How To
Speak!
"Let your speech always be with grace,
seasoned with salt, that you may know
how you ought to answer each one."
Colossians 4: 6
It's said first-century Jewish rabbis referred to wisdom
as “salt”.Jesus, as a Teacher, may have been using that
metaphor when He said that His followers were “the salt
of the earth” (Matthew 5:13).
Paul was likely combining these ideas when he wrote
that Christians’ speech toward outsiders should be
gracious and “seasoned with salt.”
He warned about the opposite of such speech in
Colossians 3:8 about crude, carnal speech,
not
befitting a follower of Christ, speech neither of
permanent value nor attractive.
How do we talk when around non-believers?
Do we speak like the world, trying to fit in?
Or
do we speak graciously in ways that build up
our hearers?
Are our words attractive, conveying love and
grace? How we speak to non-Christians is as
important as what we say
to them.
"To honor Jesus, grace and
truth are both essential."
Randy Alcorn