Verbal salt shakers

        How often do we hurt people's feelings with out even realizing it? Sometimes I wonder if the filter between our brains and our mouths is working, or if some people even have one. 

        Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." The immediate context for this verse is for people who have accepted Christ as their Savior.  So many times people are turned away from Jesus because of a poor representation of who Jesus is on the part of the Christian. I think that we forget who it is that we represent, Jesus. The way that we act towards unbelievers effects their view of who Christ is. 

        In bible times salt was used as a preservative. We dump it on our food now mostly to clog our artories, but back then it was used to preserve meat (they didn't have refridgeraters ). What Paul is saying to the believer in Christ is that if what you are about to say does not lead to the preservation of the individual listening, we should probably keep our mouths shut. All that we speak should point to Jesus, and be consistent with the new nature that He has given us (Ephesians 4:22-24). 

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old things have passed away, and new things have come. If we would live consistently with the fact that that has happened to us I think that we would be more prone to be verbal salt shakers, preserving the people that hear us speak.

Lastly we see in James 3:8-12 that the tongue of man next to impossible to tame. With it we bless our Lord and curse our brother. He tells us in verse 10 that it should not be this way. He gives a natural spring as an example, it can't produce spring water and salt water at the same time. You are either one or the other. The funny thing about salt water is that it is in no way refreshing, like spring water is. Jesus said that what comes out of a man stems from the heart (Matthew 15:18-20). What makes up the majority of your speech? How do you talk to people? I think that the heart of the issue is that we all have a problem with the heart, it is corrupted by sin and it needs to be transformed by the power of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15-21).