When Christians talk

Matt 12:36  

" I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,

for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

 

Ephe 5:4 

"Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving." 

 

Ephe 5:11

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." 

 

Everyone likes to talk, some very much, some not too much. Some talk because they have a lot of things to say, somebecause they just like to talk. The power of language is huge; communication (speaking) is a very strong tool. It is by it means that we communicate ourthoughts. It is by its use that messages are sent to everyone. If someone wants to share his ideas or thoughts, he just needs to talk, that simple. It is so powerful that whatever is said, people hear and believe in that.

 

For each speaker there is a listener, for every word spoken, there is someone who hears this. 

We all know that faith is a gift from God, but that faith comes from what we hear, and what we hear is the Gospel. 

 

Everyone talks everyday, most people talk about something they have heard, directly or indirectly (sometimes they talk about things that have been reported to them).

 

In our society, radio stations have so much success because they understood that people like to listen and to hear. The medias have understood that, and they are using this to promote everything. Many companies make use of radio to have their messages relayed to the population, because they know that people listen and that they believe in what they hear. It is something real that many have understood.

 

What does all this have to do with our Christian life? It would not matter if the Bible did not talk about our words. As Christians, we know that the Bible is the INSPIRED word of God. When we read our Bibles, it is as if God is talking to us directly. So we know that if something is in the Bible, it means that God wants us to consider what he has to say and to abide to it.

 

I came across those three verses in my Bible and since I read them, I have come to realize that our talk is important. In Matthew 12:36, Jesus says that on the judgement day, we will all need togive account for every careless word we have spoken, because we will be justified by our words or we will be condemned by our words. It cannot be clearer I think, the words speak for themselves; For every words we say, wewill be judge for it, it can bring us justification or condemnation. There is an important word there: careless. Careless means that we do things withoutcaring or thinking what outcome it can bring. Whatever we say, it has an effect on the people hearing and listening. It can be positive or negative, it canbring joy or it can bring sadness, it can bring edification or destructiveness.

Jesus is asking, is that we need to think carefully before we speak. We need to analyse what effect we can cause with our words. For if we cause harm, we will be condemned for that, but if we causejoy, love or edification we will be justified by these very words.

 

Jokes and stories form part of what we call socializing, we all like to laugh, to have a "good time" and to "chill", and its normal. However, we need still to make sure that we abide to Our Lord, for he tells us that filthiness, foolishness and crude joke should not be found in our talks. This indicates that even in our talking we need to be Holy. We know that we love to joke, but we cannot just joke about anything, we need to laugh, but we cannot laugh about anything. When we are in our close group of friends, we sometime joke about things that we would normally not joke with other people. It not unusual to find some sex-related Jokes, even if it not of pornographic character, most of the time it is related to sexual activities; we joke about our friends who are too sexually active, or those who are not too sexually active etc. I am sure you know what I am talking about!

 

 We think that we are in control and that we are not being out of respect, after all, we are among our friends and this is not to harm. The reality is that among our friends there is someonegreater and that is our God Almighty. Would we have such talks if we were in his presence? I do not think so. However we know that he is with us everywhere and every time. Would we be talking about these in church or in the temple? I think not! However we ARE the temple of God, so we cannot behave like this. We need to understand that God has called us to live Holy Lives, he has called us to be Holy, it is ours to see that we keep from everything that can corrupt us, we have no excuses because Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection has given us victory over all that is evil. 

 

It is true that these talks and jokes are part of our day-to-day life, but now, we live by the spirit and we are to exhibit the fruit of the spirit. This is our calling; this is what we are in Christ. I really do not think that Jesus was joking about other people, he was not joking about those who are thin or those who are fat, and He was not joking about other physical differences. A joke we say is no harm, but I do no think so, every joke off someone is harm.

 

We are the light of the world, we are the salt of the earth, and we are the witnesses of Jesus Christ. We need to be talking about the Gospel, we need to be talking about hope, love, compassion, Joy, peace and Salvation in Christ. It will surely do more good the person to share some words of encouragement, some words of the Gospel than to be laughing about stupid things. We can laugh for many things, we can joke on many things; however, remember that we are told that in whatever we do, we should be glorying theFather in the name of the Son. Are we doing this every time we open our mouth?