---
title: 'The Clarity Imperative'
type: text
hasMedia: true
requiresPurchase: false
authors:
- 'Jeremiah W. Montgomery'
date: 2026-06-08
collection: 'Articles'
subcollection: '2026'
topics:
- 'Preaching'
- 'Apologetics'
scriptures:
- 'Colossians 1'
- 'Colossians 3'
- 'Colossians 4'
- '1 Corinthians 1'
- 'Acts 14'
url: https://confessional.org/articles/2026/the-clarity-imperative
---

# The Clarity Imperative

All Christians are to communicate the gospel in a way that is wise, gracious, and “seasoned with salt,” appropriate for each person. 

In the final chapter of his letter to the church in Colossae, the apostle Paul asked the Colossian believers to pray “that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Col. 4:3-4, ESV).

The Greek verb translated here as “make it clear” is *phaneroõ*. Paul used this same verb three times earlier in the letter: to speak of the gospel being “revealed” to the saints (1:26), and then twice in connection with Jesus’ appearance at his return (Col. 3:4). The verb connotes making something visible. Thus, more traditional translations render the expression in 4:4 as “make it manifest” (KJV, NKJV).

This is a striking prayer. By the time he wrote his letter to Colossae, Paul had been an apostle for at least twenty years. He had been preaching and evangelizing for decades. Yet despite his great experience (how many sermons would a busy apostle have preached in twenty years?), Paul did not take clarity for granted in his gospel ministry. Rather, he asked the Colossians to pray for him on this point specifically.

Nor did Paul think that clarity in gospel ministry was optional. Speaking with clarity was how he “ought” (Greek *dei*) to speak. Paul viewed clarity in gospel communication as imperative.

Such a clarity is not special mandate for apostles only—or even just for preachers. In the following verses, Paul commands all the Colossian believers to “walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:5-6). All Christians are to communicate the gospel in a way that is wise, gracious, and “seasoned with salt,” appropriate for each person.

The expression “seasoned with salt” is intriguing. As most of us know, salt is a powerful culinary additive. Put in too much, and you ruin the dish. But put in just the right amount, and you bring out the flavor in a way that enhances the dining experience. Thinking about this power of salt—power for ruin or for relish—is helpful in several ways as we think over this notion of clarity.

First, it helps us understand what Paul does *not* mean when he speaks of making the gospel clear: Clarity is *not* acceptability. No amount of salt will ever persuade the present author to enjoy green peas! Similarly, the gospel will never be acceptable to the unregenerate: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” (1 Cor. 1:18).

Second, the expression suggests what Paul *does* mean. “Make it clear…” Paul does not mean *acceptability*, but rather *accessibility*: communicating the gospel in such a way that elicits its fullest flavor, even to those who ultimately reject it. Only God can change a heart and implant saving faith. Yet God is pleased to use how we speak as one of the means whereby he effects conversions: “Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that great number of both Jews and Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1).

Third, “seasoned with salt” implies that everyone who communicates the gospel, especially the minister who preaches it publicly, should take care that gospel communication “be clear and simple, having regard to the capacity of his hearers” (*Directory for the Public Worship of God of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church*, II.A.4.b). Just as too much salt can ruin a meal, so it is possible for even well-intended efforts at gospel communication to be too heavy, such that they overwhelm the capacity of those to whom we are speaking and thus prove counterproductive.

Our Reformed forefathers understood this well. The original Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God, in its section titled “Of the Preaching of the Word,” specifically exhorts preachers “neither to burden the memory of the hearers in the beginning with too many members of division, nor to trouble their minds with obscure terms of art.”

Have we forgotten the exhortation of our forebearers? Does the average sermon in a confessional Presbyterian church today make the gospel accessible, such that even an unconverted visitor understands what is at stake for their souls and what Christ offers in the gospel? Does the sermon’s length or complexity “burden the memory of the hearers”? Does its content trouble the minds of the congregation “with obscure terms of art”?

Further exploration of these questions, and of how to make the gospel clear today, requires more space than presently remains. Let us therefore conclude our current meditations simply by echoing Paul’s prayer for our own lives and ministries: that each of us, in every opportunity to share the gospel, “may make it clear… which is how \[we\] ought to speak.”