Imagine that you’ve just invested your life savings into a car dealership and you’ve finished with all the preparations.
You have the town dignitaries show up for a ribbon-cutting and business goes very well for a week or so as cars leave the lot.
But then, you begin to notice fewer people coming in for test drives.
And among those who are coming in, there is an increasing number of requests to have non-dealer mechanics check out the engines.
A month later, sales are down 50 percent and you’re forced to call a meeting of all employees.
That’s when you learn the problem.
A couple of disgruntled mechanics have been complaining to their card game buddies at the lodge about how they’ve had to repair some engine defects that weren’t discovered at the factory.
“Thank God that they’ve paid us overtime to get these things fixed before we put the cars on the lot. I’m just glad that we’ve caught these glitches that seem to keep coming,” one frustrated mechanic had said to his lodge buddies.
It didn’t take long, of course, for the mechanics’ frustrations to become a cancer on the dealership’s viability.
Even though only a small percentage of cars needed that extra attention, the damage was done.
From among the card players at the lodge, the report was spread to other friends of lodge members and soon, the townspeople believed that cars purchased from your dealership were nothing more than shiny, patched-up “lemons” destined to become money pits.
Words can kill.
You know it. And I know it.
Particularly when it comes to the godly influence of a congregation.
My heart has ached over the years as I’ve periodically heard people complaining about their churches. For I knew that such complaints were probably shared at other times with non-believers.
And Satan smiled.
David wrote of how the wrong words can destroy our ministry effectiveness or the receptiveness of others to the Word of God.
“I said, ‘I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence'”
Psalm 39:1
When it comes to protecting the influence of God’s Word and our testimony of faith, it is absolutely essential that we remain hyper-cautious with our conversation when around non-Christians.
People who have rejected God are typically ready to pounce upon any careless or mean-spiritted words from Christians, overtly pointing them out as evidence for why Christians are hypocrites and why Christianity is nothing more than a “manipulative, mind-control strategy.”
You’ve seen this attitude over and over among your co-workers or classmates or among some of your relatives.
Skeptics of Christianity savor those moments when Christians don’t muzzle their mouths and garbage starts spewing from their lips.
Whenever we Christians err in such fashion, we’re handing a new bag of rocks to the skeptic which will be used against our beliefs and testimony and the growth of the church.
We’ve got to do better, my friends. Let’s practice Colossians 3:17 and we will. That verse tells us that in whatever we do, whether in word or in deed, we are to do it for the glory of God.
Think before you speak. Imagine that your words have to pass in front of God’s throne before they reach those around you. As you and I do this, what skeptics hear will bring glory to God and strength to our testimony rather than weakness.
Always remember that talk travels. Make sure that your words head down the right road, not the wrong one.
If your conversation is always filled with grace (Colossians 4:6) and you’ll build the Kingdom rather than tear it down.
As always, I love you
Martin
