Ephesians 5:4
Well this is tough, after spending time reading this passage (5:1-21), someone could write for days about this stuff, and even more so, I have found how the whole passage works together to be very insightful and impressive, but with the theme of taking one verse I chose this one.
Ephesians 5:4 "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."
Right away I am going to include Ephesians 4:29 "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
When I read 5:4 I immediately thought of 4:29, and it really just pointed out how important what we say is. I think of the times I am just hanging out with my roommates, and I think do I talk about foolish things, or make some crude jokes, things that are out of place or not fitting of the occasion. And I realize that my time is riddled with corrupting talk. If my words are not glorifying God then I am not portraying Him as supreme to unbelievers. How powerful of a evangelistic tool is that, every word out of your mouth glorifies God. That would be amazing.
I am reading "The Pursuit of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges, it is an amazing book so far, very easy read, quick, and very solid. Read it. But like the name suggests, we need to focus on being holy, because He is holy we are to be holy, God will accept no less. It is an active pursuit on our part, we need to work, but it is by the work of Christ that we are enabled to work. Before we were just slaves to sin, we had no opportunity to do otherwise, we had to sin. But now that we believe we are able to fight sin. So one huge thing in my life lately, my one 'goal' I guess, is to be holy, and not just a list of do's and don'ts but a mindset, and a satisfaction with God, which actually is a command, we are to be joyful, it is commanded of us just like not murdering someone. So that is a prayer request I guess. I am very thankful that the Spirit has opened my eyes to this, and has in numerous ways, it is essential to our walk. Just think, does the perfectly holy God want to spend time with unholiness and sin?
So regarding this verse, I want my words to be 'holy' a fragrant offering to God, that my words would please Him. Even the little things like a crude joke matter to God, all of our life should be holy, and I pray that in our lifelong pursuit of this God would be powerful in our lives.
posted by Ricky Martin at 7:12 AM
2 Comments:
Ricky, your paragraph on pursuing holiness was very encouraging. I especially liked your statement about having a mindset of holiness versus a list. May we all encourage one another to pursue holiness! How can you help your fellow brothers and specifically your D-group members grow in holiness?
On a side note:
In flow of this paragraph, Paul is laying out differences between this believing group of people and those in the church who claim to believe but are living lives that point to the fact they are not believing. With that in mind I look at this verse and feel Paul talking to me saying, "don't do these things. This is how those people act and you are not like them. Don't talk like them."
"foolish talk" - I take this to mean, stupid and senseless talk.... there is no point involved in the conversation but it is senseless. Talking like that should not be among us. It is interesting in 2 Timothy 2:23 Paul points us to not engage in conversations like these because they produce quarreling. This is a reason why we are not to engage in this type of talk... there is no point and what usually happens is that people start to quarrel. So, Paul admonishes us to not talk like this because they don't produce fruit; but, as Ricky alluded to, Paul has commanded us to simply not talk this way.
Along the lines of Ricky's thought on a "mindset" - I would say that Paul wants us to have a mindset of thankfulness; of thanksgiving and a mindset that we do not deserve anything but Hell, but because of Christ we have life and have blessings - so our mindset and our soul and our hearts should echo thanksgiving.
And also, later on in this section Paul says that we should not waste our time, the days are evil. And I just think that mindless conversation is a waste, if there isn't a clear purpose to the conversation, then go do something for the Kingdom.
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