Love not wrath

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

LOVE NOT WRATH

Prov 19:19

19 A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.

NIV

This certainly speaks to the issue of self-control, one of the fruit of the Spirit. This hot-tempered man, or person, who is filled with wrath is not willing to listen to reason. This persons tongue gets them into trouble over and over again. If someone steps in and puts the argument to rest, it will just boil up again because this person has no control over their own emotions. When this saying speaks of penalty, it may well be this person has no friends and will never make any. Others are continually put off by them, tending to avoid them at all costs. We should learn a lesson from this. It is far better to be even tempered, not given to fits of rage. We might have plenty of passion about the scriptures and our relationship with Jesus, yet we should not be so passionate that we lose control of our tongue or our spirit. There is something to be said of being a man of few words, to be slow to speak, to think before engaging the mouth. The hot-tempered is not like that at all. Although we should not be lukewarm when it comes to our Lord, which is a totally different thing, we should avoid a quick hot tongue. Without consideration of the consequence of our words, they might well get us into trouble. All too often we speak too quickly in response to some offense. All too often we speak to hastily in an attempt to defend ourselves from some accusation. All too often we speak to quickly in order to insert ourselves into a conversation.  We are told the tongue is the most unruly member of our body.

James 3:3-12

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8 but no man can tame the tongue . It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.   10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

NIV

Because we are told this should not be, it is evident we must take control of our tongue. Yet self-control being a fruit of the Spirit, which includes control of the tongue, we must walk in the Spirit. This might be difficult to do because we want to say what we want to say not matter the effect our words have on others. We have been raised in a society that espouses free speech that we should be able to say whatever we want, whenever we want and to anyone we want to, although it might get us in trouble. Let us consider our words, weight them, and tender them with love not wrath.