Restraining Our Lips

 I am pretty sure that we all know what the Bible says the tongue, so I am not going to repeat all of that in this blog post. Instead, I believe we need to think about the dangers of using too many words. We can get wrapped up in our conversations to the point that we are just talking. We stop thinking deeply about what we are saying or why we are saying it. We just go on talking. It reminds me of what Jesus said about idle words, and how we will be judged for every one of them.

God definitely warns us about this situation. (Proverbs 10:19)  The Lord said that in the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. That is a very precise way to think about how our words can lead us into the wrong things, and how we need to hold back on our lips from speaking too many words. This requires us to be very intentional about what we say and how we say it.

I am sure we have all seen that we can use different words to convey the same basic message. However, when we use a lot of words, some of those words may not be chosen very well, so they may convey the wrong message. If we do not pick our words well, the other person may think the wrong thing, and that leads to a sin on their part. Also, when we use too many words, the other person can't remember all that we said, so they are prone to share what we said with others in the wrong way, which is sin.

Therefore, let's heed this warning here, so we can be wise. Let's restrain our lips. Let's think before we speak. Let's make sure that our words are as precise as possible. Let's use as few words as are necessary to convey the truth. Let's not allow the truth of our thoughts to be buried by the amount of words we use. Then, we stay as far from sinning with our words as possible, and we stay away from leading others to sin by our many words.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Proverbs 11-13.