Colossians 4:5,6
by Dr. Grant C. Richison
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Colossians 4:5
"Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time."
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"Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside"
When it comes to sharing our faith, God expects us to exercise wisdom.
How we share our faith could cause them to further prejudice their ideas
toward Christianity. The witnessing style may give them an occasion to
reject Christ.
The Christian has an obligation to live responsibly ("wisdom")
before non Christians. God expects us to be sensitive to their bias. Matthew
10: 16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore
be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." What possible hope does
sheep have against wolves? Wolves are non Christians here. Without wisdom
the Christian is not going to win them to Christ. God says he will give
us wisdom that we need,
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 6:9).
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally
and without reproach, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).
PRINCIPLE: God wants us to use wisdom in our dealings with those who do
not know Christ.
APPLICATION: If we are going to win non Christians to Christ we must approach
people on their positive side. A wise walk before the non Christian will
speak volumes to their view of Christianity.
The word "walk" means to walk around and has the idea of course
of life. It is the manner of life of a consistent walk. What we are speaks
so loud that people cannot hear what we speak. We are long on talk and
short on walk.
Romans 6: 4 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
Romans 13: 13 "Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry
and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy."
Ephesians 5: 8 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light
in the Lord. Walk as children of light."
Colossians 1: 10 "That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing
Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God."
PRINCIPLE: Our walk is the capital for our talk.
APPLICATION: Our walk is our capital and our operating assets. Our testimony
is like money in the bank. We dare not write checks if we have no money
in the bank. We dare not talk for God if we do have a walk for God. Before
people accept our talk they need to see our walk.
Non Christians will discount everything we say about Christ if our walk
is inconsistent. They will believe our message if our lives back up what
we say. Otherwise, they will put a question mark behind everything we speak.
We discount everything some people say because they exaggerate everything.
They are guilty of gross overstatement. We put up with mild amusement
what they say; we do not take them seriously. Non Christians will discount
Christians who do not back up their talk with their walk.
Our walk must match our talk. The life must equal our lip. Christians
go to extremes. We are either all walk and no talk or all talk and no walk.
Note the phrase "those who are outside."
This idea occurs in I Thessalonians 4:12 "That you may walk properly
toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing." This
is our testimony to those who do not know Christ.
Again, I Timothy 3: 7 "Moreover he must have a good testimony among
those who are outside."
Ephesians 2:12, 13 says that non Christians are "without Christ, being
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ
Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
They are without but of what are they outside? They are outside Christ
because they have not been brought near to God by the blood of Christ."
PRINCIPLE: Those who do not trust the blood of Christ as sufficient to
pay for their sin are outside God.
APPLICATION: Are you outside God? Do you know how to get inside? If you
depend upon your well-heeled life, you stand outside God.
The sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross is the only way to get on the inside
with God. We must come to trust his death for our sins if we are going
to be right with God. If we do this, God will let us into his heaven.
Here is a summary of getting on the inside with God:
Recognize that you have not measured up to the standard of God's righteousness
(Rom. 3:10,23).
Accept by faith the fact that Jesus died on the cross for your and forgave
you eternally (Rom. 4:5; 5:1).
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"redeeming the time"
"Redeeming" means seize the opportunity, buy up an opportunity.
It comes from two words "out" and "to buy" and in this
passage means to buy up for oneself (Eph. 5:16).
A Christian operating in wisdom seizes opportunities to share his faith.
He takes the best advantage of the situation.
"Time" means opportunity. The Greek word here means a time in
which something is seasonable. Evangelism is seasonable! We need to seize
on the season! God wants us to take advantage of the opportunity when it
comes along. We cannot recall the opportunity if we miss it.
PRINCIPLE: God wants us to make the best use of our witnessing opportunity.
APPLICATION: Are we making the most of every opportunity? There is a favorable
time to preach the gospel.
We can mark time, waste time and kill time. Only a Christian who walks
in wisdom can redeem time. In sharing our faith, God wants us to "Strike
while the iron is hot" or "Make hay while the sun is shining."
We squander so many opportunities. God places opportunities at our disposal
but we waste the moment.
Colossians 4:6
"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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"Let your speech always be with grace"
Grace here means winsomeness or graciousness (cf. 3:16). God wants us to
carry on conversation of courtesy, appropriate to the people involved.
This is wise communication (v.5) of pure, bright and wholesome talk.
Grace speech does not imply that a Christian is always to be agreeable or
pleasing. The word "grace" in secular Greek meant charming or
gracious. The meaning here is beyond that. Whatever we say it much be
characterized by the grace of Christ (Lk 4:22). A spiritual charm lives
in the person influenced by the grace of Christ.
PRINCIPLE: Speech is a test of a soul influence by the grace of Christ.
APPLICATION: Speech tests our approach to life. It was said of Peter "Your
speech betrays you." Speech does not only indication nationality but
it is an index of character.
God expects us to approach people on their approachable side. Our style
of talk can make a difference. This is far more than human charm. It is
speech that reflects the grace of Christ in our lives. God wants us to
be pleasant but firm in what we say to those without Christ.
Are you easy to live with? Do you antagonize people rather than win them?
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"seasoned with salt"
The secular Greek used "salt" in the sense of witty. If this
is the usage here then God wants pizzazz in our speech.
Grace is salt that seasons speech. Grace makes our speech palatable and
keeps us from venom talk. It makes our communication discreet.
Talk seasoned by salt is like well-seasoned food -- it is tasty and savory.
We make our message palatable when we use salt. Salt is also a preservative.
It preserves us from corrupt talk. Salt loses its flavor when we use worthless
talk (Mk 9:49f).
PRINCIPLE: God wants us to create a taste for the gospel.
APPLICATION: God expects our speech to be more than sloppy sentimentalism.
Our speech should cease from corrupt talk. Our speech should whet the
appetite so people will want a second helping. It is sad that we can talk
with animation about football, hockey, business and politics but when it
comes to the gospel we bore people to death.
If resistance to decomposition or adding flavor is the meaning here, then
wholesome speech is the idea. Ephesians 4:29 speaks of "corrupt speech,"
" Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good
for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."
Today we talk of speech that is "salty." These are people who
throw coarse talk into a conversation.
God wants us to communicate with people in a way that makes our ideas attractive
and appealing so that it stimulates the interest of the listener.
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"that you may know how you ought to answer each one"
God wants us to flavor our speech with grace (pleasant, kindly) and salt
(not insipid). We answer one person one way and another person another way,
"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like
him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes"
(Prov. 26:4,5). We need wisdom to discern the difference.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and 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" (I Peter 3:15).
Plutarch of Greece used grace and salt in the sense of charm and wit. This
is light years from Paul's point here. Paul wants people to know how to
win people with grace and savor. We need to know what is appropriate to
each person. Paul himself was firm yet conciliatory at the same time in
his speeches. He remained loyal to truth. He did not compromise any principle,
yet he spoke with grace.
PRINCIPLE: God wants Christians to give informed answers to the real questions
people ask of us.
APPLICATION: We cannot explain the gospel clearly if it is muddy in our
mind (II Tim. 2:15). God wants us to design and tailor our speech to the
need of individuals specially those without Christ.
God wants us to give his viewpoint in all our conversations. The point
is not to gain the ascendancy with others. Winning a debate rarely wins
anyone to the Savior. It is important to be relaxed and winsome yet faithful
to truth in presenting the gospel.
To "answer" means that they have asked us something. They have
studied our life or listened to our comments. They want to know what makes
us different. At that point we need the know-how to answer them (Isaiah
50:4; I Pet. 3:15). We need to know when to use the "soft-sell"
or when to use the "hard-sell," that is, when to press for a decision.
It is not good judgment to press for a decision when the timing is not
right.
Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved.
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