There are a number of occasions where the apostle Paul used the metaphor of a door to refer to an opportunity. For example, when Paul and Barnabas gave a report to the church in Antioch, Luke records, “Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27). Paul himself wrote to the Corinthian church, saying in 1 Corinthians 16:8-9, “But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” He wrote again in 2 Corinthians 2:12, “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I departed to Macedonia.”
Not only did Paul talk about doors in the present, and doors that had opened for him in the past, but in his letter to the Colossians, he asked for prayers that a door would be opened to him in the future! “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; 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, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak” (Colossians 4:2-4).
A couple of truths come to mind in looking at these texts. First, the nature of the opportunities. Paul reported an opportunity to the Gentiles. In fact, this is the wondrous nature of the gospel. As he wrote himself in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Unlike God’s first covenant with a single people, His promise of salvation through faith is to all men!
The second point, made in Colossians, is that the door of opportunity was for the word! God’s word declared is what brings forth faith. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith, as defined in that word, is the means by which salvation comes!
Finally, in both his request for the prayers of the Colossians, and in his declaration to the Corinthians in his second epistle, it is clearly shown that the opportunity, or door, was Providentially opened. Paul was so diligent because he was aware of the opportunities that he had were derived from God!
We too have a responsibility to preach the gospel of the Lord, to bring faith, and salvation to any and all who will allow us to walk through the door to help them!
