Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities.

Paul used the phrase “open door” as a code for his desire to be out of prison, a phrase I believe is something that would not rub the unbelieving guards, the authorities, the wrong way.

Here is using the “outsiders” to refer to unbelievers.

There is a nothing in the tone that deprive the unbelievers of their humanity, no thumbing your nose at the unbelievers, no feeling of superiority, nothing denigrating, but a consciousness and gratitude for representing Christ.

Peter said that it is good if we are persecuted for doing the right thing rather than doing the wrong (1 Peter 3:17), which is an aspect of conducting yourself with wisdom towards outsiders.

Paul said in another place that the church leaders should have a good reputation in the public, and children in subjection (1 Timothy 3:4-7), which is also an aspect of conducting yourself with wisdom.

Wisdom involves being circumspect, reflective. It does not mean being fake, it does not mean trying to create an image that you are not, rather it is a call to an heightened awareness of your environment and how you interact with it for the right result, and in the next verse Paul mentioned speech.

The conduct should focus on making the most of the opportunities, which are opportunities to preach the gospel.

“Conduct yourself with wisdom toward outsiders” is a code for looking for opportunities to bring the conversation/interactions towards evangelism.

Paul was giving a matching order for massive evangelism, but that instruction was going under the noses of the authorities.

Remember that these letters would be sent through an individual, Tychicus, who would probably elaborate on certain parts of the content, especially the covertly stated parts.

Wisdom demands that we avoid counterproductive actions, and wisdom for evangelistic engagement may differ based on the person, place, time, or even generation to generation.

But the point is everyone is meant to be oriented towards reaching others, based on the opportunities, the ones we create or recognize has been created.

So we have an army of christians, but because of the circumstance of their existence at that time, some form of reaching out to others may not be a risk-free endeavor. We see that from the backdrop of the persistent persecution against Paul and other christians noted in the book of Acts and the epistles.

But reach out they must. Jesus has already said if you are ashamed of Him and his word, He would be ashamed of us before his father in heaven (Mark 8:38). He said go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15).

In the next verse, Paul tells the people what he wants the people to do with the opportunities: speaking and knowing how to answer everyone.

Therefore just as everyone is charged with prayer, everyone is now being charged with evangelism, everyone is meant to know how to answer objections to the gospel, respond to queries about the gospel.

These are well-trained christians covertly deployed to reach others.

One thing we know about Paul is that he can engage with all calibre of people when it comes to the gospel. And, combined with the next verse, he is saying that all believers has to be at a minimum as effective as he is when it comes to answering questions relating to the gospel.

What opportunity is as good as someone asking you questions that gives you the opportunity to share your faith? That is the open door for evangelism, right there.

Conduct yourself with wisdom towards outsiders also means you consciously live in a way that you are more likely to have opportunities to share the gospel than not.

The shape that takes would be different from place to place, person to person, and generations after generations. And you don't have to say, “What am I doing? Would anyone listen to me? And would what I do amount to anything?”

Remember Paul is not giving you any quota, he is just encouraging a mindset, and we need to note that.

Proverbs says he who win souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30). Here, Paul is talking about acting wisely towards outsiders. There is a parallel there.

Acting wisely towards outsiders is creating the situation where you have like an honeycomb that attracts and catches people.

Jesus said something similar to Peter and co. “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people (Matthew 4:19).”

In Acts 2, God created an opportunity where people'e attention was arrested and Peter put in the net to catch thousands.

Wisdom in the context of this verse is that spiritual intuition/instinct to spot evangelism opportunities, with the understanding that there is a subsisting commandment by Jesus that we should go into all the world and preach the gospel (Matthew 28:19-20) and people will be baptized. That means Jesus has the authority to command obedience to himself, and the power is in the gospel (Romans 1:16).