Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying… I. A PROHIBITION. Under the forbidden head we are to rank all profane, irreligious, or immodest discourses. Another sort of discourses I would here mention as forbidden by the apostle, are such as are injurious to our neighbour. II. A POSITIVE DIRECTION. The subjects that should employ our conversation, we are told, are such as are good to the use of edifying, and which may minister grace to the hearers. III. AN EXHORTATION. 1. I know nothing can be more justly charged with that visible decay of true zeal and piety we observe and lament in the world, than the disuse of serious and instructive discourse in conversation. It is a very great, and, in its consequences, a very fatal point gained by the libertine, when he could not prevail on men of virtue and sobriety wholly to give up their religion, yet to persuade them to confine it to the temple or the closet; to limit it to set times, to certain and those narrow bounds out of which it should be improper and ridiculous, for when once men had banished religion from so large a share of their time as is taken up in conversation, the more solemn returns of it not only grew burdensome and disaffecting from the intermission; but the vicious and profane liberties, which assumed its place in discourse, left such a stain on the minds of men, as indisposed them for the good effects of our public assemblies; and by degrees introduced in some a total disregard of all religion, and in many debased the remains of it with such a mixture of vicious habits and principles, as rendered it no better than a superficial pretence, unacceptable to God, and ineffectual to the great ends proposed in the gospel. 2. To which let me here add, that if religion were restored to its proper share in our conversations, that secret confidence of the sinner that others are as wicked as himself, though better concealed, and which perhaps is the greatest support to infidelity, would be entirely taken off. 3. Let us remember, that God is present in all our assemblies, that He remarks and treasures up against the day of our account every word and expression, and every circumstance of our behaviour in them. 4. And lastly, let it not be thought that religion is too barren or too melancholy a subject for the entertainment of a Christian. (J. Rogers, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. |
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