Paul’s Advice Towards Outsiders
Col 4:5-9
5Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
7As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information. 8For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts; 9and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number. They will inform you about the whole situation here.
I was reading a description of the times in which Paul lived this week. Listen to see if this sounds familiar.
“I believe that the New Testament passages about how God’s people should treat government were written under the evil administrations of several Caesars, all but one of whom were bisexual, threw lavish orgies, had a military that allowed open homosexuality, taxed their citizens heavily, used tax monies for horrible immoralities and idolatries, were heavily and increasingly in debt, were increasingly anti-Christian, and had an over-expanded military, fighting rebels in foreign lands who were attacking the Roman army because they were in their territories. Sound familiar?
Virtually all governments and their leaders have been evil over time; fallen and broken people create fallen and broken systems and use them for their own advancement. Romans 13:3 says that the government’s role is to punish evil – that has to mean the punishment of universally recognized criminal evil through the enforcement of the crimes code (the sword). The passage doesn’t address philosophically-based evil on which societies differ, such as homosexuality, slavery, and abortion, which were all practiced by the Roman government. Paul knew those evils existed, and were supported by tax monies, but didn’t exhort Christians to rise up against it because the Roman government was endorsing evil.” David J. Brown, Missionary with BMW.
These were the times that Paul lived and he recognized them as the last times. If Paul lived in the last times, how much more are we living in the last times in our lives? There is no question that there is a huge divide between the values we hold and those that the rest of the world holds. But we have been specifically told to permit our lives to shine to outsiders. So how is that done effectively? What is normal for the believer who believes the Bible when it tells believers they are the light of the world and the salt of the earth? Remember that Paul is writing to an entire church, not one leader in the church or someone who might be empowered with a specific gift of evangelism but to the larger church in Colossae.
He begins very generally – 5Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders. By the way, the literal translation of this phrase is walk in wisdom toward outsiders. But what verse comes to your mind when you think about conducting yourself with wisdom? For me, it is Proverbs 3: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we were to substitute that phrase, I think it is fair to read it like this “Conduct yourselves with the fear of the Lord in your dealings with others.” Consider this: If you fear the Lord, you will conduct yourselves differently towards others. When was the last time you changed your patterns in life because you fear the Lord. I know, we are not living under the Law. We are not talking about earning our place in heaven but rather about recognizing that God has the right to give us counsel that is to be obeyed. What does a life lived in wisdom towards outsiders look like in a practical sense? I believe this is fairly straight forward. We are not to be an example of what non-believers dislike about the religious people but we are to be honorable, good examples, and to be the kind of friend you would like to have to others. Be the person who has a gracious spirit and a kind word to say about others. The other day, someone asked about a person in my group and I brought out the positive qualities that honestly make them difficult to work with but I have a way to put them in character traits that could be positive. I was a little taken back when this person’s reply was – that’s one way of putting it. I wasn’t going to join in the complaining about their personality that others seem too easily willing to discuss. I want to be that person who lifts others but I am not always successful because between you and me, don’t tell my wife, but I’m human. I have my down moments and days, and probably weeks. But I have a higher calling than most of the people I work with. I am called to conduct myself with wisdom towards all outsiders. Not just the ones I like, not just the ones that who might be able to advance my personal career, but all outsiders. If I am instructed to love my enemies, certainly I can conduct myself with wisdom towards outsiders.
But again, what does that look like? I’d like to hear your stories about when you found yourself in a situation where you had the opportunity to go either way, and you choose differently because you live your life in gratefulness for your redemption. (Feed back from class.)
Now notice the reason why we are conducting ourselves with wisdom is not so we can be chosen the floor safety monitor, but there is a reason for purposeful living with others. We read that purpose in the second part of the verse: making the most of the opportunity. Other version interpret this as “Redeeming the time”. Redeem literally means to pay a price for something. But in Colossians 4:5 instead of talking about losing a precious soul, Paul is addressing losing precious time. You and I have a limited amount of time on this earth. It is important not to waste your time. If you waste your time, you are wasting the opportunities that God is giving to you.
One way you will be wasting your time is if you don’t Let your speech always be with grace. Even through redeeming grace comes through God’s Son, remember that God often, almost always, uses His children as a means to communicate His grace. Have you ever seen that commercial about the people who are getting a quick midnight burrito at a roadside lunch truck? It starts out they order the special or something, and then you get a look into the truck and it’s dirty. The cook is wiping his hands through his hair, looks like if you had any sense you wouldn’t trust anything that came from that kitchen. The end result that is implied is they get food poisoning. That is a pretty clear picture of how we are NOT to be. We are not to be a Christian whose life is terrible and then they try to speak of the love of Jesus. We all know those people who have no grace in their speech. They are hard to work with and harder to live with. Just yesterday, as is my habit, I went to breakfast. I usually met up with a few different non-believers there but this day, none of them showed up. So I asked for a newspaper to occupy my mind. After I read the funnies, the sports and the headlines, (What can I say, I am easily amused) I was still had some time so I began to read to obituaries. I know, it’s morose. But I started to think, after reading about one person, what would my obit read like? How can we live so that our obituary reads as though we were someone others enjoyed while we were here? Another way to say this, on every tombstone, there is a dash. The day we were born and the day we died. What will your dash, or my dash represent? Will it represent someone who lived a life full of grace or will it represent an unforgiving life? It’s a choice you have to make before the dash is done.
As though seasoned with salt. Mildly applied so as to enhance the flavor, not to kill the one consuming the meal. After my kidney transplant, I was told to add salt to my diet raise my blood pressure. I didn’t know doctors knew how to say those words – “add more salt to your diet”. But if there is an absence of grace in your words, I think God is telling us to add more grace to our interactions. But don’t over season. So that you will know how you should respond to each person. Paul makes it clear the reason we need grace in our interactions, so that we can respond to each person. This is an indication of a type of lifestyle evangelism: that we are to be responders in our evangelism. And the way we can be responders is to live a life that is marked by grace towards outsiders. If God did not send Christ into the world to judge the world, why do we feel led to judge the world? If there was a person born into this world that had the right to judge the world, it was Jesus Christ. But He was grace and truth. Of course He never sacrificed His own standards to compromise the truth, but His life was marked by being full of grace and truth. I find it hard to balance those two. But then, God knew by our own strength, we would not be able to live survive on that tightrope between the two, so He made us new creatures, with new hearts. Our old hearts could never do this. And that is why God had to move from writing the Law on tablets of stone to writing the Law on hearts. (2 Cor 2:3 – written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.)
Now, there are some who are not content with being responders to the world. They can relate more to Jesus clearing the temple than sitting besides the well talking to the woman with a broken life. But have you ever stopped to notice the difference between the two audiences. One believes that they are leaders in the truth and are leading people away from God with their dishonesty. The other person is searching for truth and is honest with where they presently are. One of the things I believe about God is that He is a God who deals with individuals where they are. You might respond to people differently in different situations and this is why we need to be people who pray for wisdom to know how to respond to each person. It will be different in many, if not all situations.
I really hadn’t expected to go so slowly through this portion of the passage, but I like to have the freedom to go through each passage with the time it takes to teach that passage. I thought I might be done quicker, but we’ll look next at the life of Tychicus. However, I will not be here on Jan 31. I’ll see you in February.