The problem with being a “straight shooter”, I suppose, is that you’re shooting. And where shots are fired, someone could get wounded. Not that getting wounded in and of itself is necessarily a wrong thing. Proverbs tells us that “blows that wound cleanse away evil” (20:30) and when received from someone who loves you, “faithful are the wounds of a friend” (27:6). Nevertheless, I’m reminded this morning that there’s a responsibility and an accountability for those who are straight shooters to not recklessly wound.

I’ve recently listened to a book on forgiveness. Tim Keller’s Forgive has been so helpful in taking familiar scriptures and synthesizing them into practical, actionable principles. One of those principles is that biblical forgiveness must involve speaking biblical truth. Whether forgiving sin against you (Keller’s primary focus) or seeking forgiveness for a sin against someone else (a fair extension of his principle, I think), the sin being forgiven must be identified, it needs to be addressed. In Luke 17:3-4, Jesus says that if “your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him”. Rebuke comes before forgive. Identify the sin, call it for the iniquity it is, and then forgive as Christ has forgiven you. When asking forgiveness, then, it’s seems necessary that you’re first clear on what the sin is you need to confess, repent of, and seek forgiveness for.

This morning, the Spirit drew my attention to the sin a straight shooter may be prone towards. A sin to confess.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.

(Colossians 4:6 CSB)

Straight shooter or not, let your speech always be gracious. ALWAYS! That’s the part of this command-to-obey which can be tricky for someone who’s prone to tell it like it is. Speak the truth? Yup, bring it. But, says the Spirit, always do so graciously. If you don’t, then it’s sin.

Let your truth ALWAYS be seasoned. Let it be prepared. Thought out in advance. It’s delivery carefully thought through before talked through. Straight shooting is more likely to hit the intended target with a “Ready, Aim, Fire” approach than with “Ready, Fire, Aim.” Targeted, intentional truth is more likely to be received as “faithful wounds of a friend” than shotgun pellets sprayed carelessly. Not seasoned? Then that’s sin too.

Let your straight shooting truth ALWAYS be seasoned with salt. While a cleansing agent, salt’s primary purpose in ancient times was as a preserving agent. Something applied with the intention of causing something to last. Speech seasoned with salt will be speech intended for building up — even when correction is required. Speech unseasoned with salt runs the risk of tearing down. And that’s not gracious. Lack of salt is sin. Sin which needs to be confessed as such and repented of as such before forgiveness can sincerely be sought.

And it’s not just a general seasoning with salt, it’s person dependent. We need to be mindful that not everyone we speak with can be spoken to in the same manner. How we need the mind of Christ to know how you should answer each person. To not be mindful of the one you’re talking to, to not speak to them according to what you know about them — their sensitivities, their wiring, that they too are also sinners saved by grace — is sin as well. Sin to be confessed. Sin to be repented of. Sin in need of forgiveness.

Honestly, I don’t much like encountering sins to confess. But know what? The Spirit is kind of a straight shooter Himself (Jn. 16:8).

Yet, the Spirit of Christ always speaks the truth of Christ so that those who want to follow Christ might become more like Christ.

And He does so beneath the shadow of the cross of Christ — and that is God’s grace.

And He does so with the intent that one day we will be presented before a heavenly throne as the bride of Christ, “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27) — and that, for God’s glory.