God produces Christ-like speech

This little passage always convicts me. It's a little lesson on, "Did you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Notice the stricter judgment on teachers in this passage. Knowledge of God's Word gives us greater responsibility.

James 3:1-12

¹ My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. ² For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ³ Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. ⁴ Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. ⁵ Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. ⁷ For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. ⁸ But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. (James 3:1-12, New King James Version)

In the classic Road Runner cartoon, Wile E. Coyote spends most of his time trying to catch the Road Runner by using products from the Acme Company, such as dehydrated boulders, jet-powered roller skates and earthquake pills. Invariably, the products wind up hurting the Coyote more than the Road Runner; once the dehydrated boulder becomes hydrated, it crushes the coyote and the earthquake pills state on their label that they are not effective on road runners.

wile e coyote

Seriously though, "when we tear down a fellow Christian through gossip, slander and criticism, it not only affects the other person but winds up hurting us and the church as a whole, because we are not isolated from one another but rather interconnected and joined in our love for the Lord. We should be focused on building relationships with others, but when we talk about someone, put them down or criticize them, we are instead building up walls of resentment, distrust, and anger.

Let us strive to build one another up through our actions and our words as we walk through life together, one body united in Christ."
Dr. David Jeremiah

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