Lesson 20 – Sustaining the Right Relationships, part 2 (4:2-6)
Read Colossians 4 - www.bible.com/bible/59/col.4.esv
We’ve looked at the right relationships for 3 of the 4 mentioned: husband and wife, parents and children, employers and employees; and now we come to the fourth right relationship – the believer and the church.
The first command in verse 2 is that we be steadfast and watchful in prayer. Steadfast means we don’t give up. I know of a congregation that prayed for the salvation of one man for over 70 years. They didn’t give up even though the man insisted he was never going to change. But one day those prayers were answered when that man – now well over 80 years old – gave his life to Jesus Christ. How could they possibly remain thankful for all those years? They had faith in God, knowing He will work all things out well in the end.
Prayer is always to be with thanksgiving. Someone might ask how we can give thanks when things around us are going wrong. Remember in our third lesson how we are to give thanks IN all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18) as well as FOR all things (Ephesians 5:20)? Being thankful for all things makes us conscious of God’s work in our lives – not just our personal life, but also our life as a church. It keeps us from becoming bitter and angry.
We are asked to pray for those who are ministering in other places. As we send people of our own congregations or families or even those we’ve met along the way out to places other than home to minister for God, we need to work with them by keeping them in our prayers. In this case, the Apostle Paul was in prison, and yet he was asking for others to pray that he would speak God’s word clearly to those he met. Whom would he be meeting in prison? Mostly his guards!
The next thing we as a church are asked to do is walk in wisdom toward outsiders. That means we pay our bills, we represent ourselves as members of a group who are honest and kind – and look at verse 6 – gracious of speech. “Seasoned with salt” means we always work toward keeping relationships the best they can be – not only among believers but also among unbelievers. If we know of a problem brewing between two individuals not of our church but connected because of personal friendships, we should be there, quietly, to do all we can to see reconciliation happen between those two parties. This would never be done for our own glory; in fact, it should never be done with anyone else in the community ever knowing our part in such reconciliation attempts, we do it for the glory of God.