Colossians 4:5,6by Dr. Grant C. RichisonTo: Colossians Main Menu To: Grace Notes Home Page Colossians 4:5"Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time."---------- "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). ---------- "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."---------- "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? ---------- "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. ---------- "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. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to: Grace Notes% Warren Doud wdoud@bga.com1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/ Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/ Grace Notes is a ministry of Village Missions International. |
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