The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venning(ii) Unless a man take heed to his words and bridle his tongue his religion is vain,and consequently in vain. It is profitable, idle and impertinent (James 1.26). Heonly seems to be religious, and thereby both flatters and deceives himself. It is toomuch to seem to be evil, and too little only to seem to be good. Appearance in evilis too much, but appearance in good is not enough. If a man seems to be religious,and does not bridle his tongue, notwithstanding his seeming to be, he is notreligious. A seeming religion is worse than none, as vanity is less than nothing(Isaiah 40.17). He who has a form and only a form of godliness, denying the powerthereof, is worse than the man who has not so much as a form, or makes noprofession of godliness. How this should oblige us to take heed of tongue-sins!(iii) Sinful words are evidences of sinful hearts. Words are the image of the mindand the declaration of it; as a man is known by his picture, so is a heart by itswords. 'Thou art a Galilean, thy speech betrays or discovers thee.' We may know ofwhat nationality men are by their language, whether French or Dutch, etc., andlikewise whether they are of the heavenly or the hellish world. It is out of theabundance, that is, the fulness and overflowing, of the heart that the mouth speaks(Matthew 12.34). Broach a full cask, and what is in will come out; words are like abroaching of the heart and giving it vent, and then out comes that which waswithin. It is indeed both possible and common for people to speak well when theymean ill; peace is in their mouth when war is in their heart. But that heart ishypocritical, and out of such a double heart which is full of hypocrisy, they speakwith their tongues (Psalm 12. 2; Jeremiah 42.20). If wicked men speak well, yet itis still from an evil heart of hypocrisy, and out of that abundance of the heart themouth speaks.(iv) Evil words corrupt men and their manners. Our great care should be not to becorrupt, and next to that, not to corrupt others; but evil words corrupt both. Theycorrupt and defile ourselves: what goes into the mouth, that is, meat, does notdefile the man, but what comes out of the mouth, that is, evil words, proceedsfrom the heart, and they defile the man. The tongue is but a little member, yet itboasts great matters; it is only as a spark of fire, but it kindles a great deal ofwood, a world of iniquity, the whole course of nature, and defiles the whole body(James 3.5,6). Not only does it defile a man's own body and course of life, but thebody and the community of them with whom we have to do; a little leaven leavensthe whole lump. 'Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners' (1Corinthians 15.33). What kind of bad language or evil communication does theApostle mean here? It is that which he had mentioned in verse 32: 'Let us eat anddrink; for tomorrow we die.' Such statements as this, of a loose, Epicurean andatheistic kind, debauch men and their manners. Many an innocent and promisingperson has been corrupted by such bad statements. They who use evilcommunication show no good conduct; people of evil words are seldom people ofgood manners. If they are so for a while, for no one is suddenly wicked or as badas possible at first, yet they degenerate and grow more immoral and increasinglyguilty of bad behaviour. Frequent lying eventually makes men so unfamiliar withtruth that they scarcely think that there is any difference between them. They jestfor so long that they forget what it is to be in earnest, until awakened by thequarrels that these things beget in and among themselves.134