Ephesians 4:29-32 — Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

As many of you will know, our church has a major outreach going on at the moment — the “Living Christmas Trees”, a proclamation of the Gospel. Literally hundreds of volunteers have been investing time and talent for months. On Thursday we had a Dress Rehearsal, that went very well. For various reasons a few hundred people were watching. On Friday, as we prepared for the first performance, one of the choir members spoke of a comment from a friend who had been in the Thursday night audience. The friend, it seemed, had seen a number of Living Christmas Trees — and this was “the most boring ever”. The comment provoked two responses in me.
My first reaction was one of sadness for someone who had not enjoyed our efforts. I’d spoken to enough other people to know that the response was not typical. Any theatrical or musical performance is a collaboration between audience and performers. When the performance is a Gospel proclamation, there is a third party — the Holy Ghost. If there is a negative reaction, one of the parties is not playing their part. In this case I think I know which one it was!
My second reaction was to wonder what the point of the comment was, and I was reminded of a great English preacher — from the time of King Charles II. Isaac Barrow was born in 1630, and although initially handicapped by his (and his family’s) royalist sympathies, he prospered to such an extent that by his death he was one of the King’s chaplains and one of the leading scholars in England. He wrote and preached a splendid set of sermons that were published in 1678, just after his death, as “Several Sermons against Evil-speaking”. In the set he spoke against “Foolish Talking and Jesting”, “Rash and Vain Swearing”, “Evil Speaking in General” and “The Folly of Slander”.
Central to the sermon on “Evil Speaking in General” is the thought that we should never speak without the intention of benefiting the hearer. It’s not exactly the instruction we had in our childhood to keep quiet if we had nothing nice to say — but it’s close. Here it is in Barrow’s own words:

In fine, we should never speak concerning our neighbor from any other principle than that of charity, or to any other intent but what is charitable; such as tendeth to his good or at least is consistent therewith.

I’d like to say to the person who spoke so discouragingly to my fellow choir member, “What good did you intend? How were you helping? Will your comment improve the production, so that others may be drawn closer to God?” I fear no very positive reply would be offered. I might, of course, hear the vicious lie about “speaking the truth in love” — so let me touch on that.
“Speaking the truth in love” is a reference to Ephesians 4:15 — a little before the passage at the head of this devotion. It is NOT a blanket permission to say whatever you like, so long as it be true! It must be modified by the verses above and especially with the instruction “be Ye kind to one another”. Whenever I am about to say something to someone I know they will be hurt by, I try to ask myself “what positive good are you doing?” If the answer doesn’t spring immediately to mind, I try to shut up. (You may notice I say “try” — my track record is anything but perfect!)
As James says, “the tongue is a raging fire”. Try a glass of living water, before you set anyone ablaze!