“To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men” (Titus 3:2).

No evil speech of anyone.

Oh my.

I wonder if my Spanish Bible will soften that somehow, maybe give me a bigger loophole for saying uncomplimentary-though-not-evil things of others.

“That they defame nobody.”

Gulp! That doesn’t make the loophole bigger — it outright closes it!

So I guess I’ll have to opt for gentleness and meekness in my speech about others.

That’s going to be tough.

For some reason, that reminds me of this:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 52:10).