MISUSING PARTS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.

Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart.

Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. Though their speech is charming, do not believe them, for seven abominations fill their hearts.

A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Proverbs 26:22-25, 28   

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Sit back for a moment and consider the human body. Think about all the intricacies of each part, those in plain sight of others and those concealed within. Each has a unique purpose and we find parts working in complete synchronicity and concert with one another to allow us to live and function within our lives. It’s simply amazing to ponder and serves to remind us of the great mastery of our Creator God who fashioned us with His own hands.

Those divine hands made us for a distinct purpose: to serve Him and one another. Our legs and feet allow us to travel where He wants us to go. Our arms and hands are used to labor and carry out His will and way. Our ears allow us to listen and hear His still small voice as He guides us to live as He wants us to live. They also allow us to listen to those who need someone to talk to, someone who is looking for companionship, comfort, and encouragement. That comfort and encouragement can often come from the words we speak from the mouth, lips, and tongue that God gave each of us. There is such power in the spoken word, power to bless and inspire, power to uplift and motivate, power to soothe and reassure.

I could go on and on but you get the point. We were made by an amazing God to accomplish amazing things through an amazing body that has so much potential to do good if we use all our parts the right way. But keep this in mind as well, for if we misuse our parts and allow them to partner in sinful behavior, we can take something God designed for good and allow Satan to use it for bad.

Point in case of this fact comes in Solomon’s proverbs for today from Chapter 26. Let’s look at some of the ways we can misuse our bodies in support of wickedness instead of righteousness:

1. The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts. Proverbs 26:22

We all have foods we like to eat. As we consume the food, we savor the taste of the choice morsels in our mouths before we swallow it and allow our digestive system to break it down and provide us nourishment and energy. If we eat the right things, we stay healthy and able to do the Lord’s bidding.

Solomon uses this analogy to show us what can happen when we allow sin to seduce us and pollute us from the inside out. Note here that the choice morsels are really transgressive words of gossip, words that have no intent to edify but rather tear down someone and their reputation. These words are juicy and tempting and if we allow ourselves to partake of them, they will go down into our innermost parts and corrupt us, sometimes to the place where we start using our own parts to spread rumors and gossip to others. When my girls were growing up, I used to warn them about what they allowed to be acceptable to them, particularly regarding the movies or shows they watched and the music they listened to. What you allow to enter the eyes and ears can either help you or harm you spiritually. In the end translation, you are what you eat, an analogy that simply means that whatever you allow to be acceptable to you will become a part of who you are.

Satan is working overtime to take us as far away from being who God created us to be as possible. Know and trust in this. But also remember that God is greater than Satan and will always have the victory when we turn to Him and receive His power to resist sin and temptation.

2. Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. Though their speech is charming, do not believe them, for seven abominations fill their hearts. Proverbs 26:23-25

In biblical days, dross was used to put a nice gloss on dull pottery. One would not know what was underneath the gloss once applied, such was the deceptive nature of the covering.

Solomon uses this example to warn us that passionate, fervent lips don’t necessarily indicate that a person has a fervent, passionate heart. Rather, the lips can serve as a deception to hide and mask evil within.

Want an example?

Consider this one:

While He was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” Luke 22:47-48

A kiss was meant to be an act of love between two people. In fact, in many of the Apostle Paul’s epistles, he would exhort believers to greet one another with a holy kiss.

Judas’s kiss was anything but holy. His lips were concealing just how evil his heart was as he finally showed everyone that he was an enemy of Jesus who was willing to betray His master and Messiah for thirty pieces of silver. The saddest part of it all was that Jesus knew he was going to do it as He and He alone could see into the heart of Judas behind the mask of his fervent lips.

What does the Lord see when He looks inside you? Does He see goodness or abomination? Do your lips conceal an evil heart within you?

3. A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Proverbs 26:28

Our final proverb regarding misuse of the parts of our body that God intended for good centers on the tongue and mouth.

God is love and we are to be love as well as we deal with others. He is also truth and expects us to be truthful in our dealings with others. When we love and live in truth, then we become ever more as He made us, in His own image.

But again, Satan wants to draw us into his evil trappings and we too often oblige, turning from love and truth toward hatred and deceit. Truth gives ways to lies, whether we are flat out fabricating our words to mislead or patronizing someone with words we really don’t mean in our hearts. You know the kind of people I’m talking about because we all have done this, either lying about something or flattering someone when we really don’t mean it. A mouth and tongue designed to support and speak words of legitimacy only spew out words of sin-charged wickedness.

Maybe, just maybe, we would be better off allowing the Lord to give us the words to speak, to place His love in our hearts, to guide the very parts of our body that He planned and constructed. If we have any hope of becoming the people He created us to be, we have to allow Him to orchestrate and dictate the way we use all the parts He has given us for the goodness He intended them to be used for.

Our world will be a much better place because we will be much better people within it if only we would allow that to happen.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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