Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. That does not mean the "Attic salt of wit." There is nothing more wearisome than the talk of men who are always trying to be piquant and brilliant. Such speech is like a "pillar of salt," it sparkles, but is cold, and has points that wound, and it tastes bitter. That is not what Paul recommends. I. SALT WAS USED IN SACRIFICE. Let the sacrificial salt be applied to all our words, i.e., let all we say be offered to God, "a sacrifice of praise to God continually." II. SALT PRESERVES. Put into your speech what will keep it from rotting. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth." Frivolous talk, dreary gossip, ill-natured, idle, to say nothing of foul and wicked words, will be silenced when your speech is seasoned with salt. III. SALT GIVES SAVOUR TO FOOD. Do not deal in insipid generalities, but suit your words to your hearers, "that ye may know," etc. Speech that fits close to the characteristics and wants of the people to whom it is spoken is sure to be interesting, but that which does not will for them be insipid. Commonplaces that hit full against the hearer will be no commonplaces to him, and the most brilliant words that do not meet his minds or needs will to him be tasteless "as the white of an egg." Individual peculiarities, then, must determine the wise way of approach to each man, and there will be a wide variety of methods. Paul's language to the wild hill tribes of Lycaonia was not the same as to the cultivated, curious crowd on Mars Hill, and his sermons in the synagogues have a different tone from his reasonings before Felix. IV. SALT HAS TO RE RUBBED IN if it is to do any good. Preaching to a congregation has its own place and value; but private and personal talk, honestly and wisely done, will effect more than the most eloquent preaching. Better to drill the seeds, dropping them one by one into the little pits made for their reception, than to sow them broadcast. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. |
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