Week 7 - Thursday

People Are Like Snakes

"the poison of asps is under their lips"; "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness"; Romans 3:13b-14

The ninth charge Paul makes against man is that "the poison of asps is under their lips". This quote from Psalm 140:3 accuses man of attacking others with their mouth, just like snakes do. Most of the snakes that inhabited Israel were non-poisonous. Asps on the other hand, are members of the cobra family. They were well known for their hooded heads and for their deadly poison. When an asp opens its mouth to attack, its intent is to destroy its prey. It does this by using its sharp fangs to inject poisonous venom into its victim. In a similar fashion, people use the poison in their mouths to attack. By using sharp words, they criticize and slander others with the intent of damaging their reputation. Often people who get bitten by poisonous snakes were just unlucky enough to be in their path. They never intended the snake any harm. They didn't even know it was there. If they had known they were going to be attacked, they would have tried to avoid it. But snakes don't care who their victim is. They attack because it is their instinct to do so. In this way, people are like snakes. They attack others with their words because they are by nature sinful. They don't care who their victim is either. Often, they don't even know the person they are attacking well enough, to know if what they are saying is true. People even attack their own friends. Just watch someone leave a room and see if some of the people who had just been so friendly to them, don't start crticizing them.

The tenth charge against man is also related to their speech. Again quoting from the Psalms, Paul says that their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness (Psalm 10:7). Pikria, Greek for bitterness, was used to refer to extreme wickedness and bitter hatred. The reason people attack others with their words is because they hate them. By attacking even their friends, they show that even though they claim to like them, deep inside they really resent them. Because man is wicked, he has a natural tendency to blaspheme his fellow man and even God too. When a person uses God's name as a curse, they show a terrible lack of appreciation and respect for the One who has provided them with everything they have. Such a person deserves to be condemned by God. It's even worse to use the name of Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for our sins, as a swear word. It's sad that even those who call themselves Christians are often guilty of deceiving others, of criticizing and slandering them, and of using God's name in vain. The words you speak, are one of the ways you can examine yourself to see if you really are a Christian. Those who have been saved by God are new creations. A new creation should have a new way of speaking. Take a careful look at your words and honestly evaluate what they say about your spiritual condition. It could be, after examining your speech, that you may wonder if you are a Christian after all. If so, today is a good time to open your heart to God and repent and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you feel you need to do that, why not do it now?

Readings for today: Lev. 19:16; Psalm 64:3-4; James 3:8-10; Matt. 12:36-37