Wisdom for This Season

Colossians 4:5

Concerning seasons, King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. He provided 14-occasions of season changes from positive to negative. His point is that no season lasts forever. Seasons change, and we must change with the seasons.

In Colossians 4:5, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time” or redeeming the season.

A season had come where believers, then and now, needed to exercise wisdom to recognize when God had opened a door of opportunity to speak the things of Christ, and to capitalize on those opportunities.

Paul was speaking about a time when the truth of the gospel was so rare, many people had become turned off from those that claimed to be preachers of the gospel. The assembly place that is called “church” had begun turning people away from Christ instead of turning them toward Christ. Paul referred to those type of ministries as being enemies of the cross.

Colossians 4:5 makes reference to those that are without, which means outside of the church. But, it would be an error to conclude that those that are outside of the church are outside of God's grace. There are many that are in the church but outside of Christ. And there are those that are outside the church that have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, they desire to know the Lord, but want no parts of the church.

Regardless of the church's condition, it doesn’t change the Lord’s commission to go make disciples. There are those that are without that God has foreordained that they be added to the Body of Christ.

In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said that God’s people are the light of the world. God is light. His Spirit shines forth though his people. This is the season of letting the light of God’s Spirit shine forth.

Paul instructed the believers, then and now, that in this season we must live a true Christian life. Just saying that you’re saved, and claiming to be a Child of God, and a minister of the gospel holds very little value in this season. Those that are without have heard enough talk. Your life must be your witness. How you respond to affliction; how you respond to the conditions of this world and its disparities; how you respond to the difficulties of life, and its difficult people has got to preach True Christianity.

This is the season to capitalize on the opportunities to show the life of Christ. Ephesians 4:12, describes the purpose of the church as believers being active in the work of the ministry so that every soul that God has foreordained would be added to the Body of Christ. The Lord’s purpose for the church goes beyond assembling in a building. If assembling was the purpose of the church, God not have allowed persecution to come upon the church, as recorded in Acts. 8, which caused the saints to scatter to other locations, and begin preaching the gospel in those locations.