Christian Testimony

Colossians 4:5–6 NASB95

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

a. Conduct yourselves with wisdom (4:5)

b. Speak with grace (4:6)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. Conduct yourselves with wisdom (4:5)

i. Paul starts verse 5 by telling his listeners that they should conduct themselves with wisdom toward outsiders. Paul has outlined in 3:1-17 how the church is to act towards one another, specifically verse 12-13 where he tells them to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.

ii. Then in verse 14, he says beyond all these things, put on love which is the perfect bond of unity. What does he mean by this? Because all of these things he says prior in verse 12-13 can be done without the heart. The heart behind our actions must be love.

iii. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 gives us this idea in place. This section of Scripture helps us to understand that we can do all of these things and not do it out of love. We can do it for our own benefit.

iv. What do I mean by this? There are times when we are not happy and we do what other people want because we don’t want to hear them complain. We can do generous things even when our mindset is this way. We can do it because it is the right thing to do. What Paul is explaining here is, the right thing to do is not just to do these actions. No, rather the right thing to do is to do all of these things with love.

v. This is true with even in the church. One of the most important things I’ve learned is preaching. Preaching can be done just because it needs to be done. But preaching must be done, it must be prepared where it speaks to the preacher first. Preaching cannot simply be an exercise where we preach words that sound right. Preaching must be from our hearts. What does it mean that preaching must be from our hearts? It means that preaching must be done in love. Preaching must come from the way the preacher has benefitted from the text, how the text has spoken to the preacher and the preacher delivers it to his people.

vi. Preaching is not simply taking facts that we learn and teaching others. There is an element of teaching, but the truth of God must first deal with the man of God if it is to work in the lives of others. This is one of the most fearful things I’ve come to experience while preaching. Am I preaching to preach on Sundays? Or am I preaching because of my love for Christ?

vii. This is the question we must all ask when we look at our Christian walk. This is what it means to put on love when dealing with other Christians in our church. When Paul tells us to put on love, we should be compassionate dripping with the love of Christ. We should always have the love of Christ when we show compassion because of the compassion we have received in Christ.

viii. With this in mind, Paul tells Christians how they must act to unbelievers. Christians should not be gracious only to believers, but even to unbelievers. I would add, that being gracious should not only be to believers, but our lives should be marked by graciousness. We shouldn’t be gracious to one group of people, but rather, make it our effort that we are gracious people.

ix. So when Paul speaks here, there have been 4 other instances in the book of Colossians where Paul has addressed the topic of wisdom (1:9, 1:28, 2:3, 3:16). In all of these instances, it is linked to God’s mystery in Christ’s salvation of Gentiles and how this mystery was revealed to them. So here in 4:5, similarly, in context to verse 3-4, Paul prays for God to open up a door so that they would have boldness to speak forth the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, simply that Jesus Christ is God and that God has come in the flesh to die for sinners then 3 days later, rise from the dead.

x. So here when Paul writes, conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders, Paul is referring to not this idea of the mystery, but rather, in light of the mystery, because of the mystery, this is how we should live. This is why Paul is writing how Christians should walk in a wise manner, in a manner that is conducive to sharing the Gospel.

xi. A lot of misunderstanding has come about in this idea of walking in a wise manner. Live wisely would be the way we would understand in today’s vernacular, so for us to understand this simply means to understand that our behavior and the reputation of the Gospel are inextricably linked.

xii. There is a popular phrase “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words only when necessary” – Francis of Assisi. This phrase understands correctly that Christians must always live in light of the Gospel. People who don’t read the Bible for themselves can see what the Bible has to say by the way Christians lives their lives. But also, just as this phrase makes sense, it is incorrect. This statement, Preach the Gospel at all times is true but preaching the Gospel cannot be done apart from the words we preach in our message. The Gospel is good news literally words that tell mankind who Jesus is and what He has done. In light of this truth, we live according to His words because as Jesus says, “If you love me, You will obey my commandments (John 14:15).”

xiii. So when Paul is saying that our behavior towards unbelievers should be done in wisdom, it is speaking of our lives should match the message we preach. Paul then goes to say that there is a reason for it. Paul literally is saying “buying up the time.” This idea of buying up the time refers to make the most out of every opportunity. Every opportunity we have, our actions should reflect the grace of God. Why do I say this? Because this idea of buying up the time comes from Galatians 4:4-5 where it speaks of how Christ’s death brought believers out of captivity from sin. We should make the most out of every opportunity because we are always conscious of how Christ has saved us from our sin and that should motivate the way we live.

b. Speak with grace (4:6)

i. This is why Paul writes in verse 6, let your speech always be with grace. This makes sense considering how Paul ended verse 5. Paul’s reason for saying make the most of every opportunity because our actions are the means in which our Gospel has credibility. If unbelievers are to take seriously our presentation of the Gospel, it must be done by the way we not only speak the truth, but in light of verse 4, the clarity of how we speak, but also how we say it.

ii. This is why Paul writes, our speech must always be with grace, seasoned with salt for the purpose of knowing how we should respond to each person. What is the purpose of our speech? So that we would know how to respond to each person. Why? Because we are seeking to win them to Christ. This goes back to verse 5, where Paul tells us to make the most of the opportunity. Every opportunity we have when meeting unbelievers is an opportunity to win them to Christ. That is why we must speak with grace.

iii. Many times, people are turned off by Gospel presentations because we are simply judging people before even listening to them. I think about marriage when I think about evangelism. Wisdom is incredibly important when we communicate with our spouses just as it is important when we evangelize to the lost. Sometimes, depending on the person and situation, we need to be sensitive to how they feel and listen. This is where wisdom is needed. Sometimes, listening is the best way to communicate to someone. Other times, it might require that we say certain things. But our actions, the way we live must affirm our message.

iv. One of the most important things I’ve learned in my marriage is not necessarily the content of what I’m saying. The most convincing my message has been, is when I’ve practiced the very thing that I am telling my wife. Telling my wife I love her is easy to do, but for her to believe and trust me is another thing. How does my wife believe and trust me? When the actions of my life meet the meaning of my words. It’s when the rubber meets the road.

v. How does this actually work? Paul tells us with the last part. So that you will know how you should respond to each person. What Paul is saying here is clear. Paul is telling us that the purpose of our speech being laced with grace is for the purpose on how we will respond to each person. How do we know what to say to each person if we don’t listen? How are we to know what to say when we don’t exercise grace to people?

vi. Paul uses the idea of being seasoned with salt. This is an echo of Matthew 5:13 where Jesus writes that you are the salt of the earth. If salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? Many people understand this idea of being salt in the world as this is why you have to be a good person. Being a Christian must be salt, it must be different than everyone else. This is why the church has led the way to social reform in the world. I believe that this is the application of what Jesus wrote. But when we read Matthew 5:13 in context, it must be understood in context. It must be understood by verses 5:11-12.

vii. Jesus is not simply saying we are to be good people. Why do I say this? Because there are good people in every religion and even unbelievers are good people. I’ve met some really nice unbelievers in my life, and these unbelievers, if what Jesus is saying here is, just be a good person, are better “Christians” than believers. So it doesn’t seem to mean here, that Christians are to be just simply good people. What Jesus is saying here in verse 11-13 is that Christians are to be salt, when it comes to persecution. When people face persecution, it is impossible to be salt. It is impossible to look at persecution and rejoice and be glad. That is what it means to be salt. How do we become salt Jesus? How do we rejoice and be glad in the face of persecution?

viii. The same thing that Paul writes here in Colossians 4:6, let your speech always be with grace. Grace here is speaking of divine grace. It is pointing to the grace we have received in Christ referring back to 4:3. Paul says that He was imprisoned because of the mystery of Christ. Why? Because of the grace he had received in Jesus Christ. This is why in Philippians 3:7-12, Paul writes that he considers everything garbage in comparison to knowing and being known by Christ. Paul looked at everything in life through these lens.

ix. But this is also the same thing that Jesus writes here in Matthew 5:11. He writes in 5:11 that you are blessed when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Notice the motivation for why people curse and persecute you. It is because of Jesus. This leads to verse 12. Therefore, rejoice and be glad because you are being persecuted for my sake. Because you are being persecuted for Christ, this is why you are blessed and your reward in Heaven will be great. This is why you should rejoice and be glad.

x. When we take this mindset in the way we talk with people, it will allow us to respond to each person in a manner that is seasoned with grace. When we think about the person’s soul, and we are reminded of the fact that we used to also be an unbeliever, we will know how to speak with grace.

3. CONCLUSION