Trouble on our Lips

"Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble."

Proverbs 21:23

This one seems pretty self-explanatory. But realistically we all need this reminder. After all, life happens. People will say things that we disagree with. Things will happen that blatantly make us angry. On days when not everything goes our way, we can save ourselves loads of self-inflicted grief by not voicing every thought that passes through us. And even if nothing remotely bad occurred to us throughout the day, we have more than enough talent at finding trouble on our own. It comes quite naturally to our humanity. After all,

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell."

James 3.5b-6

Should we wish to increase the peace in and around us, we would do well to take Solomon's advice, thus avoiding the hazardous flames that often erupt, even unintentionally, from our draconian lips.

Bibliography


ESV Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001. Kindle.