Daily Devotional for May 17, 2016

Matthew 5:21-22
“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO.  All rights reserved.

If ever there was a profound scripture passage for the present day, this is it!  I don’t know about you (and I don’t mean to hold a grudge), but there have been times when people have said things to me that cut me to the bone – and stayed with me.  More importantly, I am quite certain that there have been times that I have said things to another person that were like a knife to his/her heart.  The unavoidable truth is that “words can kill.”

So what are we to do?  Words are also like toothpaste…you can’t put it back in the tube – and you can’t retract what you have said. You can ask forgiveness…and pray that the other person is gracious and merciful enough to grant it.  But ultimately, once you have insulted someone or said something hurtful, those words are probably going to resonate for a good while – if not forever.

So we must redouble our efforts to be careful and thoughtful…to stop and measure what we are about to say before we say it!  We are to remember that we are speaking of another human being who is equally important in God’s eyes.  We must remind ourselves that - to some extent - an insult toward this person is an insult toward God, who created him/her.

This is a stark lesson for us today…a jolt that should make us really stop and think about what we are saying about others – and toward them personally.  We should ask God to give us the strength and courage to always operate in love – even when every fiber of our being wants to scream, shout, rant, rave, and call the other person terrible names.  Words have the power to kill.  How are you using yours?

©2016 Debbie Robus