Let's Go Back to the Bible

Spring cleaning year-round

Some people really get into “Spring cleaning.” Others treat it like the plague. Some wait for that “convenient season” to roll around every year before taking on some much- needed task.

Regardless of what you think of that seasonal housework, there is a different kind of “spring” cleaning that is needed year-round. In a forthright discussion about the dangers of the tongue, the Lord’s half-brother concluded, “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so” (Jas. 3:10). Having used the literal word “mouth,” he then gives the mouth a new (i.e., figurative) “name.” “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?…[N]o spring yields both salt water and fresh” (3:11-12).

Is your “spring” putting forth “fresh” words and “bitter” words? “Blessing” and “cursing”? “Filthy” (Col. 3:8) and “pure” (Prov. 15:26)? “Corrupt” and “edifying” (Eph. 4:29)? Does your “spring” need cleaning? Let’s scrub away every syllable that does not reflect Jesus!