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5 You must understand that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all the sins of everyone who has ever lived. This includes all the sins of the tongue. When the believer acknowledges or names his sins to God (rebound), He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1Jo 9-10) But if we judged ourselves rightly [rebound], we should not be judged. (1CO 11:31) After rebound, the believer is restored to fellowship, and can resume his spiritual walk with confidence. Rebound, or confessing one’s sins, gets us back into God’s plan enabling us to take advantage of divine power, so that we can grow spiritually. The word “rebound” is simply a technical way of describing the believer’s restoration to fellowship, and his recovery of the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is necessary because no believer will ever live in sinless perfection; since we all have old sin natures, we will all sin. By confessing our sins we are agreeing with God that they have already been judged and His righteousness is satisfied. After rebound, the best way to deal with the sins of the tongue is to avoid them. We must be careful to avoid engaging in verbal sins and listening to the verbal sins of others. It is good advice to think before we speak, and if we are thinking something evil, to rebound rather than verbalizing it. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person (COL 4:6). We should do our best to avoid hearsay stories and repeating what we have heard about others, unless it is complimentary. We must not make dogmatic statements about any situation, unless we have personal knowledge of it. Life is much easier when we avoid lies, as it is too confusing to remember all the different stories that come with one lie. We will continue to sin in many areas after our salvation, but as long as we rely on rebound, and the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine we will keep advancing in God’s plan. “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again” (PRO 24:16a). As we continue to grow spiritually, our thinking and our speech will conform more and more to God’s will (EPH 4:23; PHI 2:5; 1CO 2:16). |
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