and obscenity, and foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
Truth to Learn
Don’t do these sins. Instead, give thanks to God.
Behind the Words
“Obscenity” is from the Greek word aischrotēs, which is from aischros, meaning “indecent.” Aischrotēs refers to any kind of shameful conduct. It refers to conduct which, if done in God’s presence, would make a person embarrassed or ashamed.
The words “foolish talking” are translated from mōrologia, which is made up of mōros (from which we get our English word “moron”), meaning foolish, and legō, meaning “to speak.”
“Coarse jesting” is translated from eutrapelia, which is composed or eu, meaning “good” or “well” but also interpreted as “easily” and a form of trepō, meaning “to turn.” Thus, the root meaning of this word is “well turned” or “easily turned.” In a positive sense it is a reference to a person who is quick witted and can easily turn a phrase. In a negative sense it refers to someone who can take ordinary speech and make it vulgar or crude. This seems to be Paul’s intent in today’s verse.
Anēkō is the word translated “proper.” It is made up of ana, meaning “up” and hēkō, meaning “to come here.” So, we can see that the root meaning of anēkō is “to come up here,” that is, “to reach a certain point.” It is a picture of reaching up to an expected limit. You may recall from yesterday’s verse that prepō (to heap up) is an expression of what is suitable or proper. Anēkō is a similar idiom referring to something that has measured up to a given standard.
“Giving of thanks” is translated from the Greek noun eucharistia, which refers to gratitude, thankfulness, or thanksgiving.
Meaning Explained
In the previous verse we learned that God has made every Christian a saint. That is to say that God has “set us apart” from the world to a place where we are usable by Him. In verse thirty of the previous chapter we learned that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, which means that God will complete His promise of salvation without fail. Does that mean that we can live however we want, knowing that our salvation is guaranteed? Absolutely not! Paul addresses this very question in the sixth chapter of Romans where he says:
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be nullified, that we should no longer be servants of sin. (Romans 6:6)
Before salvation, we were owned by sin, we couldn’t avoid it. But now we have been set free. We have a choice to sin or not to sin. That doesn’t mean we can’t sin or we don’t sin, for we can, and we do. Whenever we let our “old man” (our sin nature) have control, we do things that are not fitting, not proper, and not appropriate for Christians. Paul mentioned some of these things in yesterday’s verse, and now he mentions a few others.
We Christians should live our lives with the realization that Jesus Christ is standing (or sitting) beside us. We should not do things that would make us ashamed in His presence. We should not use language that is dirty or offensive to Him. We should not talk like the morons we used to be. Instead, we should spend our lives giving thanks to God for EVERYTHING!
Application
Do you still have trouble with some of the sins Paul has mentioned in the past two verses. Overcome that problem by giving thanks to God for everything in your life.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2015 Will Krause. All rights reserved