Sins of the Tongue - Conflagration

Introduction

"Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."
—Colossians 4:6

The article below is not my proprietary work by any means, and a pastor-friend Lawrence Underwood devised it. I think it is both sound, succinct and prudent. It is about the sins of the tongue. As Job 6:24 instructs us, "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred." Psalm 34:13 tells us, "Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit." The tongue is an unruly evil, and we should be quick to guard our tongue and what we say.

Conflagration
by Pastor Lawrence Underwood

It can start in such an insignificant manner. A campfire not properly extinguished. A tossed out butt from a cigarette. A single lightning strike. Even a broken piece of glass in the sunlight. Every year tens of thousands of acres of forest are lost to carelessness. While this is an ecological issue that can endanger the lives of local citizens and wildlife the damage it causes is temporal. There is an greater danger of conflagration that can happen. It is a spiritual fire. One that can destroy a family, church, and/or community.

James tells us, 'How great a fire is set ablaze by such a small fire! The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the eintre course of life, and set on fire by hell itself.' Think about that: the putrid sulphorous flame of hell within our own bodies.

Such calamity and destruction normally begins in a small manner. An unkind word, a taunting jest, a critical look each of these can be the spark that in time results in a full blown conflagration - devouring everything in its path. Just as a forest fire can, given enough size, climatical and topographical conditions develop its own wind drafts to move itself along; so can the fire of destruction in a family or congregation. At those times it is impossible to stop apart from the work of the Holy Spirit among us.

How many families have been destroyed by a careless word? How many congregations have split because of a selfish comment? Christians living in community must guard their tongues. Else, we perish.


Ryan's Closing Thoughts

Well, this is Ryan writing again. My friend Lawrence Underwood blogs at this web site, http://lawrenceu.blogspot.com/.

The tongue might not be echoing deceit at all, but some uncomfortable truths, and somethings are better left unsaid. Sometimes, it is better not to point out wrongs committed against us and simply turn the other cheek. Likewise, making revelation of someone's faults, or lashing out verbally or responding to an antagonist in jest can produce dire results. I'm talking from experience. According to 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NASB), love "...does not take into account a wrong suffered." This is not always something I am keen to embrace, and no one doth protest a wrong more than me sometimes. Wisdom holds its tongue. And we could all stand to be more meek and wiser, and guard what we say with our mouth.

2 Timothy 2:16 says, "But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness." This is more than just an exhortation against cursing. A good Christian can fall into a permissive mentality about what he says, simply by reasoning that as long as his language does NOT involve cursing, then it is permissible, no matter how foolish it might be. Oh, how we err by this mentality of permissiveness?

While I never thought about myself as much of a gossip, I have erred eggregiously before in spiting an antagonist verbally. Needless to say, the tongue can get you in a whole world of trouble. I think it is good to heed what this pastor has to say. Pastor Underwood's exhortation is most assuredly sound.
—Ryan Setliff