Tag: destructive

SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS

Dale Pollard

The sound of devils crying in the night reminded early colonists of Tasmania of mythical hellhounds. As terrifying as their screams sound, Tasmanian devils aren’t much of a danger to humans— but they are to each other. 

Not so long ago a vicious cancer began killing these animals and the initial cause of the disease was a mystery. As scientists began studying them they discovered that the cancerous tumors were self-inflicted! It’s not uncommon for the Tasmanian devils to fight and bite one another over a carcass or the rights to a female. 

The devil’s ears will burn a bright red color when they’re upset but when they lash out at one another they  further their own extinction. The bite wounds develop into a mutating cancer that will grow until eventually they succumb to the disease— or starvation. 

At times people can also be guilty of destroying one another. Not with teeth, but through gossip and sadly the church isn’t immune to this disease, either. It’s no wonder that God warns us about the dangers time and again through His Word (Proverbs 11:13; 20:19). 

“But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” – Galatians 5.15 

Three Ways To Guard Against Gossip 

  1. Avoid being a spreader. It will build your integrity and trustworthiness. 
  2. Make it a point to speak highly of the person being slandered. 
  3. Offer biblical solutions instead of contributing to the gossip. This assumes the person spreading the gossip is genuinely concerned about the person(s) they’re talking about. Have they confronted the subject of their gossip (Matt. 18.15-20)? If they’re unwilling to act but willing to talk— avoid them. 

Bad Breath Babbling

Neal Pollard

You want to do some appetizing research?  Go to the Mayo Clinic website and read about what causes bad breath. The harbingers of halitosis include food that gets stuck in your teeth, tobacco, poor dental hygiene, dry mouth (this occurs most frequently when sleeping at night, thus “morning breath”), oral infections, and many similar pleasant precipitators (http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bad-breath/basics/causes/CON-20014939).  Now isn’t that a joyful matter to ponder!

Well, have you considered the very graphic imagery Paul uses in Ephesians 4:29 to describe improper speech?  He says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth…”  That word “unwholesome” is an interesting word (ESV—”corrupting”).  It is from a Greek word meaning “to cause to decay” (TDNT).  The footnote of my Bible says “literally, rotten.”  The Greeks used the word to describe what offends the sense of sight and smell, but it came to describe even offensive sounds as an ancient fragment from Theopompus Comicus used the word to describe the “unpleasant sounds of flutes” (CAF, I, 746). They used the word to describe bad vegetables and rotting fish (WSNTDICT).

Notice what the Holy Spirit through Paul does with the word.  In guiding the Ephesians in how not to walk, Paul gets graphic by warning against “smelly speech.”  Get the picture by considering the descriptive word.  When you talk, does what you say have the figurative effect of compost, fish carcasses, and the like?  Or, let us come at it by way of contrast, as Paul does.  Instead of uttering waste dump words, use “only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

Throw away trashy speech through uplifting, timely, graceful talk!  Is what you say helpful to others? Does it build them up? Does it bring them closer to Christ? Is it just the right word at the right time?  If so, it’s like moral mouthwash!

If not, then let God’s diagnosis hit home!  Clean up your conversations.  Make sure what you say to others is to them a breath of fresh air!