but the perverse tongue will be cut off.
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable,
but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.”
In an argument, in a controversy with someone else, I’m right. Or at least, that’s how I’d like to think about myself. And yet, the fact is, whether or not I’m right (or I win) isn’t really the issue. Whether or not I’m reflecting God’s love to that person is where I should be centered in my thinking. Was I loving? Was I humble? Was I self-controlled?
“The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable.” The NLT says: “The godly speak words that are helpful.” Being right isn’t always being helpful. And being “right” certainly isn’t always being wise. In the end, it won’t matter who was right and who was wrong. What will matter is if we preached the gospel—the good news—to every person we encountered, either by direct words or by our response to them.
I’ve found that, over the years as I’ve matured (and literally grown older), I can control my outbursts in the sense that I don’t scream and yell anymore. My responses are quiet and controlled. But my heart hasn’t seemed to follow my mouth. If I am brutally honest with myself, I find that I’m still arrogant, angry, and wanting to be right. I’m sure that, even through the evenness of my responses, those qualities come blistering through. I know that, in those instances, my mouth doesn’t bring forth wisdom, but that my tongue is still perverse.
Perverse. That word appears twice in this couplet. The KJV translates the Hebrews as “froward.” (Yes, that is spelled correctly.) I’d never encountered that word before as I recall. I had to look up the meaning. It is “habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition.” Ouch! It is the tongue (the heart, the person) who habitually chooses their own way, rather than the Lord’s way; who always has to be right.
The apostle Paul wrote that “if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31 NRSV). God disciplines those He loves. But we have the opportunity to judge ourselves and to discipline ourselves first! I think part of this goes back to the idea of a “sin diary” (or at least some kind of daily accountability where we confess our sins). Dr. Phil often says that we first have to acknowledge something before we can deal with it. We have to confess our sins. The Holy Spirit is there to walk us through the process of regeneration, but first we have to confess where we have sinned, to acknowledge that what we did was horrible in the Lord’s sight and needs His forgiveness and mercy.
But then, we’d have to admit that we were wrong. And that’s a very uncomfortable place to be.
It shouldn’t be (uncomfortable, that is). We know intellectually that we are wrestling with our flesh, with our earthly nature which is opposed to our spirit-person. We need to learn to deny ourselves so that we can follow Him.
Perhaps that is the biggest cross of all.
© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).
No comments:
Post a Comment