The Spirit of wisdom warns us by the mouth of the apostle Paul, saying: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).

What is a “corrupt word”? According to the dictionary, “corrupt” means “that contradicts or hurts good customs, decency, morals, which reveals vile, infamous character, causes repulsion, disgusting, revolt”. That means “corrupt”.

In the Bible, in Greek, where this letter to the Ephesians was initially written, it means rotten, immoral words.

So, the guidance of the Spirit of God to those who want to live correctly is not to let even a rotten, corrupt, disgusting, dirty, perverted and immoral word come out of their mouth.

Why this guidance? Why not speak these words but only words that are good to promote the edification of those who hear them (that is, words that will build those listeners)?

Only human beings speak because God put this power within them. God is word. Our God is not like other gods of this world. Our God is intelligence itself. And if you stop to think, you will understand that He placed this power within us, His main creature. He extended this power to the human being only. This power differentiates human beings from other animals: their ability to reason and communicate in a developed way through the words we learn.

In chapter 3 of James, the Bible shows that the tongue is like fire, like a spark that sets fire to a forest. The tongue can also ignite and contaminate the whole body. And even take a person to hell. The tongue’s power is immeasurable; no equipment can measure the power of our words.

So, the question is: how have you been using this power? Maybe you swear, curse loved ones, and let useless criticism out of your mouth (to make you feel better). You criticise a person and put them down. You talk about the other person’s faults. You use your tongue to pass on incomplete information that has reached your ears. Evil information that you, without confirming it, passed on and hurt the other person. You hurt someone else.

Maybe your words are against you. When you talk, you commit verbal suicide. When you say something like this: “Look, I don’t know what will be of my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do. My life is like rubbish. My life is worthless. My life is no good. I don’t know why I’m in this world; I’d better die anyway. I can’t get anything. Everything goes wrong for me.” You have no idea how much you are hindering your progress, cursing your life, corrupting your own chances of winning.

So, God’s advice is: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification”.

Watch the video above and learn more about it.