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Scripture Reading: Col. 4:6; Matt. 12:36; James 3:6, 8
The messages in this book should be considered as lessons of a training. We have a training in addition to the church meetings because in the past we learned that most believers who attend a church meeting only listen to the message and do not practice it. We should take the lessons presented here, put them into practice, and have further study. Then we will gain the real profit.
In the previous chapter we considered the way to grow in a simple but practical way. First, we must love the Lord. In order to grow in the Lord, we can never neglect our love toward the Lord. If there is no love, there is no growth in life. Second, we must make a thorough confession. Along with our real love toward the Lord, our conscience needs to be exercised. We have to confess all our failures, weaknesses, and trespasses to make a thorough clearance of the past before the Lord. Third, we need to exercise our spirit, and fourth, we need to always contact the Lord.
If we read the New Testament carefully, we can see that the real growth in life eventually brings us to the point that we are built together with others. Growth in life is for building. As we have pointed out concerning the spiritual life, we first have birth, then growth, and finally maturity. Maturity in life is practically equivalent to building. If we are not built together with others as a corporate Body, we will never arrive at the maturity of life; we will be more or less childish in certain aspects. Regardless of how much we may consider ourselves to be mature, we will not actually be mature, because real maturity equals building. Whether or not we are mature depends on one thing—the building.
In the Gospels the Lord Jesus Himself clearly mentioned building (Matt. 16:18). In the Epistles the apostle Paul was very strong concerning the building. However, I am sorry to say that many Christians today study the book of Ephesians, and many teachers use the things in Ephesians, but it is hard to find one who speaks about the building in this book. The building is the ultimate point of Ephesians.
Without the building, how can we have the church life? How can we have the church in a practical way, and where is the church? We may have many building materials, but this does not mean that we have the building. Many people argue that as long as we are Christians, we are the church. However, we cannot say that as long as there are materials, there is a house. We may have only a pile of materials, but that is not the building. We still have to deal with the materials in order to build them together. The meeting hall we are in has many materials, but the materials are built up, not piled up. In the same way the church is not a lumber yard; it is a building.
A large group of Christians may only be the piled-up materials. This is why I have stressed many times that to meet together is one thing, but to have the building is another. We may meet year after year and still be a meeting, not a building. Strictly speaking, if we are not a building, we are not a church in practice; we are only a church in name with meetings. We do not have the reality of the church, because the reality of the church is the building. We cannot say that since we have many pieces of good, wonderful, beautiful materials, we have a building, a house. No, the house is something that is built up with the materials.
At this time we are speaking much about the church life. I have to testify to you in fellowship that if it were not for the church life, there would be no need for us to meet together. If it were not for the church, I would say that you should go to whichever so-called Christian “body” that you think is good. There is no need for us to come together to meet if we do not intend to have the church life. Why are we coming together here? Why among so many so-called Christian churches, groups, and meetings today, do we meet in this way? If it is not for the purpose of having the church life, there is no reason for us to have this kind of meeting. We had better go back to those so-called churches. However, we realize that the present testimony of the Lord is the recovery of the church life. The church life is the only goal, the only reason, for us to meet together.
We further need to realize that if we are not built up, we cannot have the church life; we will have the church in term only, not in practice. The church life in practice depends on the building, and the building depends on the growth. I say again, therefore, that if there is no growth, there is no possibility for the building up of the church. We need to grow.
Colossians is a sister book to Ephesians. The book of Ephesians deals with the Body, whereas Colossians deals with the Head. However, since it deals with the Head, it has something to do with the Body, because the Head is always related to the Body and is for the Body. Therefore, it is hard to not see the Body in Colossians, a book on the Head. One verse in this book pertains both to the Head and the Body. It seems that it is only a small verse, but it is very practical concerning the church life. Many of us may not have paid attention to this small verse. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” This verse mentions grace. What is grace? What does it mean that our word, speech, talk, or conversation should be seasoned? And what kind of salt is this? Moreover, why did the apostle Paul put this verse in this book? Some may say that it is because Colossians reveals Christ as the Head, and a person’s speech comes from his head. However, the Lord Jesus told us that speech comes from the heart. Matthew 12:34 says, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Why, then, did the apostle put such a verse in a book that deals with the Head, including the Body?
More than thirty years ago, in 1933 or 1934, I spent much time to study this verse, because three words bothered me: grace, seasoned, and salt. At that time I did not get the answer, even though I looked into many books to get the definitions of these words. After a long time, I learned from experience to know the meaning of these words, and in these recent days I have been helped by the Lord to know why verse 6 is in Colossians 4. The reason is that what is mentioned in this verse has much to do with the church life. The building up of the church depends greatly on the matter of speech, conversation, or speaking.
By the Lord’s mercy, we are here constantly trying our best to build up the church. The enemy of God, however, hates this. He would do everything he can to frustrate, even to damage, the building. I must point out that we are all too careless in the matter of speech, or conversation. I may come to you, or you may come to me, and we may talk for two hours, but many times the enemy utilizes our talk not to build up the church but to tear it down. I have always noticed in my experience, and I am still noticing, that Satan very much uses the careless talk of the dear brothers and sisters to tear down the building. It seems that the builders spend much time and energy to lay one stone upon another, but the enemy uses the careless talk of certain ones to tear it down again. The builders spend much time to set a brother in the right place, but due alone to the fact that others are so careless in talking, this brother is torn down. This is why in the last chapter of Colossians, the apostle Paul points out this one matter: that our conversation, talk, speech, and words must be always with grace, seasoned with salt.
According to the entire New Testament, grace is Christ gained by us and enjoyed by us. We enjoy Christ as our life, power, wisdom, and everything we need. Christ is the real grace to us. This means that to have our speech always with grace is to have our speech always with Christ. We must have Christ in our words, talk, speech, and conversation.
This is a real check to prove where we are and what we are. Nothing can expose us so much as our speech. The most clever person is one who never speaks much. A wise man never speaks, but a foolish man is always talkative. The more we talk, the more we prove that we are foolish, because we expose ourselves more and sell ourselves cheaply. On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, Peter was put on the spot. A servant girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean,” but Peter denied it before all, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about!” A third time, some came to him and said, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech also makes it clear that you are” (Matt. 26:69-70, 73). Peter’s speech made it clear what he was. A Texan’s speech also makes it clear what he is, because he says “y’all” with a Texan accent and tone. In a similar way, if you do not speak one word, I do not know how much you have experienced and gained Christ and what the measure of the stature of Christ is within you, but if you speak for only five minutes, I will know.
One who learns not to talk much seems to be wise, because he stays hidden and does not expose himself. Watchman Nee once told me that the best way to know a person’s spirit is to ask him questions and give him the chance to say something. If we are unwise, we will do all the talking and keep the other person from talking. This just makes him “wise.” If we want to know him, however, we should give him a chance to speak. The more he speaks, the more he exposes himself, and the more we know where he is in the spirit. We may illustrate this with a diagram of a person with a head, heart, and spirit, each part being progressively deeper within him. The first two minutes he talks, he talks only from his head. After ten minutes, though, he gets down to his heart, but after half an hour, what he speaks is from his spirit. The more we talk, the more we expose what we are in our spirit.
All the talk from our head is just superficial and polite, not genuine. Someone may say, “How are you? Fine, thank you. Do you know this brother? He’s a good brother.” However, if we ask this person about the brother, such as when he met him and how he got to know him, he will gradually get down to his heart, and he will speak something more real about the brother he knows. Then after half an hour, he will pour out what is in his spirit about the brother. At that point we will know what is in his spirit. We may find out, for example, that there is a big problem between him and the brother. According to only the head and the mouth, there is no problem between them, but when we give him the chance to keep talking, he will utter something from his spirit. That is not polite speech; it is genuine speech.
We must learn to have our speech, words, and conversation with others full of Christ. In addition, our speech must be seasoned with salt. The sisters know how to season the things they cook; most foods are prepared with seasoning. To season is to temper something. To season our speech properly is always to control or check it. As a member of the church, as one who is learning the lesson of being built up, we must have our speech and conversation always tempered, seasoned, controlled, and checked in whatever we say. Our speech should not be “cooked” without being “seasoned.”
The meaning of salt is very deep. To understand this requires our experience and the proper, adequate knowledge of the Bible. The meal offering of the Old Testament was made of fine flour with three things: oil, frankincense, and salt. The meal offering needed to be seasoned with salt, but it was never to have honey. In typology, oil signifies the Holy Spirit, frankincense signifies the sweet resurrection life of Christ, and salt typifies the death, the killing element, of the cross. Salt does not give a sweet taste; rather, it kills germs. By our experience, we know that all our speech and conversation must be salted by the killing element of the cross. They must be seasoned by the cross, that is, checked and controlled by the cross. To have our words seasoned with salt is to have them always checked by the cross.
From my experience I have learned that there are three all-inclusive ways to apply the cross to our speech. First, whenever we are about to say something, we first must check our motive. Our motive must be pure and even purified. If we would check our motive in speaking, we will see where we are; then we will see the need of the cross. Immediately this application of the cross will kill the intention and motivation behind our talk. Then we may drop what we were going to speak because we realize that our motive is not pure; it needs to be purified. This purification will kill our intention to speak, and we will have nothing to say.
I learned the lesson to deal with my mouth in 1933 and 1934. I found out that it is very hard to be right and proper in our talking. If we would learn to be careful in this matter, we will see that the best way is to keep our mouth shut. At that time I found that after I spoke, I always had to confess that I was wrong. Almost every time I wrote a letter, I had to write it at least two or three times. Sometimes after writing it, I would realize that a certain sentence did not have a pure motive behind it. The motive may have been to glorify myself, condemn others, or expose their weaknesses. Oh, the motive! If we would check our motive and reconsider our writing, we will have to throw it into the wastebasket. We will realize that our motives are not pure.
The Lord Jesus said, “I say to you that every idle word which men shall speak, they will render an account concerning it in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). An idle word is a word that is not necessary. All such idle words that we speak will have to be dealt with in the day of judgment. I found out that it is not easy to keep silent, and it is even harder not to speak anything wrongly. If we take this word and put it into practice, we will see our problem; we will see our motive. Then if we all learn the lesson, it will be easy to have the building up of the church.
However, if we do not learn the lesson but rather speak carelessly, then day by day by our foolish talk we will unconsciously tear down the church, not build it up. Please allow me to say that even though you have come here to carry out the building up of the church, you do not know how much you have already torn it down by your foolish talk. I have seen this for the past thirty years in many places, and I have seen the same thing happen here. This is why my burden is to point this out to you in the way of training. Some may say that their talk is fellowship, but in actuality it is careless talk. Fellowship is right and necessary, but we are too careless in our talk. To say careless is conservative; strictly speaking, if we would check our talk, we will see that we are not only careless but wrong and impure in motive. Our motive needs to be purified.
We are sons of light, so we must stay in the light to check the motive of our speech. Then we will see that it is not a matter of having something right or wrong to speak. What we speak may be one hundred percent right, but our motive may be wrong. This means that our speech has not been seasoned with salt, the killing of the cross. It is full of damaging germs. James 3:8 says that the tongue is full of “deadly poison.” According to the Greek, this phrase means a “death-bringing poison.” Because our speech is not pure in motive, it sometimes has a poison that brings death into the church life. Therefore, we must check our speech and conversation for its motive: What is our motive in talking in this way; what is our motive in telling people certain things? We should not check ourselves according to the things that we say. To check according to the things themselves gives us an excuse and a pretense. This will not help us; it will damage us. Rather, we must check our speech by our motive.
In order to apply the cross, we must also know the source of our speech. Is the Lord in our spirit the source of our talk? Are we speaking from the Lord as the source through our spirit, or are we speaking something out of ourselves, out of the flesh or the self? We may speak something very good in a right way, but the source of our speaking may be wrong. The motive is one thing, but we also have to check the source. Our motive may be very pure; there may be nothing wrong with our motive, but what about the source? Are we speaking out of ourselves, or are we speaking something from the Lord in our spirit?
In these messages we have been fellowshipping about loving the Lord, seeking the Lord, and practicing the church life. These are the real lessons for us to learn. Before giving this message, I was very much with the Lord. Apparently, I was just doing a few things, such as reading and answering letters and studying the Word. The Lord can testify, however, that I was very much with Him concerning this message. I do not want to be here indoctrinating you with more doctrine. I do not believe that this is my responsibility. Rather, I feel the responsibility to have some real fellowship with you. I do not want to waste your time week after week and evening after evening, spending almost three hours in a meeting. I want you to get something real. This may not be a good, formal message, but if you do mean business to seek the Lord and practice the church life, then this is a practical lesson with many practical points. We need to put these things into practice to learn the lessons. Even when we talk with our wife, husband, parents, children, and relatives, we must check our motive and ask if we are speaking something from the Lord’s Spirit or merely from ourselves.
We also have to check our position. Are we in a proper position, appointed and ordained by God to speak a word, or are we speaking out of our own position? Many times we are out of our position. If I stay in a brother’s home, I may see something wrong with his son, but I must realize that I have no position to say anything; I am a guest and not the father. In my own home I have the full position to say something to my children, because I have the position of the father, but in someone else’s home I do not have the position.
God has His sovereign position. In addition, a man has the man’s position, and a woman has the woman’s position. A father has the father’s position, and the children have the children’s position. Moreover, a wife has the wife’s position, and a husband has the husband’s position. The New Testament clearly indicates that we have to learn our position. Consider a building; every piece in it has a position. One piece of wood has a position in one place, and another piece of wood has a position in another place. The window has a position, and the door has a position. In the building of God, do we realize that we have our position? You have your position, and I have mine. Therefore, I have to speak in my position, and you have to speak in yours. We all must learn our limit, and we must be limited by our position. At times I may not be in a position to say anything.
Whenever we are going to say anything, we have to check our position: Where are we? What is our position? On what ground are we speaking? Do we have the ground to say something? Are we in the right position? I say again, I am not giving you a mere lecture. My burden is to fellowship with you to learn the practical lessons in the house of God.
Do not say to me, “Brother Lee, you are from the Far East. You speak about keeping your position because that is the way of the Chinese.” Forget about this. Even in an American home there is still a certain order. Can a son chastise a father? Would we like to see a son over the father? I have stayed in American homes quite often in the past two and a half years, and I never saw a son be over the father. I appreciate the good order in American homes; in this respect they are no different from the Chinese homes.
I have been in many countries. In 1938 alone I traveled to a number of countries. I never found a country with as good an order as the United States. It is a democratic nation, but it has the best order in the entire world. Everyone keeps the order; if someone does not, he loses his benefit in this country. The more one keeps the order here, the more he is profited, because this is a country of law, and a country of law is a country of order. America is so strong because it has the best order. This means that all the people here keep their position. I do things in my position. I cannot say certain things, because I am not the mayor of this city. Neither am I a police officer, so I do not have the position to criticize the police. America is a democracy, but all the people in a democracy do not have the same position. For people to have the same position is not a real democracy; rather, it is a mess.
In a similar way, we must keep the order and keep our position in order to have a strong church life. Do not be offended by this, and do not interpret it in a wrong way. We simply have to realize that in order to have a proper church life and be built up together, each one of us must learn to keep his position. We are out of position mostly by our speaking. We often speak out of our position. We may not have the position, yet we speak as if we did. This creates many problems, and it causes damage.
Even in our home and family life, we have to check our speaking by the above three things: the motive, the source, and the position. I am happy to hear that many young ones among us will soon be married. Some may ask me to give a word at their wedding. I will say the same thing to all of them: “Learn to speak in a proper way at home. Learn always to speak by checking your motive, the source, and your position. As a husband, the man must speak things in the position of the husband, and as a wife, the woman must speak things in the position of the wife. Keep your position, check your source, and check your motive.” If a couple does this, I can guarantee that there will be no problems. However, if they do not learn this one lesson, they will have many troubles after only three months. Learn to talk with your dear wife in a proper way. Then you will save yourself, save your wife, and save your relatives. This is a lesson not only for the church life. If we learn this lesson in the church, it will be a great help for us on any occasion.
We may now return to Colossians 4:6. Why did the apostle put this verse in such a book? It is because this book deals with the Head, including the Body. We are members of the Body. In order to realize the proper church life, we have to learn the lesson of speech. There is no need to speak of a larger number of brothers and sisters; even among one hundred fifty or two hundred, consider what will happen if we do not learn the lesson of how to practice what is taught in Colossians 4:6. The more we come together, the more problems we will have. If this is the case, it is better for the Lord to make us dumb. We all have to learn the lesson to have our speech, our talk, and our conversation full of grace, full of Christ, and to have the words we speak seasoned, checked, by the cross concerning the motive, the source, and the position. May the Lord be merciful to us. If we are all willing to take this lesson, I assure you that after a short time our situation will be uplifted almost to the third heaven. Almost all the germs among us will be killed.
However, at this time the germs are spreading by our careless talk, by our speech that is not according to the lesson we should learn. We are fallen human beings. According to James 3, the hardest thing to bridle is the little tongue. The tongue is hard to control, and it is dangerous, setting on fire the course of life. Our human life, our self, is the match, and this match is set on fire by the tongue as an evil fire from Gehenna (v. 6). Therefore, in the church life, for the building of the Body, we all have to learn the lesson to deal with our speech. If we all learn this lesson, we will see that among us there is only the building up and not the tearing down. Otherwise, we may build up twelve feet one day, and tear down fourteen feet the next day. Simply by our talking we will tear down more than we build up. I believe that this is why the apostle Paul put verse 6 in Colossians 4. In order to have the proper church life, we have to learn this lesson.
How much we can and will learn this lesson depends on how much we are willing to grow. The more we grow in the Lord, the more we will be careful in our talk. We can know whether or not a brother has truly grown by checking the way that he talks. To grow in life does not mean to have more knowledge in our understanding. To grow in life means to be dealt with, controlled, and checked in many matters. According to the lessons I have learned, the first thing we must be checked in is our speech. If we are truly willing to grow, the first thing the Lord must check is our talking, particularly our motive, the source, and our position. Whether or not it is right to say something depends on these three things. If we cannot get through these three points, we should forget about saying anything. We must be pure in motive, right in source, and proper in position; then we can say something. If we cannot get through one of the points, we must be checked. We have to “stop the car” and not run ahead.
We all must learn the lesson. Then we will have the real growth. The building depends on growth, and growth is revealed by the way of our conversation. By their way of speaking, many brothers and sisters expose that they are childish, even babes. They prove nothing except that they have not grown any. I simply give you this word, and I would ask you to put it into practice. Even after one day you will see where you are. “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” May the word that we speak always be full of Christ, checked, controlled, and killed by the cross. We must learn this lesson; then we will see the growth, and we will realize the real building among us.
The more we mature, the more we will be careful in our speaking. There is no doubt about this. Even with the worldly people, the more they learn the lesson, the more careful they are in their speech. However, we are not learning the worldly lesson. We are learning the lesson for the building up of the church, the Body. We should always check whether it is profitable for the building of the church that we speak something in a certain way. I am afraid that although we are all here for the church life, we are too careless in speaking. This contradicts our purpose, because much careless talk has done much damage to the church life. Therefore, we all have to learn this lesson so that we may grow, so that the real building up of the church might be realized.
