Youth Page

Knives can be very sharp. Young children should not play with knives. You can get hurt playing with knives. But knives are very useful. They are used to cut things up. Your parents may use them to cut up your meat at a meal.

Unfortunately, some people use knives for the wrong reason. Because they are sharp, knives can be used as weapons. Evil people will use them to cut or stab other people. And usually the evil person does this by sneaking up on the person he wants to hurt. God does not like this.

God says that a person who does not control his tongue is just like the evil person who uses a knife wrongly. In Psalm 52:2, we read, "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully." The word "razor" is the word for "knife" in Hebrew. In the next verses, these people are said to love evil more than good. When you speak wrongly, you can hurt people badly. You may not be hurting them physically with a knife, but you can be hurting them spiritually.

God says in verse 5 that he will destroy those who use their tongue like this. Learn to control your tongue. Do not let your speech be like the sharp knife that hurts people.

Have you ever had the opportunity to eat real butter? Much of what is called butter in the United States is not really butter. It is margarine, but it is used much like butter.

Butter was made in biblical times by adding some ingredients to milk and then shaking it in a container. After some time, this mixture would start becoming butter. The butter was very smooth and the butter would spread on bread very easily. It was highly sought as a food.

David said there are some bad individuals that make their speech smooth like butter. This means that their words are very easy to the ears of those hearing them. The words are easy to spread and their words are highly sought. Through David, God warns about these individuals.

David said that their intentions are not good. In Psalm 55:21, we read, "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." These individuals make their words sound so good, but they really intend great harm.

There are individuals in the religious world who are like these people. They sound very good, but they really are intending to do great harm to God's people. In verse 23, we learn that God will bring such individuals to great destruction. David learned how to recognize such people.

You must be on guard to be able to recognize such individuals. The only way to do that is to study the Word of God. By knowing God's Word, you will be able to recognize the "smooth" words. You will know how to avoid believing and following what they say.

Until next time, keep reading your Bible. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.