How often do you consider the impact your words have on the people around you?
Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech (your communication) be with grace, seasoned with salt so that you will have the right response for everyone.” This isn’t a suggestion; it is a command!
Together, let’s break down Colossians 4:6 so that we better understand how to communicate well with others.
With Grace
Our speech should be gracious as we communicate with the people in our lives. The way we exchange thoughts and ideas or impart information to others should be gracious. To be gracious is to be kind, warm, tactful, considerate, and to think of the other person. Is your speech kind, warm, tactful, and considerate?
Seasoned with Salt
We are instructed to season our words with salt as we speak graciously. Consider the importance of salt in cooking and baking. Salt is used to flavor, enrich, and, in some recipes, preserve. Seasoning our speech with salt means that we add appeal and beauty. It also might mean that we speak truth that keeps others from harm or brings life. As we season our speech with salt, we enrich others. How can you season your speech with salt today?
Ready with a Right Response
The last phrase of Colossians 4:6 implies that we can have the right response for everyone! As a daughter, wife, sister, mother, grandmother, and friend, God tells me that it is possible to have the right responses in all my dealings with people. I am to be kind, warm, and considerate, seasoning my speech with beauty and truth, thinking of the other people around me. God has called us—called me—to submit to his Word and to communicate with grace and salt. If I do this, I am sure to be ready with the right responses. Even in the most difficult situations, the Holy Spirit leads and guides his people toward godly words.
Proverbs 16:21 teaches us that pleasant words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Just imagine—you speak gracious, pleasant words that are seasoned with salt, that are sweet, and that bring healing to the bones! Can you see how powerful your words could be?
Proverbs 15:1 also teaches that a gentle answer (words) turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. With our spoken words, we have enough influence to turn wrath and anger away! And with our harsh, course, and disagreeable words, we have the power to stir up anger. Again, our words are powerful.
In our current age of fast everything—fast food, fast internet, fast texting—we can get caught up in the world’s ways of communicating. In many ways, we’ve dismissed the value of face-to-face conversations. However we communicate—whether written, typed, or spoken in person—God commands us to communicate meaningfully.
Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit to rediscover godly, gracious, face-to-face speech that is seasoned with salt and has the power to bring healing and life to those around us. Let us long to have sweet speech that adds beauty to others and words that can turn anger away. Let us pray that as we meet people, see friends, and spend time with family, we commit our words and responses to the Lord. Talk to someone—a friend, a family member—face-to-face and see the power of gracious and flavorful communication.
