You’ve heard of the expression “I’ll wash your mouth out with soap”? My grandmother was quite a literalist. She dragged me into the kitchen, put on her rubber dishwashing gloves, wiped a generous glob of liquid soap onto an old grimy sponge, and proceeded to vigorously scour my tongue, teeth, and gums.

Have you heard about suppressed memories?

It’s a phenomenon where you deliberately forget about something that happened to you because of how unpleasant it was. Well, some time ago I had a suppressed memory resurface and I re-lived a childhood trauma.

I have a little watercooler that was given to me as a gift, and I thought it would be a nice addition to my office. So I pulled it off the shelf and noticed it was a bit dusty. I put it in the kitchen, hoping my wife would get the hint that it needed a clean before I had to do it myself. Later that day I saw it was clean, full of water, and plugged in on the kitchen counter. The ice-cold fresh water looked inviting, so I poured a glass and took a swig of it, only to discover that my wife had cleaned it with dish soap and the taste was still very much present! (That’ll teach me to shirk my share of the cleaning.)

At that moment I had a flashback to a memory that I had totally blocked from my mind. I was about five years old and starting to toy with taboo words and experiment with the use of the fouler shades of the English language. One day my grandmother overheard me teaching some colorful vocabulary to my younger cousins and she took it upon herself to help me clean up my act. Literally.

You’ve heard of the expression “I’ll wash your mouth out with soap”? My grandmother was quite a literalist. She dragged me into the kitchen, put on her rubber dishwashing gloves, wiped a generous glob of liquid soap onto an old grimy sponge, and proceeded to vigorously scour my tongue, teeth, and gums.

Previously we looked at Instructions on how to repent and then specifically, how to repent of lying, anger, and stealing. In our text today Paul takes out the scouring brush and dish soap and goes to work on our mouths.

3 Steps of Speech Therapy To Wash Your Mouth Out With The Water Of God’s Word

1. Refrain: Spit Out The Rot

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths,

The word corrupt means rotten. It’s like when you bite into a nice juicy apple, only to get a mouthful of fermenting, worm-ridden black rot in your mouth. You would spit that out. Well, you need to spit out your rotten speech.

Let’s identify some corrupt talk:

• Gossip: Just because something is true, doesn’t mean you should publish it abroad. e.g. “Have you heard he got fired for stealing?” Proverbs 26:20, 22  For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. …The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.
• Lying and exaggeration: Proverbs 12:19, 22 Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. … Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

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