This weekend’s message will continue our “Membership Has Its Obligations” series based on the epistle of James. Our focus will be on edifying speech. As James points out, none of us is perfect in this regard. But that doesn’t mean we simply say, “Well, I can’t help it.” What we can’t do, God can. “All things are possible for him who believes,” as Jesus points out in this weekend’s Gospel reading. But the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification (making us more and more like Jesus in our attitudes and actions), is a life-long process.

The question is: Is it worth it to you? One way to honestly answer that question is to assess what you allow to influence you. For instance, if the desire is to have edifying speech but you surround yourself with people and entertainment outlets that don’t care about that, chances are very good that the negative will influence the positive more than the positive the negative. It would be like having a sweet drink and mixing it with salt. The salt would become the dominant taste.

Why edifying speech is so crucial is because it is the way of love which would build up rather than tear down. As is obvious with many of the current political ads, there are plenty of examples of non-edifying speech all around us. It’s the normal mode of a world broken by sin which eventually leaves people empty and starving for something better. We have that to offer the world in Jesus – Someone positive to talk about to others and to in prayer.