5 Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity. 6 When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should. (Colossians 4:5-6)
The Apostle Paul gives us some wisdom on how we can be effective in reaching out with the Gospel to our communities. The first bit of wisdom that the Apostle gives us is "Be wise." The word Paul uses here is "sophia" in the Greek. Used six times in Colossians (1:9, 28; 2:3, 23; 3:16; 4:5), it is clearly a key word in the book.
Sophia provides the Lord's solution for problem-solving. It solves basic human challenges by applying God's solutions from His word. Like faith, wisdom is a gift from the Lord for all who cry out to Him for it. It is the product of walking with the Lord through the troubles of life, thus garnering His angle about our challenges. Sophia is the art of forming the correct plan to gain the desired results.
The word used here for "walk" is "peripateite" which is a compound verb, composed of the preposition peri, “around" and the verb pateo, “to walk.” Used 97 times in the New Testament, it literally means to walk around. It describes every single activity that we participate in every day life. The picture is that of someone following the Lord in the ups and downs of life, being positioned to share the garnered wisdom with others who face like trials.
Walking is purposeful. When we walk, we're advancing toward something. The main part of his instruction here is focused on the way we interact with our friends who do not have a relationship with the Lord. The NIV renders v.6 like this: "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt." Salty Grace is the concept that Paul is sharing. It’s friendly, forgiving and winsome. It is a disposition on life that causes others to thirst to have.
I love the end of v.6: "so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should." When we experience God's grace, we will be able to authentically share what we have experienced with Him with others. And they will see it as real.
Otherwise, we make Christianity about the veneers of the Christian life. The veneers are the non-essentials the Bible doesn't declare in a black and white way. If the Bible is unclear as to what a Christian should believe about a particular subject, we consider that non-essential.
The emphasis here is not on having all the answers. No one has all the answers. The point here is that we are connecting with someone in relationship. If we are answering someone, that means that we've listened to them.
Answering means we start with listening to them. Few people really listen. A lot of people ask questions, and then move on. We don’t even wait for the answer.
Answering begins with listening, listening to people who have some things to say.
I love the progression in Colossians. It starts with a correct view of Christ, then what it means to walk with Him, then what it looks like to be part of a community, and then how does it look in our homes. Then, we’re instructed to pray for opportunities and how to love on people with the good news.
Thomas Merton once said, "The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."
