Paul closes his letter to the Colossians the same way he began, with a focus on prayer. At the beginning of his letter, he prayed for the Colossians, that they would stay strong in the faith. Now, he asks the Colossians to pray for him: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (v. 2).

First, Paul asks that God would open a door for them to “proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains” (v. 3). Paul makes it very clear that the reason he is under house arrest is that he was proclaiming the gospel. He prayed for continued openings to preach the Word. He wanted God to go before him and open a path for more people to hear this life-changing message.

Second, Paul asks them to pray that he would be able to communicate the gospel clearly (v. 4). Paul wanted to make the message known to both the Jewish people and the Gentiles. How we present the message is important: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (v. 6).

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul gave the same prayer request, twice: “Pray also for me… that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel… Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should” (Eph. 6:19–20). Clearly, Paul understood that he did not carry the weight of sharing the gospel alone. The remainder of his letter is filled with greetings to individuals who had been “co-workers for the kingdom” (v. 11). He remembered them in prayer to the Lord, and Paul asked that they remember him, “in chains” (v. 18).

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