Verbiage – All Talk And No Walk
1 Cor. 4:19-20

A. Corinth had some serious spiritual problems. Some of them were given to being carnal while at the same time trying to appear spiritual. 1 Cor. 4:19.
Impressive talk about God is not the same thing as actual, living, doing life in Him. We need to understand that Eloquent words about God may sound good and make us feel good and appear to be good. And there’s certainly no shortage today of people who give a profound appearance of deep spirituality. But our relationship with God is not determined by either the eloquence or the profundity of our talk. Mark it well: not even the truthfulness of our words are enough, by itself, to guarantee a real relationship with God!
(A) It is tempting to stay in the realm of talk and never venture out into the real world of action. After all, it is easy and pleasant to talk about God. When we verbalize truths about God, we not only feel a sense of spiritual satisfaction about ourselves,
but, others also come to think of us as being wise and spiritually mature.
(1) It’s easy to talk about God in such a way that the true emptiness of our
hearts is concealed, from both from others or ourselves. People who do
that are living an exceedingly dangerous life.
As the painful realities that could draw us toward a real relationship with God are buried beneath a blanket of fine religious words, we may discover that our own verbiage has become our greatest hindrance in moving toward God. Endlessly repeating the truths about God can easily become a substitute for dealing with the truth about ourselves.
(2) We need to be familiar with the biblical warnings against words?only religion. Paul, for example, warned about “idle talkers.” In Titus 1:10. Those are the people he discusses in Vs. 16, indicating that such people “profess to know God, but in works they deny Him.”
(1) And Jesus Himself spoke sternly on the subject in Matt. 15:8, saying, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”
(2) These scriptures a warning to All who’ve slipped the assumption that if our words sound good, that’s all we need to be concerned about. The soundness of our faith involves more than the sound of our words.
(3) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 08/25/02 pm