We are a large congregation, and this means that we must take great care with our tongues. Many in the modern world have drifted into the view that when an institution gets large enough, the basic patterns of godly speech no longer apply. Within a small group, slander and gossip can readily be identified as such, even when those sins are being committed anyway. But with large businesses, schools, churches, and so forth, a vague “they” come into being, and we feel we can express ourselves freely about them because they are faceless and nameless.
But of course, they are not, really. God’s law is not calibrated according to size. Paul tells us that we are to refrain from grumbling, and that if we do so then we will stand out like bright stars against the black sky of a crooked and perverse generation. If we grumble—even if that grumbling is disguised to look like theological differences, prayer requests, the voicing of mere opinions, and so on—we are giving place to the devil.
We are to be a preeminently thankful people—thankful for Jesus Christ, thankful for the covenant, thankful for our spouses, thankful for our children, our parents, thankful for the church, thankful for trials, thankful for all things bestowed upon us by our sovereign God. But remember thanksgiving and grumbling are both enormous—they are each too big for both of them to fit into one mouth.