Richard Dawson, 16 September 2015

Being divided is universally known to be unhelpful. Jesus said ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.’ To be ’two-faced’ is to basically be one thing on the outside and another within. Even the idea of a two edged sword speaks of something inherently dangerous. The questions is, how do we avoid this? There are perhaps many different strategies we need to consider but there is one thing which I think can be incredibly helpful in keeping our hearts and minds from being divided and that is what we allow to come out of our mouths. Again the tongue is universally considered both powerful and dangerous in the Bible. James is perhaps the most strident apologist in this regard saying at one point, ‘but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison…’ And why is the tongue so derided? Because it can so easily be the wedge that creates a divided heart in us and in those around us. Again James will say, ‘From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.’ It is clear that if we use our tongues negatively we can so easily influence those around us—we can turn them against another or even against themselves. We can introduce quite evil ideas into the minds of many by the way we speak. What is perhaps even more dangerous is that with our tongues we can divide our own hearts and minds and create a double-mindedness which defeats any sense of purpose and drive in ourselves. I find this so often in myself. I am convinced of the righteousness of a particular course of action and then I say something to myself or even just out allowed—something slightly negative, perhaps magnifying the difficulty of such a path or the pain of a moment and suddenly I am divided about what I am doing. The answer is—be positive—accentuate the good!