Unwelcome Guests

One of the things I love about this season of the year is the arrival of the warm weather birds.  I really enjoy watching the finches and the hummingbirds, and their other feathered friends, at our birdfeeders. What welcome guests they are every year. This year we have some new guests.  Two crows have made themselves at home on the porch rail.  These unwelcome guests, with their raucous cawing, are really getting on my nerves!!  Unwelcome guests, indeed!

I've put Al in charge of getting rid of the crows.  I really don't care how he does it.  I've been told that it's illegal to shoot them, although I confess that it's hard for me to be very sympathetic to that position.  But as I said, Al's in charge of that. He's a better shot than I am, so........

Anyway. Yesterday, as I was studying a completely unrelated topic, I came across some verses that brought those unwelcome crows back to mind.  It's a passage about some attitudes and actions that could be thought of as "unwelcome guests" in our lives.

"But now you must put them all away:  anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth."  (Colossians 3:8 ESV)

That's pretty straightforward, isn't it?  No beating around the bush.  Put these things away.  Put them all away.  In other words, these are not welcome in our lives.

Put them all away.  Any questions?

I looked up each of those words in The Complete Word Study New Testament by Spiros Zodhiates.  Here's some of what I learned:

The word translated as wrath refers to "outbursts of anger", while the word translated as anger refers to a state of mind.  Anger is a perpetual state, one that Aristotle described as "desire with grief".  The word translated as malice takes this even farther, to "wickedness as an evil habit of the mind, the endeavor to do evil to others, emanating from being inherently evil."

I would venture to say that, if you are reading this, you don't qualify as filled with malice.  However, what about anger?  Or have you had any outbursts of wrath lately?  We don't often use that word wrath in our everyday conversation, but I think we can all relate to occasional outbursts of anger or fits of temper.  And what are we supposed to do with those temper tantrums?  Put them aside.  Put them away.  Get rid of them.  Let them go.  Hmmmm........

Moving on through the verse, slander is exactly what you think it is....."verbal abuse, wounding someone's reputation". 

What about obscene talk (or abusive speech, as it is translated in the NASB)?

The original Greek word, aischrologia, is only used here in the New Testament and Zodhiates gives us this definition:  "refers to shameful words coming out of the mouth, implying that the person who has been redeemed by Christ should never utter improper or filthy words which he may have uttered in his life before Christ."

Now we have the full list of "unwelcome guests".  Perpetual state of anger, outbursts of temper, slander, obscene or abusive words.  If we're honest with ourselves, we would likely be forced to admit that one or two of these guests have visited us from time to time.  But even those occasional visits need to be dealt with.  And what about when one or two (or more!) of those guests takes up residence?

Remember the instruction of the verse:  Put them all away.  All.

Get rid of those unwelcome guests.  Invite some new guests in their place.

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience......and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."  (Colossians 3:12,14 ESV)