Failure to Communicate - Part 1

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

Last weekend, I was up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California visiting my father. So, I was also able to attend the Sunday Worship service at “Little Church in the Pines” at Bass Lake again. Pastor Herk was preaching another sermon message in their “Taming the Tongue” series. “What we have here is a failure to communicate” is the unforgettable line from the classic movie “Cool-hand Luke” starring Paul Newman. But, Pastor Herk also points out that much of the conflict that we experience in life come from a failure to communicate; not that the message is not clear, but corrupt. What we need is to resolve the conflicts of our communication.

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God.”

The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “corrupt” as: (1) To change from a sound to a putrid or putrescent state. (2) To vitiate or deprave; to change from good to bad. (3) To waste, spoil or consume. (4) To defile or pollute. (5) To entice from good and allure to evil. (6) To pervert; to break, disobey or make void. (7) To pervert or vitiate integrity; to bribe; as, to corrupt a judge. (8) To debase or render impure, by alterations or innovations; as, to corrupt language. (9) To pervert; to falsify; to infect with errors; as, to corrupt the sacred text. Corrupt communication doesn’t mean that we are not communicating. You may mean what you say, but God may not approve of what you say.

2 Timothy 2:24-25 “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.”

Our speech may be triggered by emotions of anger, violation, or frustration and we feel the urge to unload. Anger opens the mouth and closes the mind. James 3:8-10 tells us, “No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” All are made in the likeness of God, so don’t go there ... avoid “trash talk”. The most forgiving and thoughtful act is demonstrating a spirit of love. The problem is that we may understand the need for morality, but we start with ourself instead of God as the basis for our measurement and other people don’t measure up to our standards. Why can’t you be like me?

Let’s continue Pastor Herk’s message about failure to communicate on the next post.

In Christ, Brian