Words. (a startling interpretation of Ephesians 4.29).

Years ago I heard a message in which the speaker quoted Ephesians 4.29 and made a startling interpretation.  It made such an impact on me that I think of it almost daily. 

Here’s the verse:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those that listen.

Here’s the startling interpretation:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those that listen.

What would my life look like if I really only said what was useful for building others up according to their needs?  My goodness… What would today look like??

This is an easy verse to teach my kids.  It’s easy to quote.  It makes rational sense.  It’s easy to understand.  The application is clear.  No PhD in Greek required. 

But to live?  Wow.  To live body, mind, soul, and mouth under the authority of Jesus, whose Word clearly states that the only time I have permission to speak is when it is useful for building others up…???

The only time I have permission to speak.

This morning I began to prepare for writing the weekly Study Guide for Journey Campus.  While the rest of my church-campus family are studying Proverbs’ wisdom on work this week, I’m looking ahead to next week’s study, which is Proverbs’ wisdom on words.  There is such a wealth of wisdom in that book of Proverbs, it makes me wonder why I struggle so much figuring out life… its pretty much all laid out right there in 31 chapters.  Its like having a gold mine in your backyard but being so busy going to work day in and day out to make ends meet that you don’t take time to notice.

I won’t go into too much detail, because the fun is in the digging.  You’ll have to download the Study Guide, crack open the Bible, and experience it for yourself.  That is Christianity’s dangerous idea, after all - that individuals could actually read and interpret the Bible for themselves. If you’ve never tried it, I urge you to be a radical and join the Protestant revolution.  But anyway, the Lord is opening my eyes to the goldmine in Proverbs, and I picked up a new nugget of wisdom today that I just have to share…

Proverbs 12.18 says,

There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,

but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Healing.  What do you picture when you hear the word, healing?  If the Proverbs are poetry, the point is to picture it.  Healing.

At first – I’m not gonna lie – I pictured a little glass flask of some kind of healing potion that if you drop one magical drop over a wound it seals up and the said victim regains their breath, opens their eyes and comes back to life.  I think this image is a mental conglomeration of Harry Potter, Smallville, and 11^th grade chemistry.  But I don’t live in Hogwarts.  So I pulled out my mental eraser and tried again…

Healing.

The next mental image I came up with hit the spot.  It is the image of a dear friend of mine, in a scene I’ve never witnessed first-hand.  But I watch enough tv to picture it quite clearly.  And, its real life.  She is a doctor, she’s brilliant, and she has seen healing come to countless women in operating rooms for the past two decades.  Real women.  Real healing. 

She comes into the operating room each day already scrubbed clean and ready, with those hard years of medical school behind her, as well as ongoing training fresh in her mind.  With the greatest of care, intention and precision, she does surgery.  She stitches back together that which was torn.

Yes, Proverbs is poetry, and it is meant to be pictured.  Yes, healing is real, and it is my mouth’s high calling.  Today.  Lord Jesus, use my mouth… my pen… my fingers on my phone and computer’s keyboards… my words…  to stitch back together that which was torn.  Today.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those that listen.”

Ephesians 4.29