“But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.”
The content of our conversation shouldn’t contain these things. It’s not because we just seek to be cleaner in speech. Verse 30 of the previous chapter tells us to “not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”. Some things don’t coexist. We can put an ice cube in the oven, but it will quickly disappear. We can use hand sanitizer and the germs will die. The above topics cannot be present along with God’s Spirit. He is holy. One or the other will go. If we continue to use ungodly talk, the awareness of His presense will diminish. If we set them aside, our sensitivity to Him increases.
Tuning In To His Frequency
Ephesians 5:3,4
When we accept Christ, sin is forgiven and He lives in us. Revelation 3:20 says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” This is a great picure of the depth of friendship. Sharing a meal with friends is at a deeper level. There is a celebration and a deeper closeness. Imagine having a minority friend over and using all sorts of racist language and examples. They would be offended them and wouldn’t return unless we apologized and stopping that type of talk.
The type of talk/actions in today’s passage is offensive to God. If we want to grow deeper in our relationship to Him, we need to weed this out. As we do, we grow more sensitive to His presence and His voice. Just as we respond to the need of another, we are becoming more in tune with them. If we ignore the needs of others, we grow calloused in our hearts. If we ignore God’s preferences, we lose touch with Him.
We want to be sensitive to God. To sense the impressions He places on our hearts and in our minds. This was the purpose of our creation, to fellowship with Him. Adam and Eve walked with Him in the garden. This is how we recreate that. Do this and God’s peace and joy begin to fill our lives.
To clarify, the passage isn’t saying we aren’t to joke. It’s the courseness that’s to be removed.
Lord, thank You that You show us how to draw near to You. Help us to put the things aside that grieve You.