Our Words Reveal Where We Are From

The following post was written by Jacob Way.

“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 5:3-4)

I grew up in Dallas, Texas. One thing about Dallas is that it is not stereotypical Texas. We don’t have accents, and we don’t wear cowboy boots. Then, I moved to Lubbock and quickly learned I was not in Dallas anymore. I was almost in a new country altogether.

We could wear blue jeans on Fridays at the school I taught in. So that first week, I wore jeans and my favorite pair of Converse high tops. Right when I walked through the door, all of my male colleagues were aghast. They kept looking at me, down at my shoes, and back at me. Finally, they asked, “Where are your boots”? I didn’t want to lie, so I said I had none. Then the history teacher said, “Well, there’s a Cavenders down the road.” And that was that.

Pretty soon, I was wearing boots on Fridays. However, even my boots could not convince people I was from West Texas because my non-accent always revealed the truth. For example, when I said the word oil, I would say it like you said in your head: oi-uhl. But in West Texas, it is one syllable pronounced ole. Everyone, I mean, everyone said ole. No matter who I was talking to, whenever the word oil came up, it was obvious that I was not from West Texas. Therefore, no matter what I wore, my words always revealed where I was from.

In the same way, our speech reveals who we serve and what path we are on. We know from Ephesians 2:2 that before Christ, we all “once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.” This means that we were all following Satan in the path of darkness, continually sinning and blaspheming God. But God, in his mercy, made us alive in Christ. He transferred us into His kingdom and made us co-heirs with His Son. Our identity has fundamentally changed. As Jesus said, we have been born again.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul wrote about the speech of believers. Not only are we accountable for the words we say, but our words also reveal who we are and where we belong. Thus, Christians are not to partake in “coarse joking, obscenities, or foolish talk.” (Ephesians 5:4). Not only are these words sinful, but they are also “improper for God’s holy people.” (Ephesians 5:3).

Paul takes his instructions even further in Ephesians 5:11, saying that a believer should “have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.” Don’t flirt with immorality or even participate a little via dirty jokes and slander. Completely cut that kind of speech out of your life.

When a Christian talks and acts like people following Satan, it makes no sense. We are essentially talking like we are from Earth even though we have been born of Heaven. We are Christians, talking like non-Christians. Brother and sisters, may this never be!

Based on our continual thanksgiving and praise to God, people should know we are not from this world. They should hear your speech and see that you are born-again from Heaven. Therefore, live and talk like where you are from.