NEITHER NOR
Ephesians 5: 4: Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking,
nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
“Filthiness” involves all obscene and
indecent language. Someone said we verbally do the things we speak. “Foolish talking” is language that is
useless and unprofitable. “Jesting”
is being humorous or sarcastic at the expense of others. “Which are not convenient” means it is unbecoming the character of
saints and it is disagreeable to the will of God.
Believers are happy. We have great reason
to be full of joy. Scripture does not teach us to be sullen and silent all the
time. The Lord teaches us to be
courteous, to be pleasant and express our thanks to others. There is nothing
wrong with humor. It is the obscene, useless, hurtful speech we are to
avoid.
Yet, consider, the word of the gospel has
nothing foolish or idle in it. Every word is profitable, not one word is
useless filler. Christ is the Word made
flesh. The whole time he walked this earth, do we find any word in scripture
which he spoke which was vain chit-chat? Not a word. When you hear someone constantly chattering
meaningless words then you ignore them.
Can we even imagine our Savior speaking like that? But the person whose
words are few, who speaks only when they have something wise, true and valuable
to say, you hang on every word. “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge
aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” (Pro 15: 2) That
which is predominate in our speech reveals our hearts. Christ said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh.” When the kids were just
beginning to talk, Melinda used to tell them, “Use your words.” Our Savior is teaching his children here to use
our words.