“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Col. 4:6)
The words we speak define who we are, but in all reality, one does not have to say anything sometimes to be associated with that which we should not be a part of. Laughing at a crude joke when you should have walked away, nodding in agreement to something your ears should not have even heard.
My friends, many times when we rebuke or reprove someone, in this regard, we should not have even been where we were.
We expect the wicked to behave wickedly, there is no reason to believe that they are going to alter their speech just because they know that one in their presence professes to serve the Living God. In fact, many times you can expect the opposite.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2nd Cor. 6:14)
The salt that you might expect to place into their wounds, so to speak, the Words of God that you might attempt to say when they begin to behave as you would expect them to will more than likely not have the effect you were expecting, the last part of Matthew 7:6 may be your reward for interjecting them. “lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
Is there a time and place to put those coals of shame upon their heads? Yes, of course, but if you have interjected your presence into the midst of a group of the wicked, do not expect your salt, your words, to have any real effect in the manner in which you intended. Ridicule is what you should expect instead.
Rebuking rarely does any good with those who do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ, it is in their nature to laugh at the cruel jokes, to mock those who do not live as they do, there is no fear of God before their eyes, so why would they fear the words you might speak to them? Stop and think before you begin to engage in a conversation with those you meet, those who are not hid in Christ, are they lost or are they the wicked?
In all truth, you will not know until you begin speaking with them, and even then, that knowledge may not arrive immediately, but understand this truth, what you are speaking about can only be discerned by those who have been born-again.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1st Cor. 2:14)
You are speaking to the deaf, to the blind, to those with hearts of stone, and you can say nothing that will be understood by them, it is foolishness.
Salt cures, but it also can burn, it can preserve or destroy. Your words must be chosen with great care, but if you are where you are not supposed to be, those words may be cast back into your face.
Those you consider perhaps not your friends, but acquaintances that you have no qualms with, or they with you, what is their reaction when the words of truth come from your lips, how do they respond to the Scripture verses offered to them? We can, and should pray and we can offer words, but that is really all we have to give them, some will listen, some will even hear, but many will rend you, and this you must be prepared for.
They will watch you when the foul language is presented, when the crude and cruel remarks are made, and if they see even the smallest smirk or upturned corner of your lips, they will have accomplished what they set out to do.
“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” (Matt. 15:14)
Sometimes my friends it’s best just to leave their company, sometimes walking away can be just as much of an effectual witness for the Lord as words spoken.
And then sometimes they will come to you and actually listen to those words of truth.
