Colossians 3:8 “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”

In the previous post, we dealt with patterns of speech and how to identify them. Here, we would discuss specific and common vices related to our tongue.

There are some patterns of speech and talking that are part of our nature, certain others we imbibe due to the environment we are raised up in, and yet others which we pick up consciously to adapt and to survive in the existing environment. No matter how we may justify what we have picked up along the way, it will not dilute the fact that they are harmful not only to people around us, but to us as well!

Let us discuss a few classics in this post.

Lying

The bible calls the devil as ‘the father of lies’ (John 8:44). On the contrary, Jesus claimed to be The Truth!

When we have a continuous pattern and cycle of lying, we are actually imitating the greatest liar of all time, the devil himself. Followers and imitators of the devil then have no right to the place where God is host. Not surprisingly, God, because He’s not a racist, hates white lies equally as much as an appalling ‘actual’ one! Read more on Lying here-‘My struggle with the lying tongue’.

Gossiping/Slandering

What Susie says of Sally says more of Susie than of Sally.

Christians today gossip much more than non-Christians do, possibly because we love to talk about the ‘sins’ of our fellow believers so ‘we could pray’. The one fact we forget through it all is that God has called us to be carriers of the gospel, not of gossip. Gossip is never good news. Here’s an earlier post on ‘What Gossip Carries’. I hope that it helps us in evaluating ourselves.

Swearing

Who doesn’t know this one can get bad? If the human race spoke in dialog boxes, half the content would be asterisk marks! Who can escape the ever popular ‘F’ word? Understandably, out coolness factor hangs on to these cuss words for dear life! If we don’t use them, we might be asked to join the hallowed ranks, which is preserved for the good, church going types, right?

Somehow, the enemy has made us undervalue the power our words carry. Swear words are just what we have invented to hurt each other and ourselves.

Here are a few things that swearing does:

• It hurls insults at the glory of God, since the person we are swearing at, is made in the image of God.
• It abuses the power that God has put on our tongue, thus losing the favor of God and attracting the enemy.
• It gives precedence to emotions, letting it control us instead of us controlling it.
• It gives access to satan to speak through us, to use our weapon against us.
• It spreads hate, dissension, vulgarity, instead of love, joy or peace.

If you have a habit of swearing, make sure you overcome it in prayer. It doesn’t look good on your tongue. You are called to bless and not to curse. You are called to lift people up, not to put them down. You are called to speak in a way that spreads light, and not darkness.

Flirting

Ah! That is harmless, you may say. But is it? Every word you speak has a direct influence on your destiny, whether it be constructive or destructive.

Flirting, especially those with a sexual context, no matter how tolerant the social scenario may seem, is ungodly outside of marriage, . Flirting is bad, because it is not an expression of love. It never leads to genuine love. Flirting is fake. The more flirtatious a person is, the more difficult it becomes to trust that person’s loyalty.

Flirtation is dangerous because it never goes away easily or stops once you are committed or married. It always begins with those vain words, and eventually leads to total wrecking up of the relationship one holds, bringing separation or divorce, if not dealt with. If you have the habit of talking to any person in provocative manner, even for fun, bring it to a total stop today.

At times, a well meant remark may be mistook for flirting, and may flare up unwanted emotions. In such cases, refrain from speaking. I’ve had personal experience when I used to complement women on their good hair till I realized that I had almost always been misunderstood. Be on your guard against that.

Crude Joking

Eph 5:4 “Obscene stories, foolish talk and coarse jokes-these are not for you.”
It’s astounding how such a small jest has been specifically mentioned to be “not for you”. I wouldn’t say more to that.

Flattering

Bible says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” (Proverbs 27:6) Any man or woman who wants to be your friend through flattery, is never to be trusted. Genuine appreciation is different from flattery. Go to the previous post to read in detail on Appeasing Speech Patterns.

This series on ‘Taming Your Tongue’ will continue with more posts on the prevalent misuse of the God given life breathing instrument of Tongue. I hope this post benefited you. Do take a moment to leave your comments below, or if you haven’t subscribed yet.