Speak The Truth To Our Neighbors
Now this I affirm and insist on in the
Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their
minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all
sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice
every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you
have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were
taught to put away your former way of life, you old self, corrupt and deluded
by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe
yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness.
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors,
for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun
go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up
stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as
to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your
mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your
words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away
from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together
with all malice, and be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Sometimes we do not realize how much
trouble we are in until someone out of the blue comes and notices something. It
could be a golf swing, a close relationship with our spouse, something work
related or financial in nature.
Words can be powerful instruments for
good or for evil. We can use words in destructive ways, or we can use words to
build and to encourage. In a world where words are often wielded as weapons,
may we use our words as tools to build up the hearts of others.
Gentle words are more powerful than angry words.
Our Daily
Bread –