Bible Truth #292 - Colossians 4:2-4

Colossians 4:2-4

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.

Over and over again in God’s Holy, inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word God shows His sovereignty in the affairs of men. God achieves and accomplishes what He wants, every time (Isaiah 55:11). In verse 3 Paul is asking for prayer that God would open a door for his message. It is the perfect example for us - whether God opens a door for our message of Jesus or not, we are to proclaim it to everyone as we go about our lives (Mark 16:15).

But the point of this Bible Truth is that without God opening the door first, the message of salvation will never be heard nor seen. Some Arminians will claim that “Jesus stands and the door and knocks and all you have to do is but to open it and receive Him into your heart and you can be saved. First, Revelation 3:20 has nothing to do with salvation. Second, here in verse 3 Paul writes that God opens the door, not the lost sinner. So how do we reconcile these two passages? Easy. This passage in Colossians concerns the salvation message and it is God that must open a door and prepare a dead man’s heart to receive the Word of Truth by quickening his spirit. The passage in Revelation where Jesus stands at the door and knocks has nothing to do with salvation! It has everything to do with the fellowship of the spirit and a lost man can’t spiritually fellowship with anyone, much less Someone he hates! (John 3:20)

God opening a door for Paul’s message is confirmed in other passages where Paul has found a door opened as in Troas (2 Corinthians 2:12) or when he was prevented from going into areas to preach as what happened when he tried to go to the Province of Asia, Mysia, and Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7). Not only does God save who He wants to save, He decided who will even have the opportunity to hear the Gospel because He determines the time and place for every man to live (Acts 17:26). Some have gone their entire lives without hearing the Gospel and it is because of when and where God appointed their birth. Where is THEIR opportunity to be saved?

Bottom line - God opens doors and He shuts doors. If God shuts a door, no man is going to open it and no man is going to be saved. God is sovereign and we are not.