All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95) published by The Lockman Foundation

What is the key method of sharing the gospel with unbelievers, and winning sinners to the Lord? Many people would say that it’s to relate to them where they are, to use familiar, popular means to attract them to the gospel, or mostly to treat them exceptionally kindly. But are these the most essential factors behind getting the gospel to non-Christians in ways they can understand, and that will be used to persuade them to repent and believe? The New Testament, and especially the apostle Paul, provides us with a far simpler and supremely more powerful way of spreading the gospel. The answer is prayer. Yes, prayer – not programs, charities, gimmicks, services, or friendships. Paul emphasizes this point to the Colossians in the last chapter of his letter to them.

Of course, he instructs them in more than prayer for being good witnesses for the Lord, but he starts there, and prayer is implied even in the other commands. So, let’s see how Paul taught the Colossians to pray for, and to improve, their witness opportunities, and those of their brethren.

But here’s a little background on what Paul has written about thus far in the letter. After expressing the supreme greatness of Jesus as the eternal and infinite Son of God, and reminding the Colossians of their completion in Christ, he’s been explaining how they ought to think and live in the second half of the letter. Right before he instructs them in prayer, he’s covered the full range of household and business relationships. This is the last specific subject he deals with before closing with some more general encouragements, and describing his situation to the Colossians. And so he comes to the passage I’d like us to consider.

This is what he writes to begin to end the letter:

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with . . . 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. 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.” – Col. 4:2-6

Paul has two main commands in this passage, which I would put thus:

  1. Devote Yourselves to Prayer (vss. 2-3)
  2. Redeem the Time with Opportunities (vss. 5-6)

We’ll begin by looking at Paul’s explanation of how to pray for the preaching of the gospel.

Devote Yourselves to Prayer

Paul’s first instruction to the Colossians is to live prayerful lives that seek God’s enablement for the preaching of the gospel. This is what he means by calling them to “devote” themselves to prayer. He literally writes, “be very continual in prayer”. But it’s not enough to be praying regularly. They must also be “keeping alert in it”. True prayer first requires a constant practice of it, but it also demands an extreme diligence and watchfulness in doing it, and formulating our prayers. All of our Christian life is to be a life of continually acknowledging the Lord’s work in our lives, talking to Him about that work, and asking Him to provide the means for our advancement of His work. We’re to be constantly recognizing what He’s provided, what we need to do His will, and His willingness to give us what we need through prayer.

But Paul’s emphasis in the Colossians’ prayers is for their petitions and intercessions for the apostles and missionaries with Paul. He emphasizes that they must pray for a “door for the word,” or an opportunity to preach the message of “the mystery of Christ” (v. 3). This doesn’t mean something unknowable, but the secret about the Messiah that was hidden in Old Testament times, but now revealed in these days of the Spirit and the body of Christ.

But note well what the apostle Paul asks for – that God would enable him to clearly speak the good news of Jesus Christ! If he needed to pray for this, how much more do we today need to! So, just note that Paul asks the Colossians to pray for two different things – that the evangelists and himself would have an opportunity to share the gospel, and that he would have the ability to share the gospel rightly. And he next encourages the Colossians themselves to act in such a way that they’ll be able to share the gospel.

Redeem the Time with Opportunities

Paul’s next instructions put into action the prayers he’s asked the Colossians to pray. These next two verses are of the few most specific directions for how to share the gospel in the entire Bible. He starts with wisdom, and then moves to speech. He first urges that all a believer’s interactions with those he calls “outsiders,” are to be done with wisdom. In the Bible, wisdom is the careful application of knowledge and truth to specific situations, to the end of accomplishing God’s will. But why does Paul call the people he wants the Colossians using wisdom with those who are “outside”? Because he’s writing to the household of God, and the body of Christ. The ones who especially need to hear the Word of the gospel, and the mystery of Christ, are those who are now “outside” of Christ’s body, since the Lord has sent us among the world to announce the good news of salvation to those who need to be brought into Christ and salvation.

The fact that Paul tells the Colossians to “make the most of the opportunity,” and then to always let their speech be “with grace,” tells us that Paul didn’t reserve witnessing or evangelism to designated evangelists, missionaries, or apostles. All believers are responsible to use their interactions with non-Christians to speak the truth in love. And what truth is more loving to perishing sinners than the gospel of Jesus Christ? Thus, Paul is implicitly urging the Colossians to make sure they make every effort to make a way for the gospel in social interactions. What does this take?

We’ve already seen that sharing the gospel starts with praying for witnessing opportunities, and praying for clearness of speech. Then, it takes biblical wisdom in everyday interactions with unbelievers. It’s only through the use of wise thinking and behavior that we’ll be able to “make the most of” those opportunities, or what Paul literally writes – “redeeming the time”. There are two final actions that we need to take to effectively bear witness to the truth for unbelievers.

The first key in verse 6 that is commanded is that we always make sure our speech is “with grace” when speaking to unbelievers. The Greek word translated “grace” is charis, and literally means “benefit” or “favor”. So, Paul is simply saying that we need to always make sure what we’re saying to non-Christians is beneficial to people. This is confirmed by Paul’s description of this speech as “seasoned with salt”. In those times, salt was usually used to preserve meat from decay, so he’s effectively calling them to speak pure and cleansing words.

The reason Paul gives us for why believers’ speech should be beneficial and pure is likely to be surprising for someone who is inexperienced with sharing the gospel. He explains that the Colossians need to speak this way so that they’ll “know how you should respond to each person” (v. 6). The implications of this reasoning are very insightful. Paul is saying that many of our evangelistic interactions aren’t going to be short or brief monologues wherein we speak the gospel and move on, but extended conversations that we initiate. In other words, we introduce a subject about the truths of the gospel to a person, and then discern how to proceed by how they respond to our initial preaching. This way, we’re not simply preaching a pre-packaged message to a person the way we would to anyone else, but we’re speaking personally to their unique situation, personality, and level of understanding. It’s important when we’re sharing the gospel that we don’t just assume our hearer knows or thinks what we assume based on pre-conceptions about them. We must figure out what their unique attitude and beliefs are regarding the truths of salvation. Then, we can appropriately respond to them as a complex person, and not simply a blank slate, or an emotionless, generic, mind. In order to appropriately share the gospel, it’s usually essential that we understand them just as much as we preach to them. That’s why wisdom is needed in our interactions with every unbeliever.

Just to give you a basic idea of the general types of unbelievers we can share the gospel with, let’s briefly describe a few of them. First, there are those unbelievers that are so antagonistic to the gospel that they will refuse to consider anything you have to say about the gospel. Such people are those Jesus calls “swine” in the Sermon on the Mount, where he warns His disciples to avoid casting their “pearls” in front of them. A second group of unbelievers are those who will listen to the gospel, but will express a refusal to repent and believe it. With such people, it’s enough to just thoroughly explain it to them, and then leave it to sit in their minds. Thirdly, there are those who will express an interest in the promises and claims of the gospel, but make objections to some of them. With these, it’s usually important to follow up with them, and refute their objections and arguments with careful, biblical reasoning. And finally, there are of course unbelievers who will appear convicted by the gospel, and say that they want to obey the Lord Jesus. With positive cases, we need to be careful, but biblically encourage them to put their full confidence in God’s promises about Jesus, and make good their faith by submitting to baptism. Again, it’s only if we’re listening to people that we can discern how they’re responding to the gospel, and then know how we should respond to them.

Devote Yourself to Prayer and Redeem the Time with Unbelievers

To conclude this study, I just want to encourage you to constantly set aside specific times for prayer, and to know well the things you’re praying for and about. Prayer is our main work as Christians, since it’s only through prayer that we receive God’s power, promises, and help. This is especially true in the matter of the spread of the gospel, and the salvation of sinners. We must regularly pray for opportunities for ourselves and our brethren to share the gospel, and pray for the willingness and ability to do so. Then, we need to make the most of every opportunity we have with unbelievers to speak the truths of the gospel to them with wisdom. It’s only if we’re actively endeavoring to preach, and have the desire and resolve to testify about Jesus, that we’ll be effective witnesses and ambassadors for our Lord. It’s through us that He’s decided to call those He’s chosen before the beginning of time to be saved, so that the full number of God’s people will be saved.