Building with Words

​The other day I watched a video showing the final, game winning touchdown play in a high school football matchup. The white team threw a touchdown pass and ended the game with a last-second win! Everyone on the white team immediately started celebrating with their teammates, jumping up and down with their hands in their air—all except one. One of the players on the white team was going around and speaking with players on the green team who had collapsed on the field in tears, heads down, grieving over the loss of a championship win. At first, you would assume that this player might be mocking the other team for losing the big game and rubbing it in their faces, but that wasn’t what he was doing at all. He was gently consoling them and speaking words of encouragement to them. One by one he lifted them up, shook their hands, and congratulated them on a hard-fought game.
 
Immediately I thought, “That’s exactly what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 4:29.” Paul tells us to build others up—lift them up with our words! Ephesians 4:29 is in a section of Scripture where Paul is telling us how to live now that we are in Christ and how to have healthy, Christ-centered relationships that last. He is telling the Ephesians to lay aside the old self with the sin nature and put on the new self that is renewed in Christ and in righteousness. This renewing includes our words! There are words to put off and words to put on. He says, 

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

The words to put off are unwholesome words. Some of your translations call them corrupt or foul words. These are all great depictions of the Greek word that is used in relation to fruit and rotten or decaying food (Mt. 7:17; 12:33). Rotten words like this are destructive and detrimental to others’ physical, mental, or moral well-being. Paul mentions some of what he has in mind in verse 31; they would include harsh words spoken in anger, coarse (unclean) jesting, degrading slander, and heartless malicious gossip. Speech like this doesn’t bring life—they destroy life. Some workplaces and homes are miserable, lacking peace and joy, because they are filled with rotten words. They deteriorate the spiritual well-being of others. Paul says to stop these words from coming out of our mouths.
 
The new way of speaking in Christ is mentioned second. These are the words we are to put on: edifying words. These words, as some of your translations say, are helpful for building others up. This is a construction term (edifying/edifice). These are words that strengthen or “make more able” someone else. Words like this give grace to those who hear. In Colossians 4:6, Paul says to season our words with salt. Salt, as you know, has a preservative effect on things. When I do taxidermy, I use to salt to preserve deer hides until they can get tanned. Salt kills the bacteria that would cause that deer hide to rot. It preserves the deer hide. I guess we could say the best way to fight against and prevent rot in our relationships is to use salty words—words of grace that build others up. Just this week I was the unexpected recipient of constructive words through text messaging. In the middle of this crazy week, I can’t tell you how much that brightened my day!
 
It’s so much easier to use rotten words than constructive words. We find it so much easier to criticize than to commend and to put down than to praise! We could all use a little more encouragement and affirmation. Indeed, some peoples’ love language is words of affirmation!  So how can you build someone up right now with your words? Make it your goal this week to build someone up each day. Life is better when we are better with our words. 
 
In Christ with you,
 
Pastor Justin