| “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossians 4:6). |
| A good cook knows how to use just the right amount of salt when cooking, in order make the food taste just right. Too little salt, and the food will taste bland and flavorless; too much salt, and the salt will overwhelm the food itself, so that it tastes terrible. Sometimes a good cook will put in a little salt, then taste the food, and perhaps add a little more. The best cooks have very sensitive taste buds, so that they can detect subtle differences in flavor. |
| Probably we have all had people play tricks on us from time to time, perhaps by putting too much salt in a drink that was served to us. Or perhaps in preparing a drink, someone has mistaken salt for sugar, and produced a very salty drink. When sick people retain too much water in their bodies, they often have to go on low salt diets, with little or no salt used in the preparation of their food. They are not allowed to add salt from a saltshaker at the table either. Those people usually hate that kind of food, for it is very flat and tasteless. They know it is for their good, but they dislike it just the same. |
| In the Bible, salt is a picture of holy grace. It is that which brings what is due to God into our conversation, but in a gracious way. It flavors what we say. In our interaction with people in this world, it is important to know just how much salt to use. I have heard some believers talk about the Lord’s things in a harsh and objectionable way with unbelievers. It offended those to whom they were speaking, and turned them against the things of the Lord. I have seen other believers who never said anything about the Lord, and were no testimony at all to the unsaved persons with whom they came in contact. Both of these attitudes are wrong. |
| But someone may ask, How do we know how much salt with which to season our conversation? We must be walking with the Lord, so that the Holy Spirit is free to lead and guide us in our talk. We must remember that “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), and then seek to balance these in our talk. With some people, they may need more truth; the Lord Jesus did this with Nicodemus. But with others, they may need more grace; the Lord did this with the woman in John 4, at the well of Sychar. He will help us balance our talk, if we look to Him! |
