The last chapter of Colossians comes down from the heights of Christ’s glory to the details of daily Christian life: masters who remember their own Master, prayer that never gives up, words seasoned with grace. Then it closes with a roll call of names, each with a story — a runaway slave coming home as a brother, a young man who once failed and has been restored, a doctor who stayed, a colleague who would later leave, and a pastor who wrestles in prayer for the church he planted. The Christ who holds all things together holds these people too.
A study in Colossians 4 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 22 min read
Ye Also Have A Master In Heaven
“Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.”
Colossians 4:1
This verse finishes the household instructions of chapter 3. In Roman law a slave was property, and a master owed him nothing. Paul says masters owe their servants what is “just and equal” — fair treatment, not favors. And he gives the reason every Christian employer and supervisor still needs: you answer to a Master too, and He is watching how you treat the people under you.
Continue In Prayer
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.”
Colossians 4:2-4
“Continue” means to persist, to keep at it with strength. Prayer is not an occasional emergency measure; it is a steady habit. And it is to be joined with watchfulness — eyes open to what God is doing and to the dangers around us — and, once again in this letter, with thanksgiving.
“Perseverance in prayer has been made a condition of receiving. We must pray always if we would grow in faith and experience. We are to be ‘instant in prayer,’ to ‘continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.’ Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2.”
Ellen G. White · Steps to Christ, p. 97
Notice what Paul asks them to pray for. Not that his chains would come off, but that God would open “a door of utterance” so he could keep speaking about Christ. He had learned what the study of Philippians 1 described: his bonds themselves had become an open door, carrying the gospel into Caesar’s own guard.
Seasoned With Salt
“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
Colossians 4:5-6
Now Paul turns to how believers deal with “them that are without” — neighbors, customers, coworkers who do not share the faith. Two instructions.
First, “redeeming the time.” The word means to buy up, as a shrewd merchant buys up every good bargain in the market. Opportunities to show and speak of Christ come and go. The wise believer does not waste them.
Second, speech that is “alway with grace, seasoned with salt.” Grace makes words kind and gracious; salt makes them wholesome and worth hearing, not bland or empty, and it keeps them from corruption. The goal is to “know how ye ought to answer every man” — not with one canned speech for everyone, but with a fitting word for each person.
“We should accustom ourselves to speak in pleasant tones, to use pure and correct language, and words that are kind and courteous. Sweet, kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips that He might ‘know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.’ Psalm 45:2; Isaiah 50:4. And the Lord bids us, ‘Let your speech be alway with grace’ (Colossians 4:6) ‘that it may minister grace unto the hearers’ (Ephesians 4:29).”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 336
“Through the apostle Paul, Christ bids us, ‘Let your speech be alway with grace.’ ‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.’ Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:29. In the light of these scriptures the words of Christ upon the mount are seen to condemn jesting, trifling, and unchaste conversation. They require that our words should be not only truthful, but pure.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 68
Onesimus, A Faithful And Beloved Brother
“All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord: Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts; With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.”
Colossians 4:7-9
Tychicus, the same trusted messenger who carried the letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 6:21), carried this letter too. And traveling with him was a man the Colossians knew very well — perhaps too well. Onesimus was a slave from Colossae who had wronged his master, Philemon, and run away to Rome. There, of all people, he met Paul in prison and was converted. Now he was going home.
“Among those who gave their hearts to God through the labors of Paul in Rome was Onesimus, a pagan slave who had wronged his master, Philemon, a Christian believer in Colosse, and had escaped to Rome. … Onesimus listened to the words of life, confessed his sins, and was converted to the faith of Christ. … It was a severe test for this servant thus to deliver himself up to the master he had wronged; but he had been truly converted, and he did not turn aside from his duty.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 456
Look how Paul introduces him: “a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.” Not “your runaway slave.” A brother, faithful, loved — and “one of you,” a member of the Colossian church. Here chapter 3:11 comes to life: “neither … bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”
Onesimus also carried a short personal letter to his master, the letter we know as Philemon. In it Paul offered to pay whatever Onesimus owed.
“Paul voluntarily proposed to assume the debt of Onesimus in order that the guilty one might be spared the disgrace of punishment, and might again enjoy the privileges he had forfeited. ‘If thou count me therefore a partner,’ he wrote to Philemon, ‘receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it.’ How fitting an illustration of the love of Christ for the repentant sinner! The servant who had defrauded his master had nothing with which to make restitution. The sinner who has robbed God of years of service has no means of canceling the debt. Jesus interposes between the sinner and God, saying, I will pay the debt. Let the sinner be spared; I will suffer in his stead.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 458
It is the gospel of chapter 2 in a single human story: the “handwriting” of debt taken away, because Someone else signed for it.
Marcus, Luke And Demas
“Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.”
Colossians 4:10-11
Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, had been dragged into the theater during the riot at Ephesus (Acts 19:29) and sailed with Paul to Rome (Acts 27:2). He is called a “fellowprisoner” — and he may have been one by choice.
“In his letter to the Colossians he afterward referred to the latter as his ‘fellow prisoner’ (Colossians 4:10); but it was from choice that Aristarchus shared Paul’s bondage, that he might minister to him in his afflictions.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 440
Then comes a name with a painful history. Mark had once abandoned Paul and Barnabas partway through their first missionary journey, and Paul refused to take him on the second. The disagreement was so sharp that Paul and Barnabas parted company over it (Acts 15:37-39; see the study of Acts 15). Now, years later, Mark is at Paul’s side in Rome, and Paul tells the churches to welcome him. It is one of the most hopeful sentences in Paul’s letters. A young man who failed was not written off.
“Paul was afterward reconciled to Mark and received him as a fellow laborer. He also recommended him to the Colossians as one who was a fellow worker ‘unto the kingdom of God,’ and ‘a comfort unto me.’ Colossians 4:11. Again, not long before his own death, he spoke of Mark as ‘profitable’ to him ‘for the ministry.’ 2 Timothy 4:11.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 170
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.”
Colossians 4:12-14
Epaphras, the church’s founder, is far from home, but he has not stopped serving them. He is “labouring fervently” for them in prayer — the same wrestling word Paul used of his own “great conflict” in 2:1. His prayer is the letter’s whole aim in one line: that they may “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God,” needing nothing beyond Christ.
Luke, “the beloved physician,” had traveled with Paul for years and wrote both the Gospel and the Acts that bear his name. He was a doctor who stayed.
“Luke, the writer of the Gospel that bears his name, was a medical missionary. In the Scriptures he is called ‘the beloved physician.’ Colossians 4:14. The apostle Paul heard of his skill as a physician, and sought him out as one to whom the Lord had entrusted a special work.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 140
And then, with no comment at all, one more name: “and Demas.” In this letter he stands in good company. But a few years later, in Paul’s final letter, the story ends differently:
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.”
2 Timothy 4:10-11
“Demas, steadfast for a time, afterward forsook the cause of Christ. … For worldly gain, Demas bartered every high and noble consideration. How shortsighted the exchange! Possessing only worldly wealth or honor, Demas was poor indeed, however much he might proudly call his own; while Mark, choosing to suffer for Christ’s sake, possessed eternal riches, being accounted in heaven an heir of God and a joint heir with His Son.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 455
Mark and Demas stand side by side in this list, and their stories cross. The one who failed early finished faithfully. The one who started well turned back. Neither our past failures nor our present good standing decides the end. What matters is whether we keep holding the Head.
Remember My Bonds
“Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.”
Colossians 4:15-18
The early churches met in homes, like the one hosted by Nymphas, and they shared the apostles’ letters, reading them aloud to the congregation and passing them on to the next church. That is how the New Testament came to be gathered.
Laodicea, only a few miles away, would later receive a letter of its own from the risen Christ, the last of the seven letters in Revelation: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot” (Revelation 3:15). Its people would say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” not knowing that they were “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (3:17). Colossians is, in a sense, the cure for that condition before it set in: a church that knows it is “complete” only in Christ will never imagine it has need of nothing apart from Him.
A word to Archippus, probably a minister in Colossae, perhaps discouraged: finish the work God gave you. And then Paul takes the pen from his secretary and signs the letter himself, a prisoner writing with a chained hand: “Remember my bonds.”
That is the whole of Colossians. A small church was told it needed something more than Christ. Paul answered by showing them Christ: the image of the invisible God, the Creator of every throne and power, the One in whom all things hold together and all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. His cross cancelled the debt and ended the shadows. In Him believers are complete, their life hid with Him in God until He appears. And that life shows itself in ordinary places — in homes and workplaces, in gracious words and persevering prayer, in a runaway slave welcomed as a brother and a young man restored to service. Christ is all, and in all.
