Fearing God with Our Tongue

Take a look at the sins which Christian leaders were dealing with back in the late 1st century in the days after the death of the last living apostle (John).

2:1 And the teaching of the second commandment is this: 2 You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery; you shall not seduce boys; you shall not fornicate. You shall not steal. You shall not be a fortune-teller; you shall not practice sorcery. You shall not kill a child by abortion nor slay it when born. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. 3 You shall not commit perjury; you shall not give false testimony; you shall not speak evil; you shall not bear malice; 4 you shall not be double-minded or double-tongued, for a double-tongue is a snare of death. 5 Your word shall not be false or empty, but confirmed by deeds. 6 You shall not be greedy or rapacious or hypocritical or malicious or arrogant. You shall not take up an evil plot against your neighbor. 7 You shall not hate anyone, but some you shall rebuke, and some you shall pray for, and some you shall love more than your own soul. - Didache

Thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not corrupt boys. The word of God shall not
come forth from thee where any are unclean. Thou shalt not make a
difference in a person to reprove him for a transgression. Thou shalt
be meek, thou shalt be quiet, thou shalt be fearing the words
which thou hast heard. Thou shalt not bear a grudge against thy
brother.

Thou shalt not doubt whether a thing shall be or not be. Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord in vain. Thou shalt love thy
neighbor more than thine own soul. Thou shalt not murder a child by
abortion, nor again shalt thou kill it when it is born. Thou shalt
not withhold thy hand from thy son or daughter, but from their youth
thou shalt teach them the fear of God. - Barnabas 19:4-5

Other than the command to not slay a child when it is born, it looks like the 1st century world struggled with the same moral issues that the 21st century world struggles with, and it is reported that cultures within China, India, Pakistan, and others have condoned the killing of unwanted children when they are born, particularly female children.

But isn't it interesting that even in these early writings of the church fathers that the sin of thinking and speaking badly of one another is in the lists with murder and adultery and sorcery.

So what is our problem? Why is the tongue such a problem? Jesus said in Matthew 12:36 that we will be held accountable, not just for our bad words, but for our "idle" words. In James 3:8 we read that noone can tame the tongue, that it is an unruly evil, and full of deadly poison. Wow!

Someone that is truly meek and humble is not likely to use their tongue to criticize and tear down others. It is the arrogant and the prideful that readily criticize and find fault, and top of that justify their critical speaking.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
(Pro 1:7)

The beginning of truly knowing the Lord, and understanding His ways is fearing Him. Respecting Him and His word enough to submit, confess our sins, and turn from our sin, rather than justifying it. Some would call this repentance. It's a choice. Justify our sin, or repent of our sin. Many of us can't imagine ourselves ever justifying murder, but can we imagine ourselves justifying a critical and judgmental spirit and evil speaking? Let's fear our God with our tongue, as well as our deeds.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
(Col 3:17)

Yours in Him,
Pastor B.