Last night I began a new evening series entitled “How Do I Do That”.
The first topic we picked up from Scripture was a matter of controlling our tongue. The background text for this was James 3:1-12 where James warns of the massive damage the tongue can do. Humanity has learned to tame nearly every wild beast on the planet, yet cannot control his own tongue.
How do I do that? How do I live in such a way in this temporal day as to discipline my tongue?
This is a matter that the follower of Christ must take a personal examination to determine how much damage they are capable of with their tongue.
For example: When we find ourselves tempted to be rough and severe towards another, we should first think of the meekness and gentleness of Christ when in the days of His flesh. He is seen in all exchanges in acts of grace toward poor souls. While others spoke harshly of the apostle Paul, they thought ill thoughts of him and questioned his motives he showed that he had a disciple to behave like Christ, his Lord. We too should be sensible of our own shortcomings, think humbly of ourselves when others incite us or reproach us as they did our Savior.
In 2 Corinthians 10:1-6, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are not separated from the world; we do worldly things altogether different that mere men. We do everything now under the lordship of Christ. Everything we think and say are kept under a crucified, mortified flesh. We must not seek to please the flesh. The flesh must be crucified. The doctrines of the gospel and the disciplines of the church are now our weapons. The old way is “Tit for Tat”. The new way is what I’ll call the “Gospel way.”
- The Gospel way is with patient truth not brute force.
- The Gospel way is with humility not “I know better than you, you dummy.”
- The Gospel way is not the natural way. It is now disciplined. Stop and think, consider, hear, process…
- The Gospel way doesn’t think highly of oneself.
- The Gospel way doesn’t shut the other person down in a conversation from thinking. The Gospel is not anti-thinking.
- The Gospel way doesn’t need a victory in the win column of keeping track. It rests upon truth.
The old way or the fleshly way depends upon ignorance, prejudices, loved lust, imaginations, carnal reasoning, conceits, self boasting.
NOTE: There are times the church needs to exercise sharp discipline with a false doctrine or false professor. But it is never a bully pulpit condition or reasoning. It even is a grace and a mercy of God, this too is the Gospel way.
2 Corinthians 10:5 “…take every thought captive…” is different than to simply modify a behavior.
If all you ever do is modify your behavior you will always be susceptible to doing what you do in your own strength and you’ll always find your flesh too weak to do what only God can do.
See this; your selfish thoughts will never be dealt with, disobedient thoughts are never subdued, worldly thoughts are never conquered, murmuring thoughts are rather encouraged. These are all springs of the outward evils that afflict and curse us.
The Gospel way address the thoughts first.
It addresses the heart. The heart will not give up naturally by brute force. It will require a total captivity of the heart, soul, and mind of man. Without it, all that will ever happen is a behavioral modification that may adjust for a few days but will grow restless under the new desire that never conquered the heart.
The Gospel way addresses the motive.
Here is the message I preached recently addressing this matter.
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