Paul admonishes us to let nothing come out of our mouths which doesn’t build others up. He’s writing this because, even in the first century, there was divisiveness among the church. His call for them, as it is for us today, is to nip this in the bud and throw it in the fire to be destroyed. Just as then, today we know that we’re about 80 to 90 percent the same as others. I mean, ask anyone on the street what they want most of all and you’ll see the similarities. We all want a better life for our kids, we all want an environment conducive for this, and we all want to live in peace – just to name a few. Yet we constantly turn our focus away from the things we have in common to focus on the tiny percent of our differences.
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy is from Texas. He’s famous for redneck jokes, including making jokes about the Southern accent. “We want to deduct 15 IQ points from folks who speak with a southern accent.” While he’s obviously making a joke, some of us are literally guilty of this type of thinking. Looking down on others, for any reason, causes disharmony within our own hearts, and is a contributing factor to our becoming overwhelmed by our own thought processes. And, personal disharmony grows exponentially as it spreads out of us and into our society.
Think for a minute, just using the above illustration, of how ignorant we appear to God in the way we speak. We’re not even close to intelligent by His standards. So, who are we to judge intelligence? The good news is that we don’t have to be good enough, because God’s perfection is sufficient for everyone.
Focusing on God, is of course the answer to harmony within ourselves and within our community because God is harmony. God wants us to share in His harmony so that we can live in peace and reap all the healthy benefits that come to us by living in harmony with Him. And, while that’s great news for us personally, it doesn’t stop there. Because when we live in harmony with God, that harmony spills over onto the people around us. Right now, people are desperate for something good in their lives. Right now, more than ever, it’s time for us to tap into God’s harmony and let the world see how great our lives are with Him. Once we begin to live in harmony with God in practical daily application, God’s harmony will become desirable to those around us.
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 who listen Ephesians 4:29 NIV
