Colossians 4:5-6 5Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6Let your word always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each and every last person.
These are Paul’s final exhortations in the body of the letter before he turns to personal greetings and begins to close the letter. The focus shifts from calling the whole church to pray to how they should interact with the unbelievers around them. The outsiders refers to those who are not part of the church. The Colossians need to be wise in how they respond those outside the church. The church needed to strategize, plan, and deeply consider their interaction with unbelievers. They had a great opportunity to impact their community, but they needed to seek God’s direction and wisdom to do this in such a way to win people to Christ.
Paul indicates several ways they can do this in these verses. First, they need to take advantage of the opportunities they have. Just as Paul was looking for open doors to share the gospel (verse 4), they needed to do the same. The verb behind this idea (exagorazomenoi) has within it the idea of the marketplace (agora). It is a commercial term meaning to buy something back. Here the sense is to seize the moment when the time (kairon) is right. The Colossians needed to be ready with their testimonies when the people around them showed interest or had questions. The only way to do this is to study and know the trust of the gospel so that it can be shared at the right moments.
Verse 6 clarifies this further with a second way the Colossians could interact with unbelievers with wisdom. They should have words of grace at the tip of their tongues. Whatever they said should be the outcome of God’s grace working in them. The adverb always (pantote) stresses this readiness. Gracious words are more than politeness, which is a human and cultural action. Their words need to be grace itself (chariti) that extends the gospel through spoken words and actions to those around.
The third way of wisdom for the Colossians uses the image of seasoned with salt. They could be the flavor that changes their world. Jesus called his disciples to be the salt of the world (Matthew 5:13). This rich imagery has many possible meanings. Paul connects this idea of salt to the proclamation of the gospel. The Colossians could make the word of the gospel taste good to the unbelievers around them.
The fourth description of wisdom interaction with unbelievers is given in a purpose clause they directly modifies the idea of being seasoned with salt but shows why the Colossians should be involved in their own mission to unbelievers. They will need to grow in their knowledge of God (1:9-10) so that their answers to outsiders may be clear and understandable. They need to be prepared for those who might argue against them or present false teachings. This last phrase gets to the purpose why Paul wrote this letter. He has essentially given them a strategy for evangelism. This is a hint into his own methods. He began with total faith and confidence in Christ that resulted in a profound and deep relation of Christ in him and he in Christ. From this point, Paul grew in his knowledge of God. This knowledge gave him confidence to preach the gospel in a compelling and uncompromising way. This is the same strategy the Colossians could use and we can use today. He wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 to be prepared to preach the gospel “in season and out of season.” Always be ready to share the reason for our faith (1 Peter 3:15).
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