The Civility Project

Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

Colossians 4:6

EVEN AMONG CHRISTIANS, the topic of civility may produce little more than eye rolls and groans. This is the digital age, after all. Every voice deserves a platform, and everyone’s opinion is considered worthy, regardless of its merit or proximity to truth. Your morning scroll through your Twitter feed tells you everything you need to know about the level of vitriol in the public square. And yet followers of Christ are called to something higher—to speak with grace in an increasingly uncivil society thick with the rising cacophony of vulgarity and boorishness.

When writing to the believers in Colossae, Paul urged them to mark their speech with grace, especially when engaging with “outsiders” (Colossians 4:5-6, HCSB). Some Christians confuse grace-tinged speech with a lack of conviction, as if civility and conviction can’t coexist. But not only can they coexist; they are allies in the battle of ideas, both in private engagement and in the public square.

God is concerned not only with what we say and believe, but with how we articulate it. Our tongues should reflect the difference between light and darkness, and they should adorn the gospel well, rather than adopting the base rhetoric of the world. In an increasingly verbal world, with every word we speak, type, or text, we must ask: Does this bring glory to God? If not, we shouldn’t say it.

BOTTOM LINE

Grace epitomizes the speech of a gospel-centered man. How are you doing in that area?

Moment of Strength: Proverbs 8:8