But I hope you can also remember times when a fellow Christian spoke intentionally to build you up-when someone surprised you with a kind response when you expected a harsh word or shared the gospel with you when you felt far from God. I bet you can easily recount words that have hurt you. God uses your speech for ends you can’t fully fathom. Let’s consider two ways this teaching should shape our speech.ġ. But now in Christ we can use our speech to give what was previously impossible: grace. Apart from faith in Christ, sinful hearts spew words that amplify the death and decay of the fallen world. Read that again! Ephesians teaches that God’s glorious purposes for the universe and his people in Christ extend to our speech. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Paul draws out for us how God’s great work of redemption in Christ transforms our lives, and in so doing transforms our speech.
He calls us to respond-or, more specifically, to speak. In Ephesians, Paul leads us to the breathtaking mountaintop vistas of God’s glory.Īnd yet, he doesn’t leave us there. He unfolds how God includes us in his cosmic plans to unite not just Jew and Gentile (2:15) but all things in Christ (1:10). He considers how God raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life (2:1–5). Paul shows us God’s election of and love for his people from before the foundation of the world (1:4).
How do I know this? The book of Ephesians.Įphesians begins with soaring expressions of God’s sovereignty over all things (1:11).
In Christ, he has freed us to use our speech for astonishing and enduring ends.
Sticks and stones still break bones, but you can’t tell me words don’t hurt.įrom your computer to your church to your kitchen table, what’s been your strategy for choosing your words this year? As those who confess and serve the God who speaks, who created the world by his Word, and whose Word gives life, have we forgotten how eternally important and powerful the gift of speech is? After all, the Triune God has revealed himself through his words. On any number of issues, consider how many words people have deployed to divide rather than reconcile, to hurt rather than heal, to demean rather than lift up. To say that kind words have been in short supply over the past year would be an understatement. Take a glance at Twitter, cable news, or your most active group texts.
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