Positively Honest

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; (Isaiah 58:9)

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood (Isaiah 57:4)

He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; (Proverbs 6:13)

Body language in the Bible. I suppose pointing the finger has always meant the same thing. If we want God's blessing on our lives we ought to stop accusing others. The context of the Isaiah 57 passage suggests that it refers to more than body language, but it is a similar idea. The proverb seems to be referring to shifty people using secret sign language as an accessory to hypocrisy. The idea is as if I were to catch someone's eye and tilt my head towards the door when I want us to leave someone's house. But there are all sorts of uses of body language to communicate secretly or to say one thing and communicate something else. We can use our tone to do this as well. So although there is hardly a clear scripture that body language is bad; it does suggest that there is something wrong with such subtlety that requires this kind of communication. We should be able to speak openly to each other without fear of betrayal or rejection. We also should not be quick to accuse or focus on the faults of others. We can always vent to the Father in prayer.
As I said though, there should be a simple frankness among Christ's followers, but nine parts positive for every one part negative. Being really positive is the hard thing for me. I am a critical thinker and a linear thinker: I try to improve systems incrementally by eliminating inefficiencies. So it is natural for me to give constructive criticism nine parts for every one praise. I need to change this though, so that I can continue to be open and transparent as I should, without being divisive and discouraging.

May Jesus Christ change my heart and yours.