TUESDAY September 19th
1 Peter 3:10-12
‘For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”’
I will cover these verses over the next three devotions, today considering the first two verses of the text verses 10-11 which I have underlined. Peter is quoting from the Old Testament, Psalm 34:12-16, but here I just quote verses 12-14 which correspond to the verses we are considering. ‘What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’
Both the Psalmist and Peter understood very clearly the correlation between doing that which is right versus that which is evil and the effect that wrong doing has upon the quality of our life. The first part is a question which is answered in the second part. It could be rewritten this way ‘If you want to have a good life, enjoying many days and seeing good, then keep your tongue and your lips from evil and speaking deceit, keep away from evil, do that which is good, be peaceful and aim to pursue it.’
We can take very clearly from this that allowing the tongue and the lips to participate in evil and deceit will have a negative impact upon our well-being, and I would suggest that it would include our spiritual, emotional, mental and physical well-being.
In regard to the tongue, James reminds us that although it seems to be such a small member of our human anatomy, it can actually do a lot of harm or damage. This is what he says in James 2 ‘So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a fire is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body . . .’ (vv5-6)
‘Oh be careful little tongue what you say’, are the lines found within a little children’s chorus we used to sing when I was a child in Sunday School, and this is what the Psalmist, Peter and James are warning us as believers.
Fitting in with the devotion today are some other Scriptures, the first is in answer to a question as to who will dwell in God’s holy hill and is found in Psalm 15 ‘He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbour, nor takes up a reproach against his friend . . .’ (vv2-3)
Another from the Psalmist is Psalm 39:1 ‘I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”’
Finally two from the book of Proverbs ‘Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin’ (13:3), ‘Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble’ (21:23).
I know I said finally, but there is a verse in the Psalms which make a good prayer as we seek to guard our tongue and lips ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer’ (19:14)