Words you speak

Ephesians 4:29 (NLT)

Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. 

When you think of “foul or abusive language” what comes to mind?  What comes to my mind are curse words and calling people names.  A study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2009 (doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.) reported that 10 words account for 80% of public foul language, that on average 80-90 words spoken each day are “swear words” and that foul language is associated with hostility.  While many reading this never speak a profane word, others speak foul/abusive words far too frequently. 

If every word you spoke during a day or a week could be recorded and reviewed, what percentage of your words would be foul or abusive versus words of encouragement to others?  You might be surprised. The Greek word that is translated “foul or abusive” is the word “sapros” that means “corrupt” or “rotten”.  This word “sapros” is used several times in the gospels referring to worthless trees that produce bad fruit (e.g. Matt 7:17-18, Luke 6:43, Matt 12:33).  Such words are not only foul language words, but also any word that does not build up another person, especially another believer.  So when you call someone any kind of derogatory name, you are using “sapros” language.  Remember, Jesus in Matt. 5:22 said that calling a brother a fool makes you “guilty enough to go into the hell of fire”.  The language you use is serious business in the eyes of the Lord.

Instead, you are to speak words that are good, helpful, and encouraging.  What do these words do to those who hear them?  Mother Teresa said that “kind words can be short and easy, but their echoes are truly endless”. 

Think of examples and the people in those examples who either encouraged or discouraged you with their words.  Both can make a world of difference to you, one in a very positive way; the other in a very negative way.  Proverbs 15:4 summarizes the effects of both encouraging and discouraging words---“A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit”. 

Why not become a person who speaks words of encouragement to others?  Wouldn’t you love to be described as a person who almost always has a fitting word for another and has the ability to say the right thing at the right time (Proverbs 15:23)?  Jesus said that what you say comes from what you think and what is in your heart.  A mind and heart saturated with the word of God will result in a person who will speak words of encouragement to others and make a huge difference in hundreds, even thousands of lives.  May you be this kind of person.

“The people who are lifting the world onward and upward are those who encourage more than they criticize.” – Elizabeth Harrison