Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Grace to the Hearer

Eph 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Wholesome means “health or moral well being.”

This directive in this verse says to only speak wholesome words, words that are of present good, words that offer grace.

I like the imagery here in the first part of the verse, where we are told to keep in check, to keep unwholesome words from proceeding out of our mouths.  I imagine all of these expletives, criticisms, complaints, and accusations that line up in the back of our mouths when we are upset, hurt, confused, or so wanting to retaliate, but…

That army lines up and starts to proceed out of our mouths, and we clamp our lips shut, swallow them down, and destroy them as they are digested, when we yield our body, soul and spirit to the Spirit that lives within us.

Unwholesome words that proceed or march out of our mouths into the ears of others are like poisonous darts.  They wound, and can even kill.  And we cannot stuff them back into once they’ve been let loose.

It’s hard to stop an army once it’s lined up and ready.  So I guess it’s our duty to keep the army from ever assembling in the first place.


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