The bitter aftertaste of sin

“but in the end she [the forbidden woman] is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”
-Proverbs 5:4

There are a thousand temptations that greet me every day. Most don’t affect me that much. I may go by a billboard that tries to tempt me to buy some sort of food, but I’m not really hungry, so I pass it by. There is always a temptation at work to talk bad about others. Most of the time, I really just don’t want to.

Some temptations are a little tougher. By about 9:00 at night, the temptation to eat more will hit me. I don’t always succeed in that one.

In the long run, eating a late night snack isn’t going to hurt me that much. But when my wife isn’t treating me with respect, the temptation comes to yell at her to try to fix the situation. Of course, this wouldn’t be any sort of fix at all, and would end up costing me a lot more than I could possible gain by acting in such a way.

The most effective temptations make so much sense to us in that moment. When my wife gets mad at me, it makes sense to me that I need to defend myself and push the blame back on her.

Sexual temptation makes sense to us. We live in a society, in fact, that promotes it. Even adultery isn’t always condemned anymore. There are a hundred excuses for cheating on our spouse that are perfectly accepted by this world – “He doesn’t pay attention to me,” “She doesn’t meet my needs,” “Better to do this than to divorce!”

Christians are often thought of as prudes because we promote a more old-fashioned approach to sex. Well, it’s easy to dismiss the truth of the Scripture as “old-fashioned” when you’re faced with a temptation that seems justified. At least at the time.

Sometimes it makes sense to me too. And I have to heed Solomon’s warning here, because sex outside of marriage may make sense in the heart, but “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

God is not a prude who is trying to ruin our fun. He’s the one who invented sex, after all, and He intends for us to enjoy it. But sex outside of marriage is a perversion of what He has created.

The double-edged sword here is not just disease, pregnancy, broken hearts, betrayal, etc. It’s something different. It’s about idolatry.

When we seek our own pleasure above worship of God, we have made an idol out of our pleasure. What we must understand is that an idol cannot ultimately give us anything, whether the idol is in the form of a golden calf, or just the darkness of our own hearts. Yes, bowing before it can produce a moment of pleasure, but the body is made for something much greater. It is His, and it is made for forever.

It is so easy to limit our vision to this moment and this place, to that wicked heart that is telling you to do something. If you narrow your view that much, fornication and adultery makes a lot of sense. If you understand the truth of this life, which is but a foretaste of eternity, things may seem a bit different.

It is only by Christ that we can see that. Because our hearts are wicked, only God Himself could lift our eyes enough to understand that much. By the Blood of Christ we can be forgiven of those mistakes of the past. By His Spirit we will be freed from slavery to sin. By His holy work in us, we will begin to be conformed to His image. It is not something you can accomplish yourself. It is by His Grace alone. Look to Him in faith, and He will show you what you have lacked so long.

Memorizing the defensive plays

“For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,”
-Proverbs 5:3

I am terrible at memorizing verses. (To which you may reply, “Paul, what in the world does this have to do with the adulterous woman of Proverbs 5? I mean, this is the verse that begins that section, and here you are talking about memory verses.” Stick with me a little on this, and hopefully it’ll become clear.)

So back to the original point – I am terrible at memorizing verses. I have a few memorized, probably more because I read and use them a lot, not because I sat down and tried to memorize them.

Memorizing wasn’t really a priority for me for a very long time until I noticed something – I found that those few verses I did have memorized kept coming up in my daily life.

When I would worry about some situation, my mind would race to Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” It would remind me that God was in control.

When I would get bogged down with legalism over a certain passage, I would sometimes think of John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” It would remind me that the Bible is not about my own righteousness, but about Jesus.

“That’s great Paul,” you may be saying, “but have you forgotten about the adulterous woman here? That is, after all, what this passage is about.”

This verse does begin a longer passage about avoiding the adulterous woman, which Solomon uses as the personification of sexual sin. But I am talking about the Bible in general a little here because of that little “for” that starts this verse. That “for” tells us to look at what came before it, and there we find Solomon’s admonition for us to pay attention to the teaching here, listen carefully, and keep it always in mind.

This verse tells us why – because sin is very enticing.

See, when we know the teachings of God, the Spirit will bring them to mind when they are needed. When you are confronted with sexual temptation, for example, passages like this will come to mind, or 1 Corinthians 6:20: “for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I can tell you from experience, it is very difficult to even think about sinning when you have your nose in the Bible, singing songs of praise to the Father, and praying for His guidance. We don’t always do this, of course. There are times when the call of sin is dripping with honey, and we succumb. There are times when we fall hard.

Religious people, when this happens, will either try to cover it up or become despondent in their guilt. They will beat themselves up or pretend it never happened. A far better response comes from knowing the Bible a little better, because 1 John 2:1 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

The understanding of our Lord is going to provide guidance on this narrow road, resistance in the face of temptation, and forgiveness in the midst of failure. It is the last aspect of the Word that excites me most, because I have failed to live up to God’s Holy standard in so many ways. I have lied, hated, lusted, boasted, been arrogant, and committed countless other sins. But by the Blood of Christ I am cleaned again and again. So instead of beating myself up or trying to cover up my sin, as though Jesus doesn’t know about it, I can praise Him and thank Him for paying the price for my failures.

I think . . .

“[Listen,] that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.”
-Proverbs 5:2

I’ve been listening lately to a lot of “bad” sermons. These are sermons that are not so much based upon the Word of God, but on something else, whether it is on finances, or movies, or personal experiences by the pastor. Often, the pastor will read a verse or two from Scripture, but then spend the rest of the time going in a different direction from the text.

There has been a common thread to these sermons, and that is the phrase “I think.” As in, “I think what the Bible is saying here is . . .,” or, “I think what Paul is trying to get at is. . . .”

Some pastors substitute the phrase “I believe,” but used in the same way. What might be slightly worse is the phrase, “I feel.” Here we don’t even have the pretense of thinking!

It’s a symptom of a culture that likes to speak more than they like to listen. Listening is a tough thing to do properly. It means examining yourself to see if this other person is right. In talking, you just vocalize those things we’re already convinced of.

Many pastors scour the Word to find a verse that will fit the sermon they have already planned. Other pastors let the Word dictate the sermon. The difference should be clear. The first pastor is talking, and the second listening first. It’s the same way some debates turn into shouting matches, with each side trying to get their point across in volume rather than by convincing evidence. Other debates give and take and send all parties away knowing a little more.

Solomon is telling us to listen first, and then speak. And by listening first we may actually know what we are talking about. Listen, specifically, to the Word of God. It always surprises me how little people read the Bible. We have the very words of God available to each and every one of us, and we usually would rather talk than listen to Him.

But when Paul admonished Timothy to “preach the word,” there is a reason for what he is saying. The Bible tells us the Gospel, the good news, about Jesus. We have philosophies too numerous to count. We have strategies for living popping up everywhere. But the Son of God came down in the form of a man, walked amongst us, taught us, and died for us. Frankly, I don’t care to listen much to the philosophies of a man when I could be hearing of God’s Son and what He did.

And what He offers is something no philosopher, self-help guru, religion, or system can offer – forgiveness.

In the Blood of Christ we have a chance. In His Blood we can be forgiven. It is the free gift for those who repent and believe in Him.

Listen to this truth, and then tell it to others. Once you know this, you have something worth speaking.

The only drum I have

“My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,”
-Proverbs 5:1

As we have so often seen in the Proverbs, Solomon again asks his son to pay attention, to listen carefully. And to be honest, part of me is getting a little annoyed. I am trying to write down my thoughts about each verse I come to, but I keep coming to this same verse. The same thing is repeated over and over again.

It’s my instinct to move on to something new, something hipper. Isn’t there some really deep theological debate on which I can opine? Isn’t there some hidden meaning I can decipher?

I wonder sometimes if that’s the sort of instinct that brings about the sermons we often get today. The new pastor will enter a church, talk about sin, talk about Grace, go through the parables, go through a book of two, and then, at the end of it all, really just want to talk about something else.

So we end up with sermons on finances or summer blockbusters.

The Bible is about Jesus. The Bible tells about how God redeemed a people that did not deserve it through the death of His only begotten Son. It tells about His Glory, His majesty, His mercy, and His Grace.

Which are awesome, wondrous topics, topics that should be shouted from every rooftop.

It isn’t about how we earn our way to God’s favor, because we can’t. We have all failed to do that when we sin. In our anger, lust, hatred, selfishness, pride, and envy, we have fallen from His Glory. We are not good enough, and we never will be.

But Jesus was good enough, and in His death He paid the price that was ours to pay. Because of that sacrifice, we can now stand before a holy and just God, clothed in His righteousness. If we repent and believe, we will have eternal life.

Even after we have become Christians, His Blood continues to atone for our mistakes. It’s not that we are suddenly thrown to our own devices. With a new nature and the Holy Spirit to guide us, it is possible to not sin, and yet when we do sin, Jesus is still the one who took the punishment for us.

The temptation is to vary up the message a little, because we love variety. We want to keep people’s attention with something new and different. It’s pride. That sort of thinking is prideful.

There’s only one way to life, and that is Jesus Christ. By His mercy, I will bang that drum for the rest of my life and no other, because it’s the only drum that means anything. People will worry about other things, but it only comes down to Jesus. Those who preach to a felt need end up preaching something that, in the end, will burn up and be destroyed.

I love that Solomon bangs this drum too. Over and over again He points to God. He’s the wisest man who had ever lived, so surely he had something else to say, but he didn’t. Listen. Pay attention. If he repeats himself, it’s for a reason. Solomon is pointing to someone larger than himself.

Podcast: 1 John: Proclaiming Eternal Life

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
-1 John 1:1-3

A lot of people are asking these days, as they have always asked, if we can really know God. God is infinite, and we are finite. God is Spirit, and we are trapped in this physical world. God is eternal, and we’ve only been here a few short decades.

So do we have any hope to know Him? It is a good question. We may as well ask, as C. S. Lewis once did, if there is any hope in Hamlet knowing Shakespeare. Hamlet is the creation, trapped within a created play amongst other creations. All of it came from the same source – that is, Shakespeare.

In the same way, everything around us comes from the same source. Is there any hope of one of the created people or things to rise up to the Eternal and know God?

But the answer, C. S. Lewis tells us, to his question is a simple one. If Hamlet would know anything of Shakespeare, it would have to be by Shakespeare’s doing. If Shakespeare wrote himself into the play, it is by this that Hamlet could know him.

One thing I love about the writing of John is the excitement he has. Look at this passage again, at the awe and wonder with which he tells about Jesus. But there is good cause for that, because he has met God. Jesus, John tells us, was in the beginning. In the words of John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Here too Jesus is called the Word, but “the word of life.” But not simply some abstract or theological topic to be discussed over tea, but a person, God made flesh, a man who stood amongst them, who ate with them, who walked with them. John was there when our Lord was crucified, and he witnessed Jesus’ death. And he was also witness to the risen Lord.

This is not the testimony of someone who heard a story about a mythological god that took place somewhere and at some time. No, John was there, and he saw. He stresses this in the introduction, “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands.”

John transitions from talking about Jesus as the Word to talking about Jesus as life. Indeed, in the words of Jesus Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John wonderfully picks up on these words and uses them to help us understand. This was no mere man whom he saw and touched. It wasn’t just some teaching on the street. It wasn’t some guy with a word from God, but He was THE Word. It wasn’t some guy who figured out the way to eternal life, but He is THE way and THE life.

There is an absolutely sense of wonder that John has here, and this is why. You know, I constantly see people get excited about a philosophy or some sort of guide to life. “You gotta read this book,” they’ll say. “It changed my life.”

Well, a self-help book can only give you ideas about where to go and what to do to improve your life. What John is saying here is that this is no self-help book. He hasn’t found a system to make your life better. Instead, he was found by God Himself, come in the form of a man, who died for us.

What John proclaims the eternal life, he isn’t proclaiming a set of rules or instruction. Look at how he uses this phrase again. “We have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.” When John says he is proclaiming eternal life, in truth he is proclaiming Jesus.

Now, why is that? See, most people will tell you to be a good person and you’ll get into heaven. You know, follow the rules and be nice to people, and you will live forever in heaven. You find these people everywhere. All religions are based on this concept. Do good and you’ll be rewarded. When they proclaim eternal life, they are proclaiming a way of doing things. They are proclaiming a set of rules or practices.

In Christianity, things are a little different. You see, the truth is that you can’t earn heaven. Our thoughts, words, and actions are driven and controlled by lust, greed, selfishness, pride, and even hatred. We mess up constantly, and these mistakes are called sins. Sometimes we do things we are not supposed to do, which are sins of commission. Sometimes we do not do things we should do, which are sins of omission. Either way, we are sinning.

These are things we may blow off, but they are offenses against a just and righteous God. He knows our thoughts, and will judge us by them. If you understand even that one sentence, you will understand that we cannot earn heaven.

So if I’m going to proclaim eternal life to you, it better not be by your actions, because that’s not going to do it. But that’s why the birth, life, and death of Jesus are so important.

Jesus lived a sinless life in every way. In thought, word, and deed He was perfect. He is the only one who even lived that did not deserve to die, and yet He died anyway. Upon that Cross, He bore the punishment for our sin. He took our place in death so that we could have life.

John proclaims eternal life, and that life is Jesus. Only He has earned it, and He gives it freely. The call of the Gospel is not, “Try harder, do better.” The call of the Gospel is, “Repent and believe in Jesus Christ.”

Jesus told us, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s not about what we do, but what He already did.

That is a message worth getting excited about.

So many places to swerve

“Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”
-Proverbs 4:27

In the previous verse to this one, we mainly spoke about doctrine, and how doctrine is something that is really critical in this Christian walk of ours. Coming right after that exhortation, this verse reiterates – pay attention and keep to the path. Anything else is wrong.

We could very easily here talk about the rules God expects us to follow, the complete righteousness we are supposed to achieve. We could talk about how we’ve all messed up and turned away from this holy path.

And we have. This is all true. We have not lived up to God’s perfect standard for us. We have all sinned in lust, pride, hatred, and greed. We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

In this way, we have all jumped right off the path to eternal life and run away from it as quickly as possible.

Or we could talk about how we need to love our neighbors, and how we’re not doing enough in the community. How we need to give more time and money and help people.

Which is true as well. Christians often close themselves off too much. We could all be doing more in the community to love people and help those in need.

But I don’t want to talk about those things, because both will run you right off this path if taken alone.

See, you can leave the path to the right or the left. One was is total sin and debauchery. We all know that part. The other way to leave it is total legalism.

If you’re salvation is based on your doing everything right, you aren’t going to be good enough. In the same way, if your salvation is based on loving people enough and a social gospel, you’re not going to love them enough. You won’t make it.

The truth of the narrow way is Jesus. Paul tells the Galatian church, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — not that there is another one” (Galatians 1:6-7). The Galatians were doing the same thing we do today – adding something to the Cross.

But the Gospel is simple. By our sins we have earned death. We are guilty, and we are unworthy to be in the presence of God. It is a debt we can never fully pay, but in love Jesus paid it for us. In His death, He took on our sin and paid the price for them so we could be reconciled with God.

That is the doctrine to which we cling, for it is our only way to life. It’s not that plus more love, or that plus being really moral. It’s not that plus anything, because Grace is not something we can earn.

Do not turn away from that, for Jesus is the way to life.

What’s your doctrine like?

“Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.”
-Proverbs 4:26

This verse took me a little by surprise. I mean, as many times as our Christian life has been described as a walk or a journey, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a pastor tell me to “ponder the path.”

Isn’t it usually the other way around? People will tell you it’s not about the destination, but about the journey. Or they will tell you to be passive in this walk, just moving by the Spirit. Or they will tell you to not be so single-minded about the path at all, but embrace other paths that people may travel.

Not so here. Solomon tells us to concentrate on where we’re walking.

Now, I’m a doctrine geek, but people look at me funny when I start talking theology. It’s not in the vocabulary of many Christians. Their theology goes only as deep as knowing John 3:16 and some of the Ten Commandments. A few will have graduated to knowing some praise and worship songs.

You mention a word like propitiation (a word that is in the Bible), and you’ll get blank stares.

But this path matters. The way we walk matters. Doctrine is not a bad word (check out Hebrews 6:1) – it simply means what we believe about God. We all have a doctrine. The question is only this – where do you get that doctrine? Do you get it from pop culture, a new book, a praise song? Or do you get it from the Bible with the interpretive help of the Spirit?

Some will tell you that what you do is more important than what you believe. That sounds good, but it doesn’t work that way. We should do good works, yes, and that is a form of worship, but our worship must be formed out of a proper view of God. John 15 talks about the fruit we bear when in Christ, but it is in Christ where we bear real fruit. God has given us that glimmer of Himself in His Word. He has taught us these creeds so that He may be honored in our worship and faith.

And before we think this creedal path is some sort of legalistic formula we must follow, we should be reminded that Jesus Himself is our way, truth, and life. Our path is forged by His righteousness, by His Blood. We should concentrate on our path, if for no other reason than to concentrate on Jesus. Any other thought, any other focus, any other step is one away from God, no matter how good and nice it may seem.

It is not a path you can walk alone, but only in Christ may we stand. We have no righteousness in us, but in His death He can impute His righteousness to us. By His Spirit He can lead us. And in the end, when we stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgment, we can stand by His sacrifice on the Cross.

Here is the true danger of not paying attention to doctrine – we will not know whether we are standing by the good idea of another man, or by Jesus. No matter how wonderful it seems, the former is the wrong path. And no matter how hard it gets, the latter leads to life.

Focus!

“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.”
-Proverbs 4:25

I was a very athletic kid, and I played a lot of sports. (Those who know me now may be surprised to hear this.) There was a certain skill that you tried to learn in many of these sports, and that’s the fake. You pretend to go one way when you’re planning to go another. The defense falls for the fake, and all of a sudden you’re in the clear.

Except when you’re a kid, you’re not very good at it. You fake one way, but your eyes are glued to the spot you’re really going after. I had some good coaches who taught me to look at someone’s body and eyes rather than his hands and legs, and doing that, I became pretty good on defense.

The reason kids at that age are looking at where they are going is because they’re not coordinated enough to do the play without watching themselves do the play. If they look one way and dribble another, they’ll end up kicking the ball out of bounds.

There’s a lesson in that, and one I still have trouble learning. I used to try to do my homework or write while watching television. Guess what? I watched a lot of television and didn’t get much work done. More recently, I’ve tried to start praying on my way to work. It was a fine idea, but the road would distract me from my prayers, and I would end up being hopelessly lost in what I was saying. Then I tried to start praying in the shower, and I would get lost there too. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I find that I have to park myself to really pray.

Some people have the ability to do otherwise. Personally, I don’t think it matters all that much where you pray. If you have a good conversation with God from the shower, I’m all for it.

My point is merely this – it is so easy to get off on a rabbit trail when you aren’t looking at where you’re going. We, as humans, have this amazing ability to be distracted by any shiny object. This is true in our spiritual life as well. We can be distracted from God by a lewd advertisement, a party, an argument, a project at work, a trip, or anything.

We can even get distracted by religion. It’s true. Some churches do this by becoming legalist. They focus on following the Law perfectly without even mentioning the work of Jesus. Others go the other way, focusing on our social efforts and how we love one another. Actually, this is still legalism, because you’re trusting your spirituality and your works.

There’s only one way to walk this trail, and that is by the Blood of Jesus. Whether you have been pulled off by sex and greed, or simply pulled off by a busy day, it is the righteousness of Jesus that can put you back where you need to be. If you’re pulled off by reliance on moral works or following the rules, it is still His work that can provide your way.

Christianity is not a religion where you earn your way anywhere. You can’t. We have already fallen short of the glory of God. Whether we have fallen by moral failures or by trying to be as moral as possible and losing sight of God in the process, we are unworthy of Him. But Jesus has succeeded where we have failed, and in His death He has taken the punishment for our sins. Though we have not deserved eternal life, He has given us a way to Heaven.

That path is not laid by our works, but by His. It is not walked by focusing on ourselves, but on Him. The moment this walk becomes about something other than Jesus, we have stepped off the trail.

But by His Blood, we will survive even that.

Podcast: Word

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word!
-Psalm 119:103-107

The most recent episode of the podcast was mostly improvised, so we’re not able to publish the transcript for you. However, the outline used is available below. Please download the podcast itself to hear the full content.

The issue at hand was why I love the Bible. The reasons are outlined here:

1. It tells us about God.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
-Hebrews 1:1-2

2. It tells us what God expects of us.

“but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
-Romans 2:8

3. It shows me how short I have fallen.

“What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”
-Romans 7:7

4. It teaches me of Jesus.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
-John 1:1-2

5. It teaches me how to be saved.

“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
-John 14:6

My enemy, my tongue

“Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.”
-Proverbs 4:24

I used to work at a place that thrived on gossip, and I really didn’t know to be on my guard until one particular day. I was ill and about to leave early, when I saw something my boss had put up in the breakroom. I was looking at it and muttering something to myself and then moved on. There was one other person in there with me, but I didn’t know she had heard me, and I hadn’t really said anything to be worried about. It wasn’t a criticism of anything.

Until I got an email from my boss, telling me that if I had something bad to say about her, that I needed to talk to her directly.

It took a while to get everything straightened out, but basically the other person in the room took part of what I said, put a bad spin on it, and ran to my boss.

That’s one time when I got a scolding I didn’t deserve, but there have been a hundred times, probably this year alone, where I’ve deserved a scolding for something I said. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to apologize to someone after saying something stupid – usually something I didn’t even mean, but had said out of anger.

Solomon, in the previous verse, told us to guard our thoughts. Now he is telling us to guard our words, and he’ll follow it up with a plea to guard our actions. That last part we all understand immediately. We want our lives to be judged by our actions, and so we hold ourselves back from doing something constantly. Every day I consider my actions and decide on the best course. I make moral decisions all the time.

But when we learn that we will be judged not only by our actions, but by our words and thoughts, we may not be so confident in where we stand.

While we may not slip up in our actions all that often, we are a bit more free with our tongues. Some people even count it as a virtue. “I just speak my mind,” they will say, usually because they know they are being jerks but don’t want to change. We lie to get out of awkward situations, or we’ll hold our tongues when we’re in the minority. We gossip, brag, and slander.

James tells us that “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” (3:6). If you consider how much pain you have caused by your words, you’ll understand what he means.

The tongue is not something we can harness alone. It is not something we can simply control. When Solomon tells us to avoid devious talk, he is not thinking that we’re just such amazing people who can flip the switch and not be gossips anymore. No, if we’re going to understand this properly, we’re going to have to go back in his discourse to what started this – listening to his words (as in, the Word of God) for eternal life.

It is only by the Blood of Jesus that we can stand in righteousness. Without Him we are slaves to sin, but because of His death on the Cross we can be forgiven. It is He who intercedes for us, and by His Spirit guides us. And when we slip, it is by His Blood that we are forgiven again.

Let us, by all means, tame those tongues. We’ve caused too much hurt already. But you can’t do it by looking within and drawing on your own strength. We do it by turning it over to Him.

It’s about what you believe

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
-Proverbs 4:23

Most of us are aware of how important our hearts are. Some of us even monitor it when exercising or at certain times throughout the day. They always take your pulse and blood pressure at the doctor’s office, because the heart keeps the body going. Once the heart is gone, you’re gone too.

It’s rather appropriate that we use the word “heart” as a personification of our emotional center today. If your emotions are wounded enough, it often seems like you cannot go on at all. The ancient Hebrews used “heart” in a verse similar way, though they often identified your heart with your intellectual core rather than your emotional one. That’s a good analogy too, because we have all seen those who have ruined their lives over a wrong belief.

When Solomon tells us to keep our hearts, he is telling us to guard closely what we believe. He is telling us to make our beliefs a foremost concern, worthy of considerable time and effort.

And what’s really interesting is that he says that from these beliefs flow the springs of life.

God says he will judge the heart (Jeremiah 11:20). Frankly, if what is in my thoughts is exposed to God and He were to judge them, I can guarantee that there wouldn’t be any talk of springs of life. There would be a lot of talk about punishment. I don’t even deserve that life by my actions, and my thoughts are much worse.

And yours are too. Jesus says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). Yeah, this is pretty much the way of things. So what is this talk about springs of life?

It’s because our one shot of life doesn’t come from what we do, but on what we believe. Jesus Christ came to earth and lived a perfect life, even in the thoughts of His heart, and yet died a death He did not deserve. In that death He can pay for our sins, those things that should otherwise get us punishment.

This is not something we could earn, and so God asks us to repent and believe and in that we will have life.

Jesus comes in and cleans out the heart with His Blood. His Spirit indwells us then to guide us in righteousness and life. It’s not by our power at all that we can have eternal life, but by His.

Once we are His, the Holy Spirit will indwell us, and the Spirit will convict us, guide us, and teach us. Guard your heart, because this life coming forth is from God Himself. He is trying to guide you in the ways of righteousness. He is refining us to reflect more of Him.

Guard your heart. Watch carefully what you believe. Hold all of it against the Word of God. Your life depends on it.

It’s not about what you do

“For they [my words] are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.”
-Proverbs 4:22

There have been so many times lately when I’ve heard someone talk about the Gospel message, the Good News, as a set of behaviors or a way of life or something of the like. And that makes sense, right? This is the way the world works – it tells us that if your message has meaning, it will change something. If your business has value, then you’ll start getting more money. If your philosophy has value, then people will find completion in what you say. If your marriage has worth, people will see it in the way you and your spouse are together. All these things give you a better life, and that’s how we know they’re important. So the world says.

And so our sermons seem to follow after this formula. On the far right, preachers are preaching about obeying all of these moral laws. On the far left, they are preaching love to everyone. And they’re right, to an extent. We should be loving people. We should be morally pure.

But that’s not the Gospel message. The Gospel message is not about actions at all.

The world doesn’t understand this, which is why everyone is looking really closely at the lives of the people delivering this Gospel to make sure they are living right. And if a pastor is caught in adultery, and so many begin to question the message.

So I love it when Solomon starts talking about how his WORDS “are life to those who find them.” His words. See, Solomon was one of those guys who could have destroyed the faiths of thousands by his actions. He married hundreds of women who tempted him to false gods. And this is a guy who helped write the Bible?

But it’s not the actions of Solomon that leads us to life. It’s the words.

And don’t get me wrong. These specific words do not have some sort of magical properties we can use as an incantation or pagan mantra. That’s not it at all – it’s the words that direct us to Christ.

By our actions, we’re not going to get anywhere. We are so tainted by lust, pride, anger, selfishness, and hatred that we are spiritually dead, unworthy of life. We can’t “try harder” and make it to heaven. In our sin, we have offended a just and perfect God, and His justice demands payment for those sins. By our actions, we are lost.

But the actions of Jesus can save us. He was without sin, perfect in every way, and yet He died, though he did not deserve it. He died upon that Cross to pay for our sins and provide for us His righteousness so we may be saved. It is through His righteousness that we can finally act as we should. His Spirit will guide us to love God and others as we should. But these things do not save us – only His Blood can.

You can probably find out plenty of information to discredit me by my actions. But my actions won’t save anyone. The value of the message doesn’t depend on the messenger who delivered it; it depends on what the message is. Listen to my words: Repent and believe in Jesus. That is the way to life.