Protective Speech
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: Protective Speech
Keywords:
"speech"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: Ephesians 5:3-4*
3. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
4. and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
Questions
1. Mentally list the kinds of speech Paul prohibits in the verses above.
2. What kind of speech is protected/allowed?
Practical help
Whoever said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" didn’t know what he was talking about. Words are incredibly powerful. Words that others say to us impact us for good or ill. Words that we let fly from our mouths impact others, too. What's more, the words we speak impact us, the speakers.
What we say reveals something of who we are. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, "[20] That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. [21] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, [22] deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. (Mark 7:20-22).
But our words also help create who we are and will become. When, because of a desire for purity, we purify our speech, we are cooperating with God’s desires for us and wind up strengthened in our desire to stand strong against sexual temptation.
By contrast, when our loose lips speak freely of sexual immorality, impurity, fornication, adultery, and sensuality, and when we tell dirty jokes and crude stories, we lower our resistance to sexual temptation.
Paul sets a course for purity when he warns us against talking about sexual issues in a way that inflames sinful passion. (Please don’t think that Paul would say that all talk about sex is sinful!)
What should be the subject matter of our speech? Well, try Paul’s recommendation: GIVE THANKS. Next time you are tempted to tell a dirty joke or to use a crude expression, or to relate a story of some outlandish sexual misbehavior you have heard about, put a cork in it and let fly with an expression of thanksgiving to God.
The way you speak will provide protection so that you can stand strong against sexual temptation.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."
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