To Encourage You

Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be gracious”

Everything that God has said to us in His Word is meant to have a powerful effect on our lives.  But for that effect to be realized, we must first listen, then understand, and finally obey what He has said.  Jesus put it this way in the closing words of His Sermon on the Mount: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27). In other words, to listen, understand, and obey what God has said to us is certain to bring incredible blessings but to fail to do this is certain to, sooner or later, bring great catastrophe.  It’s not good enough to listen only.  Lots of people have heard what God has said in His Word, yet it has gone in one ear and out the other. 

But then there are those who have not only heard but also understood. Perhaps their heart has been convicted, at least for a time, but they’ve never gone the next step and actually done what they knew was right.  As an example, let’s look at the words above from Colossians. Here are six simple words that if we took them to heart and actually did them, would have the power to totally transform not only our lives but everyone whose our lives touch.  God is telling us how He wants us to use the mouths that He’s created for us.  He’s given us our mouths and the ability to use them for the purpose of using them in a glorious way – and as the verse says, to ALWAYS use them in that way.

So how does He want us to use them?  In a gracious way.  In Ephesians 4:29 we have what is essentially the same command (for the Lord comes at His commands in many ways to, hopefully, drill the truth of them into our heads). Here God has told us to “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.” The NIV translation of these words, “that it may give grace to those who hear,” is rendered, “that it may benefit those who listen.” 

So, now that you’ve read this, do you understand it?  Do you understand that it is God’s will for us, when we open our mouths, to say only that which is of benefit to those who hear us? Do you understand the power of those words? Do you realize that each and every one of us has the ability, simply in the words we speak, to benefit everyone we ever speak to?  We can encourage them. We can shock them in a good way every time we open our mouths by speaking in a way that is totally counter to the ways of this world. 

How often do you hear cursing from the mouths of people, or gossip, or angry and hurtful speech? How often do you hear boastful and proud words?  When you do, is it of any benefit?  And if not, why would you and I ever speak in such ways?  Why would we use the mouths our gracious God has given us to do the opposite of what He’s commanded us?  Why use our mouths to tear down others or puff ourselves up and miss the limited opportunities He’s given us to use our mouths as a means to bestow grace. 

As God again repeats Himself through the writing of His servant James, “every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:7-10).

May God help us to have the wisdom to obey what God has said with His command to “Let (our) speech always be gracious.” What grace has been ministered to US by these words which have been spoken to us from the very mouth of God.  May God help us to follow His example and always speak to others only in gracious words, words that are of benefit to those who listen.