^2Τῇ προσευχῇ προσκαρτερεῖτε, γρηγοροῦντες ἐν αὐτῇ ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ·
^3προσευχόμενοι ἅμα καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν, ἵνα ὁ Θεὸς ἀνοίξῃ ἡμῖν θύραν τοῦ
λόγου, λαλῆσαι τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι’ ὃ καὶ δέδεμαι· ^4ἵνα
φανερώσω
2–6. ‘Be earnest and unceasing in prayer; keep your hearts and minds
awake while praying: remember also (as I have so often told you) that
thanksgiving is the goal and crown of prayer. Meanwhile in your
petitions forget not us—myself Paul—my fellow-labourer Timothy—your
evangelist Epaphras—all the teachers of the Gospel; but pray that God
may open a door for the preaching of the word, to the end that we may
proclaim the free offer of grace to the Gentiles—that great mystery of
Christ for which I am now a prisoner in bonds. So shall I declare it
fearlessly, as I am bound to proclaim it. Walk wisely and discreetly in
all your dealings with unbelievers; allow no opportunity to slip through
your hands, but buy up every passing moment. Let your language be always
pervaded with grace and seasoned with salt. So will you know how to give
a fit answer to each man, as the occasion demands.’
2. προσκαρτερεῖτε] ‘_cling closely to_’, ‘_remain constant to_’ (comp.
Mark iii. 9, Acts viii. 13, x. 7), and so ‘continue stedfast in’. This
word occurs again with τῇ προσευχῇ, ταῖς προσευχαῖς, Acts i. 14, ii. 42,
vi. 4, Rom. xii. 12. The construction is with a simple dative both in
the New Testament (ll. cc.) and in classical writers, except where it
stands absolutely (Acts ii. 46, Rom. xiii. 6). The injunction here
corresponds to the ἀδιαλέιπτως προσεύχεσθε of 1 Thess. v. 17.
γρηγοροῦντες] Long continuance in prayer is apt to produce listlessness.
Hence the additional charge that the heart must be _awake_, if the
prayer is to have any value. The word is not to be taken literally here,
but metaphorically. In Matt. xxvi. 41 etc., γρηγορεῖτε καὶ προσεύχεσθε,
the idea is not quite the same.
ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ] as the crown of all prayer; see the notes on i. 12, ii.
7.
3. ἡμῶν] ‘_us_’, ‘the Apostles and preachers of the Gospel’, with
reference more especially to Timothy (i. 1) and Epaphras (iv. 12, 13).
Where the Apostle speaks of himself alone, he uses the singular (ver. 3,
4 δέδεμαι, φανερώσω). Indeed there is no reason to think that St Paul
ever uses an ‘epistolary’ plural, referring to himself solely: see the
note on 1 Thess. iii. 1.
ἵνα κ.τ.λ.] On the sense of ἵνα after προσεύχεσθαι etc., see the note on
i. 9.
θύραν τοῦ λόγου] ‘_a door_ of admission _for the word_’, i.e. ‘an
opportunity of preaching the Gospel’, as 1 Cor. xvi. 9 θύρα γάρ μοι
ἀνέῳγεν μεγάλη καὶ ἐνεργής, 2 Cor. ii. 12 θύρας μοι ἀνεῳγμένης ἐν Κυρίῳ:
comp. Plut. _Mor._ p. 674 D ὥσπερ πύλης ἀνοιχθέισης, οὐκ ἀντέσχον ...
συνεισιοῦσι παντοδαποῖς ἀκρόαμασιν. Similarly )έισοδος is used in 1
Thess. i. 9, ii. 1. The converse application of the metaphor appears in
Acts xiv. 27 ἤνοιξεν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν θύραν πίστεως, where the door is
opened not to the teachers, but to the recipients of the Gospel.
According to another interpretation (suggested by Ephes. vi. 19 ἵνα μοι
δοθῇ λόγος ἐν ἀνοίζει τοῦ στόματος μου) it is explained ‘the door of our
speech’, i.e. ‘our mouth’: comp. Ps. cxli (cxl). 3, Mic. vii. 5, Ecclus.
xxviii. 25. But the parallel passages do not favour this sense, nor will
the words themselves admit it. In that case for ἡμῖν θύραν τοῦ λόγου we
should require τὴν θύραν τῶν λόγωυ [ἡμῶν]. ‘The word’ here is ‘the
Gospel’, as frequently.
λαλῆσαι ‘_so as to speak_’, the infinitive of the consequence, like
εἰδέναι ver. 6 ; see Winer § xliv, p. 400.
τὸ μυστήριον κ.τ.λ. i.e. the doctrine of the free admission of the
Gentiles. For the leading idea which St Paul in these epistles attaches
to ‘the mystery’ of the Gospel, see the note on i. 26.
δι’ ὅ St Paul might have been still at large, if he had been content to
preach a Judaic Gospel. It was because he contended for Gentile liberty,
and thus offended Jewish prejudices, that he found himself a prisoner.
See Acts xxi. 28, xxii. 21, 22, xxiv. 5, 6, xxv. 6, 8. The other
reading, δι’ ὅν, destroys the point of the sentence.
καὶ δέδεμαι 2 Tim. ii. 9 μέχρι δεσμῶν, Philem. 9 νυνὶ δὲ καὶ δέσμιος.
4. ἵνα φανερώσω κ.τ.λ. This is best taken as dependent on the previous
clause ἵνα ὁ Θεός ... τοῦ Χριστοῦ. For instances of a double ἵνα, where
the second is not coordinated with, but subordinated to, the first, see
the note on Gal. iii. 14. The immediate purport of the Colossians’
prayers must be that the Apostle should have all opportunities of
preaching the Gospel: the ulterior object, that he should use these
opportunities boldly.
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