| (Copyright 08-21-2024) by Hunter D. Swanson (Charlotte, North Carolina) |
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 “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (Colossians 4:6) Does anyone like competitive cooking shows? I am not fond of the exaggerated emotions and intensity for the sake of entertainment. Now, my wife, on the other hand, loves these shows. She may not watch them all the time, but she has gone through her fair share of episodes of cutthroat kitchen and grocery games, including “The Great British Bake Off,” which even I am a sucker for. One day, I walked into the living room while she was watching “Top Chef,” and it caught my attention. The show had an interesting concept. Each season started with around sixteen contestants, and each episode contained an elimination challenge, after which the person with the least-liked dish was sent packing. We binged multiple seasons after work for weeks, often forgetting to attend to much-needed house chores and responsibilities. We watched so much and became so invested in it that my biggest fear went from snakes to being told, “Hunter, please pack your knives and go,” watching all my culinary dreams being flushed down the drain. Jokes aside, I am not a good cook, and I generally leave the cooking to my wife, as she rarely makes a meal that I do not absolutely love. While watching “Top Chef,” I did not pay as much attention to the food being made as to the judges’ critiques. The most beautifully plated food could end up placed at the bottom of the contestants’ offerings because of a severe lack of flavor. Time and again, the judges would say, “Flavor trumps all,” and mention that a little bit of salt would have brought a dish’s flavor profile to where it needed to be. During one season, one chef’s dishes constantly needed more salt. It was almost as if nothing the judges said could convince him to add just a bit more salt to his food! Our Interactions With Outsiders There is a comparison to be made between this culinary judgment and how hard it can be for us to make changes in our lives when our Judge keeps telling us to change. However, I wish to focus on properly flavoring our speech with salt, for our speech is how we communicate the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Notice Colossians 4:5-6: Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. For our purposes, we need to take away two things from this passage. The first is in verse 5, which tells us it is important to act wisely, displaying godly character to those outside His truth. The Amplified Bible renders verse 5 as: Conduct yourself with wisdom in your interactions with outsiders (non-believers), making the most of each opportunity [treating it as something precious]. The apostle Paul instructs us to pay careful attention to the time we spend with others outside the faith, treating it as something precious. It highlights how important our conduct is since we live with God’s name on us. How we display ourselves when in the presence of outsiders impacts God’s reputation. Remember, names have value, especially in terms of reputation. If we are to place ourselves under God’s name, which has the highest, most respected reputation, then we should act accordingly. The first takeaway, then, is to pay careful attention to how we treat non-believers. They are not to be just shoved aside with no regard. Instead, we should represent God well—as perfectly as possible. The second takeaway lies in verse 6, that our speech should “be with grace, seasoned with salt.” Mike Ford, in a Forerunner article titled “Salt,” brings into the equation those who are not outside—our spiritual Family. Paul’s instruction applies just as much to our speech toward them. The Greek word Paul uses, translated “grace,” is charis, which means “graciousness, of manner or act, especially in divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.” Matthew Henry’s commentary says, “Grace is the salt which seasons our discourse, makes it savory and keeps it from corrupting.” The words that come from our mouths reflect upon us more than any other facet of our lives. When we gossip, are those words seasoned? Are they “savory” to the ears of others? When we speak in a hurtful manner to our family, both physical and spiritual, are those words seasoned? He framed the perspective well here, accentuating the fact that what we speak shines a light on who we really are. How often do we use unsavory language? Do we consider our overall perspectives on life to play a part in our speech? That is, are we pessimists or optimists? Perhaps we are pessimists hiding behind a claim of being realists, so our “realistic” perspective actually comes out in our speech as pessimism. So, what is the flavor of our speech? Are we always speaking negatively about life, or are we positive and uplifting about it? If we are constantly negative and putting things down, we are reflecting poorly on God’s way of life, which will immediately turn people away! Who wants to be a part of an organization when its members always complain? How does God feel if we always complain about what He has or has not given us? Taking God’s Name in Vain Of course, society makes this even more difficult. How often do we see unsavory language due to poor perspectives in the world? Over the years, television has allowed increasingly more vulgar language to creep in, and movies have done the same but worse! Language on the Internet is crass, and people’s conversations, in general, have followed suit, containing more foul and negative language, which should make us uncomfortable. We can be sure that speaking with grace definitely does not mean swearing or cursing every few words—and that includes the “lesser” cuss words. Swearing is not the only aspect of our speech we should be worried about, but it is a major problem in the culture we live in. Worse, we can easily absorb it from this world, for it is everywhere. We must be cautious not to let ourselves speak like the uncalled people around us. Anyone with a job knows how frustrating it can be to hear one’s coworkers’ constant, corrupt language. One thing people do—a lot! — is take God’s name in vain. Adding His holy name to their curses is a vile sin, but they do it with careless abandon. It is the farthest thing from honoring God and His name, which is part of speaking with grace. The basic idea of taking God’s name in vain (not just in speech, but in all our conduct) is found in the third commandment, which appears in Exodus 20:7: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” In the church, parents, teachers, ministers, and youth camp instructors, when speaking about this commandment, have typically focused on using euphemisms like “Oh, my God!” (or its acronym, “OMG”), “My goodness,” “Jeez,” and literally dozens of other variations of “God,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” or other names or attributes of God used as oaths. We must not be saying such things. However, while we should not lessen the importance of that aspect of taking God’s name in vain, there are deeper spiritual lessons behind the face value of God’s commandments. To take something in vain means to take, carry, or bear it in a meaningless and useless way. It expands to claiming the thing to be empty, a vanity, even false and deceptive. It can mean that we do not give it a thought or care, valuing it as worthless. So, considering God’s name, who it identifies, and the glory and holiness of God, we must absolutely not use God’s name inappropriately! We should not let it become part of our habitual, careless speech. To use God’s name in a common way, without reverence or consideration for the Supreme Being of the universe, oversteps the line of blasphemy. We should feed Colossians 4:5-6 back into our thoughts on this matter. Even if we do not employ these euphemisms for His name, we cannot risk misrepresenting God’s name in our speech, especially with outsiders, treating God and His way lightly or disrespectfully. We should want to avoid breaking the commandment in any way, since it says explicitly, “. . . the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” Jesus on Our Words In Matthew 12, we receive another brutal reminder—from our Savior Jesus Christ Himself—that our speech displays the contents of our hearts, whether we think it does or not: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:33-34) Notice how clearly Christ puts this in His analogy. Just as a tree bears its fruit, we as Christians are to bear good fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. It is the principle of cause and effect or source and outcome. A major way we display the true nature of our hearts is through our speech. What we say reflects what we truly believe and think. Jesus explains further: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:35-37) His conclusion strikes hard. It is terrifying! While we have discussed intentional speech toward outsiders and even with church members, here we read that we will have to explain every idle word before His judgment seat! How often do we consider the words we mumble? Words we say as automatic reactions to situations we face, even just to ourselves? Words we speak as part of our unthinking banter with friends? What about song lyrics we thoughtlessly sing under our breath? If someone said “um” frequently in every sentence, it would be unconscious to him, yet it would drive every listener up the wall. “Um” is an idle word. What are the “ums” in our speech, that is, things we say without thinking? If it is “um,” great! It is harmless. But what if our “um” is “Oh, my”? Many of us are guilty of this one. It seems harmless until one realizes what it replaces: “Oh, my God (OMG)” or “Oh, my goodness.” It is just a shortened, euphemistic version of a phrase that deliberately takes God’s name in vain! It is not enough for us to eliminate bad words from our vocabulary by just focusing on swear words and their euphemisms; we need to remove ungodly speech entirely. We also need to root out other grotesque, earthy language that surrounds us in our society today, for that language lacks gracious seasoning, the flavor of what is good and right. Jesus speaks to this in Matthew 5:13, describing His disciples’ impact on those around them in the world: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Our Savior expects us to leave only a good impression of godly living, including speech, in our interactions. More Than Talk Our speech is so much more than just how we communicate with each other. It reflects who we are at our core, especially the idle words we speak when not actively thinking. If we have poor speech or must fake and force good speech, what does that expose about our hearts? Are we truly changing ourselves for the better and representing the integrity of God’s name with gracious speech? Or are we habitually speaking like the unconverted and misusing God’s name, only speaking words “seasoned with salt” when around other church members? In my public school, there was the typical problem with swearing and poor language. A social studies teacher in the eighth grade said, “If you need to use swearwords or vulgar phrases to react and describe how you feel, then you are not educated enough.” She explained that those common, ugly words are lazy filler speech and an excuse for not building a more respectable vocabulary. It is easier to exhibit good speech with our brethren, those who are part of our spiritual Family. Yet, in Colossians, Paul wrote primarily about speech toward those on the outside for a very good reason. In this context, those in the world with whom we converse typically concern us less. We can even feel they do not matter at all, as we may never see them again. So, we can easily let ourselves relax or give ourselves a break and slip into the ungodly lingo of the time. Who will know? But God is aware (Malachi 3:16). He is always watching us, always taking stock of our hearts. Remember, “every idle word”! So, consider your speech! May it always be well-seasoned with the grace of God. ——————————————————————————————————————- Reprinted with permission from: Church of the Great God https://www.cgg.org/ ——————————————————————————————————————– |
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