We Can Have Dangerous Consumerism

Do your words consume you and others? Do my words do that too?

This country is full of consumers. Every day I see trucks from Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and the US Mail delivering packages to the homes within my line of sight. While that may be the sign of a healthy, confident economy, it might also be deceptive. Underneath that consumption is the potential for debt and no lasting satisfaction.

Words Consume Too

You don’t have to spend more than a couple of minutes on a social media site, or listen to the news, or even listen to a conversation to see that words are consuming. Sometimes the words consume our own lives. Sometimes they consume others. Here are two reminders from the scriptures:

“The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.” – Ecclesiastes 10:12

Fools have a clever way of getting themselves into trouble with their words. This consumes their time and their character or reputation.

Consuming Others

 “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” – Galatians 5:14-15

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

Followers of Jesus are thoughtful about the big bad things that can happen when we use our tongues in consuming ways. Like a fire consumes everything close to it, our words can consume and destroy our lives. Believers recognize this is not the way we are to speak.

“Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” – James 3:4-10

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.