If we desire to avoid sins against the Ninth Commandment, what rule must we follow?
We must bridle our tongue: “He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile” (1Pe 3:10, citing Psa 34:12–13); “If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain” (Jas 1:26). The Lord’s Brother presses the point with fearful images: the tongue is a little member that boasts of great things, a fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison, “with it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the image of God” (Jas 3:5–10). So difficult is this rule that when Abba Pambo asked to be taught a psalm, and heard the first verse of Psalm 39, “I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue”, he refused to hear the second verse, saying it sufficed him; and after many years he confessed that he had scarcely learned to fulfill it (Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Abba Pambo).
