PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Second, let us observe the kind of words we most readily believe. That which we are prone to credit reveals our own disposition. A certain kind of people will tend to believe certain kinds of words. We hear things wrongly and believe things lightly because we are blind; we are not in God's light. As soon as we are short of light or void of light, we fall into liability error. The direction of our ear and the degree of our gullibility often betrays our sick condition. Many people believe others' words even before they ever hear anything from them. Then when they hear something, they rejoice over what they have heard. The words may be incredible and ludicrous, yet a person can still be convinced that they are true. Hence, the kind of words that we believe show the kind of person that we are.

Third, next to listening and believing, there is also the matter of passing words on to others. This is similar in nature to the first two points. One may hear and believe a certain kind of words, but if he decides to pass them on to others, this indicates that he is not only the kind of person being portrayed by the words, that is, a person in darkness, but he is also willing to make others just like himself. His whole being is involved with the words he speaks. In listening, others are speaking; in believing, others' words are received; and in passing on words, one's whole being is put into the words. Many people love to speak and pass on words. Because of this, they lose all their power and are no longer able to be a proper minister of God's word.

Fourth, there are the inaccurate words. Some people are very inaccurate in the things they say. One minute they say one thing and the next minute they say something else. This type of person is "double-tongued" (1 Timothy 3:8); they cannot serve as deacons. They say one thing to one person and another thing to another person. They say something to a man's face and turn around and say something else behind his back. Such ones are useless in the work of God. Brothers and sisters, if we cannot bridle our tongue, how can we control ourselves and how can we serve the Lord? A man must bridle himself and buffet his body before he can serve the Lord in a proper way. We have a terrible member in our body—our tongue, which always leads us into trouble. Inaccuracy in words, being double-tongued, and vacillation in our statements are marks of weakness in character. Those who have such habits have no standing, and they are powerless before God. They vacillate back and forth because they are too easy going and uncertain. Such behavior points to extreme weakness in one's character! In the Lord's work, inaccurate words are a very sobering matter, and we must deal with them.

But with others, there is a conscious effort to be double-tongued. They purposely say something on one occasion and another thing on another occasion. This is not only a weakness in character but a moral corruption. Matthew 21:23-27 records that the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the Lord and asked on whose authority He was acting. He replied with this question: "The baptism of John, from where did it come, from heaven or from men?" They reasoned among themselves: "If we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Why then did you not believe him? But if we say, From men, we fear the crowd, for all hold John as a prophet." They answered the Lord saying, "We do not know." Their answer was a deliberate lie.

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