Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent, [1886], at sacred-texts.com
Colossians Chapter 4
Masters, etc.
The best texts attach this verse to the preceding chapter.
Render (παρέχεσθε)
The Greek implies on your part.
Equal (τὴν ἰσότητα)
Lit., the equality. Not equality of condition, but the brotherly equality growing out of the Christian relation in which there is neither bond nor free. See on Plm 1:16.
Continue (προσκαρτερεῖτε)
See on Act 1:14. Compare Act 2:42, Act 2:46; Act 6:4; Rom 12:12; Rom 13:6; Th1 5:17. Rev., correctly, continue steadfastly.
Watching (γρηγοροῦντες)
See on Mar 13:35; see on Pe1 5:8. In Eph 6:18, ἀγρυπνοῦντες watching is used, on which see Mar 13:33.
Therein (ἐν αὐτῇ)
In prayer. Compare thereunto, Eph 6:18.
Door of utterance (θύραν τοῦ λόγου)
Rev., better, a door for the world. Compare Co1 16:9; Co2 2:12; Rev 3:8. See also entering in, Th1 1:9; Th1 2:1. And the parallel passage, Eph 6:19. There may be an allusion to a release from imprisonment.
That I may make it manifest (ἵνα φανερώσω)
Compare speak boldly, Eph 6:20. That connects with the clause that God-Christ.
In wisdom (ἐν σοφίᾳ)
Compare Eph 5:15, as wise.
Those that are without (τοὺς ἔξω)
As Co1 5:12, Co1 5:13; Th1 4:12. Compare τοὺς ἔσω those within, Co1 5:12.
Redeeming the time (τὸν καιρὸν ἐξαγοραζόμενοι)
Compare Eph 5:16, and Dan 2:8, Sept. The word is used in the New Testament only by Paul, Gal 3:13; Gal 4:5; Eph 5:16. The compounded preposition ἐξ has the meaning out of; as Gal 3:13, "Christ redeemed us out of the curse," etc., and out and out, fully. So here and Eph 5:16, buy up. Rev., in margin, buying up the opportunity. The favorable opportunity becomes ours at the price of duty.
Seasoned with salt (ἅλατι ἠρτυμένος)
Both words only here in Paul. The metaphor is from the office of salt in rendering palatable. Both in Greek and Latin authors, salt was used to express the pungency and wittiness of speech. Horace speaks of having praised a poet for rubbing the city with abundant salt, i.e., for having wittily satirized certain parties so as to make them smart as if rubbed with salt, and so as to excite the laughter of those who are not hit ("Satires," 1 x., 3). Lightfoot gives some interesting citations from Plutarch, in which, as here, grace and salt are combined. Thus: "The many call salt χάριτας graces, because, mingled with most things, it makes them agreeable and pleasant to the taste." Seasoned is, literally, prepared. It is not likely that the fact has any connection with this expression, but it is interesting to recall Herodotus' story of a salt lake in the neighborhood of Colossae, which has been identified, and which still supplies the whole surrounding country with salt (vii., 30). The exhortation to well-seasoned and becoming speech is expanded in Eph 4:29; Eph 5:4, in a warning against corrupt communication.
Tychicus
Mentioned Act 20:4; Eph 6:21; Ti2 4:12; Tit 3:12.
Minister (διάκονος)
Probably to Paul himself. Compare Act 19:22; Act 20:4. Scarcely in the official sense of deacon.
Fellow-servant (σύνδουλος)
Used by Paul only here and Col 1:7, of Epaphras. By this term he designates Tychicus as, in common with himself, a servant of Jesus Christ. Probably not with a strict, but with a quasi official reference.
I have sent
Epistolary aorist. Tychicus carried the letter.
He might know your estate (γνῷ τὰ περὶ ὑμῶν)
The correct reading is γνῶτε τὰ περὶ ἡμῶν ye might know the things about us, or our estate. Compare Eph 6:21.
Onesimus
See on Plm 1:10.
The faithful and beloved brother
Whom the Colossians had known only as the worthless, runaway slave. See Plm 1:11, Plm 1:16.
Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner
See on Plm 1:23, Plm 1:24. Unnecessary difficulty is made over the fact that the term fellow-prisoner is applied to Epaphras in Plm 1:23, and not to Aristarchus; while here the case is reversed. It is not necessary to suppose that the two had changed places, or that the captivity was voluntary, if a literal captivity was meant. All the three terms fellow-prisoner, fellow-servant, fellow-worker - might be applied to both; and, as Dwight remarks, "Reasons unknown to us may easily have determined the use of one word or the other, independently of the question as to the particular time when they were in imprisonment."
Mark
See on Plm 1:24.
Sister's son (ἀνεψιός)
Only here in the New Testament. Rev., correctly, cousin. The sense of nephew did not attach to the word until very late. Lightfoot remains that this incidental notice explains why Barnabas should have taken a more favorable view of Mark's defection than Paul, Act 15:37, Act 15:39.
Jesus Justus
Not mentioned elsewhere. The only one of these names not mentioned in the salutations of the Epistle to Philemon.
Have been a comfort (ἐγενήθησαν παρηγορία)
Παρηγορία comfort, only here in the New Testament. Properly, an address, an exhortation: an exhortation for the purpose of encouraging: hence a comfort. Plutarch, in his "Life of Cimon," uses it with πένθους grief; a comfort, for grief; and in his "Life of Pericles," of consolation for a dead son. Aretaeus, a medical writer, of the assuaging of a paroxysm. This word, and the kindred adjectives παρηγορικός and παρηγορητικός soothing, are common in medical writings. So Galen, of soothing fictions, pretenses to quiet the diseased. Have been is, more strictly, have proved.
Laboring fervently (ἀγωνιζόμενος)
Rev., striving. See on Col 1:29; see on Col 2:1. Compare Rom 15:30.
Perfect (τέλειοι)
See on Co1 2:6, Co1 2:7; see on Co1 1:28.
Complete (πεπληροφορημένοι)
See on most surely believed, Luk 1:1; and compare full assurance, Col 2:2. Rev., fully assured.
In all the will (ἐν παντὶ θελήματι)
Lit., in every will. Will means the thing willed, as Luk 12:47; James 5:30; Th1 5:18. Hence used sometimes in the plural, as Act 13:22, shall do all my will (θελήματα), i.e., perform all the things willed by me. Eph 2:3, desires, strictly willings. So here the sense is, everything willed by God. The connection is apparently with σταθῆτε ye may stand. For a similar construction see Joh 8:44; Rom 5:2; Co1 15:1; Co1 16:13. As Meyer observes, this connection gives stand both a modal definition (perfect and fully assured) and a local definition (in all the will).
Zeal (ζῆλον)
Read πόνον labor, which occurs elsewhere only in Rev 16:10, Rev 16:11; Rev 21:4, in the sense of pain. Πονος labor is from the root of πένομαι to work for one's daily bread, and thence to be poor. Πόνος toil, πένης one who works for his daily bread, and πονηρός wicked, have a common root. See on wickedness, Mar 7:22. In their original conceptions, κόπος labor (Co1 15:58; Co2 6:5) emphasizes the fatigue of labor: μόχθος hard labor (Co2 11:27; Th1 2:9), the hardship: πόνος the effort, but πόνος has passed, in the New Testament, in every instance but this, into the meaning of pain.
Hierapolis
The cities are named in geographical order. Laodicaea and Hierapolis faced each other on the north and south sides of the Lycus valley, about six miles apart. Colossae was ten or twelve miles farther up the stream. Hierapolis owed its celebrity to its warm mineral springs, its baths, and its trade in dyed wools. It was a center of the worship of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, whose rites were administered by mutilated priests known as Galli, and of other rites representing different oriental cults. Hence the name Hierapolis or sacred city.
Luke - Demas
See on Plm 1:24.
The beloved physician
See Introduction to Luke.
Nymphas
Probably contracted from Nymphodorus, as Artemas from Artemidorus (Tit 3:12): Zenas from Zenodorus (Tit 3:13); Olympas from Olympiodorus (Rom 16:15).
The Church
Compare Plm 1:2; Rom 16:5; Co1 16:19; Act 12:12.
His house (αὐτοῦ)
Others read αὐτῶν their (so Rev., Lightfoot, Meyer). Others, as Westcott and Hort, αὐτῆς her, regarding the name as female, Nympha. It is difficult, however, to know to whom the plural can refer. Some explain, Nymphas and his family. Meyer refers it to the brethren at Laodicaea and Nymphas, and thinks that the allusion is to a foreign church in filial association with the church at Laodicaea, and holding its meetings in the same place.
The epistle from Laodicaea (τὴν ἐκ Λαοδικείας)
That is, the letter left at Laodicaea, and to be obtained by you from the church there. This letter cannot be positively identified. The composition known as the Epistle to the Laodicaeans is a late and clumsy forgery, existing only in Latin MSS., and made up chiefly of disconnected passages from Philippians, with a few from other epistles.
With mine own hand
The letter was written by an amanuensis, Paul adding his autograph.
Grace be with you
On the benedictions, see on Co2 13:14. This short form occurs only here, Ti1 6:21; Ti2 4:22.