Ephesians 4:10-16 • Biblical Civility

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

 As we have this transition before getting back to Romans, let me ask that you would look in your Bibles at Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4, as we'll consider verses 10 through 16, and the reason for looking at those verses might be reflected in just some rethinking on a curiously popular figure that reemerged in the past Christmas season. His name, Crumpet the Christmas Elf, the strange anti-hero who gained popularity by being willing to say what no one else should say.



 He was the Santa's helper in a department store, the creative figure behind the writings of David Sedaris, and Crumpet is irreverent, but often true in what he says, so much so that he is constantly in conflict with the authorities in the store and the people who shop there. After one particularly sharp interchange with a shopper, a woman says to Crumpet, "I'm going to have you fired," to which Crumpet replies, "I'm going to have you killed," which isn't exactly appropriate, but it sure is funny.



 It's clever, maybe it's deserved, but as we look at it, of course, we appreciate Crumpet because he says what we might think, but no, we should not ought to say.



 As you think about Crumpet, you might also think about others who do similar things, who say things clever, sharp, maybe even true, that we appreciate because we're not supposed to say it, but we're happy they did, like a radio commentator or a blogger or a friend or our own internal voice that is making comments about an elected president or those who oppose him, or church leaders, or company supervisors, or generations with different habits, or churches with different beliefs, or persons with different lifestyles.



 We know we shouldn't speak ill of them, but we sure want to say something.



 What does the church have to say about such people and such kinds of expression? What does the church have to say at all about what we say and how we should say it for the purposes of the Savior?



 Let's think about that as we stand and look at Ephesians chapter 4 honoring God's Word, verses 10 through 16.



 Speaking of Jesus, the Apostle Paul writes, "He who descended is the one who also ascended,



 far above all the heavens that he might fill all things."



 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.



 Remember, speaking the truth in love.



 We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Let's pray together.



 Father, the words challenge us, but not more than our culture and often our companions.



 It is our conversation that you use to witness to the truth of your Son in our lives and for our eternity.



 And yet we can forget that when we simply make expression about what is going on in our daily lives, our nation, or others that we dislike.



 So help us think of what it would mean to speak the truth in love in a culture that desperately needs Jesus.



 This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.



 Please be seated.



 It's in the newspaper this week written by a Chinese venture capitalist named Eric Li who is making comparisons between our nation now and China in the prelude to the cultural revolution of Mao Zedong.



 Some of you may remember what that was about. With the venom and political hatred of that era, farms and businesses were taken over.



 Political opponents were repressed. People were killed or imprisoned by the millions and millions more intimidated into keeping silent about it.



 And Eric Li says that more and more our nation is echoing the prelude to those events, writing, "The present American scene is where virtually all types of institutions, be it political,



 educational, church, or business, are exhausting their internal energy in dealing with contentious and seemingly irreconcilable differences in basic values and identities."



 Well, I don't know that you want to hear that or even need to hear that from a Chinese businessman.



 But if we don't want to accept those words, how do we deal with other words by one of America's most respected evangelical preachers who last month in The New Yorker wrote these words? John Keller, "The fury and incredulity of many in the larger population at evangelicals," that's us, folks, "has mounted people who once called themselves the moral majority are now seemingly willing to vote for anyone, however immoral, who supports their political positions.



 The disgust has come to include people within the movement itself. Many younger believers and Christians of color who had previously identified with evangelicalism now are abandoning its ranks.



 Evangelical used to denote people who claimed the high moral ground. Now in popular usage, the word evangelical is synonymous with hypocrite.



 Now I'm not asking you to agree.



 I'm not asking you to accept or even appreciate those words. What I am asking all of us to recognize is that we are in an era that is overheated and supercharged when it comes to the words that we use to describe political, ecclesiastical, educational, lifestyle opponents. And we have to question, what does the Bible have to say to that? What does the church have to say? I mean, why church? Does it have any role today in this society to instruct her people, if not the culture, in how we are to address one another and deal with issues apparently irreconcilable in so difficult an age? The question will always come back to what we perceive as the mission of the church as we are addressing other people, each other, and our culture. The mission of the church is clear. Paul lays it out at the end of verse 10, echoing things he's already said in the book of Ephesians a number of times. He has said ultimately the goal is that Christ, the very end of verse 10, might fill all things. He used to be all in all. Ultimately the influence of Christ is to cover the earth as waters cover the sea. And the means by which Christ is bringing about that huge transition of a secular dark world into the light of His countenance and influence is through the church, which is the most powerful instrument of the gospel in all creation.



 So the question if you perceive that mission is, if we're not to lose sight of our purpose,



 if we are not to allow our mission to be obscured by politics, by personal peace and affluence, just let me alone and let me have my way, if we're not to have our mission obscured by fear, by anger, by pride, or by vengeance, then what are the principles that are intended to guide us as the people of God in a contentious age?



 They're really not that difficult to discern in a little different way that I usually approach a sermon. Let me just tell you the principles that are obvious in this passage that are meant to guide us. Principle number one, God gives a variety of gifts to those He intends to lead the church. Verse 11, "He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers." The gifts of church leaders vary by both time and task.



 In past times, apostles and prophets were given to inscriptuate the standards and the Word of God as they were led by the Holy Spirit so that in following times, the evangelists, the pastors, shepherds, and teachers would be able to instruct the people of God in the standards of God.



 Times and tasks vary, and leaders of God's church over time have been gifted variously for those times and tasks.



 There are various gifts given to the leaders of the church. Principle number one.



 Principle number two, it's verse 12. What's the reason for those gifts to leaders? It is to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. Though leaders' gifts vary, they have a single mission. And the single mission, whether apostles and prophets, ministers, pastors, elders, evangelists, their single mission is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Now for Paul, the word "saints" is the word "hageon," which means those made holy by the work of Jesus Christ. It doesn't just refer to those recognized by the churches being particularly saintly. It is everybody in the church who has trusted in Jesus Christ. And the amazing thing the apostle is saying is that the leadership that God has given to the church is not to do the ministry.



 It is to equip the people for the work of ministry. That is fair. If you're going to depend on me to reach your neighbor, coworker, friend, it's going to be a failure because you're in the marketplace, you're in the workplace, you're in the school. My job and those of elders and pastor-teachers is to be equipping you for the work of ministry. What is the primary work of ministry? Principle number three.



 That primary work of ministry is verse 15.



 "Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ."



 The primary way in which the church of Jesus Christ by its saints in all the world is to take the message of the gospel is by God's people speaking the truth in love.



 Sounds so easy.



 It is really hard.



 And it is really hard because of all the challenges that come to us as we seek to speak the truth in love, and even because we seem to get mixed messages from the Scripture itself. I mean, it's easy for me to say you should just speak the truth in love and it sounds all kind of lovey-dovey and just be nice.



 And then you come across biblical passages where people dealing with evil and wrong are speaking with strident, righteous rage.



 How can they be doing that?



 Because remember, the reason for equipping the saints was for all to come to a unity of the faith, verse 13, "And of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning." Now that's not a nice word. By craftiness, by deceitful schemes, speaking the truth identifies evil for evil. But it is recognizing that this ministry to which we are all called is twofold. It is about bringing unity to the people of God and it is about expanding the mission of God until all are brought into that body of Christ as God intends. And to think of what that means, that we are to speak the truth with a love that has a unity goal and a missional goal, even against the evil in culture, society, and nations, calls upon us to think very seriously about our words for their impact, not just their content.



 I mean, if you think about what it means to speak the truth in love, you're not considering mission, going to really struggle with some things that you read in the prophets, like a prophet who will deal with the idle rich, who are unconcerned about the needs of the poor, and will simply refer to them as fat cows, or the Apostle Paul, who will deal with those who are teaching the wrong thing for eternal purposes and will refer to them as dogs who ought to emasculate themselves so they can't reproduce. Well, that's not very nice.



 But the definition is not what is nice.



 The definition is what is loving, what propagates the gospel, what makes truth go so that even the Lord Jesus could speak to those who were opposing Him and would speak of them as whitewashed tombs. Church leaders, pretty on the outside, death on the inside, and could even speak to one of His own apostles and call Him Satan. That was Peter.



 How is that loving? How do we actually maintain speaking the truth in love when we have all these seemingly mixed signals? First we just have to remember what is being required of those who would call themselves Christian. The first thing that is required is that we would speak the truth. You can't speak the truth in love if you don't speak the truth.



 And so we recognize that's certainly a statement about the content of the gospel, but it means we are not undercutting the content by spreading what is untrue, not just in the church, but in the lives where we are called outward to be doing ministry. And so we think of all those comments of the apostles and prophets and what it means to speak the truth. And for most of us, somewhere back there is the ninth commandment, right? You shall not bear false witness.



 Those who study the Scriptures say, "Actually, as important as the ninth commandment about speaking the truth is the third commandment, which is about not taking the name of the Lord in vain."



 If you are a Christian, whose name do you have on you?



 Christ. To have the word of truth applied to you and to speak falsehood is actually to break the truth and the witness of Christ that He intends to have through you. And so the ninth commandment, the third commandment, all just remind us that speaking the truth in love means say the truth.



 It means more than that.



 It also means to guard the truth. If we become aware of what is untrue, we are called to identify it. That means that we are to be open in our expression, not cowardly or cunning in keeping silence about what we know is untrue.



 Simply the fact that you have not spoken an untruth is still not permissible biblically if you allow the untruth to stand. You become a contributor to the untruth. So the Apostle Paul will say in 2 Timothy chapter 4, "At my first defense," when Christians should have been coming forward to help me, "no one spoke in my defense."



 He's at trial. People could help him, and they don't.



 Silence itself is one of the ways that we may not guard the truth that has been committed to us. It also means, of course, not putting false or uncharitable spin on what other people have said. I don't care where you are on the political spectrum these days. You are often incensed at the way in which statements have been made by people that you support are then twisted and turned by people who don't support them. And you recognize that's not fair, that's not right, that's not truthful. Even when people may be taking the same words but putting a different spin on them. They are giving misimpression even though they may be saying what is technically true. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 verses 6 and 7 says, "Of course, rather than twist what people say, what love truly does is it believes all things, hopes for all things, and that is known as the rule of charity."



 We put the best construction of what people say, not the worst construction of what people say for our own advantage. That's part of what it means to operate according to doing unto others as you wish they would do unto you, which, of course, is the final category. We don't spread false impressions even by saying true things.



 In the church that is word-based, we're often really good with our words, and we can say what is true and give a wrong impression, not just when we're defending what we did after school, with the words that are in the contracts, with the words that are in the articles, with the commentary we make about what somebody else said. It is more than possible to actually say words that are technically true and to give a false impression of what was said. It's not what you would want to have done to you, and the Apostle Paul is making a point. Simply saying what is true is not the end of our obligation. We have to consider the impact of the truth for the purposes of God. Saying that means we also must also make sure that what we say is not only true, but that we can prove it.



 That's often harder in an age in which blogs and Facebook and political capital is earned by creating suspicions, and we recognize it can happen even in the church. The Bible does not allow us to say what we think is likely true, what we think ought to be true. What we suspect is the motive.



 Now I'm not talking about real conversation in private with confidence where we are considering how we may react to a crisis, to a tragedy, to a hurt, to opposition, but I am talking about publishing things that you do not know as though they were true.



 And here I'm not just talking about confidential conversations, I'm talking about gossip and Facebook posts, an idle conversation that spreads stories and commentary that can damage reputations or relationships. I'll just be straight with you. In my life in the church, I have rarely been damaged by people telling lies about me. I have frequently been damaged by people who are spreading stories about my motives, where they had no idea what my motives were, but it was to their advantage to characterize my motives in a particular way. But they protected themselves by failing to say what was actually true, just identifying motives they could not have identified. How do we evaluate if what we're saying can be said, not only because it's true, but because we can prove it?



 Number one, we are called to consider the source.



 Next week we'll look at Matthew 18 verses 15 through 17 of how we handle conflict in the church, but you may remember that the way we do that always is by establishing everything through witnesses who are both credible and multiple.



 If we do not have credible and multiple witnesses, we are not allowed to promote a story, to promote claims that we cannot prove. We're not only called to consider the source, we are called to consider the target.



 Proverbs 44, 21 says this, excuse me, Proverbs 18, 17 says this, "The one who speaks first seems right until the second one comes."



 Have you only told one side of the story? Have you only listened to one side of the story? Do you only prefer to listen to one side of the story that we are not allowed to do? We have to consider the target and the golden rule for them too. How would you want to be treated? Would you want somebody to hear your side of the story before it was spread?



 Finally consider the heart.



 You don't know it. You don't know the heart of the other person, which means Christians are just by fiat not allowed to judge others motives.



 If it cannot be confirmed or confessed, then we cannot say why people are doing what they are doing because she wants to get back at him, because he needs to feel important, because they love prestige more than people, all common in our expressions, all outlawed in Scripture. They are just forms of gossip because they are things that cannot be proven. They may likely be true, they may be potentially true, but if you cannot prove it, then we are not allowed to say it. We have to, in essence, not only withhold comments about judging others' motives, we're ultimately being called to judge our own motives.



 Why are you saying what you are saying?



 Because if the goal is to build up the body, if the goal is to spread the love of Christ,



 then we have to examine carefully the proof and the truth of what we're saying.



 Aren't you glad that part of the sermon has passed?



 Actually, the apostles are just getting started in terms of the standards of what Christians are allowed to say for the purposes of Christ. We must not only say what is true, you can complete the rest of that verse, speak the truth in love.



 It's not enough to say what is true. Oh, I can say it because it's true. No, actually, as a believer, that's not the end of your evaluation.



 Is it loving to say what you're going to say? We are to speak the truth in love is the requirement. Our words must build up. Remember that was the end of verse 12. The ministry of leaders is to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. That's the end of verse 16 as well. We have to do what makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. No verse clearer than verse 29. It didn't go that far, but it's at the end of the same passage on how we speak to one another. Verse 29 of chapter 4 says, "Let no corrupting," some of your translations say, "Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth." Not only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace



 to those who hear. Isn't that an interesting statement? Not just give grace for the person that you're talking about, but it would spread grace to those who are hearing what you are saying that they recognize your goal and therefore the goal of the Christ whose name you bear is to build up others, not to tear them down, not to hurt them, not to in any way just gain advantage or be thought highly of because you know what other people don't know. How do our words build up the body? Well, we've got a couple of standards already. Say what's true, make sure you can prove it.



 Another standard is that it should further the work of ministry.



 That's the place we started. We are to be equipping the saints for the work of ministry. We are in the church to do the work of the church and therefore we are to be examining are my words building up unity? Remember that that was the goal, verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of faith. Is this binding people together or is it separating them or damaging them? Is that what's going on? Are we really thinking about unity and is it actually advancing the mission of the church?



 In the book of Colossians, which parallels, by the way, the book of Ephesians, the apostle returns to the subject of why we need to be careful in our speech, why it is so important to our mission. And he says in Colossians 3 and verse 4, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone."



 The presumption is that we are engaged in school, in home, in neighborhood, in work, in conversations with people who need to be hearing the gospel. And we're preparing answers by the way in which we speak the truth in love. Always that process is going forward. Now, it can be a touchy, such situation. It can require real weighing in our minds what we are to do if we are to not keep inappropriate silence. We're really to call evil evil, but do so with the goal of the gospel being promoted. So think of what that means. It does not mean we never criticize, that Christians are just so nice that they never condemn evil. No, it does not mean that. If I concern for the gospel, I'm willing to identify what is evil. But we might think of the example of Jesus.



 Some of you who've heard from me before recognize that when Jesus talked about people that He was going to address about hard things. He was most harsh with the self-righteous and most tender with the obvious sinners.



 What do we tend to do in the church? The opposite, right? The obvious sinners we go after, those who are self-righteous, we kind of stay away from. What was Jesus most concerned about? He was most concerned about the gospel. What will advance it? What is good for eternity? To have people think they're right with God because of their own self-righteousness, He can't let that stand. And people who think they are not right with God because of their own evil, He can't let that stand either. And so He says what is necessary for the promotion of the gospel, and that can involve some hard choices. What it means for us is, I really can't just by fiat identify some form of speech or satire or sarcasm or ridicule and just suddenly say, "Christians never do that." Because I can show you places in the Bible where believers do that.



 But the words that are allowed are allowed because of the motive behind them.



 What are you trying to accomplish for the kingdom, for the gospel, for the mission of Christ? It's not enough just to say what's true. Is it for the love of Christ's purposes? I'm just, straight talk here. Often when I'm involved in church settings, there are people who kind of, how do I say this? Self-identity, the way in which they kind of make their way in the church and in church settings is they're just sarcastic and satirical and cutting and biting by nature. And if you ever challenge them, they know the passages in the Bible to go to where they can find similar things being said. And so they will defend their words.



 What they usually do not defend is their motives.



 That is what we are being called to discern. Are my motives to bring to maturity and to spread the mission of Jesus Christ? I think of it in terms of what I trained as a journalist once upon a time had to learn about the difference between slander and libel.



 Now every journalist knows that you're not supposed to slander people.



 In most people's common understanding, slander and libel are the same thing. Journalistically they're not.



 Slander is intentionally telling what you think is untrue. That's slander. I say things that I know are untrue. You know what libel is?



 Libel can be true or untrue, but is intentionally telling the story to hold others up to public ridicule or contempt.



 So I can say things that are true, but if it's about a neighbor or a business competitor and my only intention is to do harm, I am still liable for libel.



 What about Christians?



 Just the bottom line of qualification is that it's true.



 Is it loving? Is it missional? Is it intended to build the kingdom? Is it bringing unity and expanse to God's people and purposes? Those are the questions that are being asked, and therefore we have to ultimately say, "Is what I'm doing redemptive? Is it accomplishing the purposes that Christ has for the church? I'm a member of the church. I'm part of the body of Christ. Is what I'm saying, what I'm reading, what I'm listening to, what I'm turning the radio on to? Is it ministering the purposes of Christ in the world or is it just polluting my own heart and mind?"



 We have to think about that carefully, whether I'm blogging or Facebooking or quilting or fishing in choir, at work, at school, at a restaurant, in a Sunday school class.



 It's not enough that it be true.



 Is it bringing unity and expanse to the people and the kingdom of God? So we just have to think through some redemptive priorities. Number one, if I'm really going to examine what I'm saying, come under the authority of the apostles and prophets. I have to say, are my words opening conversations or closing conversations? If the goal is to get me ready to answer others who have questions about the faith, are my comments opening or closing conversations? Now I must tell you something, I'm not a Facebook follower. My wife takes care of all that for our family.



 But something I'm aware of, as some of you in the church have related to me, is you said about some people that you and I know, "I don't follow him or her on Facebook anymore."



 Because their commentary was getting so mean or ugly or politicized, it was not good for my own heart to read what that Christian person was putting on their Facebook anymore. Now I have to ask you, if even Christians are closing you down, what's happening to non-believers who you're supposed to be influencing?



 And by the way, if you're using a pseudonym to be able to say things that you know Christians would not approve, Christ still knows.



 And you still bear His name upon you.



 And because it's late and you're alone in the dark at the keyboard does not mean that Jesus went away.



 He's right there.



 And we need to evaluate whether we are making him weep by what we are just now typing.



 Not only do we ask are my words opening or closing conversations, am I building up or am I tearing down?



 It is interesting if you look very closely at the biblical authors who speak with such courage against evil, what they require of the people of God in order to promote the mission of Christ in the church.



 The Apostle Paul, of course, will say in Romans 13, we'll get there in a few weeks, "Give respect to whom respect is due, by office if not by person."



 First Peter 2.17, "Love the brotherhood," oh there we go, okay with that, "Honor God," got that, "Honor the King."



 Who was the king during Peter's time?



 That was Nero, the one who was slaughtering Christians.



 And Peter says, "Honor the King, respect to whom respect is due." Now that doesn't mean we don't say what was wrong. Peter was certainly willing to do that. But there was a recognition to operate in the culture. He had to say, "Have I done unto others as I would have done unto me?" And I recognized if that's not what I'm saying, not what I'm promoting, not what I appear to be promoting, then the gospel will not be heard by me.



 And so what must have been very hard for him to do, kind of restrain himself, was still saying, "For the sake of the gospel, respect for whom respect is due."



 How hard does that get? I have to think of it in terms of some years ago in the church that Kathy and I were attending in St. Louis after a service in the hallway beneath the sanctuary, I was walking one way and there was another woman coming the other way, an older woman, and she kind of stopped in front of me. And she stopped in front of me as I was walking so I couldn't get around. And she grabbed me by the elbows and she said, "Brian, when did our church get so mean?"



 Because of what is said in the pulpit and what is said in the Sunday school classrooms, I cannot bring my own children to this church because they are part of a different political party than most people in this church.



 Now I understand and you understand, and it means we have to guard our words about what we think is wrong and how we characterize people and how we characterize the role of the church. I think of Bill Brown, a name some of you may know, who was a president of a well-known evangelical institution, an institution that right now is being rocked by controversy.



 And Christians sang all kinds of things about one another. And writing back to the situation where he was once president, he simply wrote this, "Please make certain you are honoring Christ in all your communication. Do not forget all you are saying will be listened to by an unbelieving world.



 And when Christians speak unredemptively, they make Christianity unbelievable."



 Ouch.



 Is it good for the church? Is it good for the mission? Is it good for the message? Even as we with courage confront evil, are we speaking with words seasoned with grace for the purpose of the advance of the gospel?



 I will tell you, we've not been in the book of Ephesians lately. And so as I look at the words that I have said and wrote, even last night I was looking at it as saying, "Am I saying anything different than your great aunt Gertrude?" You know, "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all." You know. Is that all we're saying?



 No.



 What is the purpose of the church in the book of Ephesians?



 It is to have the ministry of Christ become all in all so that whether we are talking about nations or generations or eras or politics or business or education or the arts, that ultimately Christ is filling it all as the waters cover the sea. Christ is all in all. And that becomes the mission. That becomes the goal. And I had to think about that in terms of some of my own words. What does it mean for Christ's fullness to fill all? When I was reading recently, some of you have read it too, I know.



 The words of Christopher Hitchens, the noted atheist and writer who died in 2011, one of his last books, "God is not great," subtitled, "Religion Poisons Everything."



 Marvin Elaski, the Christian writer who debated Hitchens at the University of Texas, Austin, responded with these words, "Yes, Christians have done ugly things. They keep messing up, but God doesn't abandon them. They're often unlovely, but He always loves them. The gospel is a story of love and rescue, of promise and deliverance, of a love so terrific that God willingly sacrificed His own Son to make redemption possible. That's what the Bible is about. It is the antidote to the poison.



 And when I read those words, I must tell you, I was getting ready to hit the send on an email.



 And just a little heart check is what I'm about to send, more poison or more antidote.



 I stopped reading, went to other emails just to think about a little bit, and I received one from Mark Warren.



 Mark Warren is an ALS patient who listens to us, watches us on TV from normal Illinois. Hello, Mark.



 Mark has not been able to breathe on his own for 29 years.



 He wrote to me, "To see the outrageous love of Jesus that makes us choose to live today," hear that? "Choose to live.



 We must look beyond the obvious outer decay with the light that shines out of darkness to illuminate knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We look not only to the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. So look beyond the obvious. Look beyond the decay. Look beyond the temporal. Turn your eyes upon Jesus."



 And I looked again at the email that I had not yet sent, and I thought, "I actually may have something better to say than what I was just writing."



 And I revised, and I repented.



 And maybe you need to do the same.



 Are your words what would fix others' eyes upon Jesus?



 If not, time to revise and to repent because He will love you and help you and help others through you.



 Father, we ask that you would work in our words to make the Word who is Jesus known in this world.



 Help us, we pray, to examine not just the truth of what we say, but the motives behind our words, and help us be part of the unity of the church and the mission of Jesus.



 That one day, because of the work of the church and the ministry of the saints, the knowledge of Christ would cover the earth as waters cover the sea.



 Use us, we pray, for this great mission in Jesus' name. Amen.