Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Taming the Tongue (James 3): Gossip, Slander & “Respectable Sins” That Can Destroy Your Witness

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

How powerful are your words—really? In this episode, we open James 1:26 and James 3 to expose the “respectable sins” of the tongue: gossip, slander, lying, crude talk, and careless words. Scripture is clear: the tongue reveals the heart, and unchecked speech can lead to self-deception and spiritual harm.This episode is sponsored by The Master's University. To learn more about how you can invest in a college education devoted to Christ & Scripture, visit: https://www.masters.eduWe walk through five biblical realities about the tongue—why it’s powerful, restless, foul, prone to lying, and deadly through gossip—and why believers must bridle the tongue for the glory of God. If you’ve ever brushed off gossip as “not that serious,” these passages will challenge you.Subscribe for more Bible teaching and practical discipleship conversations. 💬 Question: Which “tongue sin” do you think Christians minimize most—gossip, sarcasm, exaggeration, or crude joking?

The scripture says there is a direct correlation between the amount you talk and the amount you sin. And the speech you utter, as we have already discussed, reveals your heart. The saddest form of deception in the scripture is self-deception. When you're not just deceiving others, you're deceiving yourself. And the scripture says if anyone thinks that he is a worshiper of God, a follower of Jesus Christ, and does not bridle or control his tongue, that person is self-deceived. They've lied to themselves, and whatever faith they profess is worthless. Hank, how you doing?

I'm doing while, Johnny. How are you doing? Okay, Hank. Okay. I need to tell you a story. I need to get it off my chest. Okay. For preloading, Johnny has multiple times our last couple of days,

Johnny said, just wait, save it for the podcast. I have no idea what he's about to tell me. As you know, if you've been watching or listening to the Die Island podcast for a while, we are both Bears fans. Die hard. Last week, I felt. felt really guilty because I got tickets to the Bears game without Hank to go to the playoff game versus the Rams.

And while I was there, well, I was just getting text. I was getting text from Hank on the way. Just checking in on your safety. Checking in. I know he doesn't do well in the cold. Now I just want to share with you how my experience went. My flight was delayed for two hours after church because I had to, you know, preach and then I was going to leave right after that.

Also, on my way there, you know, in the airport in Nashville, I'm seeing people with Bears jerseys on, and I'm like, I'm going. Bear down, bear down. I'm just fist bumping everyone. I'm doing chest bumps with all the dads. And I'm like, I'm going to the game. I'm going to the game. You know, slight delay, folks.

It should be boarding about 15 minutes. Okay. 30 minutes later. Slight delay, we should be boarding 15 minutes. Okay. Dude, no way. And then two hours later, we leave. At this point, it's like, okay, man, we're probably only going to make it to the second

quarter. I've already missed the first quarter. We land in Chicago and we sit on the tarmac for two hours. Are you serious? Because they didn't have like a gate. I watched the entire

playoff game on my phone from Chicago. You're kidding. Wait, did you, you never got into the stadium? We get off the plane. We run to the stadium. We get a little taxi.

This guy's Jason's state them in between traffic. We get to the stadium. I'm watching it on my phone, running into Soldier Field. When Caleb Williams throws one of the most generationally amazing passes of all time,

we get to the stadium, they won't let us in because the game is already over. And then we go, come on, and I'm just begging people. I'm like, I flew here. I've been embarrassed. I'm in ministry. They let us in for overtime. We watched the game winning kick. You are the reason they lost

Probably Literally Well it was a win The goalie won But it was like The game winning kick happened No one said a word And then we all walked out

So I feel like I had felt bad That I went without you And the Lord What man meant for evil God meant for God The Lord Didn't let it happen He knew it was wrong

For me to go without you What is your takeaway from this lesson? Honestly I told Katie This is not a joke when like we've gone through things familiarly, you're like, hey, this is a real trial. The Lord is going to use this in my life. This was one of those things where I have no idea how God is going to redeem this.

Like, why on earth would this happen? This is just a straight up disappointment. Like you can't even say I had a trial. I missed the Bears game. Or can I? The lesson is clear. You are not allowed to go to Bears games without bringing. I've been a Bears fan my whole life.

This is going to be my first game ever. This is, I literally, I've made me the first time on the dial-in podcast, I'm speechless. You, I can't even, if there's any dial-in fans with season tickets, please feel free to invite me, but not, Johnny. Speaking of speechless, in this episode, we're going to talk about some biblical realities regarding the tongue. It's going to be kind of part of this idea of respectable sins. Before I continue, this episode is brought to you by the, the Masters University. If someone in your life or you are looking to continue and pursue higher education, I would highly encourage you to check out the Masters University. You can go to masters.edu

to find out more information about this university that is committed to Christ in scripture, and you can use our unique code dial-in to waive the application fee for the Masters University. Well, Hank, I want to turn a corner now, but I want to just maybe paint a scenario for you and I'm not trying to be, you know, hyper dramatic. But I want to just imagine this scenario where I bring before you a guy who's in ongoing, consistent, unrepentantant sexual sin. He's committing adultery on his family, has denied his family, claims to be a believer. And you would just look at the fruit of his life and say, well, listen, you're not saved by your fruit, but that lifestyle evidences that maybe the root of salvation has never taken place in his heart.

He's not repentant. He's got a consistent pattern of sin, 1 John 1. He's walking in the darkness. You would say, ah, you know what? I don't judge the heart God does, but it looks like from all appearances. There's no evidence of the Holy Spirit in his life. Yeah, same. If I brought before you a serial idolature, you know, maybe either literally and he's bowing down

to primitive images or he's got other things or she does and worships those things or a serial drunker. You just every single night, this is the reality of their life. no repentance being a key idea there, you would go, hey, listen, you're not saved by your works, but the fruit of their life lacks evidence that they've been actually changed and transformed by God. Well, and oftentimes I feel like the most powerful testimonies maybe when you're a kid are hearing from someone who came out of that type of environment and then turns a corner, God does a work in their life, and then it's totally...

Such for some of you, 100%. Now, the question is, if I brought before you a gossip, a serial gossip, a slander, and asked if the fruit of their life evidence that the root of salvation had taken place in the heart, you'd be like, well. I've never heard a testimony of something that started out. I was a serial gossip and my life hit rock bottom and I was a gossip. You go, okay. Because that's a respectable sin.

What I mean by that and what Jerry Bridges meant by that in his book, Respectable Sins, is that there are certain sins when you look at the scripture that are very faux pa. You know, like this is very bad. Sexual sin, very bad. But the sins of the tongue, they're perceived as minor. But interestingly, in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, it says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,

nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. I mean, that's a serious list. But smack dab in the middle of that, you have this idea of a slander, someone who criticizes others with their tongue. If I was to ask you, hey, what does it look like when a nation, when a civilization, a culture has totally denied God. You'd go, well, Romans 1 describes the culture that has been given over by God to their rampant iniquity. And that's homosexuality. It's hatred of man, hatred of God.

And yet, in that same context, you have this idea of their gossips, their slanders. So when Paul is, in 1st Corinthians 6, and in Romans 1, describing the worst of the worst, sandwich between haters of men, haters of good, idolatry, homosexuality, you have gossip. Sins of the tongue, slander. And I think sometimes we just,

we don't really think about that. We kind of sweep those realities under the rug. No, totally. To your point, I feel like those are well-known passages with these laundry lists of kind of the big sins. And it's upon reflection, I mean, we, until we had had a prior conversation when we actually looked at James and youth group,

it wasn't, even to me at that time, I wouldn't have been able to rightly, identify all of these tongue-based sins that are tucked in there. And actually, in many ways, the central, the central kind of apex of those sin lists. Yeah, no, and it's a big deal. I mean, Proverbs 1821 says life and death are in the power of the tongue, meaning that the topic of the tongue, as we look to God's word, isn't trivial. It's oozing with significance, eternal significance. And even when we look in Proverbs 6, it says that there are six things that God hates, seven that are an abomination to him.

Three of those have to do with the tongue. You have murder, you have lovers of evil, and then in that list of seven things that are an abomination to God, it says lying lips, gossips, and slander. The Bible, God's word, functions as a tuning fork so that we would be aware of the reality of how important the usage of our tongue,

and also we'll include in this, kind of the digital use of what we're texting, what we're typing, how important that is, to God. Now in the New Testament, and you mentioned James, and we can turn there. And the New Testament, James is the earliest book ever written in the New Testament. And he's writing so that people would understand what the Christian life really looks like. Like, hey, here's what it means to follow God. Let's just got on and get down to the brass tacks. Many people then and today profess Christ, but not everyone possesses Christ. And in every chapter of James, he mentions the tongue.

In James 126, he says, if anyone thinks he is religious. Now just stop there. for a moment. That word for religious, when James says, this is the half brother of Jesus, if anyone thinks he is religious, that word for religious is used once in the New Testament, and it's only used here. It means a worshiper. It's not just someone that believes in a higher deity. It's not someone that just goes to church. This is someone that believes they are devout worshipers of God. And then he says this. If anyone thinks he is religious, a worshipper, and then it says this, and does not bridle or control his tongue, that person deceives his own heart and his religion is worthless.

That idea of worthless is the same word when Paul says, if Christ didn't arise from the grave, our faith is in vain. It just means it's worth nothing. Now, I remember Harry saying this one time, have you ever been deceived? Have you ever been betrayed? You know, it's tragic.

That's painful. It's painful. But the saddest form of deception in the scripture is self-deception. When you're not just deceiving others, you're deceiving yourself. And the scripture says if anyone thinks that he is a worshiper of God, a follower of Jesus Christ, and does not bridle his tongue, that person is self-deceived. They've lied to themselves, and whatever faith they profess is worthless.

I want to highlight a resource for you from the John McArthur Publishing Group. This is a book that they have recently published called Our Savior Who Praise, and it is a verse-by-verse exposition of one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. from John 17. You know, one of the things that we see in the gospel is that Jesus has not only risen from the grave, he's not only ascended to the Father, but he intercedes for us constantly. That's what it says in Hebrews 725, that he ever lives to make intercession for us. This is a precious promise for you if you're a Christ follower. Jesus prays for you, and what that means is that no one who is in Christ will ever be lost or snatched out of the Father's hand. This is a doctrine of immense comfort that will transform your life.

One other thing that is really cool is that if you go to their website, you can download some free questions as you make your way through this book. I'm sure that both as an individual, but as a collective body of believers, you will be strengthened, encouraged, and comforted by the truths found within this book, our Savior who prays. To maybe put a bow on your point of the worshipper, if anyone thinks themselves a worshipper, it's helpful to kind of drill. down to the original language in this case, because when I read religious right away,

I'm thinking, like, back as an elementary school kid being like, yeah, I don't believe in a religion, I believe in a person, Jesus Christ. And so religious almost seems like, oh, yeah, well, obviously that person, you know, is deceived. But your point is, no, like, this is actually applicable to us, the ones who might be tuning in to dial in. People doing like Bible podcast, Bible classes, going to Bible preaching churches, watching sermons, listening to worship music. I'm a follower of God. Yeah, absolutely. And so anyway, it's, uh, makes me kind of want to lean in. Yeah, and then James continues in James too,

and we're familiar with the idea. He says faith without works is what? Dead. Dead, meaning that you're not saved by your works, but the works, the fruit of your life, evidence that the root of salvation has taken place in your heart. Jesus says you can tell a tree by it's what? It's fruit.

Now, we understand this. We've talked about this before. When James is writing, there are no chapter divisions, meaning that's something that came later on, you know, in the 1700s by itinerate preachers on horseback. So when James is talking about faith without works being dead, his then initial thought in James 3 is all about the way that we employ and use our tongue.

And I want to look at five realities regarding the tongue in this episode and we'll look at how we're supposed to use the tongue in a way that glorifies God maybe in the next, but five realities, and we're going to look primarily at James because I think it's really helpful. But first of all, I want to look at the reality that the tongue is very powerful. Growing up in Chicago, maybe you remember the song. we used to do it in elementary school five nights ago when we were all in bed

Mrs. O'Leary hung a lantern on the shed and then the cow kicked it over she winked her eye and said it's going to be a hot one in Shytown tonight. Fire, fire, fire, and then we'd go four nights ago then we'd whisper three nights ago when we were all in bed and the song is about the Great Chicago Fire

and I'm familiar with the fire I'm not familiar with that song. It's saved. But the story is that Mrs. O'Leary in 1871 a lantern felt over in her barn. And as a result, 17,500 buildings, 300 people were killed, 125,000 people were homeless, all from a single spark that started in her barn. You know, what I used to live in California, in between summer and fall, there's our fifth season in California. It's fire season.

And there's these wildfires that are just devastating. They just wreak havoc on the community, on entire cities. And what's interesting about a wildfire that just totally destroys everything and its path. Its path is not how it ends, but how it begins. Totally. Just a single spark. And I want you just maybe to read the beginning of chapter three, maybe read verses two through two and three for a moment. Yeah, absolutely. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now, if we put bits in the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Do you want me to keep going?

Yeah, keep going going actually through verse five. Okay. Now, look at the ships also. Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. Yeah, and verse 6 says, and the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell.

I mean, this is very serious. The scripture says that the tongue is a fire. It has the ability. Something small seems insignificant to absolutely destroy everything in its path. Proverbs 1627 says, an ungodly man digs up evil. And in his lips, there is a burning fire. As we look to the scripture, we see that the tongue is a disproportionately small muscle in our body. And yet it wields much force.

And actually, James gives three consecutive analogies. He says the tongue is like a bit in bridle like a horse, meaning like a horse is mighty. Job, God asked, you know, have you seen the horse? It's mighty and majestic. And yet it's controlled by a tiny bridle in its mouth. Then he says the tongue is like a ship. These are first century Mediterranean ships that could carry a thousand people. And yet they're being directed by a small rudder on the back of the ship.

And then he says here, it's like a fire. I mean, these are three analogies in a row, something small. I mean, your legs are big. Your arms are big. You know, your body is big. and yet your body, your whole soul is being affected and directed by a two-ounce muscle behind an army of teeth. And it is a powerful weapon that can either build up, as we'll look at in our next episode, or wreak total devastation and destruction.

Well, and I think just the points here, we're giving this image of like war, culture, commerce. We're in many ways directed through the uses of horse, the uses of ships, the use of fire. This is kind of a personal one for me, because my men, middle names Winston. So Henry Winston Bowen. I'm actually, I've been an imposter my whole life. My name's not Hank. But my dad named me Winston after Winston Churchill. And he was a fanatic about Winston Churchill. He had busts. He had books on Winston Churchill. And I just think of, when I think of the tongue, I think of Winston Churchill through the tongue, through his tongue, I mean, in many ways, steeled an entire nation against a coming force. And it's just an amazing thing

when you think about it, that a single guy speaking into a microphone can actually change the like psychological makeup of thousands of people listening all through the use of his tongue. Yeah, and it's true not only for generational leaders that have that influence. It's actually whatever sphere of influence you have, the people around you, it's that influential. In verse 7 of the same chapter, it says for every species of beasts and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, meaning I've been to Thailand with Katie. They have, you know, elephants that can paint. paint watercolor with their trunks.

It's amazing. You have Paris that can recite the Constitution. You have dogs that can grab you snacks from the fridge. Meaning here, James is just saying every species of beast and birds has been tamed. You can do tricks with it. Lions can jump through hoops. But verse 8, no one can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil. We used to sing the song growing up in Chicago. Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can ever hurt me. I'm familiar with this song. Good. Biblical speaking, that song is a total lie. because the tongue is very powerful and it does hurt.

It's destructive. And the scripture says it's a fire. Not only is it powerful, though. Secondly, it's restless. And verse 8, we just read it. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. People spend the majority of their lives talking. The average person spends, you know, talk 7,000 words a day.

Some women says, one statistic, they speak 20,000 a day. But Proverbs 1019 says, however many words you speak, where there are many words, wrongdoing is unavoidable, but one who restrains his lips is wise, meaning this, that the scripture says there is a direct correlation between the amount you talk and the amount you sin, and the speech you utter, as we have already discussed,

reveals your heart. In Matthew 12, Jesus says, a tree is known by its fruit, right? I mean, how you live, that makes sense. And then he's going to transition directly from that, saying like, okay, whatever, however you act on the outside reveals what's on the inside, he's going to talk immediately after that about the mouth.

He says in verse 36, but I tell you that every careless word that people speak, this is a scary verse, they shall give an accounting for him the day of judgment, for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. He says, every idol, careless word, you know what that means? It just means words without intention, without premeditation. And he says, every word you speak you're going to be held accountable for. Why? Because words matter.

It's not just what we do with our bodies. It's not just sexual sin that's serious to God. It's how we employ the tongue that he's given us. It's a sobering thought when you're talking on a podcast of practically knowing, like, people are going to listen to this. And so every word matters. But your point is not only, it doesn't matter if you're being beamed out for some number of people to hear in a variety of geographies. But every single word, for every single person, you might never talk on a podcast. But even what you say to your neighbor matters to the Lord.

on the skills of eternity, you know, and we're going to give an account for that. So the tongue is powerful, and it's because the tongue is powerful, the tongue is restless, meaning we talk all the time, all day long, and God cares about the way we steward that. And then three, the tongue is foul. The tongue is foul. It says in verse 9 and 10 of the same chapter, James chapter 3, with it, that's the tongue, we bless our Lord and Father,

and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not to be this way, meaning James point to this. He points to this temptation of the tongue. He says that the tongue is the instrument by which we praise God. We're saying an amazing grace. You know, we can sing about amazing love.

And yet it's also the instrument that we use to criticize and curse our neighbor. This is why Paul says that the tongue is, it's this monitor, the MRI of the heart. Even when Paul is trying to punctuate the sinfulness of man in Romans 3, right before he says all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God in Romans 3, He says there is no one righteous 310, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. They have all turned aside. They have all become corrupt. Okay, how does that display itself?

Their throat is an open grave, and with their tongues, they keep deceiving. The venom of asps is on their lips, meaning that the natural man's heart is wicked, and the wickedness in their heart is revealed that their tongue is employed, and it just spuse poison, deceit, slander, gossip, lies. And for this reason, when you become a Christian, one of the first hallmarks, the birth marks that you've been changed, is the way that you use this, and we'll talk about this more. But Ephesians 429 says,

let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, and we'll talk about the rest of that verse in the next episode. But unwholesome means words that are not fitting, not proper, not consistent with the character of a Christian. Every single culture has words that they recognize to be indecent, which is why when you watch a show, it can be rated R for nothing other than language. Because the culture has looked at those words and says,

these are words that we have subjectively decided are indecent. They're improper. They're rude, they're crude, they're foul. And the Christian, whose life is governed by the Spirit of God, is to have this conviction. No unwholesome, unfitting word that the culture identifies to be crass or crude or cuss will I employ

because that's one of the chief birthmarks that I've been changed by God and it's how I use my tongue. I just remember growing up, I was a little bit of a loud mouth. I know it's going to be hard for you to... Growing up. Okay.

But no, I just remember there's a particular friend coming to mine I remember in middle school, like, leaning over to whisper to him. Was it David? No. But it was another buddy and whispering to him. And he looked at me horrified because I had misjudged the loudness with which I whispered. And so I'm whispering to him something that I shouldn't be saying in the first place.

And whatever I was whispering, whomever I was whispering about, clear as day, here's what I'm saying. And so all of a sudden I'm caught in this moment where I'm saying something I shouldn't be saying. I look over and I see the person just staring at me that I just, just, I don't know, said something I shouldn't have. And speaking to your point about this duplicitous nature of our tongue, of like, I was so embarrassed in the moment because the kind of juxtaposition of what I was saying, what I shouldn't have been, being brought to light so quickly in front of me. And then there's nothing you can say that takes it back.

But so your point here, your tongue should be aligned. You should only be speaking that which builds up. It should not be unwholesome. But then I think you're going to keep going for it's not only due. duplicitous in nature, but it's also just things we say that are outright not true. Yeah, it's just things that are not true. But I think that we just really justify a couple things. Like in Ephesians 5, Paul says to be an imitator of Jesus Christ.

Okay, what does that even mean? It's a high bar. Well, he says in verse 3 that one of the ways that you evidence that you're pursuing Christ-likeness is you flee sexual immorality. Understand that. But the next verse says, let no filthiness or foolish talk be even mentioned among you. Meaning, I can tell to what degree you're pursuing Christ-likeness. by the degree that you allow

even filthy, silly, crude humor, Paul says, don't even joke about things that Jesus Christ came to die for. I think sometimes I don't want to do anything with my body, but I can joke about it. Or like, we just kind of minimize and trivialize this sin. Paul says, it shouldn't even be named among you.

Nothing, nothing, no filthiness, no silly talk, no crude humor. That's something Jesus Christ came to die for. Fourth reality here, just in why the tongue needs to be bridled. The tongue lies. It's powerful, it's restless, it's foul, and it's lying. This includes embellishments, exaggerations, partial truth, full on slander, white lies. Mark Twain once said, that a man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself to be a liar.

That's a man that doesn't know the Lord, but he gets it. You know, Proverbs 12, 22 says, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Revelation 218 says, but as for the cowardly, I mean, just think about this list, the faithless. the detestable as for murderers sexually immoral sorcerers that's witches idolatures and one more thing and all liars their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death god is a god of truth jesus the way the truth in the life he hates lying john eight jesus says you are of your father the devil he is a liar one of the things that we are committed to doing when we become followers of Christ is Ephesians 425.

It says put away, put aside all falsehood from you. Like a filthy garment is the idea. Anything false in your life. This is why even in the court of law, you have to swear to say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and what? Nothing about the truth. Nothing about the truth. Because even the court system recognizes that by nature, everyone is a liar.

And the scripture says, okay, if you've been changed by God, because the Holy Spirit's in you now, you have the power to be able to do this. put aside every ounce of falsehood like a, like a disease. And it's just, it's particularly convicting where you started. It's, it's not only the like big lies of, were you doing X? No, I wasn't doing X and coming out in like 180 degree. But so often I'm prone to 2% here, 2% there, exaggeration. And that slivers of a lack of truth.

100%. Yeah, and there's just this fifth reality, why the tongue needs to be bridled. I'll let you guess this final one. I read this one time, and I thought I was thought-provoking. It goes like this. Who am I? I have no respect for justice. I maim without killing.

I break hearts and ruin lives. I am cruel and malicious and gather strength with age. The more I am quoted, the more I am believed. I flourish at every level of society. My victims are helpless. They cannot protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face. To track me down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive I become.

I'm nobody's friend. Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same. I topple governments and ruin marriages. I destroy careers and cause heartache and sleepless nights. I wreck churches and separate Christians. I spawn suspicion and generate grief, making innocent people cry on their pillows. Even my name hisses. My name is what?

Gossip. Gossip. Gossip is a particularly deadly sin. It is damaged more people, destroyed more relationships, dismantled more churches than potentially every other sin. And sadly, this sin is viewed as minor. I think in the eyes of many people, but as you look to God's word,

this is a major sin in the eyes of God. God hates gossip because their tongues were not given to defame or slander or tear down one another. It was given to praise God and to lift and build one another up. Gossip is a true tragedy. And I think so often many of the conversations that will happen culturally within the Christianity is people kind of push back on if someone's making a clear statement on a sexual ethic. And people kind of the pushback will often be like, well, you make such a big deal out of this, this and this. But you're a liar.

And so doesn't that make you as much a sinner? And the implication is, well, you shouldn't make as big of a deal about this because we all agree kind of lying isn't that big of a deal. But I feel like the case you're building here, the case James is laying out. the case the Lord is laying out through all of Scripture is not that we need to weaken the importance of the other sins, but often it reveals that we're delegating. Elevate those. Yeah, and we need to take the sin of our tongue significantly more seriously. Yeah, Proverbs 1628 says regarding gossip, a perverse man stirs up dissension and a gossip

separates close friends. That's a reality. I think there are three common ways where gossip is disguised. First of all, I think gossip is cloaked by godly concern. hey, I just want to share something with you. You know, I got some concern. I'm only mentioning this to you out of love and I know that you care for them,

so I'm just going to tell you something. Secondly, I think gossip is cloaked by prayer requests. Hey, you know what? I don't know if they would mind me mentioning this, but you want to be praying for Becky. You know, her life is in shambles. I think third, gossip is often cloaked and disguised by invitations for wisdom and discernment.

I think there's obviously an appropriate place for this. You know, we have to be very careful on how we do it. But, hey, I want to get your take on this. And in reality, it's just because we want to get something off of our chest or we want to share and divulge information that's not ours to share or divulge, and often doesn't even involve us. And so Christians, I think, have their PhDs in gossiping and yet cloaking it as righteousness. And we have to be really careful about how we do that because right after, you know,

Paul says in Ephesians 429, let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth. The next verse, do you know what it is? No. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. meaning that all of the things that we're talking about regarding the use of our tongue, this is something that actually grieves God. It's not just something that God is against. I think it's important for people to know that there is a capacity for the Christian to grieve God.

That same word for grieve, do not grieve the Holy Spirit, is the same word when the disciples found out that Jesus was going to die, and it says that they walked away distressed. And that's what the sin of the tongue does to God. It is, it grieves him as our father. It is significant. And I want to talk about this more in the next episode about how we are to speak as a child of God.

But I think before we do, maybe just one big idea is, I think it's no coincidence why when we look to the gospel and we looked at even 1st Peter 221, it says Christ also suffered for you, leaving you as an example to follow in a steps, who committed no sin. And then part of the way we know he was righteous.

It says, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, slandered, he did not revile in return while suffering. He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. That's the father. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we may die to sin and live to righteousness

for by his wounds who are healed. So why was Jesus silent? He was silent and went to the cross as a lamb before it's cheers because every word that we speak, often throughout the day, is sufficient testimony to condemn us before a holy God for all of eternity.

And so when the scripture wants to come, compound and punctuate the righteousness of God. It says there was no deceit found in his mouth. And he went silently to the cross to pay for the sins of the tongue. And he gives us a practical example of what does that look like. We look at Jesus's example of him staying silent in light of being slandered. And also sometimes I feel like it, we can almost over spiritualize. I was just when we grieve the Holy Spirit, like the Holy Spirit is God, he's other, he's holy. But also, if we thought about grieving our spouses or our parents or a dear friend, like that would break your heart.

You'd feel bad in a way that sometimes we can almost have such a lofty or other view of God that we lose the personal nature of like you don't want to grieve someone who's done so much for you and cares about you. Yeah. And I think we lose sight of that in general about the way we can grieve the Holy Spirit. You know, I think, you know, big idea maybe just to hang on too well, you know, until our next episode. The number one way you can transform the way you speak is by having a heart that hears the Word of God. And I think that often we try to look for five, you know,

tips and tricks. What did I do? No, I was just thinking I had a teacher, Mrs. King, when I was in second grade, she said, Hank, God gave you two of these and one of these. And so we need to be listening to the Word of God. I thought it did something. No, before we can go learn to speak the words of God, maybe next thing. You're laughing at me. I was just smiling, thinking about Mrs. King. Hi, Mrs. King. Godly woman. Yeah. But we need a heart that hears the word of God. And as we do so, and we feast on his truth, God will transform the way we speak.

Why? Well, because out of the heart the mouth speaks. And in order to transform our tongues, God has to transform first and foremost, our what? Our hearts. Our hearts. We'll pick it up from there. Awesome. Looking forward to it, Johnny. Thanks, Hank.