All of us have to watch how we use our tongues (how we speak). We're imperfect and prone to "stumble many times" in word and deed (James 3:2). In fact, one proverb warns us that life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love its fruit will eat the tongue's fruitage (Proverbs 18:21).
The ancients recognized this looming danger: hence, one writing states:
"The human tongue is not free, like some other members of the human body, but is confined in the mouth, and moreover is constantly in moisture: yet how many burns can it cause with its sharp edge and its fire. How much worse then would it have been, were that dangerous member of the human body possessed of more facilities."--Levit. Rabba 16.
James 3:6 (NAB)-"The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna."
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Life and Death Are in the Power of the Tongue (Proverbs 18:21)
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3 comments:
James Ch.4:1-4NIV"1Where do [a]wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and [b]war. [c]Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4[d]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God"
Duncan, maybe you could explain how 1 Cor. 4:6 applies to how we use the tonngue. I'm not sure how the verse aligns with the OP. Thanks.
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