In Colossians 4:5-6, Paul offers us an incredible challenge: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
At first glance, Paul’s words may seem like common sense, but Christians have struggled with this call for centuries. As a group, believers (or those claiming to believe in Jesus), have had some rather explosive relationships. For instance, there is a long history of war in conflict between Christians and Muslims.
A second and rather prevalent example over the last decade is the relationship between Christians and homosexuals. Christians have not always spoken graciously to homosexuals, and there is a lot of hurt and angst between the groups, with millions of people caught in the middle, not sure what to think.
The Future:
The Biblical mandate that we respect those we disagree with is rather unique in this world, and as we move into the future it becomes even more important that we follow it. Communication reaches faster and further now than ever before, and our words can have a global impact in seconds.
We must be humble in our approach, seek the Lord’s wisdom with every word we speak, and seek to draw non-Christians into the family of God, rather than push them away.
I think the most fascinating aspect of the above Colossians verse is that he calls our speech to be “seasoned” with salt. This is an important and distinct word choice.
Seasoned vs. Shoving
Sometimes I think we, as Christians, feel like the only thing we should talk about with non-believers is our faith. If you have ever met someone who said, “I hate it when Christians shove the Bible down my throat,” odds are they encountered someone who tried a little too hard.
Salt tastes great on most things we eat. In Biblical times salt preserved food, and it also offered flavor.
However, you would never feed someone only salt. It would taste awful and even make them sick. Instead, you would sprinkle the salt over their entire meal.
Interestingly, it takes very little salt before it becomes unnoticeable in your food.
Likewise, I believe Paul is challenging us to season our speech with non-believers in the same way. We are meant to talk to them about more than just our faith. If we only spoke about God, it would be like feeding them a block of salt instead of decent food. That’s not very appetizing.
Instead, we should actually live life alongside them and build relationships. Discuss their hurts and their triumphs, their favorite sports and hobbies, talk about work and family.
Remember, we only need to season our speech with it to make it noticeable. Grace should affect everything we do, and like salt it should be unmissable. In other words, this isn’t an excuse to never share the gospel with those we care about. But it does mean the Gospel should add flavor and preserve relationships, not ruin them.
This doesn’t mean you must agree with everyone either. Our culture has bought into the lie that if you do not agree with someone, you don’t love them. This couldn’t be further from the truth, of course. Disagreeing with someone’s cocaine habit is significantly more loving than encouraging them to keep doing drugs.
But this does mean you disagree in a respectful and gracious way. This is not always easy, and it requires constant wisdom and care. Sometimes people will reject you no matter how gracious your words, but we are called to speak truth and love regardless of how it is accepted.
An excellent example of a life well seasoned
Daniel is a great example of this. He was a young Jewish man living in a culture that encouraged every behavior he believed was wrong. He could have condemned the people around him, he could have started fights and been a pest at every turn.
But instead, Daniel and his friends chose to honor those in authority. They never broke God’s law, often to their own detriment. And when they disagreed with the King or his men they did it with “wisdom and tact.” Even in Daniel 4, when Daniel realizes the King is about to face God’s judgment, Daniel shows incredible compassion.
He could have said, “serves you right for forcing us out of Jerusalem you pagan!” But instead he said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!”
How was Daniel able to speak with wisdom and tact to the people he often disagreed with? Three reasons: First, he lived in relationship with God. It wasn’t about following rules for Daniel, it was about loving and experiencing God’s love. When we know the love of God, it becomes much more natural to love others.
Secondly, he prayed that God would guide his words. Each time he went before the king, Daniel and his friends prayed for the Lord’s strength and guidance.
Lastly, he actually loved, respected, and cared about the king.
Adopting a well seasoned life
If we hope to speak with wisdom to those we disagree with, if we want to live graciously and have words seasoned with salt, like Daniel we also must do three things.
We must live in relationship with God, we must pray, and we must actually learn to love people. People are not projects for us to make better, they are humans who need the grace of God just as much as we do.
Our culture is at a turning point. It will be easier to point fingers and call people names. It will be easier to take sides and play the blame game. But God calls us to be gracious to everyone, and if we hope to experience greater peace in our lifetime, we must learn to do so.
Who in your life could use some salt?
