But that the world, through Him, might be saved.
How do I get saved, Lord? is the question. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved... Now that I am saved, when will sanctification hit my tongue. Conviction strikes my language. How can I love God and, still be so swift to use His name in vain? I don't know. It seems that many, who preach so strongly of the importance of the control of the tongue, are preaching from a history of parental controls. We often jump hard on the one whose tongue is given to cursing and struggles at the altar in confession, because of bad habits. I hear people jump on the new creation of God, in men, who have not learned the discipline of self control in the use of their tongues. It is the devil and maybe you are not a Christian if you are still struggling in this area. Many had diligent mothers who washed their mouths out with soap, early and the habit was eradicated. We cannot relate to one whose habit is to use the name of God and other words as a release from the stressers.
I have to say that, I would leave a church, were I a man, if the preacher jumped on that too frequently, without also instructing on the identification of God, in anger and what are the uses, good and evil of anger in our lives. If I preach that a man must control his mouth, that means blessing instead of cursing. That means instructions on the positive side of what we should be saying and doing and being. Not for show, or because people are watching. "I want to look, like a Christian, so I keep my tongue from evil?" That is humanism. "Lord, cleanse my tongue and my life for Your glory." That is Christian. We get it very confused. We use the Word of God as a battering rod against fledgling believers to try to "keep the behavior of the Saints consistent." In this post-Church era, we will be struggling with the behavior consistency, if we are a New Testament Church. There will be some who grew up in Christian homes and know how to behave". That doesn't make them a Christian. And there will be those who love Jesus with all their hearts and carry the tongue of cussing to their graves. God is a deliverer. But, to some this will be a thorn in the flesh.
Ninevites and Sodomites and Gommorrites, rising in the judgements may mean that there will be a post-church era, that allows cultures to rise to unheard of levels of depravity. But, Like a flood, God raises a standard against it. I believe we have seen the salvation of the Ninevites and the Sodomites and were sleeping and condemning while God was moving by His Spirit. May we not miss what God is doing now, for telling God, what we think He should be doing.
