Talkative
“Let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God” (1 Timothy 5:4).
If you have never read Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, it is well worth taking the time to do so.
In Pilgrim’s Progress we are introduced to a character named “Talkative.” He is referred to as a “saint abroad and a devil at home.” Young people, and sometimes those who are not so young, are sometimes like that in their speech. They are courteous and kind with neighbors, friends, fellow-students, and coworkers, or even when meeting strangers. Yet they snap at, and fume impatiently with members of their own family and household.
This does not please the Lord Jesus! We should speak kindly and lovingly to those at home as well as those abroad.
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).
