually becomes us. We and Christ are one. God’s ultimate goal in His economy is to gain this new man constituted of the preeminent, all-inclusive Christ wrought into a corporate people. We all need to have such a high view of God’s economy. According to this view, we and Christ are one, for we and He have one life with one living.
Paul’s intention in writing the book of Colossians was to impress all the believers with the fact that Christ is everything. The Jewish believers should forget their ordinances and observances, and the Gentile believers should lay aside their philosophical concepts. We were not regenerated for the sake of such observances and concepts. We were regenerated for Christ. Now we need to be filled with Christ, saturated with Christ, and permeated with Christ until Christ becomes us.
We have pointed out that in God’s economy there is one Person, Christ, and one way, the cross. Through this one Person and one way, God will gain the new man. The new man is Christ constituted into us. On the one hand, the new man is Christ; on the other hand, we, the believers, are the new man. For this reason, in the new man, Christ and we are one.
As those who are part of the new man, we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate within us and let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. If we do this, we shall spontaneously express Christ in our daily living. This means that we shall live out Christ, for we are one with Him, we have His peace, and we have His word. Therefore, we become the expression of Christ in a practical way.
God desires that Christ be expressed through human life. We see this in 3:18—4:1, a sister passage to Ephesians 5:22—6:9, regarding the believers’ ethical relationships. In Ephesians the emphasis is on the need of spirit-filled ethical relationships for the expression of the Body in the normal church life. In Colossians the emphasis is that we should hold Christ as our Head and take Him as our life by having His rich word dwelling in us, that the highest ethical relationships, issuing not from our natural life but from Christ as our life, may be realized for His expression.
If we live in union with Christ, Christ will be expressed through our humanity. Christ is to be expressed in the human life, not in the angelic life. Angels cannot express Christ. The Father has ordained that we, His chosen ones, be the expression of His Son. “Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me,” should be our prayer (see Hymns #403).
If we would be those through whom Christ can live, we need to pass through the first two and a half chapters of the book of Colossians. Then, coming to 3:15 and 16, we need to be those in whom the peace of Christ arbitrates and in whom the word of Christ dwells richly. Then Christ will be expressed in our human living.
Many of those in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Catholicism have a low estimate of human life. They do not care for marriage or for the proper family life. They prefer to remain unmarried, and they aspire to live a type of angelic life. But the angelic life cannot express Christ. On the contrary, Christ needs to be expressed in those who are husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, and slaves. In order to express Christ, we need to have a proper and normal human life.
As an elderly person with eight children and more than twenty grandchildren, I can testify that the Lord knows how to choose the best husband or wife for us and what kind of children we should have. He also knows how to break us and make us transparent so that we can express Christ. Through our family life we learn many valuable lessons from the Lord. I believe that the angels are observing to see whether or not we live out Christ in our family life. It is not as difficult to live out Christ in the church as it is to live Him out at home. But how wonderful it is for a brother or sister to express Christ in his or her married life! No brother or sister in the Lord’s recovery should aspire to live like a monk or nun. At the right time, the brothers and sisters should marry and then learn through the experiences of married life to express Christ in their human living.
The living of the saints in union with Christ should result in the expression of Christ in human life. If we see this, we shall praise the Lord for our human living. Furthermore, we shall have a fresh appreciation for married life. I can testify that I am thankful for my wife, children, and grandchildren. I am grateful for all the lessons the Lord has taught me through them. The more I advance in years, the more I appreciate the lessons I have learned through the course of my human life. In the relationship between wife and husband and between children and parents we need to live out Christ and express Him.
The principle is the same in the relationship between masters and servants. In verses 22 through 25 Paul gives a charge to the slaves. In verse 24 he speaks of receiving “the reward of the inheritance.” This point is not made as clear in Eph. 6:8 as it is here. There is an inheritance for the believers (Rom. 8:17; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:4). The reward of the inheritance indicates that the Lord uses the inheritance which He will give His believers as an incentive that they may be faithful in their service to Him. The unfaithful ones will surely miss this reward (Matt. 24:45-51; 25:20-29).
In Colossians 4:2-4 Paul turns to the matter of prayer. In verse 2 he says, “Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.” To persevere is to continue persistently, steadfastly, and earnestly. In prayer we need to be watchful and alert, not negligent. Such watchfulness should be accompanied by thanksgiving.
If we would express Christ in our human living and preserve the grace we have received from the Lord, we need to persevere in prayer. As we spend time to consider the revelation of the all-inclusive Christ in Colossians, we shall surely receive grace from the Lord. Eventually, we shall see that we and Christ are one, that His peace is arbitrating within us, and that His word is filling us. Then we shall be able to live Him out and express Him. However, no matter how much grace we receive from the Lord, it will leak away if we fail to persevere in prayer. Only prayer can maintain the grace we receive. Only through prayer can this grace become prevailing and living in our experience. To be sure, the Christian life is a life of receiving grace. But this life needs to be sustained by prayer.
The most important matter in the maintenance of our physical life is breathing. Breathing is even more important than eating and drinking. We can go for days without eating or drinking, but only a few minutes without breathing. Prayer is spiritual breathing. To pray is to breathe.
When some saints hear a word about prayer, they immediately ask how to pray. We should forget about how and simply pray. For example, a child learns to walk by walking. Few parents teach their children to walk. In the same principle, we learn to pray by praying.
In 4:2 Paul charges us to persevere in prayer. This means that we should not merely continue in prayer, but we should strive to continue. Almost everything in our environment is contrary to prayer. In order to pray, we must go against the tide, the current, of our environment. If we fail to pray, we shall be swept downstream. Only prayer can enable us to go against the current. Therefore, we need to persevere in prayer, to pray persistently.
Day by day we need to exercise ourselves to pray. We should even set aside certain times each day for prayer. Do not excuse yourself by saying that you do not have the burden to pray. Pray even when you seem to have no burden, or when apparently you have nothing to say to the Lord. You have much to say to others. Why not go to the Lord and tell Him the very things you tell them? If you do not know what to say to the Lord, pray like this: “Lord, I come to You, but I don’t know what to say, and I don’t know how to pray. Lord, teach me to pray and tell me what to say. Lord, in this matter have mercy on me.” If you do this, you will find that often when you pray in this way, some genuine prayer will come forth. When you feel that you are burdened to pray, your prayer may not be genuine. But when you go to the Lord in prayer even without a burden, telling Him that you have nothing to say, you will find yourself refreshed in the Lord and able to pray genuinely. When we open to the Lord and admit that we do not know what to say to Him, we breathe in fresh spiritual air, and we are preserved in the Lord’s grace.
Paul also encourages us to watch in prayer. We need to be watchful against the enemy. We do not know what will happen in the next few minutes. We need to be watchful because the Christian life is a life of fighting, a life of warfare.
In 4:5 and 6 Paul says, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” To redeem the time is to seize every favorable opportunity to minister life. This is to be wise in our walk. In this evil age, every day is an evil day, full of pernicious things which destroy, spoil, and waste our time. Therefore, we must walk wisely that we may redeem the time, seizing every available opportunity.
To walk in wisdom is to grasp each opportunity to redeem our time. This redeeming of the time is related to the way we speak to others. Often I must confess to the Lord my foolishness in talking to people. By talking to them in a certain way, I wasted time. I did not use wisdom enough to minister life and thereby to avoid friction. Instead, I wasted time by engaging in conversation in which there was no ministry of life. We need to pray that the Lord will grant us wisdom in our contact with others. If we walk in wisdom in speaking to others, we shall redeem our time. We all have missed opportunities to minister life because we spent the time in foolish talk.
The best way to redeem our time is to pray perseveringly, to be watchful, and to walk in wisdom. If we do these things, we shall grasp all the favorable opportunities to minister life. If we do not persevere in prayer and if we are not watchful, we shall fail to grasp opportunities to minister life. Whenever we contact others without the exercise of wisdom, we waste time. On some occasions we may waste a half hour in conversation where nothing of life is ministered. We all must learn to pray, to watch, and to seek the Lord for His wisdom so that we may redeem our time.
In verse 6 Paul says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” In Ephesians 4:29 Paul refers to words that give grace to those who hear. Grace is Christ as our enjoyment and supply. Our speech should convey this grace to others. The word that builds up others always ministers such grace to the hearers. For our speech to be with grace means that Christ is expressed through our words. This means that our words should be the expression and utterance of Christ. Every word must be the expression of Christ as grace.
Our speech should also be seasoned with salt. Salt makes things agreeable and pleasant to the taste. Speech seasoned with salt keeps us at peace with one another (Mark 9:50). If our words are with grace and are salted, they will cause things to be agreeable, and they will also arouse the proper taste in others.
In 4:2-6 Paul covers five important matters: praying, watching, walking in wisdom, redeeming the time, and speech that is with grace and seasoned with salt. It is difficult to determine whether the main point in these verses is prayer or redeeming the time. But no matter which one we take as the focal point, it is a certainty that the proper Christian life requires that we redeem the time. All those on earth today are wasting time and missing valuable opportunities. But we need to redeem every moment and grasp every opportunity. In order to live such a life, we need to be filled with Christ and saturated with Him. We need to be one with Christ and allow His peace to arbitrate in us and His word to fill us. Then we shall express Him by praying, by watching, and by walking in wisdom. If we are such persons, we shall be those who redeem the time and seize every available opportunity to minister life. Furthermore, our words will not be a cause of trouble. On the contrary, through the thorough dealing of the Lord, whatever proceeds out of our mouth will be a word of grace seasoned with salt. Such a word will make things agreeable and pleasant to the taste. May we all learn these things and practice them.
