Perspective, Not Rules

As the apostle draws his letter to the Colossians to a close, he is “thinking out loud” about the implications of the great good news of what Jesus has accomplished for the way we do life. Having asked for prayer for himself, Paul’s thoughts turn to how the Colossians themselves–and all who name the name of Jesus as friend and Savior–are to live in the light of the Gospel.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Two sentences, packed full of rich thought. A few ideas float to the surface in my thinking.

“Conduct yourselves with wisdom.” Literally, carry on your daily activities with wisdom. The reference is to the normal, everyday kind of living and interacting we all do–and doing all that with God-granted skill and insight about what truly matters.

“Making the most of the opportunity.” The sense is buying up precious moments of time to use them in the best way possible–it is the language of the market. Every moment we have with others is, in fact, just a fleeting moment. It will come and go whether we are attentive to the moment or not.

So, in the way we move through life day-to-day interacting with those who do not yet know the good news about Jesus, Paul is encouraging us to do so with insight and attentiveness to what is most valuable, realizing that every moment of time is precious and should not be squandered.

And what would that kind of living look like?

“Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt.” Realize that in those moments we long to maximize, idle words and thoughtless remarks will only hurt the cause of Christ and obscure the good news. So every exchange, every word spoken, that comes from my mouth would best be carried along by grace, carrying the message of grace, conveying the grace of God that I have received.

“So that you will know how you should respond to each person.” In thinking this way–grace-seasoned words that make the most of every occasion to speak and share for the good of another–we will respond to others in the best possible way. With attentiveness to the preciousness of the few moments of exchange we have and the incredible value of communicating the grace of God, we will know how best to speak to each and every person we come in contact with.

It is a perspective that I find all too uncommon in my daily conversation. I have way too many random, unfocused, and purposeless exchanges. I think too little of how meaningful a particular moment just might be. I give little thought to how this person I bump into might just be waiting to hear the message of grace that comes from heaven.

And the moment passes. I did not make the most of it. I gave little attention to the one who is “outside.” My words might have been seasoned with humor or disregard, inattentiveness or socially accepted cordiality . . . but I realize that there are way too many moments when I wasn’t very wise, I wasn’t making the best use of the time,  I wasn’t really attentive to the one I was speaking with, I didn’t think much of grace or communicate much of it. And I leave the exchange wondering if I responded to that particular person the way Jesus would have wanted me to.

Him and Us

In asking for prayer for himself in his letter to the Colossians, Paul shows us some of how he thinks about his own life and ministry.

Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear ain the way I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:3-4)

Paul wants the Lord to work through him (through the prayers of the Colossians). He asks for prayers that there would be opportunity to speak and clarity in the proclamation of the message of the Gospel. But then he turns his attention to the Colossians themselves, picking up on some of the  same themes in his request for himself.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Similar to how Paul longs not only to speak when the opportunity is given him by the Lord but to speak well when the opportunity comes, he enjoins the Colossians to a step into life. He wants them to be attentive to the opportunities that may come their way in their relationships with “outsiders” (those who are not part of the family of faith), to maximize those opportunities, and yet to speak in such a way that grace influences the communication and that the response made to each one should be fitting. What Paul wants for himself–opportunities to speak and an understanding of how to speak as appropriate–he wants for them as well.

Although Paul had a unique calling as an apostle and the extent of his ministry would have been significantly different from that of the believers in Colossians, the basic call is the same: Share the good news with those when the opportunity arises and share in an appropriate way that communicates grace.

If Paul understood that was the call God had placed on the lives of the Colossians–similar as it was to his own call–I wonder what that means for how we understand our own call before God.

Clarity Might Be Needed

There are a number of places in Scripture where we get a glimpse into someone’s prayer. As we listen to (or, more specifically, read) their prayers, we can get glimpses into how and what they think. (I’ve recently been spending some time with Jesus as he prays, recorded for us in John 17. Fascinating!)

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, his request for the Colossians to pray also gives us a glimpse into Paul’s thinking. (See the prior posts “Never Not Needed” and “Do I Realize?”) Not only can we note that he really wants others to pray for him but in what he asks for we can see a little about how he thinks about his own ministry.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:2-4)

Paul requests the Colossians to ask the Lord to empower him to “speak forth the mystery of Christ”–that is, to continue to work in him so that he will be able to keep on sharing the message of the good news about Jesus. But he also asks for an enablement so that he might “make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” The “it” he wants to make clear is “the mystery.” So what is Paul asking for?

Paul wants the Colossians to pray so that he will be able to speak the Gospel with the clarity that is appropriate and needed. And that thought challenges me more than a bit.

I don’t know that I give much thought to whether or not I speak the message of the Gospel with the clarity that is appropriate. I tend to operate with the perspective that if I am clear on the message of the Gospel (which, by grace, I hope I am), that when I sincerely share that message with someone else it should be clear to them. But in that I may have made an unwarranted assumption. Specifically, that my sharing of the Gospel automatically comes across with appropriate clarity.

In asking for prayer from the Colossians, Paul longs for at least two things: An open door for the opportunity to share the Gospel and an appropriate clarity for sharing the Gospel when that opportunity was present.

Do I Realize?

When Paul writes to the Colossians about prayer, he mentions his desire for them to pray for him as well. A previous post (“Never Not Needed”) looked at the remarkable character of the request and what it implies for how Paul understood the ministry he was involved in. And yet there is a bit more for us here as we listen for what bleeds through Paul’s words, revealing what is at the heart of the man.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:2-4)

Although not explicitly stating it, Paul tells his readers some specific things about himself in this request for prayer. Beyond the admission that he covets their prayers for himself and his ministry, Paul hints at how he thinks of himself.

He believes that he should be about the ministry of the word. He should be speaking and teaching by God’s design. And, thus, he asks for prayers for a continued “open door” for that kind of work.

He understands that what he does is make clear the “mystery of Christ.” He speaks of what God has done in Christ for the sake of saving those caught in sin and death–a message that cannot be known apart from the proclamation of the Gospel. And, thus, he requests prayer for the open door so that particular message might be shared.

He knows that even his imprisonment is wrapped up in the preaching of the Gospel. He is imprisoned for the Gospel. Elsewhere Paul can write about his “bonds in Christ” (in Philippians 1:13 Paul’s exact words suggest that he sees his imprisonment not as “in Rome” but as “in Christ”). He understands the connection between his effective proclamation and the subsequent imprisonment.

Paul is implying: I know that I am to be preaching this message of the Gospel, proclaiming the good news of what God has done in and through Christ, and I have been doing it with such impact that the enemies of the Gospel have imprisoned me, but it is all still what God is doing in and through me in Christ.

And then there is last little piece, the last part of the request: “That I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” It there ever was someone who could have laid claim to “knowing what I am doing,” it would seem that Paul should qualify. He has been effective. He has ministered with impact. He has freely and boldly and in a compelling way announced the good news. It could be argued that he knows how to make it clear, that he understands how he ought to speak. He has been doing it for years.

Nevertheless, he asks for prayer so that he might make the message clear. Even with his track record of effective ministry, Paul hasn’t lost sight. He realizes that if he is going to speak the message of God to anyone tomorrow–even drawing on all he knows and all his experience–the one thing that will matter is if the Lord is working in and through him.

Never Not Needed

It seems that the longer we walk with Jesus, the more we “do for him,” the more extensive our experiences are, the easier it is to drift into thinking, “I got this! I know what I’m doing. I’m managing this Christian life thing pretty well.”

But that kind of thinking–although it might be appropriate in other areas of life where our mastery of the process or the material does make things easier–overlooks a significant component to life with Jesus. Specifically, the things that matter most in our life with the living God are the things that he does while inviting us to participate. What matters is what Jesus is doing in and through our lives–and that is not something we just “get” or manage well.

That’s part of why Paul’s words to the Colossians are such a helpful reminder. As he draws this letter to a close, he mentions prayer (as discussed in a few prior posts). But part of what is so intriguing is that Paul asks for the Colossians to pray for him. The veteran, experienced, competent, Bible-teaching, Spirit-empowered apostle, seasoned through years and years of marvelous and glorious ministry in the name of Christ . . . that Paul, asks for prayer.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:2-4)

Paul is in prison–for the work of the ministry that he has given his life for. He has testified to the Gospel throughout most of the known world of the time. He has communicated the Gospel in compelling ways to Jew and Gentile alike, to slave and free, to rulers and shopkeepers. And the Lord has been pleased to bless it. And yet he asks for prayer.

He wants the Colossians saints to pray that God would make a way for his ongoing ministry, that the Lord would enable him to continue to speak about all that Christ has done, and that his Savior would work in such a way that the message he does share would be clear, the way he ought to speak about such great good news.

Why does Paul ask for prayer? Why ask for these things? Because Paul is aware that what matters most in what he is doing and how he is living is what God is doing. He asks for prayer because he knows that it is what Jesus does that counts.

I wonder. What does this awareness of Paul’s desire for others to pray say about my minimalistic prayers for the lives of others . . . and my nearly absent longing for others to pray strategically and intentionally for me?