Colossians 3:8 - Conduits of darkness

"But now you yourselves also put off the all, wrath, anger, evil, blasphemy, filthy speech out of your mouth."

-The first list Paul gave us in verse 5 contained sins of excess, examples of pursuing pleasure and finding satisfaction in things other than our breathtakingly good Creator.  The things he mentions now are all things which come out of our mouth, words which do not build up but rather tear down.  Words which do not give life but rather wound and destroy.  Words which are not loving and which do not show off the breathtaking goodness of God.  These fly in the face of the exhortation to follow in Colossians 3.13-14.  But yes, the tongue is such a tiny powerful thing (James 3.3-5).  It can deliver words of life which bless and build up and spur on, and it can tear down and destroy just as quickly, in an instant.  I hate you.  You’re worthless.  Stupid.  Ugly.  The tongue is a restless evil, an untamable fire, full of deadly poison, giving insufferable life to words of death and destruction, defiling our entire body, a ready conduit for all the me-first me-better darkness which hides in my heart, set on fire by hell itself (James 3.6-8).

-So Paul says, just take them off.  Take them off like the nasty old tattered rags that they are, once and for all and put them away for good.  Especially so in light of who we are and who we’re dealing with.  It is a level playing field, these ones towards whom we direct and vent our anger and slander and abusive speech.  We are all beggars, all former sons and daughters of disobedience, formerly objects of wrath, all of us, every single one.  We have all been rescued only by grace, a divine gift which we could never have deserved in a million gazillion years.  But having been rescued, we are now all sons and daughters of the King, members of the royal family, princes and princesses.  Beggars or royals, we are all equals, deserving nothing and yet at the same time deserving the royal treatment.  I am way too full of myself, way too overinflated with self-importance and far too disrespecting of others when I choose to hit them with my words of destruction.  God help me.  Help me see myself - AND OTHERS - with Your eyes, as we really are, as equals, deserving the utmost grace and respect because that’s how You treat us...