Corrupting talk

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear" (Ephesians 4:29).

In the back of any refrigerator in America you may find, at any given time, a forgotten Tupperware container of green beans, as I did some days after Thanksgiving.

One opens the container gingerly and very carefully sniffs the contents, trying to discern the slightest hint of something "off." There may be different judgment calls about what is "off," and one frugal mother of a household may take her chances with a leftover that another mother might deem over-the-line.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart is famously quoted as having said, "I know it when I see it," in response to the question of what is pornography. It shocks us to learn that even among those most skilled in the technical minutia of the law, there remains that indefinable and ineffable and subjective dimension to life.

I find it very interesting that the Spirit chooses the word "corrupting" (Greek: sapros-rotten, putrefied, no longer fit for use, of poor of bad quality) rather than "evil" in this verse telling us how not to talk to each other. There are things in life that are so clearly bad that almost any decent person can see it. And then, there are things, like the green beans in the back of the fridge, that are just … borderline, debatable, slightly off.

In any conversation, there are things that we might say to each other that are not flat-out bad but are not the best. They may not be certifiably corrupt, but they tend that way. They are "permissible" or "lawful" perhaps (if you want to borrow language from 1 Corinthians 10:23), but not the most edifying thing you could say.

I know a woman who told a married man that she was having dreams about him. What's so wrong with that? Well, it turned out to be the crack in the door that led, much later, to an affair. Would that she had not let corrupting talk proceed from her mouth. Would that he had put the clamp on it at once.