Misuse of Words
Good Morning,
I would like to take a few minutes to address the tongue and the evil done with it.
Allow me to first address the way the Lord feels toward those who say things that separate friends. We read about a "forward mouth" or one who uses their words to promote an agenda, one who has a plan of attack and uses words as ammunition. For starters, God hates it!
Proverbs 6:12 “A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.”
vs. 14 “Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.”
vs. 16 “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:"
vs. 19 “A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
We can look many places in the Scripture to passages that deal with words and evil speech, but for the moment, let us focus on the person who uses their "tales" to divide, to separate, and to sow discord.
GOD HATES THAT PERSON. That is what we just read...
vs. 16 “These six things doth the LORD hate…
Vs. 19 … he that soweth discord among brethren.”
God is speaking of a person who has used their words to separate friends. It makes God angry.
Proverbs 16:28 “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.”
God hates the use of words to divide or to cause hurt between believers. Consider Paul as he writes to the church at Corinth:
1 Corinthians 1:10 “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
Paul says the divided, fussing Christians are "babies" and need to grow up.
1 Corinthians 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
vs. 3 “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”
Strife, contention, and wounds from words are a big issue to the Lord, believers are told to STOP USING WORDS TO HURT PEOPLE!
Proverbs 26:20 “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth."
vs. 21 “As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.”
vs. 22 “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.”
God wants us to work at keeping close not at using foolish and corrupt communication to divide the brethren. Those who do so are in great peril.
Paul deals with these activities in a general manner in Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:20 .”..debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:”
Believers need to get a grip on their words. Stop using words to hurt people; find a biblical manner in which to speak. The use of words to cause division will be dealt with by God in a harsh way.
Pastor