Dear Fellow Saints,
The word says:
Col 4:6 Let your speech [be] alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
"grace" means in the Strongs Concordance
1) grace
a) that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
2) good will, loving-kindness, favour
a) of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
seasoned means:
1) to prepare, arrange, with respect to food
2) to season, make savory
1) to raise up, elevate, lift up
a) to raise from the ground, take up: stones
b) to raise upwards, elevate, lift up: the hand
c) to draw up: a fish
2) to take upon one's self and carry what has been raised up, to bear
salt means:
1) salt with which food is seasoned and sacrifices are sprinkled
2) those kinds of saline matter used to fertilise arable land
3) salt is a symbol of lasting concord, because it protects food from putrefaction and preserves it unchanged. Accordingly, in the solemn ratification of compacts, the orientals were, and are to this day, accustomed to partake of salt together
4) wisdom and grace exhibited in speech
At all times our conversation should be spoken with a heart of love, never contention or strife. Certainly never as a slap in the face. Jesus is our example who told us to turn the other cheek.
The reason that these types of comments come is because we desperatedly need His love shed abroad in our hearts, then our word would have a life giving preservative quality. What is spoken from a heart of love always brings life even if it is a correction. But is kindness is lacking it will set your teeth on edge.
Jhn 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
That which makes us wince is not from the heart of God. Please let our goal be to build up and not tear down. Please let us only share from a heart of love and compassion with the goal to help and not hurt.
