2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 

5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  6  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:2-6 New International Version

As he draws this letter to Christians at Colossae to a close, the apostle Paul urges them to be watchful and wise. What does that tell us about being a true follower of Jesus Christ?

I suggest it implies that there will be many challenges, even dangers, along the way. It was Jesus who said to His disciples: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38) Two challenges we will face are to not give up our faith in the face of threats, and to not lose our faith through giving in to temptations. And the way we keep watch over our souls is through prayer. How does Paul urge them to pray? (vs 2-4)

Prayer should never be a casual matter. To devote yourself to something means to give it a big place in your life and your full attention. He asked that they would pray for him also. Apostles of old needed God's daily strength and help in their work. Modern day ministers and missionaries need it too. Notice too how he mentioned specific needs – for God to ‘open opportunities’ and for him to ‘speak with clarity’. We must pray thoughtfully and not be content with 'God bless Franklin Graham' (or whoever we are praying for). We should take time to think of their situation and ask specific things. The Holy Spirit may even bring thoughts to our mind to pray on their behalf.

The other thing he urged them to do, in view of the challenges and dangers they might encounter, was to act wisely towards unbelievers; especially to take care with their words. (vs 5-6) What do you think Paul’s ultimate hope was regarding unsaved people in the advice he gives to Christians.

Surely it was a deep longing for those who are lost in sin to be saved. While one reason for being wise in our conduct and our speech is to not give unnecessary offense, the other reason is because we want to show people by our lives and our words the grace of God and the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to try and help them come to understand, what Paul calls, 'the mystery of Christ'. The gospel is a total mystery to unbelievers. That's why we are seeing in our generation Christians being called 'bigots' and other derogatory terms. It’s because the world is aggressive, self-assertive and self-seeking, that true Christianity confronts them.

Christians are still persecuted on a wide scale in Eastern countries. In Western countries, however, we’ve had a few hundred years of less persecution. But the times are changing. We are seeing and hearing of much more hostility to the gospel and threats against Christians. And much of this is focused on things we say. In Luke 11:53-54 we read: “As Jesus went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press Him hard (with questions) and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something He might say.” They wanted to trap Him in words that He spoke. The same is now happening to Christians. That's a big reason why we must be wise in how we respond in discussions with the unsaved. We mustn't be afraid to speak what is true – but we must ask God for wisdom to know how we should answer.

To sum up – being a Christian is not a part-time vocation. We need to DEVOTE ourselves to prayer, to try and use EVERY opportunity, and to ALWAYS live as righteously as we can. We don't do this to save ourselves (Christ has done that already) but to make His salvation known to a world where sin and danger abounds – including the greatest danger of all – that of being eternally lost. May God help us to be watchful and wise in our generation.