Are you a “File Corrupting Virus?”
Most all of us have experienced the loss that comes from having a file corrupted on our computer. Someone with ill intent sends a virus to our computer and it corrupts our files. Once a file is corrupted, it’s no longer usable. We can’t do anything with it…it would take an expert to recover it and make it usable again.
Did you know that we have the dark ability to speak a corrupting virus into another person’s mind? Our criticism and our passing judgment on someone does that, but the WORST VIRUS OF ALL comes when “corrupt communication proceeds out of our mouth.”
Romans 14:13 (Phillips) Let us therefore stop turning critical eyes on one another (Stop passing judgment on one another.) If we must be critical, let us be critical of our own conduct and see that we do nothing to make a brother stumble or fall.
Ephesians 4:29 (KJV) Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but (only) that which is good to use in edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
“Being critical and judging others” doesn’t take much explanation. Just Stop It! Don’t Do It!
But have you ever thought about “corrupt communication” that is an actual virus we put in other people’s mind?
The Old King James translates Ephesians 4:29 exactly right (IMO). Let NO corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.
What is corrupt communication? In this context we see it contrasted to ministering (speaking) GRACE to people…GRACE that builds them up.
The opposite of GRACE is the “law,” which includes not only the 613 Jewish Old Covenant (Testament) laws, but also any additional law that religion (specific churches, para-churches and denominations) put on us. “Thou shalt not drink alcohol” would be an example. We even put laws on ourselves. “I shouldn’t do “x” because God will punish me if I do.”
Let’s net this out: Jesus, who is full of grace and truth; Jesus who fulfilled the law, set aside the law, made the law obsolete, and replaced The Law with the New Covenant of Grace; and who is GRACE personified…Jesus teaches that judging, criticizing and “laying laws” on people is CORRUPT COMMUNICATION! It’s a virus that contaminates Pure Grace!
Jesus is Pure Grace! Rather than criticize and judge people and communicate “You must…you should…you shouldn’t…you can’t—because that’s what ‘Good Christians’ do (or don’t do)”—we are only to communicate Grace…which builds people up.
Grace says that Jesus did it all in His Finished Work at the Cross. Grace covers everything for everyone. Grace is God’s UNConditional love perpetually in action working out all things for the good for everyone!
Jesus is The Expert who can and does and has already recovered all of us to our original intent. Now He works through us and as us in ministering His Grace to one another.
Speaking grace is like defragging, cleansing and cleaning up the corrupt files in a person’s mind. That’s what edifies and builds up other people. That’s a wonderful act of love for “one another!”
Check out my new novel, “Convertible Conversations,” where you’ll be inspired by the characters as they minister grace to one another in the midst of tough situations and circumstances. ~Paul Gray
www.gracewithpaulgray.com/books