Good morning to everyone. Our new memory verse is 1 Tim. 5:22 containing an admonition for us all, “…keep thyself pure.” Purity is as purity does. Our text today is Eph. 4:29-32. “29: Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30: And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:”
Our mouths so often get us in trouble. Through the O.T. and the N.T. we are admonished to control our mouths. The word “corrupt” means rotten, putrid, unfit for use. It is a word applied to rotting vegetation or meat. You can imagine how the filthy speech so commonly used by some can make this meaning apply to our words. Many individuals, before becoming Christians, form habits of “corrupt communication” and “evil speaking.” This last phrase primarily means to defame God. Unfortunately, the name of God is used very vainly and vulgarly by too many. James speaks at length about the problem of the tongue. In James 3:6, he calls it a “world of iniquity.” This entire chapter is worth your reading and a good one for your home Bible studies. With the same mouth that we worship God, we demean, belittle and curse men (sometimes those in our own family).
But, brothers and sisters, our Lord touches at the root of the problem in Matt. 12:34 when he says, “…out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” We do not say or do what we do not first think. What is the condition of your heart? What is the nature of your speech? What are your kids learning from your mouth when you are not thinking about teaching them? Be careful, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by the words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12:37).