Sermon: Colossians 4:2-18 from Rev. Mike Jorgensen
Hey all, pastor Mike here. Today’s sermon was not recorded so I’ve decided to post my outline for small groups to reference. I’ve tried my best to convert all of my notes to complete sentences so they are at least coherent!
Finally, I use footnotes in my outline which don’t work well in a blog so here are the commentators and authors quoted:
Richard R. Melick Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (The New American Commentary, Vol. 32)
Os Guinness Fool’s Talk
N.T. Wright Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary (Volume 12) (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)
Simone Weil Letter to Joe Bousquet
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
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Intro: When Paul writes the Colossians, he’s been dismantling a dangerous idea—what scholars call the “Colossian heresy”—the belief that the gospel is Jesus + something else: Jesus + mystical visions, Jesus + strict rule-keeping, Jesus + elite spiritual knowledge.
We shake our heads at that. But the modern church faces its own “Jesus +” temptations:
Jesus + material blessing (prosperity gospel)
Jesus + national identity (Christian nationalism)
Jesus + perfect liturgy (high-church traditionalism)
Jesus + political alignment, + theological sophistication, etc.
Different packaging, same impulse: we assume Jesus is good… but not quite enough.
And this creates a second problem. When we hit Paul’s final chapter—full of commands on prayer, wisdom, and speech—we’re tempted to think he’s now switching teams. He’s spent three chapters saying, “Don’t add to Christ!” and suddenly it sounds like he’s piling on spiritual tasks.
But Paul isn’t contradicting himself. He’s showing us what it looks like when Christ is actually sufficient. Not Jesus + tasks… but Jesus → a transformed way of living.
Paul sees the Colossians and us the same way. We can be “in Christ” but spiritually distracted—present but not attentive. And that distraction keeps us from living the life Christ already secured for us. Paul’s final imperatives are a call to pay attention—to God, to the world, and to the people before us
FCF (fallen condition focus): We often treat prayer, conduct, and speech as extra religious tasks—things we add onto faith if we have time, energy, or interest. This leads us either to compartmentalize (private piety with no public expression) or to disconnect our spiritual lives from real opportunities around us. Like the Colossians, we’re tempted to think in terms of “Jesus + effort,” instead of seeing these practices as natural expressions of a life already rooted in Christ.
Big Idea: Because Christ is sufficient, His people must stay spiritually awake—integrating prayer, wisdom, and speech as a single way of being present to God and the world.
Main Point 1: Devoted Prayer is Alert, Not Vague and Inward (vv.2-3)
The translation you’re using may cause some confusion, but the imperative in this sentence is “devote yourselves.”
Many people read this verse as a command to pray, but “The term 'pray' is actually another participle modifying 'devote yourselves.”
Devote ourselves to what? Alert prayer IN (not and) thanksgiving is what that looks like.
For many of us—especially those who are skeptical or unsure where we stand—prayer feels like a vague spiritual practice, something reserved for more withdrawn or contemplative personalities rather than an engaged way of paying attention to the world.
Christian prayer, however, is outward-facing—an attentive posture toward what God is doing.
Paul’s emphasis isn’t on introspection but on scanning the horizon
The first characteristic of the type of prayer that Paul is prescribing is alertness/watchfulness. The term implies mental alertness.
“The Colossians were to pray with mental alertness. Presumably, this meant that they were to know the circumstances of life, particularly those which affected the spread of the gospel. Informed prayer is likely to be more purposeful, personal, and powerful.”
The second characteristic is “in thankfulness.” This is not a second category of prayer, but the posture with which we approach alert and present prayer.
Gratitude is what steadies our prayers. It keeps us from being overwhelmed by the difficulties in front of us and reminds us that God is still working. A thankful heart lets us face hard realities without losing joy.
The second petition occurs in v. 4: “Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” Paul asked for the ability to walk through such doors as would open
E.g. High school student who asked me what it means to be saved. The door was open, but I still had to walk through it.
Many people pray by floating mentally, but Paul wants alert minds, grateful hearts, and missional reflexes.
Some of us are more disciplined in crafting our commentary for a social media post than petitioning God and being directed by God for action.
Applications: Pray with the news open, pray with a church directory and neighborhood crisis list, pray with names, not abstractions.
Main Point 2: Wise Conduct Provides Opportunity & Ability, Not Just Respectability (v.4-5)
Biblical wisdom isn’t cleverness; it’s skill in godly living. Why mention it here? Because wisdom is both the cure for false teaching and the foundation for credible witness.
“Blameless life lays the foundation for gracious witness.”
“Christian communication can become a closed circle, speaking only to itself, with all the answers to all the questions no one outside is asking.”
Wisdom bookends this letter: Paul prayed they would know wisdom (1:9), and now he calls them to live it.
As Os Guinness (Fools Talk) writes, Christian persuasion requires patient, fitting, and imaginative responses that take each person seriously. Wisdom finds the person behind the position. It’s not one-size-fits-all.
Philosopher Simone Weil wrote that, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
App→ Wisdom keeps you from winning arguments while losing people. Wisdom helps notice the ripeness of a moment.
It is vital that the church realize all of its opportunities to be in service to God and the world.
Main Point 3: Careful Communication Requires Tone and Truth, Not Just Content (v.6)
False dichotomy: commentators and preachers tend to emphasize one aspect of “careful communication” over another.
Emphasis on how it is sent: Some will emphasize logical and technical precision in wording so that we are always free from error and speak with accuracy. Yet they confuse accuracy with adequacy.
Emphasis on how it is received: Yet others will emphasize warmth, compassion, and empathy as the manner of speaking.
Paul allows for no such distinction and, in fact, emphasizes the necessity of both.
Two qualifiers for our speech: in grace and with salt.
“‘In grace’ may be used in its full Christian sense of God’s grace, in a generic sense of charming, or with a combination of both. The third option seems most likely.”
Salt made food good—preserving, cleansing, and seasoning. Paul means conversation that is lively, fitting, and life-giving.
Matthew Henry said our speech should be “savory and profitable.” That’s the idea: neither trivial nor harsh, neither flippant nor flat. Or as Os Guinness says, “Nothing is less attractive than the bored advocate of grace.”
App→ Pursue speech that is gracious, interesting, and true, with words rooted in the gospel and attentive to the person in front of you.
Conclusion: We are tempted to separate what Paul holds together:
Prayer without awareness becomes vague and inward.
Wisdom without prayer becomes strategic but soulless.
Speech without wisdom becomes precise but sterile; warmth without truth becomes kind but empty.
But Paul is not giving us “Jesus + prayer + wisdom + good communication.” He’s describing the life that flows from the Jesus who is already enough. The answer is not Jesus + something—it is Jesus Himself.
The incarnation is the perfect picture of alert presence, wise engagement, and gracious speech. In Jesus, we see God fully attentive to the world He came to save. And it is that same Jesus who enables us, by His Spirit, to live alertly, walk wisely, and speak graciously.
So Paul’s final commands are not a burdensome checklist. They’re an invitation to live the kind of life Christ has already opened to us—a life fully grounded in Him, fully present in the world, and fully awake to God’s mission.
