Christian Living

Let Jesus Clean the Fish

by Matthew Sieger
05/13/26
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I grew up in a non-religious Jewish home. I never opened a Bible, Old or New Testament. Never went to synagogue. Certainly never went to church. Went through undergraduate college and graduate studies living like the rest of the unsaved world. It wasn’t until I was 25 ½ years old that I was born again in 1978. 

Shortly after I turned 25 I had begun attending Hillside Alliance Church in Ithaca, New York. One Sunday at a church potluck dinner that summer, a young man named Dave approached me and asked me how long I had been a Christian. Well, I knew I wasn’t a Christian yet, so I answered honestly. About a month later I gave my heart to the Lord. 

Learning to fish 

Dave became a good friend. He worked for Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as Cru) and about a year after my salvation I became his roommate. Dave discipled me and showed me how to share the gospel with others when I was ready to do so. But he never pushed me into evangelism. He waited until God put it on my heart to start sharing my faith. 

Dave’s girlfriend, Jeanie, also encouraged me in my faith. One day she handed me the book, Jews for Jesus, which led me to move to San Francisco to join that organization in 1980. It was there I met my wife and married her the following year.

After I had lived with Dave for a half year or so, one day he told me that when he and Jeanie first met me and even after I had become a Christian that I had used a lot of foul language. But he noticed that I didn’t talk that way anymore. He said that they didn’t say anything to me about it because they were trusting God’s Holy Spirit to convict me in that area. 

Cleaning the fish’s mouth 

The remarkable thing is that I was unaware that I had been using foul language after I came to the Lord. I could remember using some bad language before I was born again, but even that memory was faint. I think I was so used to talking that way that I didn’t even notice. But the truly incredible thing is that I had not consciously decided to stop using bad language. Somehow God had cleaned up my mouth without me even knowing it. I don’t recall having read the verse, “ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29). 

Now I’m not saying that God’s Word doesn’t change behavior. I have been convicted by many passages in the Bible that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, have led me to change my behavior. But in this instance God somehow changed my heart and mouth almost by osmosis. 

I’m also not saying it’s always wrong to correct a sister or brother in the Lord. After all, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). 

When to shut up 

But there is a difference, I believe, between confronting a fellow believer about a sin that could lead to serious consequences for them and others as opposed to nitpicking them on worldly behaviors that we can leave to God to clean up. 

Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men,” but he didn’t say he would make us cleaners of the fish. 

Similarly, after I was saved and continued to attend Hillside Alliance Church, the church had both a Sunday morning and Sunday evening service. The evening service was not identical to the morning service. There was a different message and it was a more informal, with time for sharing. I played in a softball league on Sunday evenings, so I didn’t attend the second service. But after a while, God gave me the desire to attend both services, and I began to do so. One evening an elderly saint approached me and told me how pleased she was that I was going to the evening service and said that I was becoming a real man of God. But again, nobody pressured me to attend the second service, and I wasn’t doing it out of obligation or thinking I was earning Brownie points with God. The Holy Spirit had just put it on my heart. 

So by all means go and catch the fish. But let God do the spiritual cleaning.

Matt Sieger, now retired, is a former sports reporter and columnist for The Cortland (New York) Standard and The Vacaville (California) Reporter. He is the author of The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978 and In My Humble Opinion: Musings of a Sports Columnist.