The Blood on Trial! Dealing with the Sin of the Tongue

I was reading a past edition of Our Daily Manna, a daily devotional publication sometime ago where I came across a story that helped me to make amend on certain negative habit I indulged in, which I thought there was nothing wrong with the habit.

The story is about the son of a pastor who proposed to marry a Christian sister. This Christian sister was formerly into doping and prostitution before she got born again under the church.

When the elders of the church were told of their proposed marriage, they concluded that the marriage must not take place. They said: “A pastor’s son must not marry a girl with such a dirty past” (paraphrase).

They then invited the pastor’s son to a meeting in order to dissuade him from marrying the Christian sister. At the meeting, the pastor’s son told the elders of the church that they were not inviting him for trial but that they were putting the blood of Jesus on trial to know whether it was powerful enough to wash away the sins of the sister. On hearing this statement, the elders found the statement so heavy that they broke down in tears and confessed their sins to God.

After reading the story, I quickly realized that I was as guilty as these church elders. There are several lessons I learned from the story, which I want to share with you now:

1.   We all Have a Past

Anyone who claims to owe allegiance to God through Christ’s redemption work at Calvary must know that he or she has a past. If any person says he or she doesn’t have a past, it means he or she is not connected to God through the redemption work at Calvary or the person is a perfect person.

The Book of Success, the Bible says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). It is because of our sins – past, present and future- that Jesus allowed His precious blood to be shed for us. The purpose of his crucifixion is the purging of our sins. If we don’t have dirty pasts, Jesus would not undertake to shed His blood for us. “IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, EVEN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS” (Col. 1:14).

2.   We Should Desist from Condemning Others

One answer we normally give when someone tells us not to judge others is that we are not judging others, we are only saying the exact truth about them. But whether what we are saying about others is true or not doesn’t matter. The fact is: judging others is judging others.

The elders of the church you read about above were saying the truth about the girl’s past life. And by using her past to destroy her proposed marriage, they realized they were judging and condemning her. They realized they were committing sin against God and against the sister. They didn’t justify themselves that they were saying the truth about them.

Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world and so he will never permit any person, no matter his or her position or status to condemn others. Remember Jesus’ reaction when people brought to Him the woman caught in the act of adultery?

The people that brought the woman to Jesus already knew the punishment that should be meted out to her, but they wanted Jesus to endorse the punishment or to put him to test, whether he would endorse the punishment or kick against it.

But Jesus really embarrassed them. He gave them a shocker: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). The people went away in shame, being convicted by their own conscience that they were not better than the woman they were condemning.

The fact is, we are quick at judging and condemning others. We use their past judge them. But Jesus won’t permit that. To the adulterous woman she said: “Neither do I condemn the: go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

If Jesus didn’t and isn’t condemning the world, who are we to condemn others? Jesus is still reconciling the world with God and He is not imputing their sins to them. There is a great lesson to learn here: any time we want to judge and condemn others, we should remind ourselves that we also are sinners saved by grace.

Our own sins may not be physical murder. Our tongue is as deadly as the weapon of the murderer. We use our tongue to blackmail, lie and falsely accuse others. We use our tongue to destroy other people’s future and lives and most times we see nothing wrong with that.

3.   No More Condemnation

Many a time, we try to use people’s past to judge and condemn them. The only thing that occurs to us whenever we see such people is their evil past. We use their evil past to judge and condemn them. We use their past to try to block God’s blessing for their lives, yet we see nothing wrong with that.

JESUS DIDN’T ALLOW THE PEOPLE TO CONDEMN THE ADULTEROUS WOMAN BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT BETTER THAN HER. THAT WAS WHY WHEN JESUS ASKED THAT ANY PERSON AMONG THEM WHO WAS WITHOUT SIN SHOULD FIRST CAST STONE AT HER, NONE OF THEM CAME OUT, AS THEIR CONSCIENCE BLAMED THEM THAT THEY WERE NOT BETTER THAN HER.

Believe it or not, we are not better than those we are judging and condemning. Even the judgment and condemnation we are passing on people is as terrible as any sin. In terms of morality, they may be several times better than us.

We may say we don’t steal, kill, fornicate, commit adultery or drink, but what about the sin we commit with our tongue? Believers or unbelievers, Jesus frowns at judging and condemning any person. Anything Jesus forbids is a sin.

Jesus frowns at judging and condemning others because he didn’t and isn’t condemning anyone. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

THE BOTTOM LINE IS: INSTEAD OF USING OUR TONGUE TO JUDGE AND CONDEMN PEOPLE, WE SHOULD USE IT TO BRING PEOPLE INTO THE GOD’S KINGDOM. The manner we use our tongue at times repel rather than attract people into God’s kingdom.

Jesus’ instruction to us is this: “Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but consideresth not the beam that is in thine own eye. Or will thou say to their brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out thy brother’s eye” (Mattew 7:1-5).

When we Judge and condemn others, we are putting ourselves in the position of the Almighty God. Leave judgment to God. Instead of using our tongue to murder people, we should rather strive to live an exemplary life. WE SHOULD REALIZE THAT WE INFLUENCE PEOPLE POSITIVELY BY OUR LIFESTYLE THAN BY JUDGING AND CONDEMNING THEM.

If we cannot live a positive lifestyle, all the preaching we are doing will avail little. Imagine someone hears you backbite, blackmail and falsely accuse others, and the next day you come to preach the Gospel to him. He may listen to you, but he will not take you seriously, because what you are speaks louder than what you are saying.

We should attract rather than repel people from God’s kingdom. The way to attract people into God’s kingdom is to stop judging and condemning others. Our role is to bring people to the knowledge of the truth and to help them live positive lifestyle.  

We should learn to control our tongue and focus on running the race that is set before us. The fact that we now owe allegiance to God doesn’t mean we should relax. We don’t have to continue living in sin because the grace of God abounds.

The fact that Jesus died for our sins and we have accepted Him as our personal saviour doesn’t mean that making it to heaven is automatic. We should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Making it to heaven is not automatic and is not easy. We should realize that if we must get to heaven, we must press on to enter.

The grace that saves doesn’t exempt us from making effort to press into God’s kingdom. We are not saved to continue in sin. If we are saved to continue living in sin, God would not call us to be holy as He is holy. And heaven is not going to be populated with backbiters, blackmailers and false accusers, lest they continue with their destructive sinful tongue-lashing.

The focus of this article is on the sin of the tongue. The reason for our focus on this sin is because of the realization that little things matter. While it is possible to flee all appearance of evil, it is not easy to control our tongue.

I THINK ONE REASON WE CONTINUE TO USE OUR TONGUE TO KILL AND DESTROY IS THAT WE DON’T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT. And because we don’t see anything wrong with that, we refuse to refrain ourselves.

If we keep judging and condemning others and we defend ourselves that we are saying the truth about them, we are not likely going to make effort at stopping these sinful acts.

To control our tongue, we should realize that it is not everything we say with our mouth that is right. Just as we use our tongue to bless, we can also use our tongue to curse, kill and destroy people’s lives and destiny.

IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO FOCUS ON THE KINGDOM INSTEAD OF JUDGING AND CONDEMNING OTHERS. I HAVE REALIZED THAT JUDGING AND CONDEMNING OTHERS DOESN’T MAKE US BETTER; IF ANYTHING, IT MAKES US WORSE THAN THEM.

Of the mighty man of God, Smith Wigglesworth, it was recorded that you won’t find him indulge in vulgar discussion. Instead of doing so, he would retire to his house to pray and read the Bible.

The pastor’s son was right when he told the elders of the church that they were trying to put the blood of Jesus on trial by using the past sins of his proposed wife to destroy God’s plan for her.

WE SHOULD CONSTANTLY REMIND OURSELVES THAT ANY TIME WE OPEN OUR MOUTH TO JUDGE AND CONDEMN ANY PERSON, WE ARE PUTTING THE BLOOD OF JESUS ON TRIAL. If the blood of Jesus can wash away our own sins, then, the blood of Jesus can equally wash other people’s sins. Jesus didn’t die for us alone, he died for everyone.

Our prayer is that God should give us the grace to bridle our tongue. May God give us the grace to stop judging and condemning others, since we know full well that the sin of the tongue is tantamount to the sin of putting the blood of Jesus on trial.

Till I come your way soon, go and bridle your tongue so that you can be effective for God and for humanity!