THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 33, SEPTEMBER 15, 2002

THE TONGUE – PART 2  

            As we continue our discussion concerning the tongue, something else to consider is “What about lying?”  Many people have very little problem with telling a lie, particularly if it is what is called, “a little white lie”.  We all know what that is.  That is a lie that isn’t a whopper, it is just a little lie.  Even the major networks will occasionally do a News Special or a segment on one of the Weekly News Magazine Programs about how all pervasive lying is in our society.  I was amazed several years ago when I was teaching a class of teenagers who, for the most part, had been raised attending services of the Lord’s Church.  Almost to a person, they defended cheating in school.  That is just another form of lying.  

            I wonder if the tendency to lie would be so strong if consideration was given to who we are acting like when we do it.  Jesus said in John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”   

            Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:25 , “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”   In Revelation 21:8, John wrote this eye opening statement. “But the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”  

            It is never right to lie.  Under no circumstances and regardless of what the consequences might be, honesty is always right. It truly is the best policy.  It brings to mind 2 Corinthians 8:21, “Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.”  

            What about gossip?  I just want to present a number of passages that answer that question.

            “A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.”  ( Proverbs 11:13)

            “A forward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.” ( Proverbs 16:28)

            “He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.”  (Proverbs 20:19)

            “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.”  (Proverbs 26:20)

            “For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envying, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings,  tumults.”   (2 Corinthians 12:20)

            “But the younger widows refuse: for they they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry; having damnation because they have cast off their first faith.  And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.” (1 Timothy 5:11 – 13)  

            It is so easy to hurt someone so badly with our tongues.  Gossip always hurts, and to do so is to just plain sin.  

            If we are Christians, than we are Christians all the time and everywhere in both what we do and what we say.  “Letting our light shine” does not simply involve going around telling people what they must do to be saved.  It also involves letting them see and hear how Christians live.  One sure-fire way to cast reproach upon the church and ourselves is to sin with the tongue.  

                                    Greg Litmer

NOAHS’ WIFE  

            The story is told of a preacher who announced that he would preach on Noah and his Ark on the following Sunday and he gave the scriptural reference for the congregation to read ahead of time.  While he had several bibles that he used for study, he always preached out of a big pulpit bible he left on the pulpit.  A couple of mean boys happened to notice something interesting about the placement of the story of the Flood in that pulpit bible.   They slipped into the church building and glued two pages of the pulpit bible together.  On the next Sunday the old preacher got up to read his text.

            “Noah took unto himself a wife,”  he began, “and she was,” he turned the page to continue – “three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.”  He paused, scratched his head, turned the page back and read it silently, turned the page again.  Then he looked up at the congregation and said,

            “I’ve been reading this old Bible for nigh on to fifty years, but there are some things in it that are just hard to believe.”

OR HOW ABOUT….  

            The preacher had just preached a vigorous and thoughtful sermon, and when services were over, several of the congregation rushed up to congratulate him on the fine job he had done.  One lady gushed, “Preacher, every sermon you preach is better than the next one.”