Christianity is, don't use bad language, go to the root of the matter, become the kind of person who spills over with

grace to other people, who calculates your words not just to avoid bad things,

but to dispense good things to build people up in their

faith and to meet their needs.

So radical and revolutionary approach to your mouth. What makes the way Christians talk unique? In this episode of

light and truth, John Piper turns to Ephesians 4 22 to 30 to show how our tongues are intended to be a means of grace.

This sermon was originally preached at Bevelin Baptist Church on October 12, 1986.

Let's read verse 29 of Ephsians 4.

There are different translations here. The RSV says let no evil talk come out of your mouths. If you have an NIV, a new international version, or a new American standard

Bible, you probably see let no unwholesome talk or word come out of your mouth. If you have an old King James it says let no corrupt

communication come out of your mouth. Now the question is what lies behind those words corruption, unwholesomeness, evil?

I'm going to suggest the word rotten.

Let no rotten language come out of your mouth.

Here's why I choose the word rotten.

The Greek word that's chosen by Paul here is rare in the New Testament. It's only used in one other context.

Namely, in all the places in the Gospels where Jesus referred to a bad tree bearing bad fruit and a good tree bearing good fruit.

This is the word for bad fruit that he uses.

It's not ordinarily a moral word, it's bad fruit, it's rotten fruit, decayed,

spoiled fruit. That's what's used. For example, in Luke Luke 643 Jesus says, it is not the good tree that bears bad,

and there's that word, sappross, the bad fruit. So I think Paul has chosen a word that has connotations of rottenness about it,

decay, spoiled, ruined, good for nothing. And so that's the kind of language that's to be taken off,

stripped off. Rotten language is the old garment that you come to conversion with and

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