By Pastor Aggrey Soyekwo
Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Speech is a wonderful gift God gave man to build relations and make life better. Words can tremendously encourage or discourage, uplift or destroy, cause things to happen or fail to happen, excite or dumpen. They are a reflection of what is in the heart. They show the real character of the person. So change the heart and the speech will change. Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Pretend and hide as one may try, what fills the heart will somehow come out. Our aim should be to bring out what benefits others and make things better.
Paul is reiterating the same principle in the scripture above. Everyone speaks in line with their heart values. The Christian, belonging to God’s kingdom, is expected to consciously speak inline with the values of that kingdom. Anyone listening to Him expects a language commensurate with his faith. Unwholesome talk which does not encourage, uplift or minister life, is not part his language. Paul said, “Do not let…” implying a sense of awareness and choice of what or what not to say. In Ephesians 5:4, he mentions utterances that should not be part of a Christian’s vocabulary because they are out of place; “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.”
Some pay very little attention to what they say or how they say it. It’s wisdom to carefully weigh what you are about to say because it could do more harm than good, and you may live to regret it. It’s then better to keep quiet than speak at all. The wise man Solomon, said even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent (Proverbs 17:28). Mind what you say!
Matthew 12:34-35 “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”
Shalom children of God.
I am blessed by this devotion. Words are indeed a true reflection of who we are, nothing is foreign to us.
And I think this has to do so much with what we take in, eg listen to, watch, read and our peers.
I believe that if someone spends much time listening from God whatever he will say we definitely be a blessing to someone.
Proverbs 12:18 says that rackless words pierce like a sword.