"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" - Ephesians 4: 29 (NIV).
The Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the believers in the city of Ephesus with a view to help them mature in Christ. He dwells on personal relations among members and points out that there talk should be positive, emphasising the point of "building each other up"!
Anyone of us might have come across someone easily given to negative talk. Or let's call it care less talk whose aim is nothing but to pull others down. The person who engages in such talk might have personal issues frustrating him. However, rather than deal with those issues, projects that bitterness on to others.
No one, if any, enjoys visiting someone who specialises in negative talk, except the one who is equally frustrated and perhaps might take comfort when he is not the target. There are negative talkers who have nothing good to say about anyone- aside from themselves! But be aware and do not fall under that guise as they pile abuse on someone else. The day you upset them, or even just disappear from their view for a period, then you are easily the next choice of attack.
There is little you can learn from negative talkers other than sucking you into their poison. This is why Paul felt it important to urge believers that when we meet we should all focus on talk that builds each other up than puts others down. It is that talk which then sparks our energy to do good, serving and extending the kingdom of God!
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I pray that my tongue may be uplifting of others and not pull others down, this I pray in Jesus's name.