“When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent” (Prov. 10:19).
“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. … Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear” (Eccl. 5:2-3, 6-7).
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20).
“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding” (Prov. 17:27)
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Prov. 18:21).
“How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water” (James 3:5b-12).
The Most Wise God’s best wisdom is “Be quiet.” God speaks often of our need to be quiet. Can there be any doubt that too many of us talk too much? I know I do. So I need this admonishment from the living word of God. And as I survey the blogosphere today, I feel a deep sadness. For I am a man of unclean lips who blogs among a people of unclean lips. Not only unclean but constantly moving.
To be more precise, the lips don’t concern me. The hearts do. For out of the abundance of the heart, our mouths speak. In our internet, self-publishing, blog-o-matic world the hearts of men have never been more easily seen. The sight frightens. If we see it from God’s vantage point.
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).
“Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts” (Ps. 28:3).
“The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things” (Prov. 15:28).
I had a middle school basketball coach fond of saying, “It’s better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you’re a fool than to open it and prove them correct.” Great counsel. As a middle-schooler I said a lot of foolish things. So I heard this from him a lot. Now that I am a man, childish things are supposed to be put away.
But alas… too much middle-school chatter remains in 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60- and 70-something year-olds supposedly long past braces, acne, and adolescent anxiety. Pastors are slandered. Churches listen and share. Older saints take aim at younger ones. Younger ones retort. Bystanders are shot. HTs name the source and pass the contagion to others. Watchblogs speak rather than watch. Gossips repeat rather than cut off their tongues.
As Ray Ortlund put it recently, “We swim in an ocean of criticism–both stated and implied.” Didn’t he nail that one? Too many of us live a carnival of anger, slander, folly, and indiscretion which we create and keep spinning. It’s a great evil.
It’s also a cautionary tale. “Loose lips do sink ships.” That’s far more than a dated slogan to protect ships during an era of spies and world war. That little ditty has stuck around because it applies to every area of life. Loose lips launch a billion nuclear tactile missiles that torpedo and sink individuals, marriages, families, businesses, careers, teams and churches.
What a world of damage–sometimes irreversible damage–is done with something as seemingly insignificant as words. And what experts we are at excusing odious sin with misleading, self-deceptive words like “vent,” “share,” “open up,” “express,” “be heard,” and so on. Words masking words compounding sin and destruction.
We talk too much.
This post is already too long, saying too much. Brothers and sisters, let us be quiet today. Stop talking. And instead, “let us draw near [to our Holy, speaking, wise God] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).