Apt Answers

             A person finds joy in giving an apt reply— and how good is a timely word! (Proverbs 15:23)

 

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:6)

 

Apt: appropriate or suitable in the circumstances

 

If you watch any program, you’re likely to enjoy it when someone says just the right thing in just the right way – whether it’s a gotcha or the word of wisdom. Those gotchas are part of the reason I stopped watching sitcoms. I not only liked to watch people get gotten, but I liked to get people, too – to put them in their place (which always involved down) or otherwise show myself to be better than they. My sister says that she retains trivia. I claim I’m trivial. In both cases, there’s a lot in our heads that may be pertinent at the oddest of times. She isn’t quite as ready to share as I am.

Part of the challenge is what one person thinks is apt, another thinks is boring, arrogant, rude, etc. But today’s verse isn’t about getting an apt word, it’s about giving one, and I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to say just the right thing at just the right moment. So how do we know?

            Several passages answer this question, but today, let’s look at Colossians 4:6. What does it mean for our conversation to be full of grace? One idea that comes to mind is that if our conversation is full of grace, it doesn’t require that the person we’re speaking to agrees with us, but it never backs down on what is true just to make the other person feel better. Another is a conversation that builds bridges rather than burns them. Grace will listen and evaluate what is said fairly, not in terms of “us” v. “them” but in terms of right v. wrong, true v. false, or good v. evil. And grace will give the one who speaks what is wrong, false, or evil the opportunity to turn from those things without coercion.