Altar
Call – Opelika-Auburn News
July 1,
2012
Loose tongues
can kill people without drawing blood
Words are powerful. Words can
destroy; words can give life. Words can be vicious. They can be gracious. Words
can kill. Words can heal. Words can pierce the heart with pain or fill the
heart with joy. Words have remarkable power.
Someone
has said “The tongue is like a sharp knife: it kills without drawing blood.”
Most of us know what it is like to be “cut to pieces” by a verbal assault. Harsh
words can suck the life out of you. A Jewish proverb says “Loose tongues are
worse than wicked hands.”
Some years ago Grace Ketterman wrote
a helpful book titled Verbal Abuse: Healing the Hidden Wound.
Ketterman shattered the myth that verbal abuse “isn’t so bad.” It is bad – so
bad that it devastates millions of people. Ketterman’s insights can help
wounded people find hope and healing. You can still buy the book for a dollar
from www.abebooks.com.
There are other books that offer us
advice about how to deal with words – our own as well as those spoken by others.
Such books speak to an abiding human need. All of us have been brought to our
knees by our own misspoken words or by the hurtful, angry words others have
spoken to us. None of us is perfect. Even devout believers are guilty, as James
says in the Bible, of making “many mistakes” in speaking.
The Letter of James can help us wrestle
with a loose tongue. James speaks bluntly about the unruly tongue. It is “a
fire” that is uncontrollable and able to corrupt the whole body. The tongue’s
fire has its origin in hell and thus is a tool of Satan. The devil uses the
fire of the tongue to separate us from one another and from God. This
divisiveness soon gives way to anger and hatred. Wrongly used, words can
destroy people, ruining reputations and relationships.
James
says that the tongue is so powerful that no human being can tame or control it.
The bewildering truth is that one day the tongue will praise God and the next
day curse someone. So James laments, “Brothers and sisters, this ought not to
be so”!
Is there no remedy for this problem?
Yes, James says, there is a solution. The answer is wisdom – God’s wisdom. We
can obtain it by admitting our need and calling upon God. Earthly wisdom is
insufficient.
At the risk of sounding simplistic
the key to taming the tongue is to invite the Holy Spirit to take over. The
Spirit can tame our tongue; we cannot. But the Spirit must first be given
control of our mind and heart.
When
the Spirit is in control he guides us to know when to be silent and when to
speak. He gives us the power to resist gossiping or to speak cruelly to others
and the power to speak words of love and peace. Words of loving encouragement
can bring healing to wounded souls. Words of affirmation can help restore those
whose self-esteem has been crushed by destructive words.
John
Wesley tells of crossing a narrow bridge on horseback and finding his path blocked
by another man on horseback, a man who had no use for Wesley. The man refused
to back up or allow Wesley to pass, and said, “I shall not give way to a fool.”
Wesley replied, “Then I shall,” and pulled his horse aside so the man could
pass.
Wesley,
the founder of Methodism, was often a wise steward of words. The Spirit helped
him discern when to “yield to others” and when to speak the truth in love so
that his words could produce “a harvest of righteousness.” By surrendering our
tongues to the Spirit’s control we can do that also.
Though
we will never become perfect in speaking, we can improve. We can call upon the
Spirit to inject our minds with God’s wisdom so that our words become less
hurtful to others and more pleasing to the Lord. We can become more skilled in
planting seeds of peace with our words.
We
can make it our heart’s desire that the words of our mouth be words of blessing
and not cursing. We can join with the Psalmist in praying, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm
19:14). Let it be, Lord, let it be. + + +