There is a popular saying attributed to St Francis of Assisi: ‘Preach the gospel; if necessary use words.’ In other words, just live out your faith. You don’t need to say anything – let your life speak for itself. It sounds very well, but in fact it’s nonsense. The gospel is news. You can’t communicate news effectively without words.
Of course we have to live upright lives (as we thought about last time) – our lives either reinforce or contradict our message – but the message must be communicated in words. The ‘outsiders’ Paul refers to in Colossians 4:5 (non-Christians who know nothing about Christianity) need to understand who Jesus is, why he came into the world, and what it means to follow him.
In Colossians 4:6, Paul mentions three characteristics that must be true of our words: ‘Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.’
Gracious
One of the most common criticisms outsiders have about Christians is that we sound arrogant. Sadly it’s a well-deserved reputation in many cases. The gospel humbles us because it tells us that we cannot save ourselves but depend completely on God to rescue us. This knowledge should saturate our whole being so that whenever we share the gospel we do it without a trace of self-righteousness – we are just beggars telling other beggars where they can find bread.
Warren Peel
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