v. 16 – These are grumblers,

Devotional:

Without fail, our words always reveal what is going on inside us. Jesus says that “Out of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). And James, the other brother, says, “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness” (James 3:6).

Words have power and they reveal whose power we are relying on for strength in life. The apostates that Jude is warring against are “grumblers,” which means they use the words to sow discontent and discord among the saints. Words have the power to effect change and the grumblings of these deceivers in the early church were bringing about negative change inside the Church.

Grumbling has an inside-out ability to rob joy from a person. To grumble is to give voice to the low rumble of angst and selfishness that lies just below the surface of an unsatisfied soul. It’s a quick word against someone for no apparent reason, it’s a tense tone to your spouse because they ask for your help, it’s an undue harsh verbal lash to your children when they don’t listen the first time. Grumbling comes out of the mouth of the heart that is not happy in God.

Have you ever spent time with someone who never seems to be happy? Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time with someone like that because if you were honest, you’d have to admit that person
is you. It is exhausting to be around a grumbler, and it is even more exhausting on the soul to be one. Grumbling has a way of deepening sadness not relieving it and heaping pain onto pain not healing it. Grumbling has a way of closing our minds to the truth and instead opening it to lies.

I have experienced seasons of feeling joylessness in my life, even as a believer, and in those seasons, I found the easiest thing to do was to find something to grumble about. It’s as if the joyless heart believes by voicing its joylessness and inviting others into said joylessness, it will somehow be able to produce a moment’s joy for itself. This is not true. Gratitude produces joy and joy produces gratitude. Grumbling can never produce joy because it doesn’t come from joy.

Sometimes the best thing we can do to measure joy is to pause and self-reflect on the condition of our soul, and the quickest way to investigate soul health is by taking inventory of our words and tone of voice. If you are a believer in Jesus the Christ but are experiencing a repeated pattern of joylessness, check your words and see what is spilling out.

REFLECTION:

What are you grateful for today? What spills out in your words – joy or joylessness?