47
February, 1945
John A. Hubbard, member o f the faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and Head of' the depart ment of English Bible.
$e Swift to Hear By JOHN A . HUBBARD Los Angeles, Calif.
I N ADDITION to its wonderful doc trinal truths; the Bible contains very practical teaching. Indeed, the great doctrinal truths are designed to issue in practical living. There is nothing more practical than this mat ter of the use of our tongues, and on this theme the Bible has a great deal to say. The Epistle of James is defi nitely of a practical nature, and it is remarkable how much there is in its few chapters on the use of the tongue. Our attention w ill be centered on the statement in James'1:19: “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” A great many people reverse this or der. They are slow to hear, but very swift to speak, and because the Bible order has thus been reversed, there is almost endless trouble in the world today. The following Hebrew epigram is illuminating in this connection: My friend, speak always once, but listen twice, This, I would have you know, is sound advice.
Proverbs 21:23 gives us another very excellent reason for being slow to speak. “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.” ( The truth of these words needs no proof, for doubtless everyone of us has proved this in his own experience. The enemies of Jeremiah said: “Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah . . . let us smite him with the tongue” (Jer. 18:18). We should be slow to speak because of the possibility of wounding others with our words. In this connection the fo l lowing Scriptures are very much to the point: “The words of a talebearer are as woutids” (Prov. 18:8). “There is that speaketh rashly like the piercings of a sword” (Prov. 12:18, R.V.). In Job 5:21 the tongue is likened to a scourge. We sometimes hear people speak of giving others a “tongue lashing,” and altogether too often this form of scourging is far worse than that ter rible form of punishment in the phys ical realm.
For God has giver, you and all your peers A single mouth, friend, but a pair of ears. Someone has said, “ God has given us two hands and but one tongue that we may do much and say little. Yet many say so much and do so little as though they had two tongues and but one hand; nay, three tongues and never a hand.” Reasons for Restraint Let us now consider some reasons for being slow to speak. Proverbs 29:20 reveals that those who are hasty in speech are hopeless. “Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope for a fool than of him.” “He that hath knowledge spareth his words” (Prov. 17:27). “ A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterward” (Prov. 29:11). These two passages indicate that the one who is slow to speak shows knowledge and wisdom.
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