Colossians 4:5-6 – Salty Talk

Last week we looked at Paul’s prayer request of the Colossian believers. He asked them to pray that God would provide opportunities for the sharing of the gospel message, and that the gospel would be clearly articulated when those opportunities came. In this week’s passage he gives the Colossians some instruction about how they should behave around/toward unbelievers as these opportunities come their way.

First he tells us to behave wisely. If you’ll remember from earlier studies, we said that wisdom is skillful use of knowledge. So we are to take the knowledge Paul has given us in Colossians concerning the new nature we are to put on as Christians, and put that knowledge to use. He wants us to apply what we have learned.

He stresses that we are to live this way, and behave this way toward unbelievers so that we make the best use of time. The Greek word translated time here is kairos. This is a moment in time that is laden with importance. It’s an occasion. What he’s saying is this. “I asked you to pray for opportunities to share the gospel. Don’t squander them when the come.” These moments in time when the situation is right to share the Lord with an unsaved friend, are important moments. Don’t let them pass by without acting on them.

This is what Paul means when he says, “making best use” of these moments. The KJV says “redeeming the time” and that’s a good way to put it. This is a market term Paul uses here that means to completely buy out something. If you went to the store and bought all they have of a certain product, we would say you bought them out. That’s what Paul is saying here. Don’t miss one single opportunity. Buy them out. Take them all, every last one.

I know I have missed opportunities in the past to mention the Lord. I missed them because I was unprepared and wasn’t looking for the moment as I should have been. I missed them because when the moment came I thought about what people might think of me if I spoke up, and instead of loving someone enough to share the gospel with them, I loved my comfort more and kept quiet.

These moments don’t have to be a situation where you launch into a gospel sales pitch. These are just moments when you share one sentence, or two about the Lord. You just mention that you are a Christian, offer to pray for someone right then in the moment, or say something like, “You know the Bible says that…” and quote, or reference, a relevant verse. It can, and should, be simple and appropriate. You don’t have to feel like an unwanted telemarketer. Just be real and share your faith with someone who needs it, the way you would share food with someone who was hungry. “Here, I’ve got some food. Let me share it with you.”

So Paul just told us to seize the moment. To take advantage of every opportunity we have to share our faith with those in need. Now he turns specifically to the idea of the words we speak during these moments, and truly, at all times. Our words and actions inform unbelievers about our faith. They look at what we do, and what we say. Not just the sales pitch that Christians put out, or the fine rhetoric we spout when we think we are supposed to be talking about the Lord, but our everyday speech. The way we talk in everyday, real-life situations is what really informs people of our faith.

Paul says our speech is to “always” be gracious. This means that our words are to be courteous, kind, pleasant, attractive, charming, joyful, and thankful.

This is hard to do! James tells us that if anyone can control his tongue, he is a perfect man (James 3:2). None of us are going to achieve that. I can assure you of that. But our goal is to see to it that our speech is gracious. If our speech isn’t gracious what would it be like? It would be rude, crude, cruel, unkind, and complaining.

If you went into a business somewhere, a restaurant or something, and the employees were talking to each other and the customers with rude, crude, cruel, and unkind words. They were complaining and griping all the time. What would think of that business? Lauren and I’s perception of Taco Bell has been completely negative since one such encounter at the store here in Pulaski. We just don’t go to Taco Bell anymore, especially to this one. People will have the same impression about Christ and church if Christians talk that way.

On the other hand, if you go to a business where the employees treat each other and the customers with kindness and courtesy, they are pleasant and happy when they speak to you, you’ll want to go back. The same is true for non-christians forming opinions about Jesus and church. Those opinions are based on their experiences with Christians.

I know one man who used to attend church, in fact he taught Sunday School. Someone in the church (not ours) said something rude to his wife about their son, and they never went back. That was 20 years ago, and they still don’t go to church. Now they obviously have some personal issues of forgiveness and dedication to work through, but the point is, a “Christian” in the church did not speak graciously, but rudely, and it completely soured someone’s opinion of church.

Next Paul says that our speech is to be “seasoned with salt.” Salt has several functions.

Just as an aside did you know that at times, the Roman army paid its troops with salt rather than coin. This practice accounts for the origin of the words salary and soldier. And the word salad literally means “salted.” It comes from the Roman practice of salting leafy vegetables before eating them. Ok, back to the text.

Salt is a preservative.

The word “seasoned” comes from the Greek word artuo, which means “to make ready, or prepare.” In the ancient world there were no refrigerators or preservatives, other than salt. So preparing food, especially meat, would involve salting it so it would not go bad. For this reason, salt came to represent permanence. So Scripture says that God made a “covenant of salt” with David and his descendants. That means it was an everlasting covenant.

Our words have eternal consequences. Scripture tells us that all our words, even the idle words we speak when we are talking without thinking, hanging out with friends, text messaging, just rambling, etc., will be judged.

I tell you, on the day of judgement people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. – Matthew 12:36-37

This is NOT justification by works, or words as the case may be. The context is Jesus saying that you can know a tree by its fruit. If the tree (person) is justified, it will speak gracious, salty words, if it is not it will speak ungracious, unsalted words.

My point is that our words have lasting import. We should choose them carefully and not be hasty, as the Ents would say.

Furthermore, in the same way that salt was used as a preservative, our words (as Christians) in the world can serve as a preservative to help stop the decay of morality and speech. The world continues to get worse. The use of language becomes increasingly immoral and corrupt. The influence of Christians can serve as a means of stopping that corruption. Our words spoken in private, our words spoken to others, and our words in the political arena all serve this purpose.

Salt is a purifying agent.

Moses uses the exact same expression that Paul just used, “seasoned with salt,” to describe an incense used in the temple as “pure and holy” (Exodus 30:34-35)

Elisha used a bowl of salt in a miracle to purify the water a spring of water in the town of Jericho (2 Kings 2:19-22).

Ezekiel mentions (Ezekiel 16:4) the ancient practice of rubbing an infant down with salt. This was done to help prevent germs and disease from spreading on the child’s soft newborn skin.

Our conversation as believers should be pure and holy, and should influence those around us to speak in a cleaner way. It doesn’t always work this way. Sometimes a person will intentionally use more foul language in an effort to offend you, but most of the time, a person will clean up their talk if they know a Christian is there.

This isn’t permanent change. It’s only in effect as long as the Christian is present, possibly a little longer. But over time, the influence of Christian speech should be a purifying one.

The primary use of salt is to make food taste better.

Bland, boring food can come alive to your taste buds if you add a little salt. Salt enhances the natural flavors of the food.

As Christians, our speech should not be boring and bland, it should be zesty and tasty. People should enjoy talking with us. We should be passionate when speaking of Jesus.

To much salt can ruin the taste of food, but the right amount makes it taste far better than it ever could without the salt. Our speech, in everyday real life, should be seasoned with spiritual salt. We shouldn’t overdo it and ruin the taste. You’ll come off as some sort of weird, homeschooled, freak if all you’ll ever talk about is Jesus. But every topic you talk about, should be seasoned with Jesus. Jesus is about real life, He’s not phony. Everything is spiritual. Any conversation should have a natural mention of God, Jesus, the Bible, etc. When you add this spiritual salt to your conversation, don’t do so in an apologetic way. Don’t apologize for making the food taste better! Do it with joy and passion so people will catch the excitement of having Jesus involved in every aspect of your life.

One side effect of salt. It makes you thirsty.

As we interact with the world, with unbelievers, we should leave them thirsty for the truth of Jesus. If we have seasoned our conversation properly, they should get thirsty for the truth, for answers to life’s questions. Answers that only Jesus can give. Jesus is the only one who can quench that kind of thirst. He gives living water (John 4:13-14) that satisfies that longing of soul that should be awoken in conversation with one of his followers.

We are to season our conversation with spiritual salt, but we are to use wisdom and discernment so that we give the right amount of seasoning, in the right way, in each conversation. There is no formula for sharing the gospel of Jesus with people. You can’t just memorize some lines and recite them like a telemarketer when someone answers the phone. You’ve got to be real. You’ve got to be aware of what’s going on with this person right now, and share Jesus with them in a way that relates to them and makes them thirsty for him. That’s going to look different in every situation.

Conclusion

These verses assume the church members are actively involved in the community in such a way that interaction/conversation with those who are not Christians will take place. Paul’s underlying assumption is that we’re not holed up in a bunker somewhere lamenting how bad the world has become. Instead we are out in the world, interacting with people and excitedly sharing the gospel with them while we still have time. This means we are in the world, but not of it. You can’t love the world and be salty. You’ve got to love Jesus more than the world. You’ve got to love people more than the world, so that your greatest desire is to share Jesus with them.