Thou Shalt Edify
Part II

What we say, blessing or cursing, words of life or words of discouragement, strength or defeat, hope or hopelessness, dirty jokes and suggestions, or expressions of the joy of the Lord establishes our identity and the world will judge us by that. They cannot identify with our ‘Christian’ jargon, you know, the seven seals, the 1000 year reign, dispensation of grace and all the other spiritual dialect we can throw at them. What they see is our talk and our walk. Is it true that what we say and do consistently reflects who we are or should be? We make a difference in the mindset of sinners when our life truly reflects the one who saved us and called us unto Himself.

The word of God makes it clear, edification is essential:

Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

No corrupt word-rotten or worthless words, words void of the quality that is reflective of a believer. This word corrupt is a derivative of a word that means the intent to speak evil; verbally malicious, calculated and cold. Ice water in you veins. Another word is the word derelict, you have abandoned the importance of using the right speech and your godly communication is in poor condition. You notice many believers can talk about everything but God. The struggle is because they have abandoned the good godly tradition of sound speech that cannot be condemned (Titus 2:8). Corrupt, mean, and hurtful words not only hurt others but they grieve the Spirit. Many will say, will I don’t feel bad, that is because you have accepted the consequences of your words. The fact that they are not carefully chosen and are released loosely is indicative of the dominance of the flesh. If that was not the case, the scripture would not align the value of our words with the quality of our faith and walk in the things of God.