December 20, 2006
Bite My Tongue
Mothers quote it so often that it seems to have Biblical authority, ‘If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything.’ While swallowing our words may be an important skill to learn, it can also be taken to extremes. The world is so saturated in political correctness that we are afraid to speak truthfully to one another…especially in the church. Whether addressing friend or foe, Jesus, John the Baptist and Paul didn’t always bite their descriptive tongues, “You hypocrite, brood of vipers, you of little faith, dogs, pagans, deceitful, betrayer and even…Satan [get behind me].” Today believers would be aghast and offended at such name calling within the church, but I’m not so sure that we don’t need to hear a few spiritual truths like, “You’re blind, nearsighted, dull, foolish and weak!”
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3 comments:
Gail;
----Such terms would certainly draw the rebuke, "You're mean spirited!" Words are words and mouths are mouths. Words can only mean what they mean, but mouths can speak any of them they choose. When the mouth speaks words that match the circumstances, that is called the truth. The truth comes from the Spirit of the Lord, not the spirit of meanness.
----Of course, though the speech may be true, the intent may be mean. One must always recognize the appropriate circumstance for speaking the truth. If aunt Bertha is enamored with her hat, you probably do not want to tell her that you think it is atrocious. Maybe if everyone thinks it looks atrocious you should find a nice way of breaking the news. But if it looks that way because some large bird has successfully targeted it from above, you had better let her know immediately.
----There are a lot of issues in the church which I think are atrocious because they are just not the way I do things. I should be very hesitant to offer any criticism of those. I didn't write the Scriptures. But other things in the church are atrocious because the Word of God clearly shows them to be. Anyone who knows the truth according to the Scriptures should speak the truth from the Scriptures in gentleness and love regarding those atrocious things. For as many as have been given the truth have been made watchmen. They have the responsibility to sound the alarm whenever the church goes afoul of the Word. Paul did not write in Galations 6:1 just to waste papyrus that anyone who is spiritual and sees his brother in sin should humbly restore him. The same Spirit told Ezekiel concerning the watchman, "When I say to the wicked, "O wicked man, you will surely die," and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." (Ez 33:8) The principle is given in the Word, if you know the truth and you see an error, you have responsibility to speak up.
----"But Steve," might come the protest, "if everyone did that, then the church would be full of fussing and whining all the time."
----Think about what that protest implies: 1) everyone knows the truth of the Word about all circumstances; 2) that if everyone did know the truth and did speak it out, those few in error would be so bold as to continue in error in the face of persistant rebuke of all, and 3)that it would be wrong for anyone to speak out with the truth because some mouths can form the word "fuss" and the other word "whine". It is no wonder the church has fallen into such pitiful disrepair over two-thousand years having had so many domineering leaders followed by multitudes of nervous little minions. The proper implication of such a protest is of just how much disobedience there really has come to be allowed in the church by marshmellow watchmen.
Gail;
----I just heard on the radio a piece that so illustrated what the problem is with the lack of truthfull outspokenness in the church. You have probably heard the short spot called "Something You Should Know." Today, they are running a message about making "no" work for you. After building in the audience the perception that "no" is always the wrong answer, the speaker gives an illustration of a tree fallen in the road your on. The speaker offers that you do not turn around and go back, you find a way to move the tree, or go over it, or go around it, through it, or under it. But never in the piece is there a suggestion for the consideration of the possibility that "no" is the right answer.
----To the contrary, we praise people who will not take "no" for an answer. Then from this common viewpoint, men who won't take no for an answer are revered as great preachers in our churches or those worthy to be empowered with the eldership. Meanwhile we forget that the Holy Spirit leads through the Word of God, and there are far more things the Word says "no" to than it says "yes" to. Reverence is not enough reserved for those who will take nothing other than the Word for an answer, whether it be "yes" or "no". Indeed, mouths call those types "stodgy". And if ever a stodgy type may stand up and say, "No," from the Word to the church leaders...
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