What do you talk about in church? How’s your conversation? Are you known for speaking the truth in love? This is important, because in order to be the person you long to be, you need to be in an authentic community that lives out right and honest relationships. And like you, there are thousands of people around you who need a place where they can be accepted for who they are. Somewhere they can be honest about their fears, frustrations and hopes.
Building Up and Encouraging
But if our church conversations are not influenced by our true needs and the needs of others, then those conversations will never build people up or encourage them. Paul exhorts us:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29, NIVUK).
If we pepper our conversations in church with slander, gossip, ridicule, insults and mocking, then this will deal a destructive blow to those around us and to our relationships.
Speaking the Truth in Love
We should aim for kindness in our conversations. Kindness imitates God. As Tom Wright laments:
There are, alas, all too many Christians, and sometimes whole churches, that have allowed themselves to forget that kindness and mutual forgiveness are the very essence of Christian community. (Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon, p.54 (SPCK))
