The Words That We Speak

The Words That We Speak
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Eph. 4:29


The words that we speak, are they life or death? Do they give us hope or discouragement? Since we are held responsible for every word we speak, I think we had better listen very carefully to what we are saying, not just to our brethren, but also to ourselves. Notice what Jesus said: "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Mt.12:36-37). Let us look at the words, justified and condemned a little more closely. By being Justified -- we are being freed from all blame, we are without guilt and we are shown or proven to be right. Condemned means -- to be pronounced unfit for use, guilty. By our own words we can be free from blame and without guilt, or we can pronounce ourselves guilty and unfit for the use of God. If it is the Word of God -- it is Life, it is freedom. If it is ourselves speaking -- it is death, and words of death will destroy, kill everyone that hears us; and not only they who hear us, but ourselves as well. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."

So what do we love -- Life or death? What are we eating, and what are we 'living' on? Is it Life or Death? It is one or the other. Let us quote Proverbs 18:21 again, it says that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." And in 18:20, "A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled." Is our belly satisfied and filled with life, which is Christ, and live; or are we filled with the manna of death, which is an enemy, and die? Let it be life, and then this verse will come to pass, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor.15:26).

All evil comes forth from the heart and proceeds out of the mouth. " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer 17:9). "...For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Mat 12:34). "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Mat 15:18-19). We need the circumcision that is of the heart, by the spirit (Rom 2:29), then the evil that comes out of our hearts will cease. "And I will give them one new heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" (Ezek 11:19).