Bible Reading: 1 Kings 20:1–21
“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” (James 3:5)
If you listen in the dark stillness of the countryside some morning before dawn, you may hear the strident voice of a rooster crowing. It is a surprisingly loud cry, easily heard from one farm to the next. Only roosters and people speak the language of crowing. I do not understand exactly what a rooster means to say by his crowing, but it is not a humble sound. It sounds like a call for attention. Perhaps by crowing the rooster is notifying all other roosters within hearing distance that this is his farm.
I have a better comprehension of the language of crowing as it is spoken by people. The dictionary says that when people crow, they are usually gloating, boasting, or exulting. The encyclopedia says chickens are not very intelligent. I assume this applies to crowing roosters—and possibly to crowing people too.
The language of crowing is easy to learn; it is a language nearly all people can speak if they wish. However, the more we are governed by the mind of Christ, the less inclined we are to crow. The Bible has a good bit to say about crowing. It uses the term boast, which means the same thing. Today’s key verse notes that our tongue is a small part of our body, yet it boasts great things. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3 that boasting is excluded from the life of a spiritual person. That means there is no room for it. Let us avoid the language of crowing, preferring rather the meek, unassuming words of godliness.
If we crow, we do not know God’s great disdain for all that’s vain.
From Paws on My Porch, by Gary Miller
© 2015 TGS International, PO Box 355, Berlin, Ohio 44610
Used by permission.
