Words are life or death…
“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.” Ephesians 4:29
Something God has really convicted me of lately is how we talk, how I talk. We are supposed to bring life, love, and encouragement to one another but instead we tear down, we feed into the lies that satan and the world is already feeding us. Words mean more than we think they do, we forget how powerful they are. It has become part of our normal talk to poke fun at people and their weakness, to joke about homosexuality, race, gender, life choices. When did this happen, when did tearing down people becoming more acceptable, more commonplace than encouraging each other? How often does someone encourage you versus pick on you? Do you get surprised when someone picks on you? I know I don’t. But how about when someone encourages you and tells you something they love about you? You’re surprised about that aren’t you? I know I am. We have lost a sense of respect for each other. Our eyes have shifted off the truth that we are God’s children and we are the body meant to empower each other. Instead we traded in the truth for a lie and that lie is crude humor. It’s okay because it’s funny and we all laughed, right? But that is just a way we convince ourselves that it’s not wrong. The truth, however, is that we are meant to look like Jesus, we are called to build each other up, encourage one another, and do everything with love. People hate themselves so much already, anxiety and depression are at an all time high even in the church. Why is this? Well could it be because we aren’t doing what we were called to do, which is to love? We all have lies in our heads that tell us we aren’t good enough. Going through life just trying to prove those lies wrong, and trying not to let people see when we fail. We are so anxious to not let people see our weaknesses because they will think less of us and we know they will use it against us, and sadly that’s the truth right now. That’s not what the church is supposed to be. Think about how the church could change dramatically if we stopped pointing out every fault, every weakness, if we stopped feeding into the lies satan is feeding us and mocking everything that is just different from us. What would happen if we replaced every crude joke, every unkind word, every lie, mocking everything that’s different, with truth and encouragement? What if we stopped making the excuse that “it’s just a joke it doesn’t mean anything” and instead thought to ourselves “is it good?” If the answer is no, then why say it? If we are called to look like Jesus and Jesus is only good then we are called to be good. God’s heart breaks every time we talk poorly about each other, every time we say a “joke” about someone that puts them down. WE ARE FEEDING INTO THE LIE THAT SATAN WANTS US TO BELIEVE AND IT’S TEARING THE CHURCH APART FROM THE INSIDE. Friendships are being broken. Trust is no longer there, anxiety and depression are increasing and satan barely has to get his hands dirty. What are we going to do about it? What are YOU going to do about it?
(Matthew 12:33-37, Matthew 5:22, Ephesians 5:4, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Romans 14:19, Hebrews 3:13, Ephesians 4:16, Hebrews 10:24, Ephesians 4:15, Proverbs 21:23, Matthew 15:18-20, Ephesians 5:3-4, Colossians 3:8, Colossians 3:16-17, Colossians 4:6, 1 Timothy 4:12, 2 Timothy 2:16, Hebrews 13:15, James 1:26, James 3:2-12, etc)
