What Does Colossians 4:3 Mean?
Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door of the word, to speak the hidden thing of the Anointed One, for which I am also bound.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:THE KEY
The bonds can hold the speaker without holding the message: the requested opening is for the Word.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into present constraints: being bound does not erase the possibility of an opening for speech. The prayer holds both facts together, the speaker is in bonds, and the mystery of the Anointed One is still to be spoken. The barrier belongs to the speaker’s condition; the sought opening belongs to the message.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that freedom from constraint must come before meaningful speech can happen: the prayer asks for the message’s opening while the bonds remain.
THE ROOT
μυστήριον
mystērion
GROWS FROM
μυστ-
myst-
A mystery or secret, associated with something concealed or reserved to be disclosed.
“hidden thing” in this verse is mystērion. English “mystery” can sound like a puzzle that stays unknowable; here it is something that can be spoken. The door is sought so what was hidden in the Anointed One can be disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
mystēs: An initiate into a mystery
μύστης
This related word carries the sense of entering into knowledge of something once concealed.
myeō: To initiate into a mystery
μυέω
Its sense of making someone acquainted with what is hidden fits the movement from mystery to proclamation.
λόγου
logou
GROWS FROM
λογ-
log-
Word, saying, or message; speech as meaningful content.
“Utterance” includes the word or message itself, not only the act or sound of speaking. The opening is for the message about the Anointed One to pass outward.
ALSO GROWS
logion: A saying or oracle
λόγιον
This branch keeps the emphasis on something communicated as a message.
logizomai: To reckon, account, or consider
λογίζομαι
Its sense of accounting shows how this word family can carry meaningful content, not merely sound.
Χριστοῦ
Christou
GROWS FROM
χρισ-/χρί- (chris-/chri-)
To anoint; the title names one who is anointed.
The title carries the act of anointing inside the name: this is the mystery of the Anointed One, not a surname. The message has a person and a calling at its center.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint
χρίω
The verb reveals the action held within the title.
chrisma: An anointing
χρῖσμα
This related noun makes the anointing itself visible beneath the title.
THE PATTERN
God’s opening gives testimony a passage outward, even when the speaker faces constraint.
Lord, open my lips, and my mouth sets forth your praise.And when they had arrived and gathered the assembly together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of trust to the nations.For a great and working door has been opened to me, and many are set against me.THE THREAD
The mystery that has been hidden away from the ages and from the generations, but now has been made visible to his set-apart ones.Colossians 1:26 uses the same Greek word μυστήριον (mystērion, mystery): what was hidden is now made manifest. That makes the request here an opening to speak what has been disclosed in the Anointed One.
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