{"id":1331,"date":"2009-11-08T21:57:29","date_gmt":"2009-11-09T03:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2009-11-08T21:57:29","modified_gmt":"2009-11-09T03:57:29","slug":"romans-313-painful-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-313-painful-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 3:13 – Painful Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 3:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “the poison of asps is under their lips”;<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our words can be powerful weapons of pain if not controlled.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cthroat\u201d is the Greek word larugx<\/span><\/em>, from which we get the medical term larynx. This is the part of the throat that produces the sound necessary for speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have practiced deceit\u201d is translated from the word dolio\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto lure as with bait\u201d or \u201cto use carefully crafted words to deceive.\u201d As pointed out below, this verse is a quotation of the Old Testament. The Hebrew equivalent of this word means \u201csmooth.\u201d In Psalms 5:9<\/span><\/strong>, therefore, it literally says \u201cthey have smooth tongues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This verse is made up of two direct quotations from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament.):<\/span><\/p>\n

Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit<\/span> (Psalms 5:9b<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

the<\/span> poison of asps is<\/span> under their lips<\/span> (Psalms 140:3b<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s use of the Septuagint to quote from rather than the Masoretic Text (the predominant Hebrew version of the Old Testament at that time) is interesting. In fact in all of his writings Paul, like all the other writers of the New Testament, quotes predominantly from the Septuagint rather than the Masoretic Text. For the other writers of the New Testament this may not seem too strange since they were predominantly not from the \u201clearned\u201d class of Jews. Paul, on the other hand, was brought up under Gamaliel, one of the leading Jewish teachers of the time. Paul\u2019s use of the Septuagint probably reflects the fact that most Christians of the first and second centuries used and were familiar with the Septuagint. Thus, he was quoting from a version that they would recognize readily.<\/p>\n

Regarding his message, Paul is continuing to demonstrate what the Scriptures have to say about the condition of all people (Jew or Gentile), that we are unrighteous sinners, not deserving of God\u2019s blessing. In this passage Scripture says our throat is an open tomb. As pointed out in Behind the Words, the word throat refers to the larynx which is the source of speech. Paul tells us that it is like an open grave which, according to Proverbs 30:15, 16<\/span><\/strong> is never satisfied. In other words, natural man continually utters harmful speech.<\/p>\n

This passage then tells us that natural man practices deceit with his tongue. Without God\u2019s regeneration, man uses smooth words to deceive others into satisfying his own desire. That sounds like good ol\u2019 everyday advertizing to me. Back in the 1940s they would have called it propaganda! Finally, this passage tells us that the words of unregenerate man can bite like a deadly snake.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have all felt the pain of deceitful, dishonest words used against us to intentionally harm us. And, we have just learned that it\u2019s a part of our fallen human nature to do that to others. As Christians we can overcome our natural tendency to use our words in such a hurtful way. We can only do so, however, by submitting ourselves to our God and asking the Holy Spirit to control our speech so that it glorifies Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:13 “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “the poison of asps is under their lips”; Truth to Learn Our words can be powerful weapons of pain if not controlled. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cthroat\u201d is the Greek word larugx, from which we get the medical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[572,469,573,58,574,575,576,577],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-asps","tag-deceit","tag-larynx","tag-lips","tag-poison","tag-throat","tag-tomb","tag-tongues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-lt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}