25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 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. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4)

Yesterday, we saw the impact that grace can have on how we view one another in the body of Christ - as gifts from God.  Today we want to look at how grace affects our speech, and our hearts behind it. We might call this paragraph "the grace-filled mouth." First of all, God gives us the ability to tell the truth, even if we have a tendency toward lying. Secondly, the grace of God gives us the ability to control our angry speech: since we look at one another through grace-filled eyes, God can give us the ability to not respond vengefully in our hearts and with our lips. In verse 28 Paul seems to turn away from talking about our speech when he exhorts us to not be lazy, but work hard - but what is the resoning behind than: because we want to be able to help each other - it is that same -grace-filled desire to do something for one another that drives our desire to work. He then returns to our speech and says "remember what we are talking about here: building each other up - make sure your speak encourages your fellow believer - that it gives them grace to go on and do what they find hard to do on their own." Infect one another with God's grace.  Always working hand in hand with the grace of God is the Spirit of God: let Him flow as grace flows through you.  Don't allow things like unresolved anger or bitterness or malice - that attitude that says "I hope something bad happens to you because of what you did to me - don't let those things settle in your heart and come out of your mouth. How can we do that? By forgiving one another constantly and continuously, just like God, in His great grace and mercy, as forgiven us.  May our mouths be filled with grace today.