Paul, being led by God, continues pulling Old Testament scripture and using it to prove how thoroughly sinful and corrupt man is. He leaves nothing on the table. It seems that, after "setting the stage" by addressing both Jews and Gentiles, this is the knockout punch. He has addressed excuse after excuse, and now lets it all out.
Verses 13 and 14 are pulled from Psalm 5:9, Psalm 140:3, and Psalm 10:7. They all address the same sinful situation, so we will discuss them briefly individually to set context, and then as a group.
Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.
Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.
Here, David refers to the enemies of Israel as the evil ones. We see that Israel corresponds to believers, who are God's children. The evil nations that hated God and Israel in the Old Testament correspond to the lost today. We may choose not to view the lost today as evil - some of them are our family and friends - we would never put them in the same category as the evil nations in the Old Testament. However,
In God's eyes, all who oppose Him are slaves to the evil one, and justly condemned.
This is a hard truth, but necessary to grasp as it should awaken in us a burning desire to spread the gospel, that God could use us as vessels poured out for His glory!
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Psalm 140:1-4
Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet.
The use of serpent or asp is significant - all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis. Serpent is synonymous with deceit, evil, and corruption. The poison of the asp, in the time of Rome, was used in executions. The definition of the Hebrew and Greek words for poison is also interesting:
Hebrew: heat; anger, bottles, hot displeasure, furious heat, indignation, poison, rage, wrath
Greek: also venom (as emitted by serpents): - poison, rust.
Together, these definitions paint a gruesome picture of venom running through our veins, producing all kinds of things that are in ablsolute opposition to the character of a Holy God. They reveal us as walking death, capable of nothing but producing more death through corruption and sin.
This is a clear and Biblically accurate picture of who we are.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Psalm 10:7-9
His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
This pulls back the curtain, revealing our natural tendency to deceive. The person we most deceive is ourselves, convincing ourselves that we aren't as bad as the Bible says we are - even training our conscience to excuse us (as Paul wrote in Romans 2:15). We can't handle the fact that those we love and interact with daily are this bad, let alone ourselves. Yet, Paul, being inspired by God, uses Old Testament scripture to help us see who we really are.
We really are this evil, the Bible tells us so.
So, what is Paul's main theme in verses 13 and 14?
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,
but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:5-8 ESV
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Matt 12:34 ESV
"'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
And he called the people to him and said to them, "Hear and understand:
it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person."
Matt 15:8-11 ESV
Whether we allow ourselves to recongize it, whether God has revealed it to us or not, we are as evil as Paul has described. It is proven in what comes out of our mouth. While we may feel that there are "good" people in the world who aren't Christians, we need to define "good" by God's perfect character.
Anything that comes out of our mouth that points to anything other than God, to the praise of His glory, is evil and corrupt, robbing God of the glory He so deserves!
As Christians, we still battle this every day. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit to convict and guide us, to reveal to us our sinfulness. But man, left to himself, without any true compass, is doomed to run headlong into evil deceit and reckless corruption, ending in eternal death and torment...no matter how "good" we try to convince ourselves we can be apart from God.
The Bible is the inspired Word of God - no matter how blunt and convicting it is!
Next Post: 2.20.13
AMEN Proverbs 28:21 KJV To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress. We are all the same! God alone is to be honored as righteous. Thanks for his imputed righteousness that is all we can hope in.
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