The Tongue - Edition #20: Meaningless Talk

April 26th, 2006

The Tongue – Edition #20: Meaningless Talk

Some poetry to start this wondrous Wednesday:
A gentle word like a spark of light illuminates my soul. And as each sound goes deeper, it is God plus you that makes me whole. There is no corner, no dark place, God’s love cannot fill. And if the world starts causing waves, it’s his devotion that makes them still. And yes you always speak to me in sweet honesty and truth. Your caring heart keeps out the rain, his love, the ultimate roof. So thank you, my Love, for being there, for supporting me and my life. I'll do the same for you, you know, My Beautiful, Darling Wife.
- Original by David G. Kelly - (changes made by Johnny Ray)

I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends, I am surrounded by angels, but I call them friends.
- Aizabel Parinas -

Friendship is like the breeze, you can't hold it, smell it, taste it, or know when it's coming, but you can always feel it, and you'll always know it's there, it may come and then go, but you can know it'll always be back.
- Terri Fanning -

Job 11:1-6
Then Zophar the Naamathite replied: “Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated? Will your idle talk reduce men to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock? You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.’ Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.”

Job 27:8-17
For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal. You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk? Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty: However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat. The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them. Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay, what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.

I’ll be the first to say, I don’t understand the book of Job at all that well. All throughout the book, Job gets bashed by the guys, the God jumps in at the end and bashes everyone, and then Job has to pray for the guys who rebuked him throughout the book. So, I’m a bit confused as to what to take from it, besides the end. But, with the help of my Autobot software, I can now do the very same stuff I did before but with a slower computer!

Titus 1:10-16
For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach, and that for the sake of dishonest gain. One of Crete's own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” He has surely told the truth! Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

1st Timothy 1:3-11
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain persons not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work, which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers. And it is for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

So, what I do know is this: the dudes that were spouting off to Job were doing meaningless talk, which here is said to be full of deception.

Job 27:12 meaningless:
hâbal
haw-bal'
A primitive root; to be vain in act, word, or expectation; specifically to lead astray: - be (become, make) vain.

1st Timothy 1:6 meaningless:
mataiologia
mat-ah-yol-og-ee'-ah
random talk, that is, babble: - vain jangling.

Titus 1:10 meaningless:
mataiologos
mat-ah-yol-og'-os
An idle (that is, senseless or mischievous) talker, that is, a wrangler: - vain talker.

This simply goes to show that idle chit-chat is sinful. It is meaningless and thus in vain and thus senseless and mischievous. Job was saying that they shouldn’t be doing meaningless talk. Titus and 1st Timothy tell us what meaningless talk does. In Job 11, a “friend” calls Job a liar and then wishes for God to basically squish him. By the way, the words “idle chat” going back to Hebrew can mean lies, liar, and brag. Meaningless talk leads to false teaching… and false teaching leads away from God in the worst of ways, because it is developing convictions on false precepts. Johnny Out.