Walk in Wisdom Toward Outsiders

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” -Colossians 4:5-6

Being kind to those outside the church is a command of Christ. To be gracious in the way we talk to them, kind and humble in our stance toward them, even stating biblical truth or opinions on life in a non-combative, caring way. We don’t lean forward like a pikeman in a charge to battle, but we walk and talk gently like a messenger. 

Kindness in our wise walk in life is against what comes naturally to us (Galatians 5:20). To keep in step in our wise walk in the Spirit who gives us gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-25) means we must have new desires. Naturally, we desire to win debates. To be right. Yet, the goal of our conversations or persuasion of others in biblical truth or opinions on life is to glorify God. We glorify God by having our speech gracious, seasoned with salt, so we know biblically wise answers to each person.

The wisdom Jesus commands us to walk in must have a sense of rest and peace to our hearts. Not angry, not anxious, not hostile, not “hyped up.” Our new heart has a calmness from which we speak. If our heart treasures Christ, we receive peace, joy, gentleness, wisdom to speak from the abundance of our hearts. If our heart treasures self, we will even fight for biblical truth with unwise fierceness and display Christ as hostile and bitter. Our Lord Himself called us weary sinners to come to Him for He is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). If you lack wisdom in your walk toward outsiders, ask in prayer for wisdom (James 1:5).

The follower of Jesus is to speak gracious and salty; in other words, founded in God’s grace and possesses a warm, inviting character. Not from a sharp personality that pushes people away to protect yourself, but warm and open to outsiders. Outsiders should hear gracious words and smell the aroma of the love of Christ (II Corinthians 2:15) which fills your heart, be attracted to tasting and seeing that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), leaving judgment to God by the very same aroma rather than from a hostile stance or tone in our speech.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). May we be found faithfully wise in our walk, gentle and lowly in heart, gracious in our speech to those living in darkness, where we ourselves once were but by God’s grace are no longer.

Heavenly Father, search our hearts, examine and confront any hostility to Your wisdom. May our tongues be gentle and not sharp or a flame. We are Your messengers of Your gospel. Grant us wisdom. Make us useful by Your grace and use us for Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Wisdom to Age and to Die Well

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.” –Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

We get excited when a baby is born. There is fresh celebration when we’re newly wed, entering a new job, or buying a first home to raise our children in. When something is new, our imaginations run wild with future memories made and the hope of life getting better. But babies grow old and die. Newlyweds endure a lifetime of two sinners living together. Jobs turn into careers that we work until our bodies fail, and we retire. Houses age and children move out. Hopes and dreams excite us, but living out life drags us. We aren’t prepared for the fight. The world does not prepare us to age and to die.

The world only knows how to celebrate what is fresh. That’s why fads are so quick to come and go. We are pressured to discover a “new you,” to find what makes our hearts flutter afresh each day. Youth culture is celebrated far more than wisdom from a life well lived and a life prepared to die well. But the freshness of new things is not better than the end. Ecclesiastes 7:8 reads, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Arrogance keeps us impatient. A humble faith in God gives us patient endurance to age well and die well to the glory of God.

I learned something from lying in a hospital bed for 3 days last week: our existence is a fragile mortality. Wisdom comes from aging well; that is growing in Christ-likeness. Wisdom is found in dying well; that is trusting that the celebration of things in the end is better than the beginning. God is sovereign, and I know I gained more wisdom in 3 days than I could in 3 weeks at a Bible conference. My folly is more than an information problem; deeper still, it is a relationship problem. The course of our lives has phases, but then we die. Has eternity with Jesus been displayed as my highest joy while aging and walking toward my death on earth?

Wisdom to age well and die well must be Spirit gifted wisdom in the Word received with humility and a dependence upon God’s sovereignty even when I am left confused and my “why” questions are left unanswered. O for grace to trust Him more!

Grant us grace, O Lord, to trust You and depend upon You even if it means temporary pain in this temporary life. Give grace to our eyes of faith to see eternity with You as far greater, far more satisfying than even our wildest dreams on earth. Teach us to age well and to die well, displaying Your glory through us to a world that is dying. Amen.