Romans 3:13-14 "Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”
This verse reminds me of the incredibly repulsive smell of a dead animal I once passed on the roadside while riding my bike. It almost knocked me over! This also helps us understand the holiness and righteousness of God and how different He is from us. I guess if you are around a terrible smell long enough, you become used to it and it isn’t as offensive or repulsive. To God, the speech of all mankind has the stench of death. It is dead, and it causes death. That’s not our perception of ourselves, is it? We might counter God’s judgment that we are useless and smell like a dead animal according to our feelings about ourselves. “We aren’t that bad!” But God’s judgment is righteous and true. Truth is as He sees us, not as we see ourselves.
One of the areas of transformation in our lives when we are born again is in the area of our speech. Whereas our mouths, tongues, and lips were expressions of our sinful selves, they become vessels of loving communication. James wrote of this work of God’s Spirit which gives wisdom to our speech in James 3:8-11 “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?”
If we have adopted Jesus’ purpose in life and recognize that our bodies are not our own, but are for expressing His life and love, then we go through a sanctifying work in how we speak to people. Instead of a poison, there is a healing balm. Instead of the stench of death, there is the aroma of life. Rather than speaking deceitfully, we speak the truth in love. This verse reminds us of what we once were, but are no longer. God has made us a fragrant aroma of Christ as we live to love with Him, speaking the truth in love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
