Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleNeither Nor
Bible TextEphesians 5:4
Date14-Jan-2018
Article Type Article
 

NEITHER NOR

 

Ephesians 5: 4: Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

 

Filthiness” involves all obscene and indecent language. Someone said we verbally do the things we speak. “Foolish talking” is language that is useless and unprofitable. “Jesting” is being humorous or sarcastic at the expense of others. “Which are not convenient” means it is unbecoming the character of saints and it is disagreeable to the will of God.

 

     Believers are happy. We have great reason to be full of joy. Scripture does not teach us to be sullen and silent all the time.  The Lord teaches us to be courteous, to be pleasant and express our thanks to others. There is nothing wrong with humor. It is the obscene, useless, hurtful speech we are to avoid. 

 

     Yet, consider, the word of the gospel has nothing foolish or idle in it. Every word is profitable, not one word is useless filler.  Christ is the Word made flesh. The whole time he walked this earth, do we find any word in scripture which he spoke which was vain chit-chat? Not a word.  When you hear someone constantly chattering meaningless words then you ignore them.   Can we even imagine our Savior speaking like that? But the person whose words are few, who speaks only when they have something wise, true and valuable to say, you hang on every word.  “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” (Pro 15: 2) That which is predominate in our speech reveals our hearts. Christ said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”  When the kids were just beginning to talk, Melinda used to tell them, “Use your words.” Our Savior is teaching his children here to use our words.