The Bible verse in Colossians 4:6 states, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” This verse encourages Christians to speak with grace and wisdom in their conversations with others.
Here are some key reasons why we are instructed to let our words be seasoned with salt:
1. Salt enhances flavor
Just as salt enhances the flavor of food, our speech should be wholesome, positive, and meaningful. Bland words do little to build others up or point them to Christ. When our words are seasoned with salt, they have a godly influence on those who hear them. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:13, believers are to be the “salt of the earth.”
2. Salt preserves from corruption
Salt has long been used as a preservative to prevent decay and corruption. In a similar way, words seasoned with salt can act as a moral preservative in a culture, preventing the spread of sinful attitudes and behaviors. As Christians, our speech should counteract immorality and reflect kingdom values.
3. Salt creates thirst
Salt causes people to thirst for water. Speech seasoned with salt metaphorically creates a thirst for righteousness in others. Graceful, thoughtful words point people to their need for God’s truth. The wisdom in our speech should create in others a desire to know Christ and to be more like Him.
4. Salt heals wounds
Salt water can be used to cleanse and disinfect wounds. In the same way, words of grace can heal relational wounds. Careless words often injure others, but seasoning our speech with grace applies a redeeming salt that can foster healing and restoration.
5. Salt adds delight
Food with the right amount of salt simply tastes better. When our words are properly seasoned, they become more pleasing and enjoyable to those who hear them. Graceful speech creates delightful conversation that both blesses the hearer and honors the Lord.
6. Salt indicates purity
In ancient times, salt was synonymous with purity. Only the purest salt was useful and effective. Our speech, likewise, should exhibit spiritual and moral purity. Foul, corrupting language has no place in the believer’s conversation. Only pure salt retains its savor.
7. Salt fosters growth
Salt aids digestion and promotes growth in plants and animals. Similarly, our gracious words can aid spiritual digestion and growth in those we converse with. Digestible wisdom fosters maturity. Salt-seasoned speech nourishes hearts and minds.
In summary, “salty” language brings out the best in both our speech and those who hear us. Letting our words be seasoned with salt means speaking with grace, wisdom, purity, and redemptive purpose. It enhances our witness for Christ and effectively ministers to the needs of others. May God help us to season our speech well for His glory.
More Examples of Letting Our Speech Be Seasoned With Salt
Here are some additional examples of what it can look like to let our words be seasoned with salt in everyday conversations and situations:
- Offering words of genuine encouragement and praise to someone who is struggling or experiencing doubt
- Expressing empathy and compassion toward someone going through hardship or grief
- Gently correcting or admonishing a brother or sister in Christ with care and humility
- Recommending a helpful book, sermon, or other resource with thoughtful wisdom
- Tactfully confronting and speaking the truth in love to someone caught in sin
- Having a gracious tone and demeanor even when disagreeing with others
- Asking thoughtful questions that prompt meaningful conversation and reflection
- Avoiding coarse joking and crude language that could be unwholesome
- Sharing words of blessing and inspiration from Scripture at appropriate times
- Listening well before formulating wise, discerning responses
In all things, we want to take care that our words are nourishing those around us and pointing them to the hope and truth found only in Christ. Seasoning our speech with salt means learning to speak in a way that powerfully and redemptively impacts others for God’s kingdom. It takes wisdom and discretion, but such grace-filled communication blesses both the speaker and the hearer.
Biblical Examples of Speech Seasoned With Salt
We can look to biblical examples of those who let their words be seasoned with salt in their interactions with others:
Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-26)
Jesus engaged her with grace and wisdom, tactfully addressing the issue of her marriages and current immoral relationship. His words awakened her thirst for the living water that only He could provide.
Abigail preventing conflict between David and Nabal (1 Samuel 25:2-35)
Abigail exercised discernment and appealed to David with wise, gracious words to avert his wrath being unleashed. Her speech “seasoned with salt” promoted peace and reconciliation.
Paul’s preaching and debating in the synagogues (Acts 17:1-3)
Paul reasoned with his audiences from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. His words were purposeful and meaningful to his hearers.
Jesus blessing the children (Luke 18:15-17)
When others tried to hinder the children from approaching Jesus, He welcomed them with affirming, generous words that valued the little ones. His speech brought delight to their hearts.
In all of these examples, we see grace, wisdom, and redemptive purpose seasoning the words spoken. The results nurtured growth in hearers, drew people to truth, averted conflict, and honored Christ. May we follow these biblical models as we seek to let our own speech be “seasoned with salt” to the glory of God.
Ways to Grow in Seasoning Speech with Salt
Seasoning our words with salt requires purpose and effort. Here are some practices that can help us grow in this area:
- Study God’s Word daily to fill our hearts and minds with His truths
- Ask God to develop His love, wisdom, and grace in us more fully
- Endeavor to think of others’ needs and perspectives before speaking
- Seek accountability from fellow believers regarding our speech
- Listen twice as much as we speak
- Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger in conversations (James 1:19)
- Avoid extended angry, divisive, or foolish talk
- Consider if our words will benefit those who hear them (Ephesians 4:29)
- Pray that God will guide our speech and set a guard over our mouths (Psalm 141:3)
- Express genuine interest in others; don’t just talk about ourselves
- Think carefully about our choice of words before important conversations
The Spirit enables us to communicate with grace, wisdom, and redemptive purpose as we walk in obedience to Him. May our words increasingly be a blessing to all who hear us.
Being Gracious in How We Answer Others
Colossians 4:6 encourages us not only to season our words with salt, but also to know how to answer each person. Part of letting our speech be gracious involves thinking carefully about how we respond to the various people we interact with each day in various circumstances.
Here are some principles to remember about answering others graciously:
- Prayerfully consider each person’s specific needs, doubts, struggles, or objections before answering
- Tailor our answer to the individual’s current understanding and level of spiritual maturity
- Discern if a direct answer, story, question, clarification, or other response would be most helpful
- Speak the truth in love, not harshness; the goal is redemption, not condemnation
- Leave room for further discussion; don’t feel we must “win” the argument
- Acknowledge what we have in common and points of agreement first
- Check our motives – are we trying to dominate, impress others with knowledge, or restore gently?
- Exercise patience, self-control, and careful listening in heated conversations
- Follow up an answer with an invitation to continue the relationship
Seeking to know how to answer each person requires humility, wisdom from above, and the willingness to listen attentively. As we grow in seasoning our words with salt, God will develop in us discernment to speak the right words in the right way to minister grace to those He puts in our path each day.
Common Conversational Pitfalls to Avoid
As we seek to grow in seasoning our speech with salt and answering others with grace, there are some negative patterns of communication we want to avoid:
- Talking too much and not listening
- Seeking to dominate conversations or pronounce “final answers”
- Answering hastily and thoughtlessly without care
- Speaking in anger, impatience, or harshness
- Overusing humor and sarcasm at the expense of substance
- Staying focused on peripheral minor points of disagreement
- Making assumptions about others’ motives
- Failing to consider context and discern appropriate responses
- Rehearsing one’s own arguments more than listening
- Lacking empathy and interest in others’ perspectives
We have all likely fallen into these types of detrimental communication habits at times. But God’s Spirit enables us to intentionally reject ungracious patterns of speech and instead build habits of grace-filled, redemptive conversation that point others to Christ.
Cultivating Gracious Speech Through the Power of Christ
In the end, we cannot season our words with salt through our own human strength. Our speech easily becomes infected with the impurities of sinful motives, thoughtlessness, and impatience with others. Only through the sanctifying power and love of Christ at work within us can we exemplify speech “seasoned with salt” in the way Colossians 4:6 describes.
As believers, we can come to the Lord daily in prayer, asking Him to fill our hearts with love for people, purity of speech, patience in conversation, and discernment to know when and how to answer others. We can walk by the Spirit instead of our fleshly impulses. We can fix our minds on things above rather than earthly arguments. We can meditate on Scripture and ask God to bring it to mind in conversations. We can trust Christ’s grace to refine our speech and make our words count for eternity. As we yield ourselves fully to following Christ, He transforms us into His image – including the very words that come out of our mouths.
May all of us who know Christ grow deeper in living out the exhortation to let our speech always be seasoned with salt for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom.