Every Conversation Is A Construction Site • Christians have a responsibility to use their words wisely and to build others up. • Every conversation is a construction site and Christians should use their words to build others up. • Salt is important because it preserves and protects.
Speaker 1
If we just stop right here, I want to say to all of those of you of a different faith tradition or not Christian, not a religious person, please, you don’t need to listen to the rest of this. But listen, you need to do that. Imagine our nation would be a much more pleasant place if all of us would leverage our words with the idea of building them up, the person on the other side of us, of building them up and Encouraging them, right? But for Christians, the stakes are even higher. If you’re a Jesus follower or claim to be a Christian, this is not optional. This isn’t an add-on. This isn’t like, oh, this will make me a better person and I want you to hear me. And this isn’t a ploy to leverage in somebody’s life to get what you want from them. I’m just going to add more and more positive words, leverage the positive so I get what I want. This is not a strategy for getting what you want. We are obligated as Jesus followers to get this right because we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility because we have been commanded by our Savior to love others the way that God through Christ has loved them, which includes the words that we use. We’ve been commanded to leverage our words with the benefit of the other person in mind. Now last week we teased out this passage, I’m just going to read it to you real quick and keep moving, but again, this is an optional for us. The Apostle Paul taking again Jesus new covenant marching orders to love as God through Christ has loved us and he says, here’s what it looks like with the words that you choose. And he says, do not, it’s a command. He says, do not let any unwholesome or any stinky word come out of your mouths, but only words that are good for building others up. In other words, he says, every conversation’s a construction site. Every conversation’s a construction site and you’re either going to use your words to build or to tear down. He says, do you choose your words to build others up according to not your needs, according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And why must we do this? Why is this important? Just so, hey, well, if you do this, you’re just going to get along? No, that’s not the reason. The reason if you’re a Jesus follower or a Christian, you have to get this right is because you don’t represent yourself. You’re not just a representative of yourself. For us, the application has a twist. The application for everybody is remember who you are and what you represent to the person on the other side of you. If you’re a Jesus follower, if you’re a Christian, there’s a twist. And here’s the twist. Remember who you are and who you represent to the person on the other side of you. And who are you? You’re more than the employer. You’re more than the manager. You’re more than the employee. You’re more than the neighbor. You’re more than just a parent. You’re more than just the older brother. You’re more than just the older sister. You’re a follower of Jesus. And to use Jesus’ words, you are, this is so amazing, you are the salt of the entire earth. So our words should do what salt does. Preserve and protect. Preserve and protect. Never harm. Never undermine.The idea that “you don’t represent yourself” reframes the relationship between identity and work. If the self is understood as representative rather than autonomous, craft becomes an act of stewardship. “Salt of the earth” as preservation and protection gives a theological grounding for why making good product matters — not as self-expression, but as responsibility.
