He Leads the Way to the Scattered Tribes 3
3
THE POWER OF WORDS
1My sacred family members, not many of you should become teachers of our spiritual ways. For you know that we who teach will face a stricter judgment. 2We all stumble on the path in many ways. But if we could keep our words from hurting others, we would be mature human beings, able to aim our whole lives in the right direction.
3Those who put bits into the mouths of horses are able to move them in the direction they want them to go. 4It is the same with a canoe. Even when a large canoe is being pushed by strong winds, it takes only a small paddle to steer it where someone wants it to go.
5In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts about great things. A large forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame, 6and the tongue is itself a flame of fire. The tongue is a world full of evil and spreads its poison throughout the body. The words spoken by the tongue have the power to set on fire the very circle of life itself, and its flames come from the Valley of Smoldering Fire.#3:6 See glossary of biblical terms.
NO ONE CAN TAME THE TONGUE
7Every kind of four-legged beast or winged one of the air and every reptile or sea creature can be tamed and have been tamed by human beings. 8But no one can tame the tongue. It is an evil that never rests, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless the Great Spirit, our Honored Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in his image. 10Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My sacred family members, this should not be. 11Does both sweet and bitter water come from the same spring? 12Can olives and figs come from the same tree? Can a grapevine bear figs, my sacred family members? Not at all! And neither can saltwater be used to make water fresh again.
TRUE AND FALSE WISDOM
13Are any among you wise and understanding? Then show it in the way you live, doing good from a humble and wise heart. 14But if your hearts are full of bitter envy and selfish desires, then stop boasting and speaking lies to cover up the truth about yourselves. 15This is not the kind of wisdom that comes down from the One Above Us All. Instead, it is from this world. It is unspiritual and of the evil one. 16For where there is jealousy and selfish ways, you will also find confusion and all kinds of evil at work.
17But the wisdom that comes from the One Above Us All is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, full of mercy, and open to another’s way of seeing and thinking. People with this kind of wisdom are like trees filled with good fruit. They have open hearts with nothing to hide. 18This wisdom will bring about a harvest of doing what is right, because they are peacemakers planting seeds of peace.
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He Leads the Way to the Scattered Tribes 3: FNVNT
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