Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day seven)
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth…” vs 29a.
Have you ever mistakenly took a bite out of an apple that has gone bad? You go in for a big bite of what you expect to be a crisp, juicy apple, but you are left with a mushy, bland mouthful of something you just want to spit out. Jesus uses this analogy on multiple occasions to describe our lifestyles.
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit…” Matthew 7:18.
The interesting thing is that the same word that Jesus uses to describe bad fruit, is the same word that Paul uses in our passage to describe bad talk (unwholesome). This isn’t just cursing. Bad talk is gossip, slander, crude joking, roasting (making fun of others). Words can go bad quicker than fruit. After they have gone out, we immediately want to retract them, but it is often too late. We are left with a mushy mouthful of bad fruit.
If a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, what do the words we use tell us about the state of our tree?
