Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Colossians · About this commentary
A Door for the Word
Colossians 4:3-4
3 praying together for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds, · WEB
A man in chains asks prayer for an opening — and the opening he wants is for the message, not for himself.
Praying together for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word. The request is put in the first person plural and the object is the message rather than the messenger.
The image of an open door is Paul's usual one for opportunity 1 Corinthians 16:9 2 Corinthians 2:12, and the request is that God open it rather than that circumstances improve.
What he wants the door for is stated: to speak the mystery of Christ — the word from Colossians 1:26, the secret whose whole nature is that it has been published.
Then the clause that gives the request its weight: for which I am also in bonds. He is imprisoned for having spoken it, and what he asks for is the chance to speak it again. Nothing in the sentence asks for release.
Verse 4 makes the petition more specific and, in a way, more modest: that I may reveal it as I ought to speak. The prayer is not for boldness or for results but for clarity — that when the door opens he will say the thing plainly. A man with limited remaining opportunities asks that he not waste them by being obscure.
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