Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

This is obviously an exhortation, but more than that, it is a key to wisdom in how we are to deal with others. ‘Graciousness” isn’t natural for most of us, and true grace comes from the Lord. We must make that connection with HIS grace if we’re to properly speak with others in a godly way. In fact, we should begin with “grace-connection” before we “let” a word out.

This grace-connection does a few things. One is that starting from a position of wanting to extend His grace to others tends to stop up any kind of negative expression (anger, frustration, judgment). But beyond that, it positions us to properly express whatever it is we want to express. Our first thoughts might not be that loving when faced with a challenging situation. But we can avoid trouble by accessing His grace, letting that “set us up,” and then expressing what emanates from His grace. By “set us up,” I mean that we can get into a place with God where we can have His heart for others and connect with his loving grace for whomever we’re addressing. If we can start from a position of loving the person with His love, we will walk in wisdom—we’ll know how to phrase things, and it will proceed from a place of grace.

“That you may know” is a powerful phrase in Colossians 4. It means that, with all the possible wrong ways of saying things available to us, connecting with God’s grace and letting it guide our thoughts and speech will provide the way to “answer each person”. It will grant us the wisdom we need, not only in everyday conversations that can be elevated by doing this, but especially in those difficult conversations that can provoke us to ungodliness in speaking. It’s when we don’t think we have anything good to say that leaning into the Lord and becoming a conduit of his grace brings us the wisdom we need.

The phrase “seasoned with salt” is encouraging. Salt of course is known for providing flavor and for preservation. Connecting with the Lord’s graciousness will add “flavoring” to our speech, and ironically, will give our speech the “punch” we may have tried to add ourselves in our own wisdom before letting the Lord move through us.

Lastly, I love the “preservation” aspect of “gracious speech.” This can be understood that what we say in love and grace will have a lasting effect on the hearer, much more than even the most powerful expression we might come up with by ourselves.