I learn so much about God from parenting my kids and from my kids in general. I jokingly say that my son keeps me on my toes and my knees at the same time. Now that my kids are teenagers (When did that happen?!), the lessons come more from their mouths than from my parenting them. Does that make sense? For example, “If our body is the temple then aren’t we to always act like we are at church?” My sixteen year old daughter asked that question. She was referring to 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God? You are not your own…” This starts a whole conversation about how we are to live our lives outside the church walls.
James 3:10, “Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.” Matthew 5:11, “It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth – this defiles a person.” What you think about, what you meditate on leads to your words and your words to your beliefs and your beliefs to your actions.
Are you being a hypocrite acting one way on Sunday and then cursing your brothers and sister every other day of the week? Are you sweet as sugar come Sunday morning, but you have stirred up strife, spread gossip, and spewed hate during the week? You are not fooling God
If you wouldn’t speak it in the church building, you shouldn’t speak it anywhere. Do you cuss in the church walls?
If you wouldn’t think it in the sanctuary, you shouldn’t think it anywhere else.
If you wouldn’t behave like in during big church or worship, then you don’t behave like it out in the world.
We are the church. We are the body of Christ, and too often people who call themselves “Christians” act just as hateful and lost as the world in which we are to be light. You can’t be light and have darkness in you. You can’t serve God and mammon. You can’t praise God and then curse His creations. I don’t care if you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, African American or critically Caucasian (that me, I’m very fair). It doesn’t matter what your personal stance is on the NFL and kneeling, your position on Obama or Trump, your thoughts regarding gun control, birth control or the budget.
If you can’t say something nice, then keep your lips shut. You can respectfully disagree without name calling and being degrading. You can still be kind and friendly to those who don’t view the world as you do.
If you can’t say something nice, you need to pray. Pray for yourself. Pray for the person that you want to speak evil of. Pray for the situation and for God’s healing.
If you can’t say something nice, then meditate on God’s word until He gives you the words He would have you speak. Because what you speak, reveals more about you, your heart and your mind than it does about the person you are slandering or gossiping about. It shows your weakness and shallowness and not their deficits.
You see, my Christian girlfriends, there’s going to come a time when someone in the world is going to need someone who loves Jesus to show them hope, to show them a different way, and even if you have disagreed with them on the NFL, gun control, birth control, Obama/ Trump, if you have done so with the love of Christ and with respect, guess what! There’s a good chance they will come to you to discuss what is going on in their lives. But if you haven’t been living like the temple of Christ outside the church walls, if you haven’t spoken words like Christ outside the sanctuary, then you have BLOWN IT!
Today, ask yourself. Am I being the temple? Are the words I speak the ones He gives me? Are the words I speak words I would say at church?
Father God,
You are such an amazing Father. You use everything in our lives. You don’t waste anything, any opportunity, any possibility, and you don’t waste us or the gifts you’ve given us. Thank you.
Abba, please help us to live a consistent life of a growing Christian not just in words but also in our actions. Help us to speak respectfully when disagreeing. Help us not to be offended by every little thing because we do not fight against people (flesh and blood) but against principalities. Help us to be the temple everywhere we go and to everyone we see and speak to.
In your sweet Son’s name Jesus Christ,
Amen.