Excuse me . . . but may I ask you to please watch your language?!

Now, I am not implying that you are the kind of individual who goes around cussing and swearing and using the Lord's name in vain. I surely hope you don't do that, but even if you do, chances are I wouldn't say anything to you about it. I often hear people who belong to the world use vulgar language and I usually don't confront them with their problem. What I do is just silently pray that God will help them. Oh, I suppose, once in a while, if it gets too bad, I may say something; that is, if I can do it without being judgmental.

I remember a time when I was on a street corner talking with some young people, and when the boys in the group articulated some rotten profanity, I said, "Hey guys . . . don't you realize there are young ladies here?" But then when the young ladies began to speak, some of their words were as bad as the boys' and I didn't know what to say to them.

What I meant when I asked you to watch your language is for you to listen to how you speak and to evaluate for yourself if you are using the right language for the location in which you are living. For example, if you live in England, are you speaking English? Or if you live in France, are you speaking in French? To get right to the point, let me put it this way: If you are a child of God, are you speaking the language of the Kingdom of God?

Suppose you moved to another country that had only one language which was different from yours. You certainly wouldn't expect the people of that country to change their language to accommodate you. If you didn't know their language, you would have to learn it or else you would find it very hard to communicate; and your life would be one big struggle.

If you wanted to set up a web page to communicate on the Internet, surely you wouldn't expect all the computers in the world to be changed to accommodate your personal language. You would have to use the Hypertext Markup Language of the World Wide Web.

It only stands to reason that anyone who has moved into the Kingdom of God should learn to speak the home language. How can we expect to communicate with the Lord, or work along with His holy angels or even with one another as citizens, if we are speaking in our own languages rather than the one language of the Kingdom?

You may be wondering why I am urging you to learn a language that you may think you won't need until your body dies, or until the rapture comes and you land in Heaven. You may feel you have enough on your mind without trying to learn another language to be used sometime in the future. So rather than worrying about it now, you might say that you will cross that bridge when you come to it. But that is not the way it is; you need to know and use the language now . . . right now!

The Bible teaches that when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become the children of God (John 1:12); and that we are instantly delivered from the powers of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God's dear Son (Col.1:13). Seeing, therefore, that we Christians are living in the Kingdom of Jesus right now, it only stands to reason that we should speak the language of His domain while we are still here on earth. Anyone who has not yet come to Christ needs to cross over the Bridge of Life by repenting of their sins and believing the gospel. Once the Bridge is crossed and they have a personal relationship with Jesus, then they need to speak the language of the new life in the Kingdom of God.

There was a time in history when communicating was easy because the whole earth was of one language and speech (Gen. 11:1). People of that time had a good thing going for them, but it didn't last long because they used that gift of communication to bond together in an arrogant, prideful ambition to build the city and tower of Babel. For the good of mankind, the Lord stopped their folly by confounding their language so they could not understand one another's speech. That scattered them abroad throughout the face of the earth (Gen.11:7,8), and put an end to their foolish building (at least for awhile). Today, there are thousands of different languages in the world. English appears to have become the one that will be used to bond the world together once again. Some will use the opportunity of having one main language to spread the good news about Jesus, but the world is already using it for its own kind of a building program.

I have read that in the country of Nigeria, English is the main language; second, is Yoruba, and then there are several hundred other languages spoken by different tribes. Is it any wonder that country is having such a struggle trying to advance when it has so many different languages?

It is not that way in the Kingdom of God because there is only one language spoken there. All we who belong to it should have an easy time communicating with and understanding one another. Jesus taught us to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, but the way things should be are not always the way things are in the family of believers. Much of the division and confusion in Christianity is caused by us not speaking in the one language of the Kingdom. That one language is the Language of Love!

The Bible says, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Eph.4:29). We do not need to curse and swear as some worldly people often do, or to complain and gossip, which is a horrible way to speak. By the grace of God, we can live in this world and not take on its corrupt manner of speech. How and what we speak is of great importance. The Bible states, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof" (Prov.18:21). If we love life, we will eat the fruit of life and speak the Language of Love. If we love death, we will eat the fruit of death, and corrupt communication will proceed out of our mouths.

Do not underestimate the power of hearing as well as the power of speaking. How we listen and what we hear has a great effect on the quality of our lives. Some people claim they have found ways to handle things that they should not hear. One woman told me, "I know how to shut people off. I can just click a button and I don't hear a thing they are saying." A man said to me, "All that stuff just goes in one ear and out the other." Those may be some ways to deal with corrupt communication, but they do not always work; for sometimes the things we hear get buried within and lie unnoticed until they rise up to haunt us at a later date.

It is as easy to take in a juicy chunk of gossip as it is to eat a piece of junk food. What we "eat" with our ears, whether it be good or bad, often goes deep down into our very being and has a profound effect on our spiritual health. The Bible says, "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words" (Prov.23:6-8). You may think it is simply being polite and caring to listen to someone who complains, gossips, criticizes or speaks negatively about most everything; but don't be deceived because the Bible warns that "evil communications corrupt good manners" or, as a more modern translation puts it, ". . . if you listen to them you will start acting like them" (1Cor.15:33).

You could show real love for someone who is speaking to you with an "evil eye" by saying, "Excuse me, but I don't want to hear that." Their words may be "dainty meats" to your carnal nature, but if, by listening, you swallow what they say, you will become sick and vomit up their words by repeating them to someone else. When someone tries to feed you contaminated words, rather than listening, you could respond by saying, "Stop throwing up on me!"; but then it may be better the first few times they do it, to just let them know you don't want to indulge in that type of conversation.

It doesn't matter what earthly language you use as long as you speak the Language of Love. Think about your communication to others as a way of feeding people. Let your words be sweet words that edify and minister grace to the hearer; words that bring healing, comfort, encouragement and joy to people; words that bring praise, glory and honor to God. The Bible says that "a wholesome tongue is a tree of life" (Prov.15:4); "the tongue of the wise is health" (Prov.12:18); and "the mouth of a righteous man is a well of life" (Prov.10:11).

The language of love is communicated in more ways than words through our vocal cords. Sometimes we speak the loudest by being quiet; even silence has a language of its own. A Christian man once told me of an experience he had when he went to a hospital to visit a dying friend. He said, "I just sat by his bedside for hours. He could not speak to me and I could not speak to him; it was strange but it was the best conversation we ever had. I never, in my lifetime, experienced such a communication of love with another person."

Have you had someone, whom you cannot remember even speaking to, tell you how much you have helped them? Perhaps it was more your lifestyle that spoke to them than your words, for actions speak louder than words

You can buy books that will teach you how to speak German or Spanish, but the Language of Love is different; it cannot be self-taught. You cannot learn it at a college for it cannot be learned with the mind. Neither can you learn it from any religion. The only One who is qualified to teach the Language of Love is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you" (John 16:13,14). We are not taught the Language of Love by learning to speak words, but by learning more of The Word, and Jesus is called "the Word" (John 1:1 & 14; Rev. 19:13). We should not read the Bible to learn doctrines; we should read it to learn more of Jesus!

I used to think that if I could learn to speak more than one language, it would help me to share the good news about Jesus with more people. First, I struggled trying to learn sign language; then, it was an attempt at Spanish. But the only thing I learned was that it is best for me to stick to English, for I still need to work on that one to be able to speak it properly.

It may be hard to learn any of the world's languages, but that is not the way it is in the Kingdom of God. It is not difficult at all to learn to speak the Language of Love; in fact, you don't even have to try to learn it because it just comes automatically. Now what could be easier than that?

Some time ago I was talking with a Christian friend who was telling me how he had just come through a dark spell in his spiritual life. He told me how shocked he was at the words he heard coming out of his own mouth. He said that he found himself using swear words that had not been in his vocabulary since he had become a born again Christian; it had come about without him even being aware that his language was changing. What happened was that he got a new job which was an hour's drive from his house, and in order to save on gas money, he joined a car pool. So he spent two hours a day, five days a week, with four men who conversed with one another using the course language of the world. He soon realized it was costing him much more than the money he was saving on gas and decided to drive to work by himself. He broke out with a big smile as he told me how good it was to have that hour in the morning on the way to work, and the hour driving home, to pray, sing and praise the Lord and to listen to good messages on his car's cassette player. Being in the company of Jesus restored his life as well as his language.

Just as my friend caught the course, worldly language from being with his car pool companions, you can catch the Language of Love by being with Jesus. Spending time with Him is what makes speaking the Language of Love so easy. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more we fall in love with Him and the more we will speak the language of His Kingdom. What could be easier or more delightful than falling in love with Jesus?!

And what could bring more joy to you than knowing the personal love of God? If you find it difficult to realize the love that God has in His heart for you, perhaps it is because you are not aware of how valuable you are to Him. To begin to comprehend your worth to God, you must take a look at what it cost Him to make you His very own. The price tag is attached to the cross of Calvary!

You don't know how much time you have left to spend here on earth, but what remaining time you do have, why not use it to the fullest by basking in the love of God? If you do that, you will be delighted to find yourself--by your words and by your love for life--fluently communicating in the Language of Love.