Do You Use Speech that Exalts Christ?
© 2022 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)
Early Christians were under intense persecution. The unsaved were acting toward them in hateful ways. In this context, the apostle Paul encourages these Christians to watch their language.
“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Colossians 4:6)
Even Christians can be tempted to react to the world’s persecution with words devoid of grace. Paul is warning Christians to avoid such “tit for tat” behavior. It’s good to avoid expressing malicious words that come to our minds. It’s even better to ask the Lord to purge, from our minds, the thoughts producing those words. God hears them even when we just think them.
Paul’s instruction to watch our speech becomes especially important when our speech refers to God, Himself.
“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
God has never retracted the command to always refer to Him with an attitude of awe. References to Him should never be vain attempts to emphasize our own authority. It is only God’s authority to which the unsaved person must be urged to yield.
When unsaved people react with malicious profanity to our presentation the gospel, we should not reduce our language patterns to match theirs. Our speech is always to be filled with grace and with a desire to see the sinner come to Christ for forgiveness. This does not mean we must avoid speaking the truth about the evil of sin. But it does mean this truth should be spoken with an attitude and words that are not, themselves, sinful.
What does it mean to have speech filled with grace? “Grace” comes from the Greek word “charis” which means that our speech is to be filled with good will, kindness, and thankfulness. That thankfulness comes from the fact that Jesus Christ paid for my heavy sin debt on the cross of Calvary. Had He not done so, I would have been doomed forever. God judged Him for my sin, and Christ willingly bore it for me. Speaking of Christ, Scripture says that He:
“… did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:22-24).
Has God convinced you that you are a sinner and caused you to ask Him to forgive and cleanse you? Does your speech give evidence of this?
You may leave comments for Tom & Kathy (website administrators) below.