An Unseen Witness II
Last week I had originally wanted to discuss Colossians 4:2-6. However, when I read through the passage I noticed that there was in fact two different subjects discussed. I am curious if you have noticed the two subjects as well.
“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Colossians 4:2-6
The first subject is found in verses 2-4, which is what we discussed last week. This is that we can be an unseen witness to unbelievers. When we know of someone who is sharing the gospel to another, we don’t need to physically be there to have an impact. Our prayers are just as important; therefore we need to be praying for God to provide a door and the knowledge of scripture to witness effectively.
However, verses 5-6 hold another aspect that we need to take notice of. I ask that you read it again, “5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
While the verses 2-4 focus on the prayer life of the Christian, verses 5-6 focus on the conduct of the Christian. We need to be wise in the way that we act around “outsiders” in this sense, be wise in how we act around nonbelievers. Proverbs describes wisdom as the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10), these means that to have wisdom we recognize that we are sinners, and it is only through God’s grace and mercy can we be reconciled to Him. Our actions need to show this. We should not revile in sin because it not only brings harm to us, but tarnishes the name of the Lord for those who we are around. If our actions do not show that we belong to Jesus Christ, how can we convince others that they should have a relationship with the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?
This does not mean that we become like the Pharisees who held tradition over everything else. We need to meet the sinner at their level, relate to them but not be complacent in the sins. Paul describes it in this way, “20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without the Law, I became as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:20-22. Paul became like those around him in order to win them to God. He never lost his salvation in the process and by meeting them at their level, Paul was able to win them over to God. He did as Colossians five states, he made the most of every opportunity to present the gospel.
Verse six also describes the conduct of the Christian. When we talk we need to do so with the knowledge of scripture. While it is true that the Holy Spirit will guide us in our conversations with nonbeliever, we need to have knowledge of the scripture ourselves so that we can answer questions that are posed to us. When I first became a Christian, my husband joked that my favorite question regarding anything Biblical was “Why”. He states that I forced him to look at things to examine if it was “Christianese” something based out of church tradition, or if it was actually something Biblical. I had a lot of bad Biblical ideas to work around and this meant a lot of questions. Thankfully my husband had studied the Word and was able to answer my questions, those that he couldn’t he was able to help me find the answers. We need to be able to defend our faith, if someone poses a question regarding why we believe what we do, we need an answer. We aren’t going to be able to answer every question simply because of our limited understanding of the Word of God, this is when the Holy Spirit steps in. However, we should know the scripture well enough that we can answer the majority of the questions we are confronted by.
I hope in the last two weeks this has shown you more about the power that prayer has, but also that we need to be spending time in the Word of God. When we do, our conversations will be well seasoned and our actions will be able to point everyone around us back to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Seek the truth and encourage one another,
Alex