Some of the various ways the tongue can damage or injure:
1. When it is used for gossip: Gossip is saying negative things about a person when they are not present. It can also involve the telling of a truth that does not need to be told for the purpose of hurting someone. Sometimes we gossip by saying nothing when we hear things that we know are not true and say nothing to correct them. We also promote gossip by simply listening to it. Why is gossip so destructive? One reason is that it spreads uncontrollably. It also destructive because it warps the truth. People expand on what they hear until the rumor gets worse and worse.
2. When it is used to slander: This is defined as saying negative things about someone else in their presence. The word “slander” literally means “ripping of flesh”. When applied to speech it intentionally hurts someone with the words you say about them. When we slander someone we not only involve ourselves and the other person–we also involve God. “Blasphemy” is literally putting God down. God made all humans. So when we slander fellow human, it is blasphemy because in so doing, we insult the God who made that person, loves that person and sent Jesus to die for that person.
3. When it speaks lies and exaggerations: A local church body cannot be healthy if lying is a common practice within its membership. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” When we don’t put away truthless-ness people become afraid to reach out. They become afraid to move because they don’t know whom to trust.
4. When it grumbles and complains: Even when we try to resist being influenced by such negativism, we find some of it rubbing off. This passing around of the poison of pessimism happens every day, and it steals our joy. It creates an atmosphere of wholesale negativism where nothing but the bad side of everything is emphasized.
Is this little two-ounce muscle in our mouths the problem? In Luke 6:45, Jesus unmasks the real culprit. He says, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” So, the tongue is actually neither friend nor foe. The tongue is merely a messenger that delivers the dictates of the heart, either for good or evil.
If you are guilty of using the tongue in a destructive way, remember the words of the prophet Isaiah 6:5-7, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Do you remember God’s response to this confession of Isaiah? God sent an angel to fly to Isaiah with a live coal in his hand taken from the altar. Isaiah 6:5-7 says, “With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Let’s stop right now and ask God to do the same for you and me.
(MARK ADAMS)