Does that title shock you?
I know of some Christian leaders who might have used such a title, for
the article I posted here yesterday, and might have written a very different
article, to boot. The unfortunate truth
is, if you read many Christian blogs, that title probably does not shock
you. In fact, if you are a Christian,
you might get emails from time to time with titles like this, asking you to
forward them to everyone you know. Is
this good? Is this right?
We are studying the book of James in our Thursday night
Bible Study. Last night, we studied the
destructive power of the tongue. For
any follower of Christ, the largest amount of damage we will do in our lives
will be with our figurative tongue. I
say "figurative" because email, social media, and any other form of
communication would fit within what James calls our "tongue."
James uses powerful, huge, scary language, to describe the
dangers of what we say. He tells us
that the tongue is "a restless evil, and full of deadly poison"
(3:8). How could James have stated the
dangers of our communication in a stronger way? You might be able to argue that what he says in verse 6 is stronger. Our tongue, if not controlled, "defiles
the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on
fire by hell."
And strangely, most of the time, the damage we do is largely
unintended. When it comes from our
mouth, or our "pen," it is usually a small comment that we don't
realize will hurt, or we hope will tweak someone a little, but it ends up
offending greatly. This sometimes
happens verbally, but is more common with text or email.
This also has significant implications for parents. It is very easy for parents to focus on the
negatives. While correction is a
necessary and important part of parenting, a good check is, what percentage of
what you say to your kids is negative, and what percentage is positive? Are you speaking to your child or children
like Christ would have you? Are your
negative comments really just for their correction, or largely because they are
bugging you?
Another common example today of the misuse of the tongue
relates to our electronic communication.
Christians often receive emails that slander others, or cut at
reputations, usually with little or no verifiable evidence, and then ask us to
forward to everyone we know. The thing
to remember is this. When you forward
an email, you are now responsible for that content, the same as if you wrote
that email personally, and sent it to all those people. If an email claims something about someone
(something they said, something they believe, something they did) you are
responsible for the truth of those statements.
The same is true of articles you "like," or "share"
on your Facebook page. Far too often,
when Christians are confronted with inaccuracies or lies in something they have
forwarded or shared, they default to, "I didn't write it. I just passed it on..." Yep.
You passed on slander and lies.
Guess what. You're responsible
for those words.
The conclusion that we came to at our Bible Study was that
we need to dwell in the positive, in our communication. We need to think before we speak. Every time we speak, we need to realize that
this mouth of ours is to be blessing, worshipping the Lord.
So continue to ask yourself: Am I building up, or tearing down? Is what I am going to say or write or forward part of worshipping
the Lord, or tearing down to make you feel better about yourself?
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