An exhortation to prayer.
Paul had been, as we have seen, describing noble and difficult duties of husbands, children, etc. He evidently felt they were so noble that they ought to be attained, and yet so difficult that he must at once suggest one way to their attainment. He has shown the goal, now he shows the path. That path is prayer. Husbands, wives, all who would become what I have described, "continue in prayer." In his exhortation to prayer we may notice—
I. SOME ELEMENTS IN ALL TRUE PRAYER. And of these elements there is in the very front:
1. Constancy. "Continue steadfastly," as the Revised Version has it. Not fitfully, occasionally, irregularly, but with steady constancy, pray.
2. Wakefulness. "Watching." Not as a sleeper, but as a sentry, must the man be who prays. Understanding, emotion, will, must be awake, as he who guards the city is awake to hear the first footfall of a foe, to catch the first shadow of a danger. Not in dreamy lethargy can men pray. "No arrow of prayer can reach the sky that does not fly from a heart strongly bent as some elastic bow?
3. Gratitude. "With thanksgiving." Thus the conception of prayer is widened, beyond that of mere petition, to that of intercourse. Prayer becomes a Eucharist. Indeed, thanksgiving is the crown and goal of prayer. Elsewhere the apostle similarly exhorts, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God."
II. A SPECIAL SUBJECT FOR INTERCESSION. Paul thus bespeaks prayer for himself and his fellow workers both, to link himself in humbleness of heart to the Colossians. It is as though he said, "I need prayer as well as you." And doubtless he also asks their prayers because he is conscious of necessity for such help as prayer can bring. For himself and his fellow workers he asks:
1. Prayer that they may have opportunity for work. "That God may open unto us a door." To the mystery of the gospel there is the great obstacle of minds closed by prejudice, hearts closed by antipathy. The preacher, like his Lord, has to stand at the door and knock.
2. Prayer that shall be sympathetic with their sorrows. For he reminds them that he is "in bonds." In every one of the Epistles of his captivity the apostle mentions this coupling chain which he felt to be thwarting, galling, humiliating. And their prayers must seek either that the chain be broken or the prisoner strengthened to endure.
3. Prayer that they may have fitness for their work. The one pressing want of their condition was "boldness." Sometimes the main want is wisdom, sometimes patience, sometimes gentleness. Here, because of all that was around him and before him, he felt the supreme want was courage. And indeed, when is this not wanted by those who have to proclaim such a message as the gospel, to such souls as proud, selfish, self-willed men, for such a Master as the Christ who travails till victory is won?—U.R.T.
The Christian and the world.
We have here some suggestions as to—
1. THE CHRISTIAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD. It is implied:
1. That he is to be distinct from the world. To him all "men of the world" are, in character, aims, pursuits, to be as "them that are without." There is to be a contrast between him and them as between those who are "within" and those who are "without" the assembly of the righteous, the Church of the loving and the pure. But it is taught:
2. That he is to have intercourse with the world. This is in contradiction to the Colossian heresy of asceticism, and in contradiction, too, to the pietism that some sects affect in England today. "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without." This is the very opposite of walking away from them, in separation, into seclusion. Indeed, on this point we notice that seclusion from the world is:
3. What is to mark the intercourse of the Christian with the world. Two directions are given:
II. THE CHRISTIAN'S CONVERSATION WITH THE WORLD. It is to be distinguished by "grace," pleasantness of the highest sort—"salt," pungency of the truest kind. In a sentence, we may say the influence of his conversation is to be good.
1. Because it is to be persuasive. The higher form of "grace," Divine acceptableness, may be implied here. The other form of it, human convincingness, is certainly indicated. For this it must be appropriate,
2. Because it is to be distinctive. Not talk of tasteless insipidity, making no impression, but conversation as clear and definite in purifying influence as Christ meant the disciples themselves were to be when he said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." "Certain it is," says Jeremy Taylor, "that as nothing better can do it, so there is nothing greater for which God made our tongues, next to reciting his praises, than to minister comfort to weary souls. And what greater pleasure can we have than that we should bring joy to our brother, who with his weary eye looks to heaven and round about, and cannot find so much rest as to lay his eyelids together? Then thy tongue should be tuned with heavenly accents, and make the weary soul to listen for light and ease. This is glory to thy voice, and employment fit for the brightest angel. I have seen the sun kiss the frozen earth, which was bound up with the images of death and the cold breath of the north, and then the waters break from their enclosures, and melt with joy, and run in useful channels. So is the heart of a sorrowful man under the discourses of a wise comforter. He breaks from the despairs of the grave; he blesses God, and he feels his life returning. God is pleased with no music below so much as in the thanksgiving songs of rejoicing, comforted persons."—U.R.T.