"Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside , redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." Colossians 4:5-6 NKJV
Walking in wisdom is having the ability to discern and judge what is true and what isn't. It is having insight; so therefore, a person with wisdom is able to make a wise judgement. We need this wisdom because each and every day, we do not know what we are going to face' and this includes believers and non-believers.
Actually, for the person on the 'outside' - a non-believer, time really is slipping away. None of us know when our lives will end and, for them to end without Jesus means that the person only has one more journey - to hell. God doesn't want that but He doesn't want us bombarding them with heavy God talk either. Each person is different and we need to learn how to handle them and their situation.
Grace must be an uppermost priority. God uses grace in His dealings with us, we need to do the same. Therefore, our conversations with non-believers needs to be 'seasoned with salt.' This means, being Jesus to them, learning to get into their internal frame of reference, which means being able to sit in their shoes, and learn to know where they are coming from and how they are feeling, what baggage they are carrying. This is called empathy. It also means, not doing all of the talking but, listening instead.
Salt, incidentally, among many other things, is a very good stain remover. It will remove rust, coffee and tea stains and most other stubborn marks. One can see why the apostle Paul used the term, 'seasoned with salt'. The word of God can remove the stains of sin, what non-believers need most of all.
Being Jesus to the people we meet, can help cleanse these stains. However, we can only reach their needs by being able to sit in their shoes. Once we do this, they will trust us enough to open up
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