Peter Jensen warns Christians about the harmful use of words

…Peter Jensen’s editorial opens the journal, as always, this time reflecting on the power of words: God’s good, true, pure word, and our self-serving words which can destroy. He concludes:

Bad doctrine, which is a travesty of the gospel, is doing much harm. But just as harmful is the careless or self-serving language by which other believers are traduced either secretly or publicly.

To repel Satan in his assault on you, is to put on the whole armour of God, especially to buckle on the belt of truth (Eph 6:14). And it is to commit yourself to pure speech:

Not the speech which follows the world in foul language and in blasphemy. So frequent has this become in entertainment, let alone the marketplace, that it is fatally easy to allow our minds to become infested with obscenities and to begin to use them ourselves.

Not the speech which follows the world in coffee-shop gossip in which we judge others and ridicule them to feed our own egos.

Not the speech which follows the world of the conspirator, which uses flimsy evidence to speculate and slander and to tear others down.

Not the speech which has become so common in the world which demands secrecy as a right in order to cover up our own sins and crimes.

Not the speech which succumbs to the world’s hunger for the “inside story” by breaking confidence and revealing matters which are not ours to pass on.

Not the speech which plays the world’s game of flattering those over whom we wish to gain power, in the name of encouragement.

Not the speech which plays the world’s other game of abuse and criticism and tearing down in order to gain power.

Rather, the speech of the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the speech shaped by the truth of the pure word of God.