outsiders

Colossians 4:5-6
5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

You may be the only representative of Jesus that somebody ever comes into contact with. Our relationships with non-Christians are a witness of God’s love, even if we’ve never mentioned the word Jesus to them. That’s why we need to be wise in those relationships, not that we’re trying to engineer everything around to talking about God ("oh, you’ve dyed your hair red? Did you know red is the colour of Jesus blood which was shed for your sins!"), but that we recognise that we are representing Him. That’s why our speech needs to be "gracious and seasoned with salt". We need to think before we speak. If we live in the counter cultural way described earlier in the book, then the things that we say about people will be a witness in itself. 

How do we answer difficult questions? Whether we know the answer or not, our speech should be gracious. We aren’t supposed to treat non-Christians as outsiders or projects but as friends. The word "outsiders" in verse 5 literally means “those without”. They are without Jesus, the fundamental things that makes our lives worthwhile. We need to pray and act in any way we can to show them Jesus' love.