Jesus said to his disciples:“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you,whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
CLOSED MOUTH
Jesus said, "If your brother should commit some wrong against you, go and point out his fault, but keep it between the two of you." —Matthew 18:15
Christians don't air their grievances publicly. They don't wash their dirty laundry for all to see. We're not trying to hide anything but respecting people's rights not to be talked about behind their backs and not to be confronted in public. We keep it between the two of us. Even spouses and families should not know of our complaint.
Shooting off our mouths often does more harm than the original problem. Christians have shredded one another with razor-blade tongues throughout Church history. We have played right into the hands of the devil. We are pawns in the devil's tactics, used to tear down God's Kingdom.
But if we let the Spirit control our tongues, we can control our whole body (Jas 3:2). This applies not only to our physical bodies but to Christ's body, the Church. Tongues of gossip, backbiting, negativity, and discouragement destroy the Church and make our worship pointless (Jas 1:26).
Tongues of praise, prayer, prophecy, and encouragement build up Christ's body (1 Cor 14:3-4).
The tongue is the most important member of the body, the Church.
Prayer: Father, may I speak in foreign tongues, not in sinful tongues.
Promise: "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated." —Dt 34:7
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