God Continues to Clothe Us
Nor Hacovsdnyr
@yvova/ Asdov/o3 go.me (P7 Mas)
(God's Magnificent Work
through Christ)
Eph 4:29-32, 5:1-2
We could not finish the 4th
chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians. We
were talking about how God clothes us with new clothes. Let me remind you of the ones we covered so
far:
Clothes of Truthfulness, Clothes of Controlled Emotions, Clothes
of Work.
Today we will add: Clothes
of Edifying Speech and Clothes of Compassion.
4. Clothes of Edifying
Speech (29-30)
“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.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption.” (29-30)
My mom often reminded us of a saying that impressed me. “Shad khoskin
mech shad meghk ga.” In
too many words, there will be too many sins.
I found the root of this saying in the Bible. It is from Proverbs 10:19.
“When words are many, sin is not
absent,
but
he who holds his tongue is wise.”
I need to be careful in this; all
of us need to be careful. I am a person
who uses a lot of words for communicating sermons, Bible studies, counseling
and so on. May God lead me every day in
whatever I will say.
I found out that the root of the
word “unwholesome” has to do with decaying
as in fish or grapes. An example of decayed or garbage-like speech
is gossip. The intention of gossip is to put someone down. The intention of speech should be the edification
of the body. The members of the body of
Christ edify each other. The body of
Christ needs words that build each other up.
This is what King Solomon writes
about the power of words:
A
man finds joy in giving an apt reply
and how good is a timely word! (Prov.
15:23)
A
word aptly spoken (timely advice- NLT)
is like apples of gold in settings of
silver. (Prov. 25:11)
Words
and words and words. We need the wisdom of God to know when to
talk, how much to talk, and when to remain silent. James describes the tongue as being like an
uncontrollable fire which destroys everything on its way, like the recent fire
in
Let me quote from Isaiah, a verse
that I also mentioned last week.
“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those
who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning
by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to
hear as those who are taught.”
(Isaiah 50:4)
The NIV commentary
describes it best:
“We fail to realize the power and dignity of
language. Nearly all our language does
things. Words are commitments, and with
them we enable and support or diminish and destroy.” (NIV p 258)
This section of the letter ends
with the concept of grieving the Holy
Spirit.
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (30)
Perhaps Paul is saying if we
continue refusing to be clothed by God, and continue walking in the “old life”
in the “old clothes” we will “grieve” the Spirit of God.
When we
accept Christ, the Holy Spirit works within us. The scripture says we are sealed with Spirit of the Lord. God’s
Spirit is there within us. But when
we lie, when we are selfishly angry, when we steal, when we use unwholesome
words, we “grieve” the Holy Spirit. Our
body is the
We will
continue in English.