Colossians 4

Colossians 4
I like the way Paul instructs the Colossians to always speak with grace, seasoned with salt, so they know how to converse with every person. I think he is telling them (and us) to always speak with kindness and thoughtfulness. Salt was the symbol of the covenant. If you consider that and salt being a seasoning, I think he saying that we should the kind of person that enhances or improves the quality of a conversation.

Verse 10 refers to another epistle to the Colossians and verse 16 mentions an epistle to the Laodicians. These are writings of the apostles we do not have. Other scriptures mentioned in the Bible that we do not have are:

book of the covenant
book of the wars of the Lord
book of Jasher
a book of Samuel
the book of Gad the seer
the prophecy of Ahijah
the visions of Iddo the seer
the book of the acts of Solomon
book of Samuel the seer
book of Nathan the prophet
book of Shemmaiah
Acts of Abijah
book of Jehu
the sayings of the seers
the acts of Uzziah written Isaiah
the book where it says Christ shall be called a Nazarene
writings of Enoch
another epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
possibly an earlier epistle to the Ephesians

These books are written off by other churches by saying if the Lord wanted us to have them, they would be in the Bible. If they were to appear, I wonder if they would accept them if they were verified to be those mentioned in the Bible, but contradicted with their doctrine. I do not believe they would contradict truth. And I don't think our scriptures will ever be complete and they shouldn't be. Revelation came to prophets and they wrote it for the instruction and help of the people at that time. More than any other time in history, we need revelation and guidance to face the complexity and number of problems our world faces. I'm so grateful for prophets and revelation. It gives us something firm to stand on in a world that is a very slippery slope.