Thanks and thanksgiving are mentioned at least six times in The Book of Colossians. The various contexts in which they are found are most interesting; the one mentioned in 4:2 (NASB) is worthy of special consideration today.
The Apostle has just mentioned how slaves should treat their masters, and unless the masters think themselves to be allowed complete freedom on the treatment of the slaves, he calls attention to their responsibility to their slaves.
First they are reminded that they are to be treated with justice and fairness; it is then that they are reminded to exercise prayer for the servants and in doing so there is the element of “thanksgiving”.
Slavery is gone in this hour, but there are those that are in the employment of others. It would be quite remiss in following the relationship, in our modern society, if we did not see employees on an equal; that they are worthy of our prayers. We notice that there is to be the attitude with which we are to pray for them! THANKSGIVING is a quite similar situation. If you are a business owner or you employ hired help, I sense that Paul addresses the Colossian believers to not only pray for their own personal needs or praises, but for the inclusion of the slaves. It is obvious that they are placed on equal status; there are needs in their lives of equal value and concern as they perform the functions assigned to them. In the event that you might have treated them as lower in class and forgotten their “equality”, accept the challenge before you! It is easy to inject our own needs and forget that others have needs, and that the “who” and “how” are equivalent.
