Seasoned as Green Beans

Colossians 4-Part 3
Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.  Colossians 4:6  KJV
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.  NAS
Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.  NLT
Always talk pleasantly, season your talk with salt so you will know how you should answer everone.  Beck


LET IT GLOW

Paul is telling me, as a Christian, how to speak. Always speak with grace; always speak graciously. What is that like?

John MacArthur says, in The MacArthur Bible Commentary:

To speak with grace is to speak what is spiritual, wholesome, fitting, kind, sensitive, purposeful, complimentary, gentle, truthful, loving, and thoughtful.

Grace is that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness; grace of speech.
(Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament)

I know some people who speak in that manner. They are pleasant to be around. They aren't critical, always fault finding, like others I know. I need to work on what I say and how I say it.


LET IT GROW

Green beans without salt? Oooo, how flat and yucky.
I recall how my summers were spent during my childhood, helping Mom can fruits and vegetables. Since green beans were my favorite vegetable, I didn't mind snipping off the ends, then snapping them into thirds. I could do a handful in no time. One thing Mom always did before putting the lids on top of the jars was to add salt to each one. I didn't think anything about it at the time, so I didn't ask her why she did that. Now that I have grown up, I know that the salt was a preservative and it added flavor. It kept the beans from going bad. Of course, the pressure cooker cooked them. What did Paul say should be seasoned with salt? My speech? Why does it  need to be salty? Shall we check it out?

Salt had three uses in Paul's day: it could (1) preserve a food, (2) "sterilize" a food, or (3) season a food. In this passage, Paul takes the last meaning. Conversation is to be seasoned, that is, acceptable and inoffensive.
(Shepherd's Notes)

Just as salt not only flavors, but prevents corruption, the Christian's speech should act not only as a blessing to others, but as a purifying influence within the decaying society of the world. (John MacArthur)

The Greek word for salt, is halas, which  means prudence. (Thayer's Lexicon)
Prudence means descretion, which is careful, wise, according to Webster's Dictionary.

So my words, conversation, needs to be thought about, not just blurted out. Without thought, that's when they tend to be not so gracious.

Liberty Bible Commentary says:

Christ was full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Christians are to be gracious, pleasant, attractive, winsome, and courteous. Their speech is to be seasoned with salt, not flat, not dull, not tasteless. Christians are to have an edge of liveliness, and to be marked by purity, wholesomeness, and hallowed pungency. This is so we know how to answer everyone. It is in order that we can adapt the message to the situation and speak appropriately to each and every man.   

 How would my words be described by others? Are they gracious and nice and salty? Or do they sting, like salt in a  sore? Is my speech seasoned like green beans, with grace and truth? He is the Potter, I am the clay. My conversation needs some reshaping.
All of this is so I know how to answer when people ask questions about the Lord, salvation, and meaning of Scriptures.


LET IT GO

Be more gracious and pleasant in my conversations.

Be salty in my words, telling about Jesus.