What about our speech habits? Obscenities, angry words, lying—this world’s “air” is thoroughly polluted with such foul speech. Yet, even the speech of a few associated with the Christian congregation at times reflects coarseness, even vulgarity. The disciple James forcefully tells us: “Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. It is not proper, my brothers, for these things to go on occurring this way. A fountain does not cause the sweet and the bitter to bubble out of the same opening, does it?” (James 3:10, 11) Have you picked up some of the jargon or slang of this world? Do you have two vocabularies, one for use among Christians, the other for use elsewhere? Paul wrote: “Let a rotten saying not proceed out of your mouth, but whatever saying is good for building up as the need may be, that it may impart what is favorable to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) How important it is to use proper, clean speech all the time!
We also need to be careful that we always tell the truth. Being devious or deliberately misleading others in order to avoid responsibility really amounts to lying. So be sure to heed Paul’s counsel: “Now that you have put away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another.”—Ephesians 4:25; Proverbs 3:32.
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