READING:
One-year plan: Psalms 51-56, Romans 10
Two-year plan: 1 Samuel 6-8, Luke 17:20-37
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Words.
They matter.
In some ways, they’re my life – a ministry built around teaching and preaching.
I’m reminded today, though, from James 3:10 that it’s possible both to bless and curse with the tongue. I think about that truth as I read the psalmist’s words as he writes about a “friend”: “His buttery words are smooth, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords” (Psa 55:21). Charles Spurgeon described this man this way: “Beware of a man who has too much honey on his tongue; a trap is to be suspected where the bait is so tempting. Soft, smooth, oily words are most plentiful where truth and sincerity are most scarce.”* Matthew Henry’s description of people whose words are buttery is even more pointed: “They smile in a man’s face, and cut his throat at the same time.”**
Here’s my concern: those of us who use our words for a living might be at times the most tempted to use sweet words from impure motives. I fear that it might easier to sugar coat your words when you already seek to persuade with words in the first place. May God guard us from that action today!
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you ever fall into this trap?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, let all my words be pure and pleasing to You today.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Psalms 57-62, Romans 11:1-32
Two-year plan: 1 Samuel 9-10, Luke 18:1-8
*Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 27-57 (Vol. 2, p. 451). Marshall Brothers.
**Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 823). Hendrickson.