Well may God be pleased to bless
us as we continue our meditation in the Epistle of Paul to the
Colossians and the fourth chapter and this evening we'll read verses
six to eight. So the Epistle of Paul to the
Colossians chapter four and reading verses six to eight. Let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer
every man. All my state shall Tychicus declare
unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose. that he might know your estate
and comfort your hearts. The apostle gives many words
of exhortation as he wrote to the various churches. And as
he wrote here to the church at Colossae, he brings this point
to their attention about how they talk. And he says, let your
speech be always with grace. And that really means here that
when we speak one to another, we need to speak about God's
grace. God's grace is wonderful and
how blessed it is if we have been favoured to receive his
grace into our own hearts. That of course is the free unmerited
favour of God. There's many things which people
talk about, but the grace of God is very extensive. It doesn't only refer to our
own lives. It refers to so many things.
And indeed, if we think of it in a broader sense, the great
plan of salvation comes about because of God's grace, his free
unmerited favor to unworthy sinners of the earth and how we should
indeed be thankful for it and desire to truly speak about it. So therefore there are many things
perhaps that we do speak about which are not profitable, many
things that we do speak about which are not needful, but the
things of God, the things of His grace are so wonderful and
in so doing as we are able to speak of his grace. His grace,
of course, encompasses so much. What an encouragement that should
be as we speak one to another. And it is necessary, therefore,
to be reminded of these things because so often we become sidetracked
and talk about things which do not profit. And yet the word
of God describes to us so many things which have respect unto
the grace of God. It's good sometimes just to sit
down and to quietly ponder the great depth there is in the grace
of God. And so here, the Apostle says,
let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Well, we know that Salt is a
necessary additive to make food more tasty. I remember in Job,
of course, it speaks about the egg. If it's not blessed with
salt, then it has not the flavour. So here we are told, seasoned
with salt, our speech should be seasoned with salt. That means really the savoury
things of the things of God, the savoury things in our own
life, in our own spiritual experience, those things which do indeed
bring forth the honour and glory of God. So he says here then,
let your speech be always with grace. No exception really, is
there? always with grace and, continues,
seasoned with salt, which really means the same thing. Always
it should be seasoned with salt. And what a blessed truth it is. The apostle refers to this when
he wrote to the Ephesians. And it's always good to realise,
as we read the various epistles, what the apostle says. And he
speaks about speaking, and in the fourth chapter and the 29th
verse, he says this, let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth. Nothing wrong, nothing evil,
nothing which detracts from the glory of God. Let no, here we
have in this statement here, let your speech be always And
here we have, let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So we can perhaps
think as we speak. Are we speaking things which
edify? Things which profit? Things which
benefit? You know, we have our great adversary,
the devil, who would want us to speak corrupt communications. And therefore, we should be thankful
that we have the words here before us. And the next verse, in the
30th verse in this fourth chapter, encourages us because it says,
and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. And by speaking corrupt
things, surely we grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And on the
other hand, of course, if we speak in the other way, good
things and right things, then surely this brings honour and
glory to God. Well, it's a blessing if we are
able to do that. Then just a reference in the
Proverbs. Proverbs are, of course, full
of instruction and in the 26th chapter of the Proverbs, We read
two statements which may appear to be opposite, but in actual
fact, they are opposite in one sense, but they have an application. And in the 26th chapter, in the
fourth verse, he says this, answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest thou also be like unto him. The next verse says, but answer
a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceits. So we need a lot of wisdom to
hear those two verses and realise the relevance of them. To answer
not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like him. On
the other hand, answer a fool according to his folly, lest
he be wise in his own conceit." Well, the Lord's very gracious
to give us these times to speak and the times not to speak. And so we read this verse, let
your speech be always with grace. And of course, if it is always
with grace, it would include the glorious gospel. It would
include the Lord Jesus Christ, and how we should always desire
to lift up the name of the Saviour. And so let your speech, yours
and mine, be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may
know how ye ought to answer every man. Then he goes on and he says,
all my state shall Tychicus, we read about Tychicus in that
20th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, how he was one of a
group of people that the apostle was with and they went to Troas
and Paul again met up with them in Troas. And the apostle says
here, all your state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who, unto you,
who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord. So it was clear that the apostle
had a high view of Tychicus. He was a man that spoke good
things and he says, in all my state, shall Tychicus declare
unto you. Tychicus knew all about Paul. He knew where he was. He knew
he was in Rome. He knew he was in prison. He
knew what he had been through and therefore he encourages them
to listen to what Tychicus is to tell them. All my state shall
Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother It's a great
blessing, isn't it, when we have communion with those who we do
count as our brothers and sisters in Christ. And in this case, Teakus was
a faithful minister and a fellow servant in the Lord. And he says,
whom I've sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know
your estate and comfort your hearts. So there was the reverse
position, really, that he would find out what they were about
and what they were like and be able to transfer that back to
the Apostle Paul. So it is good, isn't it, to realise
that here we have what we might term communion of the saints
and desiring to hear about one another so that we can then pray
one for another and understand one another, understand their
down sittings and their uprisings, so that we might indeed truly
be part of the blessed family of God. Well, these are words
of instruction to us today, aren't they? Many years ago they were
written, but they're still needful. And what a good thing is, if
God gives us grace, this blessed grace, to act in the way that
the Apostle speaks of.