A Word in Season: Seasoned with Salt (Colossians 4:6)

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Toward the end of the letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul is exhorting those Christian men and women as to how they are to conduct themselves, especially with regard to those who are outside, how they are to present themselves to a watching and listening world.

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And so he says, Colossians chapter 4 verse 5, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time, and then let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

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Now if you are a Christian, you know how important it is to use your tongue righteously, to speak wisely and well.

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Life and death lie in the power of the tongue. With it we can rip and tear and destroy, or we can build up and bring blessing and joy to somebody's heart.

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And here we're told especially to take care how we speak before those who are outside, and this is probably a reference to unbelievers.

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Under such circumstances, and indeed we might say at all times, the speech is to be with grace.

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It is always whether we're among friends or strangers, whether we're well known or not well known, in whatever circumstances, whether it's more public or more private, this grace is always to characterize us.

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We're to show ourselves recipients of God's grace. We are to train our tongues and hold them back, or let them loose in accordance with the grace of God that we have received.

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And that's going to show itself in that we are seasoned with salt in our words.

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Now salt makes something flavorful and it also prevents corruption, and that ought to be what grace does to our speech.

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It ought to make it flavorful, pithy, substantial. There ought to be something in our words that is tangy in the best sense, distinctive, that means that what we say as well as how we say it is noticeable for its purity, its goodness, its tastefulness.

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And that same speech ought to keep from corruption. There ought to be something that is genuinely salty about it, not vulgar, not cruel, not dismissive, not sneering, not ugly, but rather something which is manifestly keeping away from rottenness.

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So that whether it's the jokes that we either tell or laugh at, whether or not it's the stories that we pass on, whether or not it's the news that we share, whatever it may be, that our speech is marked by this true saltiness because of grace.

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And that means that we should know how to answer each one. There ought to be this holy understanding, this holy wit or sense that makes us appreciate what we ought to say and when and how we ought to speak.

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So that if somebody comes in and they're trying to perhaps pressure us or entice us in one way, or somebody else comes in and they're trying to draw something out, we know we can discern what ought to be said under those different circumstances.

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It may be that with some we speak and with others we hold our peace. It may be that with some we speak a few words, with others we might need to speak more words, with some it would be encouragement, with others it might be rebuke, with some there will be counsels, with others there might be directions.

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But our speech ought to be governed by this gracious saltiness, marked by heavenly wisdom, so that when people hear what we have to say there's something genuinely distinct about our conversation.

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It may be casual, it may be more definite and deliberate, but what is the flavour of your speech and mine?

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Could someone overhear us? Could someone engage with you and say finally that given the way that you typically deal, given the overflow of your heart under normal circumstances, that your speech is always always with grace, it is seasoned with salt, and that you know how you ought to answer each one.

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This is the kind of wisdom that comes from above, and this is the kind of wisdom that we need if our speech is to be righteous before men, and before God, and for the glory and honour of his name.