Pauls Epistle to Colossians (23)

Let's turn please in our

Bibles to Colossians 4. We're going to be through with this study in just the next couple of weeks,

Lord willing. Actually today we're going to complete the consideration of the main instruction of the

Epistle, for it actually ends with verse 6, because beginning with verse 7 of Colossians 4, the

Apostle begins to address specific persons that he knew in the church at Colossae.

And so really verses 2 through 6 contain the last words of Paul's general instruction to this church.

Now although of course verses 7 and 8 are following our personal instructions, we of course recognize there are lessons there for us also, because this is of course the

Word of God. Now once again we'll read these verses, Colossians 4 verse 2 through verse 6, in which we're instructed to watch and pray.

And this is the third Lord's Day that we're dealing with these words. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the

Word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how

I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time, or redeeming the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Last Lord's Day we consider the Apostle's request that the church pray for the blessing of the

Lord upon his Word, upon his ministry of the Word. Paul desired to be both faithful and fruitful in his calling, and he realized that the

Lord would have to enable him to do so, and hence he requested prayer on his behalf.

And so he desired these Christians at Colossae would pray to God for him faithfully, so that he would be faithful to his

Lord. Even the Apostle Paul, called by Jesus Christ himself, and prophecies were declared of Paul of his great success in the gospel ministry, nevertheless saw the means of prayer as essential for this to be realized.

And so believing in sovereign grace and a sovereign God in no way negates or lessens our attention to the means that God has appointed.

Prayer is absolutely essential if we want to see our sovereign God working.

Let us be faithful in that. Now we finished last Lord's Day before we could address a phrase that the

Apostle used. We might have passed over rather rapidly. It depicts a message that the

Apostle Paul wanted to proclaim widely. At the same time pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the

Word, and then he has this phrase, to declare the mystery of Christ.

That was his desire. He didn't say that I might declare the Bible, or the

Word of God, or the gospel even, but rather he used the expression, the mystery of Christ.

And then he said this, on account of which, on account of this message of declaring the mystery of Christ, I am in prison.

And again he's asking for prayer, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

This expression, mystery of Christ, is not unique to Colossians 4 verse 6, but rather it is found elsewhere in the scriptures.

And really it's in the epistle to the Ephesians where this is made perhaps most clear.

And there we read, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, there's the word mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge, and here's the full expression, the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it is now been revealed by the

Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, and here it is, here's the substance of the mystery of Christ, that the

Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, that's the mystery of Christ, of which

I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.

To me who am less than least of all the saints this grace was given, that I should preach among the

Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the, here it is, fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our

Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him, and therefore

I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you which is your glory.

Now Paul again, humanly speaking, tended to write in long sentences. He wasn't like the

Apostle John who wrote in very short, terse, direct sentences, but rather long sentences, a subject, a verb, and then all kinds of phrases and clauses.

But here he sets forth exactly what this mystery of Christ is, and it is the fact that the

Lord had called Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to proclaim the gospel to the Gentile world, to establish churches throughout the

Roman world. But it's important to recognize that Paul's ministry of the word was not to bring salvation simply to individuals throughout the world, but rather Paul was to make known the mystery that had not been fully revealed until the

Lord had revealed it to him. This mystery is that all believers everywhere are in one body in Jesus Christ.

Now this is very profound, and the fact that it is set forth as a mystery of Christ shows its profundity as far as Paul was concerned.

This was really at the heart of his ministry. This was the substance of his message.

He was basically declaring that there was no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile within the body of the redeemed.

Any and all who are converted to faith in Jesus Christ are one entity, one body.

Now we might all say, well I knew that. I would venture to say that many do not fully understand that and the implications.

And as we'll explain later, there are many evangelicals today that do not see one body of the redeemed through history, but rather two peoples, the nation of Israel and the church.

It's a classic, of course, tenet of dispensationalism. Israel is

Israel, the church is the church, the two shall never mix. And basically Paul's message, his core message, was breaking that down.

That's not the case. He wrote in Ephesians 2 and elsewhere that although there was a time when

Gentiles were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the promises of God, strangers to the covenants of God, without hope, without God in the world, now they are brought nigh through Christ.

In other words, now they are a part of the commonwealth of Israel. Now they are a part of the one people of God.

And that Jesus Christ broke down the barrier that once distanced them between the Jews and the Gentiles, namely the law as a covenant that distinguished the

Jews as separate and privileged from the Gentiles, Christ broke that down on the cross. And so now any and all, whether Jewish or Gentile, who put their faith in Christ, come into this one body of the redeemed, this one people of God.

And this was at the heart of his message. He proclaimed it everywhere.

And if you look at Colossians 4, 6 carefully, he says, because I proclaim this mystery of Christ is the reason

I'm in prison. You see that? He wasn't in prison because he was preaching the gospel specifically.

He was in prison because he was preaching this unity of Jews and Gentiles in Christ as one body.

He was in prison because he was telling Jewish people, you are no longer distinct and privileged and separate from the

Gentiles, but rather you too are separate unless you come to faith in Jesus Christ. And if you do as a

Jewish man or woman, and you do as a Gentile man or woman, you come into one state of blessing.

You come into the kingdom of God, the kingdom promised to our father David, the kingdom of Israel.

And that kind of message was not received well wherever Paul went.

And this is why he suffered persecution. This is why he was in prison, on account of which

I am in prison. And so as one reads, say, the book of Acts of Paul's arrest, imprisonment, trials, and transport to Rome under guard, one can see that it was this message of the mystery of Christ that was at the heart of his experience.

For Paul had gone throughout the world again declaring that the ethnic Jewish people were not the true

Israel. That would get a rise itself, wouldn't it? The covenant people of God.

But rather Paul declared that Israel was comprised of both Jews and Gentiles who embraced

Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah, the promised son of David, the promised king of Israel.

It was this message of no longer excluding Gentiles from the covenant people of God that caused such a reaction and uproar among the

Jewish people wherever Paul proclaimed the gospel. It was the

Jewish leadership who sought to kill Paul. And when they were unsuccessful, they sought to prosecute him before the

Roman authority. You read about it in the book of Acts. And Paul could say here in Colossians 4 -6 that he was in prison because of this message regarding the mystery of Christ.

I want you to pray for me, he says, that I can make this message known wide and far and that I would be faithful in it.

And so the mystery of Christ is that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs.

You see, we're the fellow heirs with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All the true believers of the

Old Testament economy. Fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of God's promise in Christ to the gospel.

And this was Paul's message and it was not received well. And he suffered terrible persecution for it.

And again, we would argue that message is still resisted and rejected today.

There are numbers of people I've met over the years that will not come to this church because this message is being proclaimed here.

They've told me that because this is such an ingrained teaching in evangelicalism.

Israel is Israel, the church is the church, and the two shall never mix. And this is not what the

Apostle Paul taught. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, the promised

Messiah, you are a member of the Israel of God. You are made so because you're in Christ and he is the king.

The promised kingdom of God foretold in the Old Testament has come into realization through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

He ascended into heaven, he's enthroned, and all those who believe on him as Savior and Lord enter into this kingdom.

All do equally the same who put faith in Christ. And Peter declared in the book of Acts that if you fail or refuse to believe on Jesus as the

Messiah, you're cut off from the people. You are excluded from the people of God. And Paul later in Galatians, you'll recall, he referred to ethnic

Jewish people who did not believe on Jesus. Not as the promised children say of Isaac, but rather they were the sons of Hagar.

They were as Ishmael. Is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul got a reaction, and got arrested, and drugged to Rome, and yet this was all in the purpose of God.

He was writing, you know, this epistle to the Colossians, the church of Colossae, from a prison cell in Rome, probably during the first of two imprisonments.

One different than when he wrote 2 Timothy that we read earlier. There was a first imprisonment, probably, he probably was released, and went on to minister for several years, was re -arrested, and then he was in prison, and then was executed, probably in 67 or 68

AD. But most Bible believers today still cling to the idea that there are two separate peoples,

Israel and the church. And in effect, they are denying the mystery of Christ that Paul set forth in his epistles, in which he declared this is at the very heart of his message, the very heart of his ministry, and he was praying to the

Colossians to help him to be courageous and faithful, and that the Lord might bear fruit in this.

Well, now let's turn our attention to Colossians 4, verses 5 and 6.

And here we have, again, the third part of this that we're dealing with today. A command to live with view to furthering the word among unbelievers.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Christians are always to be concerned for the souls of those, as Paul described them here, who are outside.

These are unconverted people who need to come to know and call upon the Lord Jesus to govern their lives.

And it's our responsibility as Christians to walk in wisdom with regard to them.

When we become Christians, our relationship with the non -Christian world, of course, undergoes change.

Our beliefs are now different than theirs. We would regard ourselves on the inside, they on the outside.

Our behavior has undergone noticeable change, and we're no longer like them. They are outside the covenant community of God.

Of course, we desire that they would come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior, as we have come to know

Him. But they still retain an aversion to the Lord and His ways.

And not only do they retain an aversion to the Lord, but they have an aversion to you, who represent the

Lord. And if you try and make the Lord Jesus known, you will experience and measure that hostility, unless you encounter someone that the

Lord has really been dealing with, bringing conviction of sin and is hungry and thirsty for righteousness.

I remember when I was converted in the second week of January 1972,

I thought, this is wonderful. This is glorious. My friends got to hear this.

And I assumed they were going to be delighted to hear it. And so I began to tell them. And I was surprised at the reaction, the hostility that came forth.

And then, you know, the back accusations that came back to me about me and what

I had become, and how Mary had ruined me, by the way, is how it came about in their minds.

But there is an aversion to the people of the world, to the people of God. And we can perhaps avoid that hostility and difficulty if we just mute ourselves with regard to the gospel.

But if you're going to be a faithful Christian, and you make known the gospel to others, you should anticipate and expect this kind of hostility and resistance coming to you.

Again, I would advocate, in counter to much of ministry philosophy today, if you can somehow present

Christ and the gospel to an unbelieving world in an unoffensive way, to where it's attractive to everybody, and nobody reacts to it or resists it, you're not faithfully proclaiming the gospel.

Because the gospel is coming in and addressing those who are on the outside, and telling them they're on the outside, and that they need to repent and believe on Jesus Christ.

Now, Peter wrote this, of the aversion of those toward the gospel, those on the outside.

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.

In other words, be prepared to suffer. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

And again, if you don't mind me recounting a little biography, autobiography. I remember a couple weeks after being converted,

I was a grocery clerk, working in the store, and my old drinking buddy showed up, I hadn't seen in about a year, college buddy.

And he, of course, he wanted to go out and party that night. And I didn't even know how to answer him.

And I just kind of whole hummed and said, I couldn't go. And you know, and he got there. I remember seeing this puzzled look on his face.

He didn't get it. You know, that wasn't me. That wasn't Lars. And of course, later he was running with our friends and he learned the reason why.

And that came back to me too. It's just you're picked up and translated into another kingdom, aren't you? And you just can no longer run and run with those with whom you formerly ran.

Now, notice the apostle says that we are to walk in wisdom with regard to unbelievers.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. And so he was urging the

Christians in the Church of Colossae to seek to be good and consistent witnesses for Christ while they were in view by unbelievers.

And you need wisdom for this. We are to redeem the time. That is, we are to look for opportunities to display before others what a

Christian believes and how a Christian should live. The commentator William Hendrickson expressed

Paul's spirit well. In the spirit of the principles to which Paul has bound himself and in connection with which he has just now asked the

Colossians to remember him and his companions in prayer, he now urges them to adhere to a similar way of life.

You see, he asked them to pray that he would be faithful and bold, and now he's telling them to be faithful and bold.

In the days of the early Church, believers were often slandered by these outsiders. For example, they were called atheists because they served no visible gods.

All the pagan idolatry in Rome. They were called unpatriotic because they did not burn incense before the image of the emperor.

And immoral because of necessity they would often meet behind locked doors.

The apostle knew that the best way to defeat this slander was for Christians daily to conduct themselves not only virtuously instead of wickedly, but also wisely instead of foolishly.

Good point. It was then as it is now. In the long run, the reputation of the gospel depends on the conduct of its devotees.

It is as if the apostle were saying, behave wisely toward outsiders, always bearing in mind that though few men read the sacred scrolls, all men read you.

And they are watching you. Some to discredit you, but there are others that are watching you to look for perhaps a ray of hope for themselves.

And when they see some inconsistency or some conflict in your behavior, your attitude, or your words with your

Christian profession, it discredits your witness before them. And so we need to walk in wisdom before those who are outsiders.

The thought of this verse of Paul is similar to 1 Peter 3 .15 and 16. But sanctify the

Lord God in your hearts, set Him apart ahead of time, purpose to do so. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience.

When they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

And so this is how we attempt to live before others. We are not successful always because in many ways we offend and we fall and we fail.

But that ought to be our goal, our desire with the Lord's help. And we are to be redeeming the time in this matter.

Just to live day by day takes a great deal of time and effort on our part. But we are to carve out as much time as possible to give to reaching the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Redeeming the time. It is almost like before you were a Christian you wasted time and now you have to buy some of that back.

Make up for it. By making the gospel known. And so we are to be redeeming or buying back the time to give to this important task.

To seek through wisdom to bring those who are now outside the family of God to experience new life in Christ along with us.

Paul says that we ought to be wise with regard to those outside. He says secondly that we ought to be very careful with regard to ourselves.

James wrote, if you can bridle your tongue you can be a perfect.

And I was thinking that must be King James. Surely he is saying mature men or new King James.

But no I went and looked at the other translations and they all say perfect. You can be a perfect man if you bridle your tongue.

And so we should be particularly guarded in our speech when we seek to win those who are outside. Let your speech always be with grace.

Seed and with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one. And so our speech is to always be governed by self -control with view to those outside.

As one once wrote of Paul, he requires sovity.

Don't you like that word? That's the word of the day. In other words you need to be suave.

Your speech needs to be charming. Such as may allure the hearers by its profitableness.

For he does not merely condemn communications that are openly wicked or impious but also such as worthless and idle.

Hence he would have them seasoned with salt. Profane men have their seasoning discourse but he does not speak of them.

Nay more his witticisms are insinuating and for the most part procure favor. He indirectly prohibits believers from the practice and familiar use of them.

For he reckons as tasteless everything that does not edify. In other words it doesn't have salt.

It's tasteless, not seasoned. The term grace is employed in the same sense. So as to be opposed to talkativeness, taunts and all sorts of trifles which are either injurious or vain.

Our speech. Paul wrote, let your speech always be with grace.

Christians are to be gracious in the manner that they speak with others. Christians are to speak with grace toward other believers but there's to speak with grace toward unbelievers also.

And here in particular he's concerned with those who are outside. What does it mean?

Our speech should be with grace. Well it means I think several things. We propose several.

First, what is it to have our speech always be with grace? First it's to speak to others in a manner that reflects their dignity as human beings.

This is an important lesson that I'm always harping on. Not harping but I'm trying to emphasize.

What is important? How do we view people? Every person is of great worth.

For every person is created the image of God. I have a friend who thinks it's a little awkward.

As Wilhelmus Abrakel wrote, Man consisting of a body prepared in such a skillful and elegant fashion, as well as with such a noble soul, was created in a state of perfection.

All that God created was good. The goodness of every creature consisted in the measure of perfection required to function as such a creature.

The goodness of man consists in the image of God. We ought to have a high regard for people.

Human beings. No matter their age. Whether they're male or female.

Whether they're young or old. We ought to have a high regard for the image of God.

And therefore we should recognize and acknowledge there's a dignity. And respect ought to be rendered to them.

Here's a good setting forth of man as the image of God. Scripture teaches that God made man and woman in his own image.

So that human beings are like God as no other earthly creatures are. The whole animal rights movement with human beings is a lessening of the value of the human person.

The special dignity of being human is that as men and women we may reflect and reproduce at our own creaturely level.

Human beings were made for this purpose. And in one sense we're truly human to the extent that we fulfill it.

And what's being implied by that is that as created in the image of God, we are to reflect in our lives the communicable attributes of God.

We talked about that not too long ago. There are attributes of God. What God is like.

The best way to classify them are communicable and incommunicable. God has certain incommunicable attributes.

In other words, you can't be like him. You can't be infinite. You can't be omniscient.

You cannot be omnipresent. Those are incommunicable attributes. But there are communicable attributes.

And you can be like God. You can be wise. Not as God, but wise like God.

You can be loving like God. You can be holy like God. These are communicable attributes. And we are created in the image of God in order that these things would be manifest through us to the world.

Now it's true that because of our fall into sin we've spoiled the dignity that was ours as the image of God.

God made us his image and we deface that image through sin. And that compounds our guilt and warrants our damnation.

But sin did not extinguish the image of God. It didn't die. And so the effect of sin can be stated this way.

This is a continuation of the New Reformation Bible footnote or theological note. The fall diminished

God's image, not only in Adam and Eve, but in all their descendants, the whole human race. We retain the image structurally.

We're still the image of God. In the sense that we remain human beings, but not functionally.

For we are now slaves of sin, unable to use our powers to mirror God's holiness.

Regeneration and the new birth begins the process of restoring God's moral image in our lives.

We become like the image of Christ. And so the image of God is renewed in us as we become like Christ.

But not until we are fully sanctified and glorified shall we reflect God perfectly in thought and action, as we were made to do and as the incarnate

Son of God in His humanity actually did. But again, because every human being remains the image of God, value and regard should be rendered to all people everywhere.

That this is the will of God may be seen in the divine institution of the death penalty that God gave to Noah. Back in Genesis 9, 5, and 6,

From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

Why? For in the image of God he made man. To kill, to murder a human being is to strike at the image of God.

That man should forfeit his own life. God sets forth the death penalty, a capital crime for a crime such as murder.

And it's because of the dignity and value of human beings that God established this principle.

And it's held of course throughout the scriptures. And so here we see the value of the human being, although he's fallen in sin, he nevertheless retains the image of God.

And he is of such value that anyone who murders a man should forfeit his own life. And so that should govern the regard we have for people and the speech that we use.

We're speaking with a person whom God has conferred dignity.

I imagine your speech would, you know, it shouldn't be, but would probably be different if all of a sudden, you know, the governor came in and you were speaking to the governor face to face.

But I tell you what, every human being by virtue of the fact he or she is the image of God has more dignity in his or her person than the governor because of his position.

And we ought to have regard for people and treat them decently and with regard and with respect.

The New Testament tells us that we should be civil in our speech toward people because they are the image of God. I won't read the whole passage, but James 3, he talks again about the need to control our tongue.

And he talks about how incongruent it is for the one who professes to be a Christian to bless

God the Father. And then we use that tongue to curse men. And then in verse 9,

I have it in bold and italic, we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God.

That's the image of God. You shouldn't be denouncing people, all right, in an unjust and cruel manner, disregarding, dismissing them because they're created in the image of God.

Well, that's one, I believe, way in which our speech should always be.

Secondly, I believe to speak to others in a manner that displays our general love for all human beings is to have our speech seasoned with grace or characterized by grace.

Christians are to be like their Heavenly Father, and God has a general benevolence for all mankind.

Do not misunderstand. We're not saying that he has the same love for all mankind. That is not biblical.

He doesn't call Pharaoh, my beloved, does he? There is a covenant language, a love that God has for his people because they're in Jesus Christ whom he loves supremely.

However, God has a loving benevolence toward all his creatures because he made them.

And we are to similarly have a general benevolence for all people, desiring what's best for them or what could be best experienced by them.

A general benevolence. The Lord Jesus said, I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you.

What is it to bless those except in your speech, to speak favorably and desiring their best and God's blessing upon them?

And so our general love for all human beings, I think, should be displayed in the grace of our speech.

And then thirdly, what is it to have your speech always with grace? It's to speak to others in a manner that does not bring reproach upon our witness of the gospel.

Again, as Christians, we desire that many others would come to know the mercy and grace of God in Christ as we have come to know.

And we're mindful of our terror to justify their condition will scrutinize us to try and find some basis to discredit our witness.

And so our speech ought to always be with grace in order that we can avoid that from happening.

What is it to have your speech always with grace? For by gentleness and kindness, nevertheless, with conviction.

Our Lord Jesus spoke that way, didn't he? In fact, we read just before the people of Nazareth down in Achillim.

It says they all wondered at the gracious things that came forth from his mouth. His speech was characterized by graciousness.

Ecclesiastes 10 -12, top of page 6. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up.

Psalm 45 is a psalm that was sung celebrating the marriage of a

Davidic king in ancient Israel. But it's clearly a prophecy of the Lord Jesus. And the psalmist wrote in Psalm 45 -1, it's one of my favorite psalms.

My heart is overflowed with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the king. Basically the psalmist is saying,

I'm greatly blessed and I'm looking forward to this opportunity to sit down and write this song about my king.

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You're fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips.

Now there's speech characterized by grace. And that's a prophetic of the Lord Jesus. But not only should our speech be characterized by grace or with grace, but we read secondly, our speech should be seasoned with salt.

Interesting phrase, isn't it? Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

If our speech with grace addresses the manner in which we speak to others, it ought to be gracious. Our speech seasoned with salt concerns the content of our speech.

It ought to have some influence, some content, some substance. And so it's been suggested that whereas grace sweetens our speech, salt seasons it.

As one wrote, the clause that follows indicates that salt denotes here, as commonly in Greek, an intellectual rather than a moral quality of speech.

And so there you have it. He's talking about content. Let your speech be with salt. We ought to have something substantive to say.

It's not enough just to go through life being sweet to everybody. You've got to be able to tell them something that will have an impact upon their souls.

Seasoned with salt. Of course, salt is a subject found throughout scriptures. It was the manner in which food was preserved in the days before canning and refrigeration.

And if I know my history rightly, you know how canning originated, don't you? I think it was Napoleon trying to feed his troops when they were out marching, if I'm not mistaken.

But prior to that, it was salt that preserved everything. I have my physicians all the time warning me, no salt diet.

I wonder what these people did in the past. They must have walked around with high blood pressure. Everything was salted.

Everything that was preserved was with salt. A nation's wealth was measured by its salt deposits, whereas the wealth of many nations today is measured by their oil reserves.

The wealth of a nation in older times was whether or not it had sufficient deposits of salt.

Austria -Hungary was so powerful because of the vast salt mines. Salzburg.

Salt Mountain is what Salzburg is. German, of course, in Austria.

Just about an hour and a half east of Munich where we lived. And they have mines going down and they've been mining it for centuries.

Salzburg. Austria -Hungary. The wealth of a nation. If it had a lot of salt deposits, it was a wealthy nation.

The Roman armies were sometimes paid in salt. In fact, the origin of the word salary is from the

Latin word for salt. It's understandable that salt was so intricately tied with the culture that the idea of salt would find expression in its religious institutions.

And we find that not just in the Bible, but throughout other cultures as well. Salt was used in ceremonies to seal an agreement or a covenant between persons and peoples.

And so as salt preserved meat and perishables, salt was used to show forth the permanence of a covenant agreement.

Both covenants between men and other men as well as covenants between men and God. And so we read in Numbers 18.

All the heave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to the Lord I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever.

It's a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.

And then the Chronicler, you might have just read in the last few days if you're following our Bible reading chart.

The Chronicler stated, should you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the dominion over Israel to David forever to him and his sons by a covenant of salt?

And that was to establish and to declare the permanence, everlasting nature of that covenant.

God promised David he would have an everlasting dynasty and the Lord Jesus of course fulfills that. Now here in Colossians 4 .6

the expression seasoned with salt is obviously speaking about the quality of salt to season food rather than preserve it.

Seasoned with salt. Salt is seasoning. It gives pungency.

Something similar should be found in our conversation. Dullness is an offense. It is an infliction of intolerable weariness on the listener.

On the part of the speaker it either shows lack of interest in his subject, in which case he should leave it alone, or lack of interest in his hearer, which is a direct result of lack of sympathy.

Moreover, the Christian is called to be frequently bearing testimony for his master. He weakens his testimony by giving it in an uninteresting manner.

He should study his words, but better than that, he should have his theme so much at heart as to speak with eloquence of enthusiasm.

With salt. And so our Lord Jesus presented the gospel to others with grace and substance, didn't he?

With grace and salt. They were amazed at his gracious words. Ten minutes later they wanted to throw him off the brow of the hill because it was seasoned with salt.

And we need to have both. Thirdly, our speech should be informed by wisdom, spoken with grace, eaten with salt, so that we may know how to answer each person.

Let's say, speak to each person. The Greek word is pretty precise. Answer. It's as though you're engaged in a conversation and a question is posed to you.

So you know how to answer a person, how to respond to a person, that person, who he is, she is, and where they're at.

As one wrote, Now in their conversations, believers must be mindful not only of the particular occasion that evokes their remarks, but also of the person addressed.

Hence the apostle continues so that you may know how to answer each individual. In other words, they should speak the right word at the right time to the right person.

This is terribly important in my mind. Many well -meaning

Christians have a theological agenda. They've come to some truth that impacts them and they want to have everybody understand that truth.

That may be fine and well. There's a need for, you know, underscoring biblical sound doctrine.

When you're dealing with souls, you've got to think in different terms. We're in need of graciousness in our speech, substance in the content of our speech.

But we also need to know how the Lord would have us answer those with whom we are witnessing with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This requires attentiveness to conversing and listening to the one with whom we are witnessing. I remember being trained, this is 40 years ago, in a

Billy Graham crusade. Don't let them ask you any questions when you're working with them down in the altar.

You tell them the verses. If they want to get you off on asking some other question, avoid it.

Well, you know, we need to stick here. In other words, you would not purposely engage people and try and answer their questions.

To me, that conflicts with what's being stated here. What you have to do when you encounter a person is try and assess who that person is, what that person knows, what that person doesn't know, what that person needs to know, where the

Lord has brought that person, where the Lord wants to take that person, and then seek to be wise in helping, being used to the

Lord to bring that person along. I think this is common sense, and I think it's also very practical and biblical.

We're in need of discernment so that we may know how to answer each individual. And some are very good at this.

Some are not very good at all. We don't have time to cover a number of things on page 8 of our notes.

I was going to cite how we may be an example in our word. Our speech is so very important, and Paul told

Timothy he needed to be an example to the church at Ephesus. And he specifically said, I think, six ways.

But what led the list is you need to be an example to the people in your church with regard to your words.

And we are to be examples to others in the words that we speak.

The Scriptures tell us that a man who is careless in his speech reveals himself to be a fool. And the idea of a fool is not merely someone who is a buffoon or stupid, but it describes one who lives in total disregard of God and the fact that there are consequences to his actions.

He doesn't see it, and he doesn't see there's consequences to his speech. May the

Lord give us grace. And may he help us to season our speech with salt so that we would be wise and discerning and know how to answer people so that we can help bring them along, be used of the

Lord to bring them along to true salvation and to a true knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the instruction that we have in it.

And we pray, our God, that you would help us to take these matters to heart. We pray, our

God, that you would forgive us of our sinful speech, words spoken carelessly, cruel words that come forth of our mouth,

Lord, that may be addressed to someone whom we are to regard or respect. We pray, our

God, that you would forgive us of our care that have discredited our witness for Jesus Christ before others.

We pray, Lord, that you would help our speech be characterized as gracious and help our speech also,

Lord, to be seasoned with salt, that we would know the truth of your word to speak it rightly and clearly to those with whom we have opportunity to witness.

And we pray for discernment, Lord, for wisdom, that we would know how to properly answer or respond to those in need.

And so help us, our God, to be faithful as individual Christian witnesses and help us to be faithful as a church as well, bearing forth the gospel to this world.