Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps. (Verses 1-3)
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. James 3
The family living in the townhouse behind us just moved out this weekend. They were leasing, but had been there for as long as we've owned our place. It's quiet back there now in the home across the driveway. Gone are the chattering of two little girls and the smoke wafting into our house when the chain smoking mom puffed on her patio. Gone, also, is the screaming. Berating of children using some of the foulest language imaginable. It got so bad one night that Vanessa called the police. Wrote the dad a note the next day and left it in the mailbox. "You're destroying your children." It's not just that he cursed at them. He told them who they are. I have to say nicely what their dad said in the most vulgar terms. They were useless. Worthless. Stupid. His demands were always laced with invectives. But they came to neighborhood block parties like they were the "Leave it to Beaver" family.
I taught high school for several years so I know what that looks like when a kid is growing up. And it's not pretty. What you've been told about yourself by the parents who raise you will take its toll. There is the young woman with chronic stomach problems, headaches and breathing issues. Smart. Capable. Always saying, "I'm sorry." When she's done nothing wrong. Doctors could find no diagnosis, but when she went to counseling, she discovered the physical manifestations were rooted in the prison she felt herself to be in. The fence of her incarceration thrown up by the words of her father. The boy who acts out for attention so he's always in detention. His mother always told him he was good for nothing. He plays that role pretty well. I've heard a father scream at his young son, "No one will ever like you!" And I know of a young woman who, in her twenties, is still working through her father telling her that "No one will ever marry you!" She's married. And very loved. But extremely insecure about who might find her valuable. An adult friend was so riddled by her mother's fierceness that it took several months in lock-up in a mental facility for her to come to grips with her own dissociative behavior. Venom of the asp, lurking beneath the tongue, is deadly. We don't have to go further than the nearest newspaper to see the latest suicide of a teen who could no longer take the beatings delivered by other teens whose tongues played out their restless evil. We don't have to hit someone to abuse them.
If, as Jesus said in Matthew 12, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks," there is something frightfully wrong and evil with someone constantly killing with their words. They've been thinking mean things before they say them. Ruminating on what is unpleasant, at least, and evil, at worst. Jesus compared it to a good tree and a bad tree, which makes sense. A good tree, with healthy sap and deep roots, produces a crop of good fruit. A bad tree, with shallow roots perhaps planted in iffy soil, produces shriveled inedible fruit. But fruit indeed. That's why He goes on to say that "by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned." Not that your words are anything, but your heart is the dictionary you use to form your sentences. If it's rotten...well.
"No one's righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks after God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one." King Solomon's assessment in Ecclesiastes. That's our dilemma. God knew it. Had to fix it. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand. And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe, and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to be crucified (Matthew 27). Italics, mine
Jesus was in court because liars had been paid to be witnesses for the prosecution. The tongues of the religious elite wagged in jealousy and self-righteousness the entire time Jesus was healing the sick, raising the dead, and freeing the demon possessed. Evil speech was what put Jesus on the cross. Evil taunts still darting through the air as He hung dying there. But Jesus knew He had to fix the heart. No way to stop the deadly curse of the venomous tongue unless God could change the source of its evil.
Those of us indwelt by the Holy Spirit have a choice now. The more we soak in God's Word and marinate in His love, the more our tongue should be tamed. To not speak evil. To not incarcerate our children and loved ones in a hurtful jail from which it will take years to extricate themselves. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (Philippians 4). We live with a wild animal. We must tame it.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. James 3
The family living in the townhouse behind us just moved out this weekend. They were leasing, but had been there for as long as we've owned our place. It's quiet back there now in the home across the driveway. Gone are the chattering of two little girls and the smoke wafting into our house when the chain smoking mom puffed on her patio. Gone, also, is the screaming. Berating of children using some of the foulest language imaginable. It got so bad one night that Vanessa called the police. Wrote the dad a note the next day and left it in the mailbox. "You're destroying your children." It's not just that he cursed at them. He told them who they are. I have to say nicely what their dad said in the most vulgar terms. They were useless. Worthless. Stupid. His demands were always laced with invectives. But they came to neighborhood block parties like they were the "Leave it to Beaver" family.
I taught high school for several years so I know what that looks like when a kid is growing up. And it's not pretty. What you've been told about yourself by the parents who raise you will take its toll. There is the young woman with chronic stomach problems, headaches and breathing issues. Smart. Capable. Always saying, "I'm sorry." When she's done nothing wrong. Doctors could find no diagnosis, but when she went to counseling, she discovered the physical manifestations were rooted in the prison she felt herself to be in. The fence of her incarceration thrown up by the words of her father. The boy who acts out for attention so he's always in detention. His mother always told him he was good for nothing. He plays that role pretty well. I've heard a father scream at his young son, "No one will ever like you!" And I know of a young woman who, in her twenties, is still working through her father telling her that "No one will ever marry you!" She's married. And very loved. But extremely insecure about who might find her valuable. An adult friend was so riddled by her mother's fierceness that it took several months in lock-up in a mental facility for her to come to grips with her own dissociative behavior. Venom of the asp, lurking beneath the tongue, is deadly. We don't have to go further than the nearest newspaper to see the latest suicide of a teen who could no longer take the beatings delivered by other teens whose tongues played out their restless evil. We don't have to hit someone to abuse them.
If, as Jesus said in Matthew 12, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks," there is something frightfully wrong and evil with someone constantly killing with their words. They've been thinking mean things before they say them. Ruminating on what is unpleasant, at least, and evil, at worst. Jesus compared it to a good tree and a bad tree, which makes sense. A good tree, with healthy sap and deep roots, produces a crop of good fruit. A bad tree, with shallow roots perhaps planted in iffy soil, produces shriveled inedible fruit. But fruit indeed. That's why He goes on to say that "by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned." Not that your words are anything, but your heart is the dictionary you use to form your sentences. If it's rotten...well.
"No one's righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks after God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one." King Solomon's assessment in Ecclesiastes. That's our dilemma. God knew it. Had to fix it. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand. And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe, and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to be crucified (Matthew 27). Italics, mine
Jesus was in court because liars had been paid to be witnesses for the prosecution. The tongues of the religious elite wagged in jealousy and self-righteousness the entire time Jesus was healing the sick, raising the dead, and freeing the demon possessed. Evil speech was what put Jesus on the cross. Evil taunts still darting through the air as He hung dying there. But Jesus knew He had to fix the heart. No way to stop the deadly curse of the venomous tongue unless God could change the source of its evil.
Those of us indwelt by the Holy Spirit have a choice now. The more we soak in God's Word and marinate in His love, the more our tongue should be tamed. To not speak evil. To not incarcerate our children and loved ones in a hurtful jail from which it will take years to extricate themselves. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (Philippians 4). We live with a wild animal. We must tame it.
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