Ephesians 4:29 - On E.D. and I.E.D.'s...

"Every rotten word out of your mouth let it not be coming out, but rather if a certain [is] good toward building up the need, in order that it should give grace to the [ones] hearing].’

-No rotten words.  No, not any, not one.  Only good words which build up, words which give grace.  Rotten is what happens to fruit and to fish (Matthew 7.17, 13.48), corrupted by age, generally of poor quality and not fit for public consumption.  We would never willingly serve such food to our family much less to guests - so why would I ever serve them even one single rotten word?  These may not actually offend our sense of smell or taste or sight, nevertheless they still reek of putrescence.  They sink down in our souls, full of foul nastiness.

-Building up the body, right?  The body building itself up in love, right?  That’s what we’re supposed to be doing here, building up one another.  At best we often waste our time with words and small talk which do nothing to spur our fellow Christ-followers on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10.24).  But our rotten words - these have the exact opposite effect.  They wound.  They tear down.  They discourage.  We lash out without regard for how our words injure our brother, our sister, our loved one, this precious soul for whom Christ died.  We drop our verbal I.E.D.’s and leave them hanging like a severed limb.  We speak what’s on our mind and give expression to our feelings with little or no regard for the feelings of others, because in the end it’s all about me.

-What does it look like to give grace, i.e. with our words?  We’re talking about undeserved favor.  It is not the verbal tongue lashing we think they deserve.  t is not our knee-jerk fleshy retort when someone frustrates us or exhausts every last pittance of patience.  It is not harsh truth delivered with a dead thud in a loveless vacuum.  Rather, we give life.  We build people up with our words.  We encourage.  e affirm, acknowledge, appreciate.  No, they might not deserve this.  But they need it.  With our tongue, we wield such power - the power to meet a need, the power to (help) build the Church, the potential to give another a glimpse of God’s breathtaking goodness through the gift of a kind word (or through a harsh one withheld).  Thank you.  Good job.  You are special.  I’m proud of you.  Surely too many of us are coping with a lesser-known form of ED - edification-dysfunction, rarely hearing words of affirmation and appreciation, and (sadly) rarely giving them either.  But we can do this.  e must do this - the bride of Christ and eternity are in the balance.  Let’s double down and do this, get really really good at intentionally giving grace with our words.  God help us, indeed...