The Tongue and What it Can Do

This is the sequel to Essay on the Mouth.

“Who shall dwell in Thy Holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh a reproach against his neighbor.” Psalm 15:1-3

In the Bible we can read many verses on speech. There are verses on wrong speech and verses on the kind of speech we want-hood speech. Let’s talk about bad speech first.

There are many different ways we can use our tongue wrongly. First let us talk about jumping to conclusions. There was a girl once who observed another girl doing a thing she thought the girls parents would not want her to do. We will call her Martha. The other girl we will call Marie. Not bothering to ask Marie why she was doing as she was Martha went in search of Marie’s parents. On finding Marie’s mother, Martha told her in an accusing manner what Marie was doing. Martha was quite embarrassed to find Marie was doing no wrong but actually following her mother’s directions!

Now Martha had done at least two things wrong. First she jumped to a hasty conclusion in assuming Marie was doing wrong. She did not know all the facts. Proverbs 18:13 says: “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” Second, Martha when she did come to these conclusions, instead of asking if they were true, told them to Marie’s mother and found out the truth, bringing folly and shame upon herself. We should always ask, never assume. If Martha had asked she could have saved herself from shame.

Also Martha was passing judgment on Marie, which is wrong. Romans 2:1 says: “Therefore, thou art inexcusable o man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” That means that the things you judge other people about, you also do yourself. That can be rather embarrassing if pointed out while you are passing judgment. We know to be like Jesus we must not wrongly judge others.

Something else people do is gossip and spread rumors about others. If a friend tells you a private thing about themselves or a rumor or story about someone else, keep it to yourself. What if the person the rumor or story is about hears of and it hurts them. Or if someone had told only you about their private thing because they trusted you and they heard it repeated else where, it could hurt them and it could really destroy your friendship. The Bible tells us, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted… Let’s stop there… tenderhearted. I think that those who are kind to others and tenderhearted won’t repeat something unkind, rude or even just ridiculously silly or embarrassing someone else did, to another person. It might really hurt the person whom the story is about.

Something many children have had a problem with (including myself) is inappropriate speech to our parents. In Ephesians 6:2 it says: “Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.” Now this verse says two things. First it says to honor our parents. If we do that we will always be respectful, even when we don’t agree with them. We won’t ever argue, talk back, yell at them or say things we would not say to Jesus to them. The second thing it says is that this is “the first commandment with promise”. Meaning it is the first commandment to have a promise with it. What promise is that? Well if we continue to read onto verse 3, it says: “That it may be well with tee, and thou mayest live long in the earth.” So if we honor our parents God will bless us.

Next I want to speak about good speech. In Proverbs 25:11 it says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” If we speak the right word at the right time it can really be prized.

In Proverbs 12:25 it tells us: “Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.” That verse is telling that trouble can make a person depressed but a gook word can help them and make them glad.

There are other things which I could find to write about, but I shall save them for a future volume.

“If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart; this mans religion is in vain.”  James 3:5

“…Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”  James 1:19-20

“A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger.”   Proverbs 15: 1

Love in Christ,

Rebekah ~ The Lord’s Daughter