“Meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains.”
“for which I am also in chains”
The preaching of the mystery put Paul in jail in the first place. The gospel compelled Paul to preach. He felt a burden of “woe” if he did not (1 Cor. 9:16; cf. Acts 4:20).
Paul was not only in jail, but he was in chains. It is easy to preach the gospel when the circumstances are comfortable. Comfort did not affect whether Paul preached or not. He sat in chains and asked the Colossians to pray that God would allow him to preach even in adverse circumstances. Paul saw a potential convert in every human being. We only see people, antagonistic people, weak people, and negative people. The people that Paul saw were souls for whom Christ died.
Paul often spoke of his imprisonment (Phil. 1:7, 13-14, 16; Col. 4:18; Phile. 1, 9-10,13). The gospel is why Paul sat in jail. While in prison in Rome, he wrote some of his epistles, with which the Holy Spirit blessed Christians for over 2000 years. He took an adverse circumstance and turned them into a blessing.
Principle:
Paul always took his adverse circumstances and turned them into blessings.
Application:
Do you complain about your circumstances or proactively turn your curses into blessings?
