“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” — Colossians 4:6
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It finally happened.
On a drive down the California coast, my Muslim father asked me why I converted to Christianity. He was curious why I made the drastic shift from obeying Allah to following Jesus. I had prayed for years for an opportunity like this and it had finally happened. There is a place for apologetics and theology when we are sharing, but my dad wasn’t interested in that. He wanted to know what captured my heart.
When people ask us about our faith, we must always keep this in mind: What you believe in your heart will always capture people more than what you know in your mind.
In his letter to the Colossians, we find the apostle Paul referring back to Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, where He told His followers to be salt and light. In Colossians 4:6 (above), Paul implores his readers to be gracious when they speak and make sure their conversations are “seasoned with salt.”
Jesus was very strategic when He articulated His desire for His followers to be salt. That culture knew the very attributes of salt and what it does for food. The original hearers of the Sermon on the Mount knew salt is a preservative that protects and preserves food, brings out the natural flavor from foods, and is essential in the digestive process. Over the years, scientists have discovered how essential salt is in the movement of nutrients and resources to and from our cell membranes. Salt is essential to life, and Jesus knew this when He told His followers to be salt.
And Paul knew exactly what the Colossians were up against. The integrity of the Church was being threatened by false doctrine, and there were some who were trying to stir up trouble and lead others astray. It was in this letter of encouragement where Paul reminded them that how they said something was just as important as what they said. Paul was never one to back down from defending the faith, but there is an eloquence to the way he did this that we can all learn from.
Years ago as I was being trained as a preacher, I was introduced to the concept of allowing our words to be “velvet-covered bricks.” When we proclaim the Gospel, we must understand the weight of our words and the power of the Gospel we are proclaiming — it has the power to change lives (Romans 1:16). The Gospel truth itself is powerful, and yet the way we communicate it is very important as well.
When I was in the car that day with my father, I initially started the conversation with the “brick” of theology. However, when I shifted the conversation and covered that “brick” with “velvet” words and emotions, my father started to grasp the reasoning behind my relationship with Jesus.
Know this: You will get a chance to share your faith. Someone will ask what’s different about you or why you do or don’t do certain things. May you season those conversations with salt and may you take the words of Peter to heart: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
— Reza Zadeh
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