Daily Bible Reading Reflections

Lips That Praise on Sunday and Slander on Monday

Today’s Bible reading is Numbers 20 and James 4.

James 4:11 provides a straightforward admonition worth remembering at the start of this new workweek:

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters.

We offered up sacrifices of praise to God–the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name–on Sunday. May we refuse to give the devil an opportunity by surrendering the same lips as instruments of evil on Monday.

As disciples of Jesus, we have been called to put quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder to death (2 Cor 12:20). As brothers and sisters, we have been warned about grieving the Holy Spirit of God with bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice against one another (Eph 4:30-31). “Slanderer” in the original language of the New Testament is closely related to another word. Diabolos. “Devil.”

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:10)

Let’s carefully guard how we talk, text, post, and comment about others this week.

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