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)