CONTROL YOUR TONGUE - WHAT DOES IT MEAN ?

                                                                                                                                                                           

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                                                               Proverbs 18:21(GNB) says: “What you say can preserve life or destroy it; so you must accept the consequences of your words.” It means, what we say creates results of either building-up or causing destruction to our hearers. Therefore, it is very important to keep our tongue in control and use it in a proper way. According to a Bible commentator, in a particular harbor, all the ships have to go through what is called the three golden-gates and at each gate some kind of checking is done to certify if they are fit for the ocean-journey. Likewise, he suggested, before any word comes out of our mouth, we should go through three checks and only then speak out the words. The (modified) check-points at those gates are given below:

A. Is it true? Not everything that we hear can be necessarily true. Proverbs 14:15(GNB) says: “A fool will believe anything; . . .” If we just communicate to others what we have heard without verifying if what we heard is true, we will be branded as liars.

B. Is it necessary? We are not expected to communicate everything to others, even if it is true. It’s a sheer waste of time and energy. Is it required for one to know all that we want to tell that person? Will there be any problem if we do not convey that information? Think about these questions, decide judiciously and act accordingly.

C. Its effect on unprepared hearts: Some people, particularly new born believers, may not be able to take if told about, say, a particular spiritual personality that they esteem has been linked to some kind of fault. This could result in discouragement of such people from following the Lord or may even knock off their faith. Also, some people, though long time followers of the Lord, but have not yet deliberately overcome some negative attitudes, like jealously, would find any information about the good of others, too hard to digest and react in an unpleasant way. Therefore, it is better not to tell such things to such people until they really grow-out of such negative-web and are strong enough to receive any good news.

If we are indulging, either directly or indirectly, in putting down people or putting someone in bad light or by not rendering ‘honor to whom honor is due’, we are actually operating from the side of the evil-one to fulfill its purposes. We can visualize what reward the evil-one gives after using such an available person. At the fag-end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Bible says, satan entered the heart of Judas and after using him to betray the Lord, motivated him to commit suicide. This is satan’s principle, use any available person and then destroy him. Think of these consequences before yielding your tongue to the evil-one.

A saying goes like this: “Nobody raises his own reputation by lowering others.”