Media is ablaze with our president’s battle with the National Football League. It has touched people who are not even football fans. It began when one football player last year sat during the playing of the national anthem before a game. Last Sunday every team, every owner, every player had to decide if they would stand, kneel, sit, or even be present for the anthem in their respective stadiums.
After those choices were made, social media lit up with people who supported them, and others who were abandoning football or specific teams altogether. Some took it as an affront to our country, our flag, and to those who have placed their lives on the line for our freedom.
Occasionally, someone would mention that free speech is one of the rights of citizenship in the United States. That seemed to illicit even more controversy, name calling, and harsh words.
Amid all this I came across this verse in Ephesians 4:29: 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. NIV
I wondered as I read it if it was as difficult in Paul’s day to restrain unwholesome talk and instead build others up as it seems to be in our day? I am sure it was, after all people are people in any age and time. I just don’t think in Paul’s day it bombarded them 24-hours-a-day as it does us across radio, television, Facebook, Twitter … ad nauseum. Which means it may be even more important for us to heed this command than it was for those who originally received it!
Father, help us to watch our talk. Help us to build others up rather than tear them down. Let our speech benefit those who hear us. Amen.
