03/10/2012
Speech
One of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives is the beauty of our speech. There is power in our mouths, to bless and to curse. Controlled by the Spirit, our mouths utter beautiful and delightful things. This is the life of the Spirit that we minister to each other. We love to be around the Spirit-filled person. There is a fragrance from their lives, and a visit with them leaves us satisfied.
The fruit they show is that of self-control. They show a control of what they say, carefully avoiding anything that would cast others in a bad light or make the wrong behavior of others known. Sure, there is a place for confronting one thought to be misbehaving, but it is always private to that person. They never make those subjects a matter of general conversation. The misbehavior of others is never food for talk. No, self-control protects even the wrong doer.
We can illustrate from the life of Ham. When his father was drunk and sleeping, Ham saw he was uncovered.
Finding his brothers, he made it known to them. It was news he was dying to share. His brothers were superior in wisdom to Ham. They did not discuss their father’s shame, they did not laugh, they were not aghast in mock humility and they did not take a peek. Ham’s moral corruption was plain when the two brothers got a blanket and, walking backward into the tent, covered their father’s naked form.
No doubt, at some time you have been a Hamite, discussing what you consider another's actions that did not seem right to you. You did not get a blanket and cover your brother or sister. No, you talked about it. Ham was cursed generationally for his sin. What was his sin? He failed to respect his father, to honor his father, to show care for his father, to protect his father.
Ham was a criticizer. He was more concerned about telling than he was about helping. It is easy to criticize. You just sit back and wait for someone to do something you can criticize--something you can point to and raise your eyebrows at, something you can put a tone in your voice about. The tone in the voice is effective, it accuses without proof and it is submitted to the hearer’s in the form of a question. The Hamite says, "Now, why did they do that?" The tone rises at the end of the question. Some of us have blankets ready because we know failure happens. WE GO TO THE ONE IN NEED and act in mercy, but some stand afar off clucking, wagging their heads.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, the man in the ditch was naked and wounded. The two sons of Ham came by. They kept to the side of the road, away from the wounded man. They probably thought, 'How terrible!’ Then the Samaritan came. He had a blanket. He was despised, but he had a blanket!
The good shepherd was of Japheth and Shem. When one was lost, he went out in the night to find it, carrying a blanket. He left the found and sought the lost.
In the story of the woman taken in adultery, all the people gathered around the woman, holding stones. But one came who had no stone. He had a blanket of mercy and compassion.
Mr. Hamite, Mrs. Hamite, when you talk are your words stones? Or blankets? "The poison of asps is under their lips".
We are to have self-control as the fruit of the Spirit--the self-control of emotions, of thinking, of actions, of speaking, so that all our words minister grace to our hearers, so that all our words build our listeners up and please the Spirit.
The poison referred to above speaks of the sting, the poison of our words. Ham came out of the tent with the poison of asps under his lips. He injected his poison into his brothers, but love refused the poison, refused Mister Ham and left him standing alone.
