Colossians 4:5-6
Not long ago Pat and I went to a restaurant for lunch. It wasn’t one of those places where your met by a tuxedoed matre’d but there wasn’t a picture of a pig-tailed redheaded girl on the cups either. We’d eaten there before and we enjoyed it.
We ordered lunch and the server brought us a basket of rolls and a bit of butter. I put some butter on a roll and took a bite. Something was wrong. I mentioned it to Pat and she had a bite. She said the butter was probably left uncovered in the refrigerator and had picked up the flavor of something. We ate the rest of the rolls without butter.
When something leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you remember it. We’ll probably go back to that restaurant but will be just a little cautious when we try a buttered roll.
All too often non-Christians are lefts with a bad taste after they’ve encountered Christians. Maybe it’s a Christian who is judgmental. One who is arrogant. Or one who is simply a hypocrite.
A deacon was trying to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. "Why do people call me a Christian?" the man asked. After a moment's pause, one youngster said, "Maybe it's because they don't know you."
We can laugh at that but we know that hypocrisy is a serious matter. Alister McGraf has written: “Paradoxically, what propels people toward atheism is above all a sense of revulsion against the excesses and failures of organized religion.”
Paul knows that we need to be consistent as Christians if we will make an impact in our world. Our words and our life must be integrated.
An integration of life and word will be seen in
A CONSISTENT WITNESS
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders…”
Up to this point Paul, for the most part, has been speaking of Christian behavior within our closest circles—the marriage, the family, and the church. Now he is primarily addressing our responsibility toward outsiders.
By “outsiders” Paul means those who are not believers in Christ. By using the term he reminds his readers that there is a great division between those who are believers and those who are not. While some might have used such terms to promote pride and a sense of superiority, Paul doesn’t. We are not to be satisfied with our being on the “inside” while the majority of humankind is on the “outside.” Since we’re only on the inside because of God’s grace can we ever justify not inviting outsiders to become insiders, to become true believers?
But consider this.
Experts tell us that lots of so-called church growth simply involves movement from one church to another. It’s called “transfer growth.” In other words, insiders are looking for new places and new faces, outsiders are not becoming insiders.
That ought to be disturbing, disturbing enough to make us try to discover the key to reaching non-believers.
Paul understood that not everyone was willing to hear the spoken witness of a Christian. His own experience had taught him that some responded to that witness with open hostility. It’s still the same today. But is does that justify our failing to seek those outsiders? Hardly. Some of you may have ethnic roots in Ireland. What if Patrick had given up because the Irish were such hard people? Some of you have roots in Germany? What if Boniface had give up because the Germans were so wild and unruly? What if Gregory had decided not to try again to Christianize Britain since the Britons had killed the first wave of Christian ministers? Just because it’s a tough job, just because the outsiders don’t like us, doesn’t mean we have a right to give up, sit back and enjoy ourselves while the world goes to hell—literally.
But once we resolve to do that hard work, how do we reach those who will not hear? Paul told the Colossians that they had to rely upon the witness of a changed life.
Wisdom, in the Bible, involves an integration of life and word. Christians who would make an impact on outsiders understand this; they know that unless our behavior and lifestyle is different than that of the larger world, our message of a changed life will not be believed. To use a popular phrase, Christians must “walk the walk, if they are going to talk the talk.”
William Hendriksen paraphrases the verse this way, “Behave wisely toward outsiders, always bearing in mind that though few men read the sacred scrolls, all men read you!”
The result of Christians living with integrity would be twofold.
First, it would effectively refute the wild accusations which are sometimes leveled against Christians. In the first centuries of the church Christians were sometimes accused of atheism because they did not worship the gods of Rome, of treason because they refused to offer incense to the image of the emperor, of cannibalism because they spoke of eating the body of Christ, of immorality because they spoke of loving one another. How did the Christians answer these unfair accusations.
While some did the important work of writing defenses of the church, most responded by simply living out their faith. This is why historian T. R. Glover could write that the early Christians defeated their opponents by “outliving” them.
A second result of more Christians living with integrity would be a more effective witness for Christ.
In 1969 Dr. Bernard Nathanson was operating the largest abortion clinic in the world. His New York City clinic was involved in more than 75,000 abortions—including one for his own child. Then in the late 1970s this supporter of Roe vs. Wade concluded that he had been killing human beings. As a result he became a key pro-life advocate.
His new work brought him into contact with Christian pro-life workers. Of their commitment he wrote:
“They prayed, they supported and encouraged each other, they sang hymns of joy…. They prayed for the unborn babies, for the confused and pregnant women, and for the doctors and nurses in the clinic…. And I wondered: How can these people give of themselves for a constituency that is (and always will be) mute, invisible, and unable to thank them?”
Due in part to their consistent witness and the testimony of a former teacher, Karl Stern, Nathanson became a Christian in the 1990s.
Those Christians Nathanson observed were simply integrating their words and their lives.
An integration of life and word will also be seen in…
A TACTFUL WITNESS
“Let your conversation always be full of grace…”
Most of us know that inconsistency in living out our faith, not to mention outright hypocrisy, can nullify our witness. But, have we given much thought to the impact of sheer tactlessness?
Paul’s instructions to the Colossians could be interpreted in two ways. He could be saying, “Speak graciously to outsiders,” or he could be saying, “Speak about grace to outsiders.” While it’s possible he had both meanings in mind, I think he certainly had in mind the first meaning: Speak graciously. In other words, speak tactfully.
William Hendriksen gives special attention to the call to tactfulness in this verse. Using this verse and others he describes tactfulness in this way:
“Its parents are Love and Wisdom. It is that skill which, without any sacrifice of honesty or candor, enables a person to speak the right work at the right time, and to do the proper thing in a given situation. It is premeditated prudence, sanctified mother wit, consecrated savoir faire. The tactful person does not shirk his duty even when he is convinced that he must admonish are rebuke. But he has learned the art of doing this without being rude.”
John Stott recently died. In case the name isn’t familiar, Stott was an English evangelist, theologian, and pastor; he was instrumental in breathing new life into Anglican Evangelicalism. At the same time, he became a widely respected leader of evangelicals of all stripes around the world. Since his ordination in 1945, he wrote some fifty books on theology, preaching, evangelism, ethics, and Bible study. He was well-respected even by those who didn’t necessarily share his views.
After a story about Stott appeared in the New York Times, singer Paul Simon was a friend David Brooks, the author and asked for an introduction to Stott. They met in Stott’s small, bachelor apartment in London. Simon began to complain about various well-known fundamentalist leaders. Stott said nothing for a while, then stopped Simon and said, “But, I want to know what you think of Jesus Christ.”
You and I, in such a circumstance, might have either joined Simon in his condemnation or tried to defend those leaders. We might have berated him for being part of the immoral world of show business. We might have even tried to use our superior knowledge to trump the upstart. Stott didn’t and if anyone had superior knowledge, he did. Simon later expressed his gratitude to Brooks for the introduction. His gracious demeanor opened a door for witness.
It’s always easier to be tactless than to be tactful. But if we want to reach the outsiders, it’s a quality we will have to cultivate. We should cultivate treating others graciously because we have been treated graciously.
Tactful witness is natural when our life and word is integrated.
An integration of life and word will also be seen in…
AN APPEALING WITNESS
“Let your conversation always be…seasoned with salt…”
Other writers in the New Testament period wrote of words being salty. By this, they usually meant speech which was witty and even sarcastic. Paul didn’t have that in mind. He probably used “salt” in a more natural sense, meaning that our speech should be flavorful, appealing.
Ralph Martin comments on the phrase:
“Our glad task is to speak with [Christ]like attractiveness, avoiding any manner of speaking in public discourse or private conversation which would leave the impression that the gospel message is dull and flat and uninteresting.”
F. F. Bruce is more direct: “Those who are the salt of the earth may reasonably be expected to have some savor about their language.”
What is this salty talk? What makes a witness appealing?
An appealing witness reflects a commitment which is authentic. It calls for us to be real. I doubt if anyone responds to the witness of a Christian who is a Christian just because his or her parents were Christians.
Someone has said that those now in their late teens and early twenties have built in “hype detectors.” They can spot a phony at a hundred yards. They know when someone isn’t being genuine, isn’t telling it like it is. We won’t reach them with canned testimonies or pious platitudes.
An appealing witness reflects a commitment which is enthusiastic. A story in USA Today reported that some 29.4 million Americans claim to have no religion and only 32% of us regularly go to church. One reason cited is that church seems repressive and boring.
We’re not likely to get people who think that to visit our churches. But they can’t avoid rubbing shoulders with Christians. That’s our real hope of reaching them—if they encounter the right kind of Christians.
There’s just something appealing about a person who is enthusiastically committed to Christ. I don’t mean they are always sounding off about their faith, but that it’s clear their commitment is more than an “only on Sunday” kind of thing. They have a commitment which is evident every day of the week. It’s a fresh commitment; it hasn’t grown stale or insipid.
Although John Wesley was a trained minister he possessed no personal commitment to Christ. After a disastrous attempt to minister in colonial Georgia he returned to England in disgrace. On his way to England, Wesley had encountered several Moravian Christians, members of a small band of committed men and women who had known severe persecution for their faith. Wesley watched them and was particularly fascinated by their calmness in the midst of a severe storm. Back in England after his flight from Georgia, Wesley became acquainted with their leader Peter Bohler and sought his counsel. His quest for that kind of faith he had seen displayed in that storm led to his own conversion.
Their appealing witness touched a man who would touch thousands.
An integration of life and word will also be seen in…
A THOUGHTFUL WITNESS
Sometimes effective witness is amazingly spontaneous but more often it is the product of forethought. Such forethought is demonstrated in two ways.
Being a thoughtful witness is demonstrated in our determination to “make the most of every opportunity.” The language Paul uses comes from the market, he literally says “buy up every opportunity.” White suggests it involves “cornering the market in opportunity.”
What Paul says should remind us of a couple truths, first, that there are opportunities all around us for sharing the gospel and, second, that we may very easily miss them. It’s a lesson which has to be learned by every generation of Christians.
We know that witness may take place in church, but we have to rediscover that witness may take place at the workplace, over the backyard fence, in a hospital room, in a classroom, at a school board meeting, anywhere we Christians may go. We’re not always invited to preach a sermon but we always have an opportunity to make what we do say “full of grace, seasoned with salt.”
With fewer and fewer people coming to our churches can’t allow any opportunity to go by. If we don’t seize an opportunity it may forever be too late.
As Michael F. Springer, a Philadelphia mechanic, rounded a corner on October 7, 1995, he heard whimpering. Glancing up, he saw a small child dangling from the third-floor window of a row house. Springer rushed over and stood directly beneath the child. "From the time I looked up to the time I got to him, I'd say it was about ten seconds," he said later. "I called up, 'Baby, what are you doing?' and I prayed to God that I wouldn't miss him if he let go. It was all marble steps beneath the window."
Just then, the toddler lost his hold-and Springer caught him. At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, doctors examined the toddler and found no injuries. "God had a reason for me to be there, and I'm just glad I was," Springer said.
You and I will occasionally encounter people who, spiritually speaking, are just barely holding on, who are in danger. May we seize the opportunity to be witnesses.
Being a thoughtful witness involves making the gospel personal. The New English Bible rendering of this verse points this out, “Let your words always be gracious, never insipid; learn how best to respond to each person you meet.”
Paul reminds us to be wise as in our relations with outsiders. We need such wisdom if we don’t want to make mistakes in our timing and approach.
We need to know how to speak to non-believers on behalf of Christ.
Several years ago I taught a class for Boyce on the doctrine of salvation. I began the course by putting some of the key words of our faith on the blackboard. I wrote words like redemption, adoption, propitiation, regeneration, justification, and several other such terms. I then asked the class to write a paragraph or two on the subject of what Christ had done for them. As the students reached for pen and paper, I added one requirement: They could not use any of the words I had written on the board. Some of them weren’t up to the challenge; they couldn’t find a way to express their personal faith without using the language which most outsiders would find incomprehensible.
At one time many of the unchurched would have been familiar enough with the story of Jesus and with the teachings of the church for us to refer to them with confidence. That’s no longer true.
Many who think they know about the Bible simply believe it to be a book of outdated rules and impossible stories.
All of this suggests we must be thoughtful as we approach each outsider. Some will be prepared for a more complicated witness, some will require a simpler approach.
All will be looking for someone who will treat them as individuals who merit the time it takes to get to know them.
Let the Spirit help you craft the best approach to that person. And we had better be willing to rely on the Spirit if we are going to know what to say and when to say it. That is the essence of a thoughtful witness.
CONCLUSION
Real witness has always involved the integration of life and word but that is probably true now more than ever.
Not long after I came to Worthington, some of us went to hear Jack Riggs, long-time associate of Billy Graham. He was helping prepare church members for the upcoming Graham Crusade at Cooper Stadium. A few years after we heard him, Riggs began saying that most of those Americans who would be reached by the big crusades had been reached.
If that’s so, it’s more important than ever that we Christians determine to witness through word and life.
