Zip My Lips!

Trenchmouth! No, that is not an insult. It is a disease, first diagnosed during World War I when soldiers in the trenches began developing foul breath, swollen glands, and gums spotted with a grayish-white film. The culprit: germs, normally killed off by the immune system, get the upperhand due to poor diet, stress, heavy smoking, and a person who neglects to brush their teeth after every meal. In short, the symptoms sound like something from a horror movie. Since reading about the disease, I have used Scope liberally after every brushing of my teeth!

Yet, for all of this looming dental disaster, I think that there is a worse form of trenchmouth - the spiritual variety!

James called the tongue "an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" (James 3:8). Solomon described the lips of a negative talker as a "burning fire" (Proverbs 16:27). Such a person's gossip, the wisest man who ever lived warns, is enough to destroy the best friendship (Proverbs 16:27, 28). David, who was never defeated in honest, open combat, learned to fear the cowardice of this secret warfare and cried to God for protection from those who "have sharpened their tongues as a serpent" (Psalm 140:3).

Adding all of this up, I find that it is possible to swear without ever using a four-letter word! Simply begin to spread negative talk, and the grayish-white blisters of Satan cling to your mouth like leprosy. And while the physical trenchmouth is not contagious, the spiritual kind is! Nothing is so easy, or so honoring to Satan, as the spreading of spiritual death through evil talk (Proverbs 18:21)!

Yet there is a cure for spiritual trenchmouth. The key is good oral/spiritual hygiene. When the spiritually evil germs attack as we fight the good fight of faith in the trenches, all we need to do is whip out the dental floss of Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth...be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD..."; and then we need to ask God to "Set a watch (a guard), O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3) so that we won't sin with our mouth ( Psalm 17:3)!

"Zip My Lips!"
Pastor David Blevins