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The Deadliest Arrow in the Quiver

A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow. — Proverbs 25:18 ESV

In last week’s post, we began to expose the untamed tongue with an intent to bring it to heel. For we have all brandished piercing words as slashing swords, even against those we would sacrificially protect. There are, as well, the sharp utterances of others, arrows piercing our own hearts despite the sentries we stationed around them. Some words target deception, and some corruption; there are others. But today let’s look at the deadliest arrow in the quiver, the one aimed at reputation.

The reformer Martin Luther observed the logic in which God’s commandment not to steal naturally flows into His next commandment —not to “bear false witness against your neighbor.”1 Wrote the reformer, “God wishes the reputation, good name, and upright character of our neighbor to be taken away or diminished as little as his money and possessions, that every one may stand in his integrity. . .”2 In “Othello,” William Shakespeare parallels Luther’s conviction:

“He that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.”3

We are our brother’s keeper, so how do we refrain from bending the bow toward his reputation? I offer no formula, just thoughts for consideration.

Pause first. “Be . . . slow to speak and slow to become angry.”4
Consider the damage. “The tongue has the power of life and death.”5 How will you use yours?
Empathize. Remember when someone harmed your reputation. What was the fallout? How did you feel?
Examine the heart. Do you really want to deprive for a lifetime the dignity and reputation of another?
Remember. “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.”6

Then from where comes the power to control the tongue? It comes from within — the discarding of the old self and the donning of the new. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”7 We live in Christ, and His Spirit lives in us. We need not be controlled by our flesh anymore. We have choices. Speak truth in love.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” — James 3:9-10 NIV

Father, “Hide me from [those who] sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows,”8 and disincline my own heart from doing the same. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Exodus 20:16 ESV
2 Luther, Martin. “The Large Catechism.”
3 Shakespeare, William. “Othello,” in The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, edited by Stanly Wells and Gary Taylor, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), Act 3, Scene 3, lines 164-166.
4 James 1:19 NIV
5 Proverbs 18:21 NIV
6 Proverbs 19:9 ESV
7 Colossians 3:9-10 ESV
8 Psalm 64:2-3 ESV

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My Way Gives Way to His Way

In his hit song, “My Way,” Frank Sinatra crooned, “Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.”1 Personally, I cannot relate. If anything, I’ve had more regrets than I care to remember, many of them anchored in my actions and probably even more wielded through my words. Perhaps this is your experience, as well. Now, it would be easy to excoriate ourselves, as if by kicking our shins hard enough and often enough we’d either alter our sin nature or atone for it. But shin-kicking accomplishes neither. It is as fruitless as it is misguided. (And it looks silly.) So, in today’s post, let’s begin to examine our words, or “the tongue.”

Never one to hold back, the plainspoken apostle James wrote, “the tongue . . . is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”2 Like the California wildfires of this past month — widespread, uncontrolled, and devastating —such are our words in the hands of the flesh, our sin nature. James adds a note of finality: “No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”3 Then we do well to understand and accept the fact that our untamable tongue exposes our reprobate nature. Such understanding is good, for it turns us from fearful denial and toward liberating confession; it redirects us from self-flagellation and to reliance on the atonement of Christ.

Then what do we as believers do? How do we match our talk with our walk? I think we begin by acclimating ourselves with what is true. First, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”4 Christ lives in us, we live in Him, and we are new. It follows that “when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin”5 — we, our tongues included, now have choices. Then not only are we empowered to follow the Spirit’s lead, God is actually at work in us to give us the desire and the power to do what pleases him.6 Ours is to give ourselves over to Him in every way and to follow His lead. For only in Christ does “my way” give way to His way.

“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” — 1 Peter 3:10-11 ESV

Father, fill us with Your Spirit, so that, hearing His voice, we would use our voice to build up others and glorify You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Sinatra, Frank. “My Way.” On Sinatra at the Sands, recorded December 30, 1968, Reprise Records, 1969.
2 James 3:6 NIV
3 James 3:8 NIV
4 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
5 Romans 6:7 NLT
6 Philippians 2:13 NLT

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To Live in Upward Focus

Discern one word for guidance throughout the coming year. This is our annual January challenge in the Wednesday morning men’s Bible study I attend. I engage in this exercise with some reservation, for our call as believers is to offer ourselves entirely to the Spirit, who speaks in real-time, each word vital in the moment. But looking back at my words for the past three years — “listen,” “trust,” and “go,” — I must admit they coalesce nicely into a cohesive summary of the Christian walk. So, I have chosen my word for 2025, and that word is . . .

“Focus.”

Which immediately begs the question: Focus on what? Personally, I feel called to focus on our heavenly destination, which consumes increasingly more of our field of vision as we continually stride toward it. Paul writes to the Colossians, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”1 Then as we near our final destiny, that which is important becomes clearer, and that which is not becomes clutter. Sense the passion of the Hebrews epistolarian as he exhorts us: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith . . .”2 Can you feel his intensity, his laser focus on what eternally matters?

Then what does it mean to live in upward focus? Continuing his letter to the Colossian church, Paul explains what it means “to set our hearts and minds on things above.” It means putting on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. It means forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven us. It means putting on love, which bears the fruit of harmony. It means letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, and to be thankful.3 Would you agree?

Then let’s pray for ourselves and each other as Paul prayed for the church.4 Father, fill us with the knowledge of Your will through all the wisdom and understanding that Your Spirit gives, so that we may live a life worthy of You and please You in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of You, being strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to You, who have qualified us to share in the inheritance of Your holy people in the kingdom of light. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Colossians 3:1-3 NIV
2 Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV
3 Colossians 3:12-15
4 Colossians 1:10-12 NIV