Refusing to Speak Wickedness or Deceit

As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.  Job 27:3-4

Nearly every day, people get phone calls offering them the deal of a lifetime. Very often, those ‘deals’ are deceiving scams just to get their money and give them nothing of any value. Along with getting those phone calls, people will watch and talk about evil things, most often promoting wickedness as good. The world has no standard that guides how they speak or what they talk about.

Job states that as long as he can breathe, he will not speak any wickedness or deceit.

No matter where a person lives, there is wickedness and deceit. This can be easily seen on television but is also promoted in places of work and in most other public places.

It is common for people to ‘stretch’ the truth so that they do not get into trouble or get someone else into trouble. This is a form of deceit. And talking about and promoting any wicked activity, in any form, is speaking of wickedness in the wrong way.

Believers are often caught up in speaking as the world does. They deceive other believers into thinking that they are holy while at the same time purposefully living in sin. It is common to hear believers talking about the same evil things as good as the world does.

The words of believers are to always be true and good, filled with life, or pointing to life in God. Jesus said He is Truth and believers are to be just like Him, truth, not deception or wickedness. Just as Job vowed not to speak wickedness or deceit, believers need to commit to not speaking of wickedness or deceit.

As a human being, you speak every day to someone. Take time to think about what you are saying. Fill your heart and mind with the things of God, His word, His love, and His ways.

The more you are filled with God’s word and love, the more you will speak His truth and not speak anything that is wicked or deceitful. You will no longer want to harm anyone else by your words or promote any sin as good. Commit to speaking the words of God, not the words of the world.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that God will give you the words to speak; that God will help you to keep from speaking in any deceitful way; that you will speak what is good and true in the sight of God; and that the world will know you love God by your words and actions.

This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Insights from Tom

Featured Image by Ihor Malytskyi on Unsplash

About the Author

Tom Arn is happily married for 30 years to his wonderful wife Cammie. They are blessed by God with eight wonderful children and one grandchild. Tom has worked as a children’s pastor, senior pastor, and many times (and currently) as a Sunday School Teacher. He has a General Ministries degree with a Bible College. He started doing a short devotional type Bible study on Facebook in 2014, going through the books of the Bible chapter by chapter, section by section. Tom writes what he feels God is placing on his heart.

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