A Study of Colossians 4:5–6
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:2–4)
In Colossians 1:9, Paul lets the saints know that he is praying for them to be “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding”, and here he is exhorting them to walk in this wisdom. In chapter 2, Paul tells them of his striving for them to know “the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2–3). Later, there is a warning against falling prey to man’s “philosophy and vain deceit” (Colossians 2:8), and then he goes on to tell the riches of being complete in Christ.
THE Bible has suffered more from Christian exponents than from infidel assailants. The prophets of Israel, “moved by the Holy Spirit,” spoke with united voice of a time when righteousness and peace would triumph and rule upon the earth; but “old-fashioned orthodoxy” interpreted their glowing periods much as an American crowd interprets the rhodomontade of political stump orators at election times! And thus the sublime words of the Hebrew Scriptures are supposed to find their fulfillment in the history of Christendom. They are read as referring to us and to our own age. And after us, the deluge! What wonder is it that sensible men of the world are skeptical both about the past predictions and the coming deluge! On this system of exegesis, for example, the sublime flights of Isaiah, when reduced to sober prose, find their realization — I repeat the phrase — in a pandemonium and a bonfire! This nightmare system of interpreting Holy Scripture makes the sacred pages seem to unbelief a hopeless maze of mysticism.
A fruitful cause both of skepticism and of error is ignorance of what may be described as the ground plan and main purpose of the Old Testament Scriptures. “The whole Scriptures are a testimony to Christ: the whole history of the chosen people, with its types and its law and its prophecies, is a shewing forth of Him.”¹ This, however, is the spiritual teaching of the Bible, which of course unspiritual men ignore, and I am here referring to what any intelligent reader ought to recognize. The book relates in the main to the Hebrew race. A brief preface of eleven chapters tells us all that we are concerned to know about “the earth and man,” prior to the call of Abraham. We are there told of the creation and fall of Adam: that the human family sprang from a first man, but not as he came from the hand of God; for our first progenitor was a sinner and an outcast.
By Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Now we come back to the thought that Paul began in 1:23: “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel”. In the last several studies we looked at the second part of that verse and how Paul expanded the second thought of “whereof I Paul am made a minister”. Now we look into this “beholding your order”, which really does sound like a military inspector, something like when the platoon is visited by a general, or another high ranking officer. And this is what Paul longed to see: a well disciplined troop standing firm against the enemies of the gospel: those who would move them away from the hope of the gospel, and their completeness in the finished work of redemption and reconciliation found in Christ, and only in Christ.
Now Paul begins to discuss the work that he labored fervently for throughout his ministry. The one thing that he does let the saints know, is that it is a great conflict “for you”, and for as many as had not seen his face in the flesh. This term “conflict” is the same word translated “race” in Hebrews 12:1. The Greek word is ἀγῶνα—agōna, which is related to our English word agony. It is a daunting task that he is undertaking, but it was an undertaking for the saints, because the Apostle has great love for his Lord, and for those that the Lord calls His own.
The following is Appendix 112 from Dr. E.W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible. While many have sought to keep distance from being associated with Dr. Bullinger over the last century or so, it must be acknowledged that he was an astute and careful student of the Word of God. He was a lover of God, of Christ, of God’s people, and of the Bible. He did, in some instances in my understanding, come to erroneous conclusions, but I would urge you to look into why he arrived at the conclusions that he did. While in the past, most fundamentalists decried Bullingerism and practically used his name as a “curse word”, his work is very valuable to true students of the Word. I have come to many (not all) of the same conclusions as Dr. Bullinger, independent of what he wrote. I have also come to some that differ. We should be careful in all cases to “rightly divide” our teachers, and compare them with Scripture, but we should also acknowledge the value of those on whose shoulders we stand.
By Pastor Cornelius R. Stam, founder of Berean Bible Society
Three times in the book of Acts, there is a retelling of the story of the Lord Jesus’ “arrest” of Saul of Tarsus. While there are many important events in the Acts account, this event gets the most mentions.
Again, as with the crucifixion and resurrection, the Old Testament presents Christ, the Son of God, only in veiled phraseology and in types. The Trinity is only hinted at. This is one reason why the Jew insists there is but one God and that He did not, and will not, have a Son. True, Psalm 40:7 says: “In the volume of the book it is written of Me” but, again, who is the “ME”? We do not find out until some time after the Son of God has appeared incarnate.
It is extraordinary that any student of Scripture can miss the clearly marked difference between the gospel of the opening clause of the Epistle to the Romans, and the gospel specified in the characteristically “Pauline” postscript at its close.