October 27 – LD 43, Day 6: Our Great Need for Purified Speech
by Pastor Steven Key

Proverbs 17:4: “A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.”

As those who come under the accusation of God in Psa 12:4, we often live echoing the thought, "our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" Instead of defending and promoting the honour and good character of our neighbour, in accordance with the calling to love our neighbours as ourselves, we hurt our neighbours with our speech and sin against God.

In Psa 15, the question is brought before God: “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” And the answer follows: “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.” Sometimes there are those in the church who are so caught up in sins of the tongue, that they cannot possibly receive a blessing in the sanctuary of God. God will not give them His covenant fellowship and the comfort of His loving presence. And it becomes a vicious circle. As chastisement of their own sins, they receive no blessing from God; so they speak all the more evil of the church, all the while refusing to examine their own wicked attitudes and tongues. So it will continue, until God in mercy awakens them to their utter wickedness, they repent of their repeated backbiting and evil-speaking, and turn again unto the Lord.

The devastation wrought by an evil tongue is a devastation that runs far and wide. This sin explodes its shrapnel into very wide territory. While the Catechism lists rather extensively the various forms in which the tongue shows itself as set on fire of hell, the fact is that the ways of evil are so many, that the Catechism finally must sum it up by the expression, “all sorts of lies and deceit,” so as not to overlook any. It is a simple fact, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” 1 John 1:8).But on the other hand — and how important this is — “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)