Streams of Living Water

The great Scottish Preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote, “my people’s greatest need is my personal holiness”. What the world needs more than anything else from Christians, is that we live holy lives – lives transformed and practically demonstrating the truth of the power of the Gospel. Such a need, Paul deals with in Colossians 4:5-6.

Before we begin to analyse the second portion of the section I have entitled “wisdom and holiness”, I want to remind you of the foundational context in which we find vs. 5-6 – two factors without which we will not understand why Paul commands the things he does in these verses. The first is a concern for mission – in vs. 3 Paul is requesting prayer for three things connected with mission: first that God would open a door for the Word – that God would guide Paul to people to whom he should speak; secondly, that God would give Paul the words to say, namely the mystery of Christ; thirdly, that God would keep Paul committed to the method he has ordained to bless in mission, namely speaking and preaching. Last time we were together we asked ourselves if we were as passionate about mission as Paul was and whether we are praying for the mission work of the Church both here in Scotland and overseas. So everything Paul says in vs. 5-6 is said in view of the importance of mission. The second foundational context concern is the second coming of Jesus Christ. In vs. 2 Paul commands the Colossian Christians to be watchful in their prayers – an expression we understood as relating to the return of Jesus Christ from heaven to wrap up time and history and to usher in the new heavens and a new earth. Time is short, the coming of Jesus is near and therefore everything we do must be done in the light of the coming storm and deliverance.
Of course, overarching even these two concerns is the meta-message of the book of Colossians – namely the supremacy of Jesus Christ and the greatness of the Gospel – that through His perfect life and tortured death, we sinners can be forgiven and have new life in Him. That’s why Paul can bother commanding us anything – who we are in Christ Jesus, the new life that is ours, longs to grow into Christ-likeness – longs to have true wisdom and holiness.
Having established therefore the meta-message of the Book of Colossians, and the two particular foundational contexts in which we find vs. 5-6, we move on now to see these two aspects of wisdom and holiness – first, in vs. 5, wisdom in action, and then in vs. 6, wisdom in speech.
[A] Wisdom in Action (vs. 5)
It has often been said that talk is cheap, and there is a great deal of truth in that. Christian wisdom in our speech is vital; and yet, more vital still is that the truth of the Gospel has so penetrated into our hearts that our whole lives are changed. For that reason, Paul commands us that we are to conduct ourselves wisely, literally we are to walk wisely, or to live wisely. We believe, on the basis of Biblical teaching, that we are saved by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone. And yet, the grace that saves is never alone – for if we have been saved by grace, we will be new people, with new desires and a new heart for holiness. Are you and I living righteous lives – are we striving after righteousness and holiness – striving to work out the salvation with which God has saved us? We can cover the basic teaching of vs. 5 by asking three questions:
1. Why Should we Act Wisely?
As I have said before, God most often gives us a reason why we are to live holy lives, in wisdom and righteousness. Here, He gives us two reasons why we should act wisely:
a. Because the Time is Short – the NIV paraphrases the latter part of vs. 5; literally it reads, ‘in wisdom walk towards those on the outside, the time redeeming’. Paul uses the word ‘time’ here. We should be aware of the time. On Friday evening, I was preaching at South Glasgow Baptist Church. The meeting was due to begin at 7:30, but at 7:35 myself and the pastor were still sitting in the vestry – why, because the clock on the wall was 10 minutes slow and we still thought we had plenty of time. We didn’t do what we should have done because we thought we had time, but we didn’t – all the time, the clock on the wall was telling us a lie. The truth was that the time was gone and the service should have begun already. The same is true for us in life – remember the two foundational contexts of this passage – first, that of mission and second, that of the impending return of Jesus Christ. And what Paul is telling us is that time is short; you do not know when Jesus shall return from heaven, and so, we don’t have the luxury of being able to say, ‘we’ll start mission next year’, because we simply do not know if we will have next year, or whether our Lord will have returned by then. The mission of the Church – that of extending forth the Gospel to a watching world; of going through the door of mission that God has opened up for us; is far too important to sideline and postpone – rather, because time is short, we must press on and go. Similarly, although we don’t like to think about such things, are any of us guaranteed tomorrow? We don’t know how long we will live for – probably many years yet, but perhaps not. Our time on earth may be short, so let’s live out the Gospel while we have the opportunity and the time so to do.
b. Because Some are on the Outside – in theory, wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where everybody believed in the Lord Jesus Christ – a world where, if everyone lived out the Gospel, there would be peace, justice and harmony. In a sense, although we must be careful not to tarnish our views of heaven, heaven will be a bit like that – complete harmony and peace – no war, only continual fascination and amazement at the beauty and glory of the face of Christ. But this world isn’t full of those who know Jesus Christ – there are many who are on the outside. They are on the outside both of the community of the Church, in that they aren’t professing Christians, and on the outside of the Kingdom of God in that they aren’t Christians at all. Luke uses the same language of ‘outside’ in Luke 13:25-28 to talk of those who are on the outside – he says of the outside that ‘there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’. Some are still on the outside – some are still heading for a lost eternity – for the hell in which there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. Some are on the outside of the Kingdom of God, having no hope and without God in the world. Is our conduct; are our actions, challenging them to stop being outside and start being inside – are our lives making a real impact upon outsiders so that they want to follow Jesus Christ too?
Time is short and many are heading for a lost eternity – and what is our response to be? Will we strive to be changed by the Gospel so that our behaviour and conduct point to Christ?
2. How Can we Act Wisely?
Paul tells us how we can act wisely in our conduct and behaviour – he commands us to make the most of every opportunity; he commands us literally to redeem the time. The word he uses is a compound word in the original language – the central idea is that of the Greek agora. The agora was the marketplace where merchants and traders kept stalls to sell their goods under great pillars and colonnades. Doubtless, Colossae would have had an agora – it was basically the marketplace of the city. And Paul adds to the agora another little word which means ‘out of’. So literally, the word Paul uses means ‘out of the marketplace’. In common language, the word came to mean ‘to redeem’ or ‘to make the most of’. The picture is that you are going to the marketplace of life carrying in your pocket, not money, but time. You only have a limited amount of time, so how are you going to spend it – what are you going to buy with it? You can’t buy everything, you have to be selective.
Let’s expand out picture of the agora of time: on the market-stalls are all the various things we can buy with our time – one market-stall has a sign above it saying, ‘worldly pleasures’, another one ‘career progression’, another one ‘money’, another one ‘personal security, dignity and worth’. Each of the market traders are shouting and screaming for you to spend what you have at their stall. But there is another stall in the market-place – a stall shaped like a cross. Where are we going to spend our time? Why don’t you, after this service tonight, go home and analyse how much energy, effort and time you are spending on each activity, and why you spend so much time on them. Perhaps, like your job, you have to work and there is no way around it – but that doesn’t stop you at work from living a holy and godly life, and it doesn’t stop you taking the opportunities your holy lifestyle will bring up to speak to those on the outside about your faith in Christ. And whenever you have an activity in front of you, remember that the amount of time you have in your pocket is extremely limited and you want to make the best use of it, so ask yourself whether indeed, this activity makes the best use of the time you have, or is there something better you could be doing. That is holy wisdom in action.
3. Where can we Discover how to Act Wisely?
In this verse, Paul does not go into what true wisdom is or where we can find true wisdom. But, if you look through the whole Book of Colossians he says three things about where we can go to discover how to act wisely, and how we should choose between the different activities we can spend our time on:
a. It is a Gift of God (1:9) – in this verse, Paul is praying that God would fill the Colossians with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. The clear implication is that wisdom is the gift of God. We cannot work towards being wise unless God is in it, actively granting us the gift of wisdom. Wisdom is God’s sovereign property. And yet, in another place, James says, ‘if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives freely without finding fault’. And so, although wisdom is a gift of God, yet we can receive it through prayer – just like Paul prayed for the Colossians and just like James teaches the early church – we pray to God for wisdom for living. We pray that God would help us as we make our choices regarding what to buy with our time and what not to buy. Sometimes, we are forced to make very quick decisions about life choices, but usually we have time to consider and to pray about them. And so, remember to pray for God’s wisdom.
b. It is found in God’s Word (3:16) – the central idea of this verse is the Word of Christ – the New Testament, the Bible. This is the wisdom of God because it contains within its pages God’s final revelation of the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge – Jesus Christ Himself. We pray for God to give us wisdom, and through our reading and study of His Word He answers our prayers. God’s Word, the Bible gives us God’s perspective on our situations and circumstances and it guides us as to how to live wisely. You’ve got time in your pocket which you must spend; how do you know where to spend it? Listen to the Bible!
c. It is Heard in Honest Preaching (1:28) – finally, and briefly, wisdom is heard in the honest preaching of God’s Word. In this verse Paul talks about proclaiming, admonishing and teaching – these three emphases Paul employs in His preaching in order to impart wisdom to God’s people. When you hear the honest preaching of God’s Word – that is preaching which is faithful to the text and let’s God speak through the Bible – then you will hear wisdom. And yet, there is, in our Christian culture, an unhealthy suspicion of preaching – people don’t want to be told anything, and so preachers are constantly pummelled into compromising their message. What would the apostle Paul have thought of that? He would have called it all so-much foolishness – blind fools groping in the dark and rejoicing over the discovery of more darkness. Be wise – I’m not saying listen to me – I’m saying listen to the preaching of God’s Word.
Above the entrance to Andrew Bonar’s Church in Kelvingrove are inscribed in concrete the words of Proverbs 11:30 – ‘he that winneth souls is wise’. Have you true wisdom that you, by carefully studying and living according to the Word of God, so conduct yourself towards those outside the faith that you win them for Christ? Let us therefore redeem the time and make the most of every opportunity we get to live for Christ Jesus. John Flavel, the Puritan once wrote, “God hangs the great things of eternity upon the small wires of times and seasons in this world; that may be done, or neglected in a day, which may be the ground work of joy or sorrow to all eternity.”
[B] Wisdom in Speech (vs. 6)
Sometimes it is harder to speak for Christ than it is to live for Christ. Most people are ‘nice’ and you don’t stand out much if you are being nice too. What makes you stand out is your Christian speech. Given that we don’t have much time left – that I’ve already spent much of our time at the market-stall of vs. 5, let’s trace out the bare bones of what Paul is commanding us in vs. 6. We can do this by asking two questions about wisdom in speech:
1. How Should We Speak?
The literal translation of vs. 6 runs like this – ‘your word always in grace, with salt having been seasoned …’. Our speech, our words, are always to be spoken in grace. Now this is not the same thing as speaking graciously. To speak graciously is commonly thought to mean that we never say anything contrary; we never disagree, we are always nice; but that’s not the meaning of ‘in grace’, ‘full of grace’ here – sometimes it is necessary for truth to be heard that we do disagree, and violently disagree – as Paul did. And sometimes his tone wasn’t particularly nice – for example in Galatians 5:12, having had his fill of those who made physical circumcision a pre-requisite for being a Christian, he says, “I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves” – in other words, not just circumcise themselves, but castrate themselves. Our own Lord Jesus called the Pharisees vipers and whitened sepulchres. What Paul means is quite different. On Friday night, after the service I conducted in South Glasgow Baptist Church a lady came up to me and introduced herself – she was from my home village of Golspie, I could tell by her accent. She had realised, from my speaking, that I was from Golspie too. Our accents give away where we are from. When we are speaking, there is no physical accent we put on to show that we are Christians, rather, it is the words we speak, the gratitude we express to God, the gossiping of the fineness of the love of Jesus Christ that is being spoken of here. We have been changed by the grace of God through Christ – not just our hearts and our lives, but our vocal chords and the great centres of communication in our brains. We want to talk about different things from what once we did – we speak about God different and about others different. We are moving in a different sphere – the sphere of heaven, the sphere of the throne and the cross of Jesus – speaking in such a way that others know the Holy Spirit is living in your heart.
2. When Should We Speak?
Paul envisages a situation here where our holy lives have drawn the attention of those on the outside of the faith. They look at our Gospel lives and want to know why we are different – why we do some things and don’t do others. Paul tells us that two conditions should be in place before we say anything: first, we should only speak after our words have been seasoned with salt; secondly, we should only speak with knowledge.
a. After Seasoning – this thought does not really come across in our translation, but literally vs. 6 reads, “your word always in grace, with salt having been salted” – in other words, our words need to be salted before they are spoken. In other words, a process needs to take place before we speak – our words need to be salted. Now briefly, this salting process could mean three things, each related to the Biblical usage of salt: first, our words should be offered up to God before we speak them. In the Old Testament, salt was used in the offering process; it was sprinkled on the altar together with blood. We must offer up our words to God before we speak them and ask Him to bless them. Secondly, our words should provide flavour to any conversation. Unfortunately, we Christians have a reputation for being boring or for just repeating general clichés. As opposed to that our words are to be interesting and specific – not tasteless, like the white of an egg. Thirdly, our words should preserve purity, just like salt is used as a preservative. Seasoning before speaking should preserve us from letting rotting words, or gossip, forth from between our lips. So therefore, before we speak, let’s season our words with God’s salt.
b. With Knowledge – Paul speaks here about knowing how to speak to each one. In other words, each one is coming to us with a question – remember the context of the passage – the mission of evangelism – and they are asking us about our faith. And although this is a difficult teaching, Paul seems to be telling us here that we should know how to answer them. And again, this involves two things: it involves first knowing them – each one will have different questions and we must know them well enough to know what they are going to ask. It’s going to involve getting to know people so that we may know how to answer their questions about the Christian faith. Remember the whole sequence of this evangelistic mission is that people have seen the difference in our conduct and they are asking us questions about why we are different. For them to see us living godly, holy, lives, we need to be involved with them. Secondly, its going to involve thinking about the kind of questions people ask about the Christian faith and working out how we would answer them. I know that we all feel uncomfortable at times when people ask us questions about the Christian faith and we say that we don’t know what to say – but is that because we genuinely don’t know how to answer them, or because we haven’t taken the time to think about how we would answer them. There are resources available to help us with questions like these – if you want to know something about them, please speak to me afterwards, but in truth, nothing really beats reading the Bible yourself.
Groundwork needs to be done if we are obey these commands of Christ – not just thinking in the milliseconds before we speak, but in thinking about how to answer questions about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel which has so transformed and changed us. If we aren’t being asked these questions, what does this say about the way in which we are living our lives; but by the same token, if we are living our lives in a Gospel-centred way that’s just not enough to win others for Christ – they need to hear from our lips the good news about Jesus and how they find Him for themselves.
In the mid 17^th Century, a young tinker man was searching for spiritual reality. He had been reading Christian books and hearing Christian sermons, but something still hadn’t clicked in his heart – until one day, whilst walking down the main street of his home town, he heard two old ladies talking about something. Their eyes were wide open and their hands were gesturing – they were clearly in raptures over something. The young man drew closer to hear the conversation. These old ladies were talking about the beauty of Jesus. In an instant, the young man saw that what he lacked was Jesus and on the spot, he asked Jesus to be his Saviour. The man’s name was John Bunyan and he went on to become the most influential Christian writer in British history. Just two old ladies, but it was the way they spoke about Christ which led to the conversion of this young man. See the impact our speech can have. Let us then pray that God would use our lives to draw interest to Christ, and then use our lips to speak of Christ, and let us pray that through us, God, in His sovereign love and grace, may bring someone to know Him. AMEN