“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak” ~ Epictetus

Applying Scripture to life is hard sometimes. This task sometimes causes Christians to abandon a traditional, conservative view of Scripture as the literal word of God and adopt a more liberal interpretation whereas they view only the concepts and moral direction of Scripture as “inspired.”

I have been challenged recently in a few settings to apply Scripture when it is hard. When I am mad, sad, and or had, looking to Scripture and living it is tough. Nonetheless, a semi-popular Scripture stands ready to challenge me in my temptation to lean into the flesh.

“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” ~ Colossians 4:6

Before speaking to the challenging nature of this Scripture, one must first address the context of this passage. In this passage, Paul is speaking about defense of Scripture and speaking truth with a seasoning of grace in which we received when we came to Christ.

Paul spoke of salt, something the believer may have recognized from Christ’s teaching of Mark 9:50 when He spoke of being well seasoned.

The beauty of speaking of salt in these two passages is that they both see salt as a preservative. In Paul’s case, our speech must preserve our minds so that in our speech and defense of Christ we may have clarity of mind to answer.

But isolating this passage to have no bearing on any other part of our lives would be wholly counterproductive to the Christian walk. A protective heart and mouth should not be something turned on and off, nor should our defense of the Gospel be something made incongruent with our mundane life rhythms.

We must let Christ take captive every thought and refurbish such thoughts to speak gracefully (2 Corinthians 10:5). We all know this to be a tough task, nonetheless, a worthy task.