Month: June 2021

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6

            By itself, this verse is really good advice. But it gets even better when we take it in context. Paul is talking to the church in Colossae about being wise towards those outside the faith, those who don’t know God. He has asked them to pray for him to be able to spread the news about Jesus Christ, even though he’s actually under house arrest at the time. So if he can expect to be able to share the good news, surely those in Colossae who are able to freely move about and interact with others will be able to share it even more. Therefore, he’s telling them how to go about it.

            First, he says we are to speak with grace. What does it mean to speak with grace? We are to be loving and kind. Not just to the one to whom we are speaking, but to everyone. I recently said something to someone about a third person that was less than complimentary. I assumed this person would agree with me, only to find they agreed with the third person. I was so embarrassed, as I should have been. Even if they had agreed with me, that gave me no right to say what I did about anyone. My conversation was not full of grace! I would like to be able to excuse myself by thinking that I only need to use grace when talking to someone about Jesus. But the Bible doesn’t let me off the hook that easily. It says that our conversation should always be full of grace.

            We’re then told that our conversation should be seasoned with salt. What does that mean? There are really two issues about salt. It is a preservative and also a seasoning. The properties of preservation would have been well known to the original readers of this letter since they didn’t have things like refrigerators and freezers. They needed salt to keep their food from rotting. What about our conversation? Is it such that it keeps others from rotting? Or do we slide into discussing those parts of the world and culture that only lead to division, or to drawing others away from Christ? Do we laugh at another’s off-color joke? Do we pass on gossip we hear? Do we insist on proving the other person wrong regarding a non-essential issue on which we disagree? These are all ways in which we can allow our conversation to lead to rot rather than preservation.

            We’re much more familiar with salt as a seasoning. And it’s okay to season our conversation as long as we’re seasoning it with the right things and in the right amount. I recently heard someone say that no one wants a bowl of salt seasoned with popcorn. In the same way, we need to be cautious that when we’re talking with others, we’re not beating them over the head with the Bible or condemning them of their sin. That’s not our job. We can leave that to the Holy Spirit. Or job is to add just enough seasoning to our graceful conversation to not only make it palatable, but enjoyable. This doesn’t mean we ignore sin, especially if God is prompting us to talk about it. But it does mean that if we do bring it up, we speak the truth in love.

            Some people – okay, lots of people – are intimidated by the though of talking to non-believers about Jesus. We often hear people say that they wouldn’t know what to say, or they’re afraid the person will ask a question for which they don’t have an answer. According to this verse, we don’t need to worry about that. If our conversation is always full of grace, and if our conversation preserves instead of rots, and if we use just enough “salt” to season our conversation, the rest will take care of itself. I don’t think most non-believers are kept from Christ because of theological issues with the Bible. Rather, they just haven’t been told what Jesus has done in your life and in mine. Theological arguments will leave them cold. But sharing our own personal stories will draw them to the Savior we love and Who loves them. And they’ll be drawn to Him because they’ve seen his grace and love in their conversations with you and with me.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalm 116:15

            This verse can seem so cold and uncaring. When you’ve lost someone you love, how can God call that precious? I’ve heard people say things like God just wanted that person with Him. Well, that’s pretty selfish! Or God knew the deceased needed rest. Why didn’t He just give them strength to continue? Last week I said goodbye to the body that had housed the spirit of my mother for 98 years. That body was worn out! It had served her well, but it was simply done for. That fact made it so much easier to lose her to death. What about when you lose a loved one early in life, maybe in an accident or to an insidious disease like cancer? A friend lost her beloved son in a car wreck, and I remember her saying that she wasn’t going to ask God to give her the reason because no reason was good enough. How can God call that precious?

            I think that we need to look at death from God’s perspective. We have such a tiny view of reality. We only see what is on this earth and within the confines of time. But when you compare the time on earth with eternity there is really very little difference between 20 years and 98 years. When the length of our life span occurs as a blip on the radar screen of eternity, our lifetime is miniscule regardless of how many years we live.

            I believe a big part of the purpose of our time on earth is to prepare us for eternity. God is in the process of molding us and forming us more and more into the image of His Son. Right now we’re in the workshop, being perfected by God. It’s hard work to be in God’s workshop. And sometimes, it’s downright painful. But it’s all to prepare us for something much greater. Therefore, our death is almost a graduation of sorts. At death, we graduate into the existence God ultimately wants for all of us. It’s precious to God because He knows that in death, we finally become how He created us to be. I think that while we’re on earth, we distort ourselves into something different. We do that by allowing sin in our lives or by choosing to be what we think others want us to be. In heaven, sin no longer has power over us and we will be who He created us to be. Such freedom! Such joy! Such love!

            I know that God is delighting in the freedom being experienced by every single one of His saints that are now fully alive in Him! If your puny, frail, temporary body is still living it means you still have work to do. Either you need to get right with God, or you need to tell someone else about God. Or both. If it’s the first, I encourage you to go to Him right now and ask Him what work needs to be done to prepare you for your heavenly home. If you’ve never given your heart to Him, start there! That’s the most important. Then we need to continually ask God what part of us needs purifying. As for the second part of our purpose, if you don’t know who you’re supposed to tell about God, don’t worry. He will make that clear. The telling may be something obvious like sharing your own faith journey, or it may be much more subtle, like sharing love and kindness with someone else. If you’re in a season of grief, know that it’s just that: a season. Every tear shed will someday be wiped away. You may think you’ll never make it through but you will. God will make sure of that. And know, too, that if you are living in Him, you will someday experience a joy and freedom that we on earth can only imagine. In heaven we will be free indeed!