ἵνα κ.τ.λ.] On the sense of ἵνα after προσεύχεσθαι etc., see the note on [i. 9].
θύραν τοῦ λόγου] ‘a door of admission for the word’, i.e. ‘an opportunity of preaching the Gospel’, as 1 Cor. xvi. 9 θύρα γάρ μοι ἀνέῳγεν μεγάλη καὶ ἐνεργής, 2 Cor. ii. 12 θύρας μοι ἀνεῳγμένης ἐν Κυρίῳ: comp. Plut. Mor. p. 674 D ὥσπερ πύλης ἀνοιχθέισης, οὐκ ἀντέσχον ... συνεισιοῦσι παντοδαποῖς ἀκρόαμασιν. Similarly )έισοδος is used in 1 Thess. i. 9, ii. 1. The converse application of the metaphor appears in Acts xiv. 27 ἤνοιξεν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν θύραν πίστεως, where the door is opened not to the teachers, but to the recipients of the Gospel. According to another interpretation (suggested by Ephes. vi. 19 ἵνα μοι δοθῇ λόγος ἐν ἀνοίζει τοῦ στόματος μου) it is explained ‘the door of our speech’, i.e. ‘our mouth’: comp. Ps. cxli (cxl). 3, Mic. vii. 5, Ecclus. xxviii. 25. But the parallel passages do not favour this sense, nor will the words themselves admit it. In that case for ἡμῖν θύραν τοῦ λόγου we should require τὴν θύραν τῶν λόγωυ [ἡμῶν]. ‘The word’ here is ‘the Gospel’, as frequently.
λαλῆσαι ‘so as to speak’, the infinitive of the consequence, like εἰδέναι ver. 6 ; see Winer § xliv, p. 400.
τὸ μυστήριον κ.τ.λ. i.e. the doctrine of the free admission of the Gentiles. For the leading idea which St Paul in these epistles attaches to ‘the mystery’ of the Gospel, see the note on i. 26.
δι’ ὅ St Paul might have been still at large, if he had been content to preach a Judaic Gospel. It was because he contended for Gentile liberty, and thus offended Jewish prejudices, that he found himself a prisoner. See Acts xxi. 28, xxii. 21, 22, xxiv. 5, 6, xxv. 6, 8. The other reading, δι’ ὅν, destroys the point of the sentence.
καὶ δέδεμαι 2 Tim. ii. 9 μέχρι δεσμῶν, Philem. 9 νυνὶ δὲ καὶ δέσμιος.
4. ἵνα φανερώσω κ.τ.λ. This is best taken as dependent on the previous clause ἵνα ὁ Θεός ... τοῦ Χριστοῦ. For instances of a double ἵνα, where the second is not coordinated with, but subordinated to, the first, see the note on Gal. iii. 14. The immediate purport of the Colossians’ prayers must be that the Apostle should have all opportunities of preaching the Gospel: the ulterior object, that he should use these opportunities boldly.
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