Always with grace, Col, 4:2-6

A couple of passages in Colossians, verses 2 through 4. This is actually similar to the passage, chapter 6, 18 through 20 in Ephesians that we studied, but there are enough differences and I think some unique insights that I wanted us to take a look at it as well.

Now it says in the New American Standard, devote yourselves, as King James has continued, and proskartoreo is the word there. It's a present active imperative. It's used about ten times in the New Testament, and it's very helpful for us to have some insight into it. It has the idea of sticking with something or staying in continuance with something. This present active form already conveys the idea of right now continuing. This word underscores that, and we'll see how it does in a minute. It has this idea, steadfastly continuing in prayer from one moment to the next, remaining there. And so what that would say is whatever circumstance you're in, you're tying your shoes, playing with the kids, in the hospital, visiting somebody in the hospital, driving down the road in a traffic jam, those are all perfectly good times to remain in prayer with the Lord.

The other thing is it's also an imperative. This is not, boy, here's a little suggestion I have for you. You might want to think about it, consider it. No, it's an imperative. and is based upon the believer's eternal position in Christ. It is the position that you as a believer have eternally. It starts from the moment that you believed and continues up until now.

So the question is, should I really try to pray hard? Should we try to do that? We could easily see this as some sort of a forceful command telling us, boy, you better really work hard. Redouble your efforts to really pray hard. And you could even promise God you're going to pray some more.

You're going to look at your watch. Oh, I've got to increase the amount of time. I've got to stopwatch clocking the minutes that I'm ticking away in prayer. I'm keeping track of it. I'm two minutes ahead of yesterday, and I plan on doing two minutes more tomorrow to get even better and better and better at this, right? Is that what he has in mind? Probably not. You see, if we did that, we'd miss Paul's main point in the letter. What the Lord has in mind here is something else.

Ongoing prayer, which is simply our ongoing conversation, communication with the Father, is what the life of Christ looks like in the believer. When Jesus Christ walked the earth, did He not stay in constant communication with the Father? When He had something heavy to do with, did He not communicate with the Father deeply and dearly about it? The life of Christ and the believer looks like that. It is not an effort that we carry out, but a dependence upon Christ Himself and His life that shows forth as this continuance in prayer.

So here's this Word. One of the things that's interesting is where the Word shows up, we mentioned before ten times in the New Testament, half of those times it's connected with prayer. So there is an ongoing, steady, continuing, steadfast message in the New Testament that the believer is to continue and be steadfast in prayer. Let me give you what I think is a helpful insight. The first place in the New Testament where this word shows up, the exact same word. Here it is, recorded for us in Mark chapter 3, verses 7 and 8.

Jesus had withdrawn to the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. a great many people who were gathering around him in a crowd, so much so that they were pressing against him as he was trying to speak to them on the shore. So he told his disciples, have a boat ready for me. And when he did so, look at the word he used. He told his disciples that a boat should, this word, proskatareo, for him, stand ready.

Be available. So as Paul is telling us in this passage here, make sure that you're really praying hard and trying to put more and more time into it, shoving everything out. I don't have time for lunch. I've got to pray. Hon, you need a shower. No, no, I've got to pray. Vern, you need a haircut. No, no, I've got to pray.

We need to take also a careful look at what Paul means by alert. Very important here. Should we start drinking coffee a lot and so we're really spiritual? Is that what Paul has in mind? I know what we'll do. We'll make this the alertness church of Denver. Put a really big coffee machine in. Is that what he has in mind? Maybe not.

This is a clarification and a qualification of what this steadfastness in prayer looks like. That's what he's doing. that as we are steadfast in prayer, and the passage in Mark gives us some insight, as we are continually available to the Lord to communicate with Him, to fellowship with Him, in that, that we stay alert, meaning not that we have our eyes wide open and we decide we're never sleeping again, but that we be aware of what's going on spiritually. You see, it's easy, you know, we'll look at the newspaper and that'll tell us what's going on in the world, you know. We'll look at various things and we'll say, well, I noticed the light there, the traffic light, it's red, I better stop. And we'll notice outside things like this. This is saying, be aware of what's going on spiritually. What's the spiritual stance of things? What's the status? What's happening in the spiritual realm? Not making things up, not trying to look for things that aren't there.

But based on the insights I had from God's Word, what do I know about what's going on? Be aware of it. Be alert in that sense. Now, an attitude of thanksgiving. Well, aren't we in a perfect season for that? Right? An attitude of thanksgiving. Well, but there's a problem with that. By the end of the month, it won't be Thanksgiving anymore. Then what am I going to do? Well, we better figure out what this is all about.

Paul has spent chapter is telling the church at Colossae, and as we saw the church in Ephesus, all about who they are in Christ. There is a continuing and ongoing, and Paul prays for an eye-opening recognition for these two churches that they might understand the overwhelming grace that the Lord has shown them.

Riches of His grace overthrown is the word that he uses more than once. Huperballo, it's like hyper, our word ball. Huperballo, to overthrow, you know, over the top. Now in baseball, that would be an error. God's not making errors. He has given us grace way beyond even any expectation or understanding that we have. It's a recognition of the richness in how He's blessed us. how unfathomable is the magnitude of our blessings.

We pointed out in Ephesians 2.7, it will take eternity for God to reveal the grace that He has shown towards us. We will go a trillion years from now if that has any meaning at all.

This is in the book of Colossians, the last of seven thanksgivings. We pointed this out previously from the very first chapter, and one of the things we find is continuing on in every chapter at least once, this message of thanksgiving, being thankful. And so he ends the message here, not that he's intending at all that they end the understanding. He wants them certainly to understand, that's why he keeps going back to it. One of the principles of interpretation we've brought out is when we see an issue brought up repeatedly in a book, it's probably because it was an issue in the church. They needed to learn what thanksgiving and gratitude was about. They needed to gain that perspective, which is why I go over it not once, not twice, but seven times before the end of the book.

Praying at the same time for us as well. As you look at this here, Paul knew the church at Ephesus fairly well, and he didn't write a whole lot of names. I suspect that he wanted Tychicus to deliver personal messages to people. Here in the church at Colossae, he did write a few names, and I think it was probably to make some connection with the people there, because he had not been to that church himself. He asked prayer in the book of Ephesians, in the parallel passage, for himself.

Here, very interestingly enough, he makes the point, pray for us. Notice, as you look at here, pray for us as well. That God will open to us a door for the Word. In Ephesians 6, 18-20, the parallel passage, Paul is asking for them to pray that he would be bold, a work in his own heart. We've got a question.

What's this open door about that he's asking them to pray for? Open door. Does that mean if we open the church doors that that covers it? If they open the prison doors for Paul, that that covers it for him? No. He's looking for something else, isn't he? Let's take a look here. This open door appears to be more of a matter of circumstances and a matter of working in people's hearts to open the door.

One of the things we notice, and you have this in your handout, kind of in series with several verses, Acts 14.27, here's Paul's first missionary journey, he's going with Barnabas, and that open door for the gospel idea shows up. When they had arrived and gathered the church together, this was the church at Antioch, where they had first been sent and now returned, They began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door to faith to the Gentiles. The Lord had opened the door among the Gentiles. Now, let me ask you this question.

Does that mean that Paul and Barnabas had no troubles whatsoever? Everything was smooth as silk the whole trip? Is that what that means? No. They said that in spite of the fact that John Mark bailed on them. before they even got halfway through the journey. They said that even though at one point Paul and Barnabas were tearing their clothes in order to express their grief at being thought of as Zeus and Hermes. It wasn't at all because everything was smooth. They still saw an open door, a door of opportunity in spite of difficulty, opposition, and things that we might look at as, that's not good.

Now, 1 Corinthians 16, 8 and 9. He says, I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective service has opened for me, and there are many adversaries. Interesting. He even puts the connection here. There's a door wide open, but plenty of adversaries. We get the same message, don't we? Difficulties along the way do not mean the door of opportunity is closed. Here he says, there are many adversaries, but the door is wide open.

Now, 2 Corinthians 2.12, Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, the interesting observation there, that's from Acts 16.6-24, Paul and Silas went to prison. That's his door of opportunity. How about that? We may indeed encounter difficulties along the route. It does not at all mean that the door of opportunity, spiritually speaking, is closed. Opposition and difficulties are not the signal that the door is not open.

I think as we look at what he's written here, there's some principles of prayer we can draw. We can certainly, as we've seen before, ask the Lord to make believers bold. That's what we saw in Ephesians chapter 6, 18-20. And to bring bold believers into the lives of those who need to hear the gospel. We can certainly do that. The Lord is the one who opens the doors of opportunity. Ever try to crash down the doors? I've been there, okay? Try to crash down the doors? Boy, I'm going to make an opportunity here. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Believers should look to God for boldness and not to human motivations and law. Years ago, there was a song that we had around our house and the title of it was Automatic Witness. And the words went something like, automatic witness, stuck in overdrive. And the idea is, boy, I'm just going to cram this down people's throat. Boy, we've got to go out there and spread the gospel.

And so it's like a car, you can't get out of gear or the throttle is stuck. It's going to go. And that's not what he's calling for. He's not calling for us to crash down the doors and bust down the doors either. Opposition doesn't necessarily mean that we aren't to speak the truth, or that God hasn't opened the door. That isn't the signal. Not the right one.

Let's take a look further here. So that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ. The speaking forth was something that was typically thought of as, this is something that a prophet would do. Speaking forth was certainly something that they wanted to do with the gospel. So you'd understand that, no problem. And as we went along here, there was this sense of mystery.

Now, in the context of the culture, one of the things we pointed out some time back is a mystery was something that in the religions was kept secret. And you even took an oath upon penalty of death not to reveal it. Paul does the exact opposite. that we might speak forth the mystery.

It no longer is shrouded in fog and mystique. We want the mystery to be plain. What was previously unknown now needs to be made plain and revealed. That's his point. So here, it isn't a question of if I should tell the gospel. He's looking only for wisdom to recognize those open doors and that the Lord would indeed be the one who opens them. for which I have also been imprisoned."

Now, he kind of turns a corner here. Paul wrote three times of his being imprisoned in Ephesians, and we made note of those. And notice, while he mentions it, he never makes a big deal of it. He never spends a whole chapter saying, boy, you know, this place is cold. And that Praetorian guard that comes during the night shift, he's horrible, you know.

And boy, I tell you, these shackles are getting really heavy. I'm getting a little sore on my left arm. I'm asking him to shift to the right arm, but he won't. And, boy, if I could get food here more often, it'd sure be nice. And by the time it gets here, it's not really hot. He doesn't go on and on like that, does he? Brief mention. Brief mention. Just a slight reminder, but nothing more.

In Colossians, we see that he mentions it here, and in 4.18, we'll see it again. Also, he mentions being a fellow prisoner with Aristarchus in 4.10. He says, that I may make it clear the way I ought to speak. What's interesting here is that he asks for prayer for us and then he turns a corner here and makes it personal. That I may make it clear. I suspect maybe he didn't want to imply that the other people weren't making it clear, but he certainly wanted to make it clear as he spoke. So the prayer certainly was including himself, and he himself wanted to make the gospel clear, and he asked for prayer to that effect.

Verses 5 and 6, as we go to them here, we get some valuable spiritual insights regarding how do we relate to unbelievers. And that's one of the reasons why we are covering it here this morning. I think this is particularly helpful. as he writes the Church at Colossae and the Church at Ephesus, he talks a lot about, here's how you deal with one another, here is to be the interaction between believers. But he says, okay, now let's talk about what's it to be like in your relationship with unbelievers.

We all run into them, good thing to touch upon, right? Something else to look at, he doesn't just talk about Here's the way you talk. He doesn't just talk about your lifestyle, he mentions both, so we'll see those in detail here. Conduct yourself. Walk in the King James. Actually, the King James is more literal here. It's the same word, walk, that we've seen in earlier passages. Peripateos, walk about. As you walk about, step by step, one after another, this is the ordering of one's life. What's the pattern of life? To look at a modern equivalent, we might use the word lifestyle. What is your lifestyle? What's the character of the way you live?

He qualifies it here in wisdom. The lifestyle that you walk is to be in wisdom. That's the way he spelled it out. Paul has been using the word walk, he used it all throughout Ephesians, and now he's using it here for the last time in the book of Colossians. He's mentioned it in Colossians at least once in each chapter here. And it's this ordering your life, step by step, walking about. That's what he's pointed to. When we were earlier going through the book of Ephesians in chapter 2, we pointed this out. The unbeliever walks and trespasses and sins. The believer is in Christ. He is urging the believer to walk where you've been placed. Walk in Christ.

Question then is, what's wisdom? What is this thing we call wisdom? He's written them about wisdom also at least once in each chapter. The New Testament, and I think it's important for us to see this, makes a sharp division. This world has what it calls wisdom. And what is revealed in scripture is God's wisdom. and there's a sharp distinction.

One of the other things, although this is listed in your handout, is this list is not exhaustive. It doesn't even include this particular passage, for example. So you will find more than what we could fit into the page there. But nonetheless, there is a sharp distinction.

There is godly wisdom and there is worldly wisdom, the wisdom of this world, and they're not looked upon as a grayscale kind of thing. They are instead looked upon as having a sharp distinction. Now, godly wisdom, what is it? It's the application of biblical knowledge, that is, it's revealed by God, and the understanding that comes with it. It's the understanding, it's lived out. How do I live out what God has revealed for our benefit? That's what godly wisdom is. Now, we have another insight, too.

1 Corinthians 1.24 says that Christ is the wisdom of God. Who He is, what God has done through Him, what Christ did on the cross, His resurrection, all those things express God's wisdom in Christ. And so the believer, being in Christ, is in wisdom. Positionally, if you're a believer here this morning, you are in wisdom.

Paul's urging, walk in it. He is not urging us to do in our daily condition, what we do day to day, any different than we already are eternally in our eternal position in Christ. Ephesians 2, 8-10 has this insight, We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Has God prepared anything for us to walk in that isn't His wisdom? No, certainly not.

We are simply walking, as we depend upon Christ, in the wise things, walking in wisdom, as we depend upon Him. Now here's an interesting one, toward outsiders. King James there has, toward them that are without. So the question comes, what's an outsider? If you're inside these walls, you're an insider. If you're not, you're an outsider. Is that the idea? What's an outsider? You better ask that question. Let me give you a little insight here.

During my high school years, I lived in this little tiny valley out in the farm country. Well, I was way out in the farm country. We were two miles off a paved road. It took me 13 miles about each way going to school and back. And this little remote town, it had been so remote that it was during the 1930s that they first had an automobile in this little valley.

Around the time Nancy and I were born, and now I'm really dating myself, they still had horse tie-ups in the middle of town. So this place was really isolated and backwards. They looked upon outsiders as, that's them, and we're us. And they even, in order to keep themselves separate, invented their own language called buntling. As a matter of fact, my younger brother had classes in English and buntling when he was in school.

That's right. And so it'd be like, you know, Old MacDonald had a farm, a bald old Kimmy had a region in the Drury Zoo, and on that region he had a borp. You know what a borp is. That's a pig, see? But there was a real look towards outsiders. There was a real view of, we're the insiders, you're the outsiders. And there was a very physical definition. If you're one of us living in this little valley, then you're an insider. And if you're from outside of here, we want to make sure that it's very clear you're an outsider.

Paul doesn't make that superficial a distinction, and that's very good. The point that he has here, those who are outside of faith in Christ, because it is the believer who is in Christ, it is those who have not put their trust in Christ for salvation who are the outsiders, the ones outside. So this is the distinction that he's making here. So he's saying here, both our interactions with fellow believers and our interactions with unbelievers matter. He's not just going along saying, this is the way you act with believers, and you act this way, and this way, and this way, and that matters, but how you act with unbelievers, it doesn't matter. No. He says, it does matter. And how do you act? You act from your position in Christ. That's the message. Now, making the most of the opportunity.

Interesting, in the Greek text, this is exactly the same as we saw in Ephesians 5.16. It's there translated, redeeming the time. It matches the King James Version as well, which is more literal and consistent. Now, so redeeming the time, that means every single clock sale that you see, make sure you buy one, or several if you can. Load up your credit cards, but by all means, buy those clocks. Is that what he has in mind? Good news. No. Okay, not that. So what does it mean? All right. The word is ex-agarazzo. Ex-agarazzo is the compound there. So, ex-agarazzo is what he's got here.

And no, we're probably not going to eat it. What it is, is buying a slave out of the slave market. And that was one of the applications here. Paul says that believers are to be redeeming the time, so we've got to think about this a little bit because we can't really go out and buy time, can we? Let's take a look at a further insight here. Certainly not buying clocks. The word for time there is kairos. Our English word time, that's a good start, but there's another sense to it.

It means an opportune time, a specific eventful occasion. It's a time of great significance. Now, you think about it, what in your lifetime do you think was a time of great significance? What do you think in your lifetime has been a time that's been an eventful occasion? You know what he's calling the time that's eventful, pivotal?

All the time. Regular times. Times that we consider insignificant. Those are the times that count immensely. Think you're vacuuming. You think, I just got to vacuum. No, that's a momentous time. Think you're just out walking the kids. That's a momentous time. Those are important moments. You may not have any idea the impact of things in your life.

I'll just tell you briefly, I'll embarrass Nancy here for a minute. She was acting as a babysitter for some neighbors and she was at Mount Hermon Christian Conference Grounds. As she was there at the conference grounds, she was just going past a lady at the conference grounds and the lady smiled. Nancy wasn't a believer yet. And she said, I want what that lady has. I want what she's got.

I don't think that lady had any idea, but from that smile that that lady probably doesn't remember, and she probably doesn't remember Nancy, that was a pivotal moment. We have pivotal moments in our lives we don't even recognize. I'm sure when we pass through heaven's gates, We'll look back and say, you mean that really mattered? You mean that was a significant moment? I can't believe it! You mean that really makes some eternal difference? Yeah, yeah, that time. I think we will be stunned. I think we'll be amazed. Another insight that goes along with this.

In the New Testament times, a person wanted to buy a specific person out of slavery. And there were times when people wanted to do this. They would focus on the particular person. They'd say, I want to get that person, my relative, my friend, and buy them out of slavery. And at those moments, you couldn't pass up the time. They're there, they're up for sale, and you'd have to buy them. That's buying them out of the market.

Ex agratso. Let your speech always be with grace. Now, you know the insight that we get from this. From now on, you can only talk with grace. It must always be with grace. I don't want to hear or see anybody talking with anyone else. All right, we'll make one exception. You can talk with charis because that translates as grace. Other than that, that's it. Nobody can talk to anybody else. That's all. Is that what he means? The literal Greek says, the message of you, always in grace. The message that you're communicating, always in grace.

This isn't a new sentence really, as the English kind of conveys, but it's really kind of rolling on the same idea that he had starting in verse 5. So it's continuing the message and working off of that imperative. that he gave at the beginning of verse 5. The other insight we have here is the message is in grace. The message that we convey to unbelievers always, entirely within grace.

It's not 80% grace and the other 20% uh-oh. Always, all in grace. The message that we convey, always in grace. If you look at it, grace flows from the abundance, which is the very nature of God. It's one of the messages that Paul underscores in the first couple chapters of Ephesians. The riches of His grace is found in Ephesians 1, 7 and 2, 7. Wealth of grace.

God is not stingy with it. He hasn't got just barely enough. He has a wealth of it. If you were to put it in terms of some building, just stacked up with gold bricks, that would kind of give some sort of an equivalent in the physical realm. A massive wealth of grace, grace that takes eons to begin to grasp, that big.

That's the kind of grace resources impacting our speech, from which we have to draw. God's grace towards us isn't wimpier, stingy, or minimal. God doesn't say, you know, I've got a wealth of grace, and here's a little tiny bit for you. We've received the riches of the grace that is from His nature. It will take eternity for God to reveal all that grace to us, and Christ is our life.

That's the basis of speech always with grace. Has God been skimpy with His grace with us? the massive wealth, the overwhelming wealth of grace that is from the Lord himself, that's the resources available for our speech. That's what he says should accompany and be an integral part of our speech, from his overwhelming resources, his unfathomable riches.

Now, as though seasoned with salt, very interesting here, So we do this, right? Carry a salt shaker when you're talking. It looks funny, but that's what he said to do. Is that what he has in mind? Maybe not. Now, it is possible we get too much salt, so we have to figure out what he's talking about here, don't we? As though seasoned with salt.

Now, this was a figurative expression in the New Testament times. It was used to convey the idea of making someone's speech interesting, making it useful, making it personal and engaging. The idea was also stimulating. It would also picture preservation, so words that don't turn rotten. Rotten words. You ever have a conversation that turns rotten? Kind of stinky. That's not what he had in mind. Okay? Seasoned with salt. Well preserved. Here's an indication that comes from the New Testament times.

The apostles, many of them being fishermen, would be very accustomed to this. They would lay out a layer of fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and they'd put a layer of salt on the fish. And they lay out another layer, and they put a layer of salt. And they'd lay those up, and so you'd have a pile of these fish, and they'd let them dry, and they'd be kind of like what you see here in this picture. And it is likely this dried, salted fish that was broken up on the feeding of the 5,000. They wouldn't take some raw fish and start breaking it up. It would be this dried, salted version. And this would be desirable.

In fact, one of the words for gathering people together was together with salt. Here's Epicurus. Paul talked to Epicurean philosophers in Acts 17, talked about finding friendly communion is the very salt without which life has lost its savor. Speaking of the interaction that we have with other people, there is no need as believers to cram them with words they hate to hear, but instead to present it in such a way that it engages how they think. Social salt.

The Greek and Roman cultures, the speech of someone that was lacking in wit or was unwise was said to be unsalted speech. So when we look at this, the seasoned with salt figure of speech is a way of focusing and further explaining what it means to walk in wisdom. Walk in wisdom, and one of the ways that that will be apparent is that your speech will be gracious. One of the ways that it will be apparent is that your speech will have this salted characteristic, preserved, wise, personally engaging. That will be salted speech. So that, ah, here's the so that. Paul's good with those, you know. So that you will know how you should respond to each person. We can look at what Paul was saying here by kind of gathering our points together. Let's look at that. What's to be the nature of an interaction with unbelievers? With godly wisdom. We're to interact with them, not spewing back and spitting back the same worldly wisdom, but conveying godly wisdom.

Secondly, recognizing that there are those inside and outside the body of Christ. Am I talking to a believer or an unbeliever? Spiritually aware. Am I aware of what the spiritual standing is here? Am I talking to someone who will stand next to me, certainly, as we pass through the heavenly gates, or am I talking with somebody who doesn't yet know Christ? Spiritually aware. Discerning what's happening. Where is this person spiritually? Looking for the spiritual opportunity in each moment. Not the automatic witness.

Not, I've got to share the Lord with ten people before midnight. But, as the Lord opened the opportunity, is this one of His good works that I can walk in it? Asking that question. Not, have I fulfilled my sharing commitment for today? Our speech is to reveal the character and the measured magnitude of the riches of God's grace, stimulating the unbeliever and spiritually preserving. Does it have the desirable spiritual impact upon their lives? See, our Lord has infinite grace, doesn't He? Our Lord has grace beyond measure, grace that we, even though we're believers and have all the revelation of Scripture, will still be eternally seeing more of, constantly amazed into the millions of years.

But here's the amazing thing. In you, He has placed Himself right next to the unbelievers that you know. It isn't a question of what would Jesus say, it's what will Jesus say through you. When and what He chooses. Speech full of grace, walking in wisdom, His life through us. What's our job? Stand ready, be available. Be available. All you got to do is show up. He'll do the rest. It's His to do. He's the one who wants to talk to the unbeliever that you know. It's better if we let Him do it, isn't it? Let's pray.

Lord, we thank You that as we gather here this morning that we can depend upon Your awesome and marvelous grace. How unfathomable these riches are of your grace and how wonderful and marvelous your life lived through us. We look for you to do exactly that so that those around us will see you as we walk about. We thank you for that marvelous gift and that we awesomely are privileged to be your container and your vessel. We thank you in Jesus' name.