When my oldest was born the very first time he cried (in the south we sometimes say “squalled” as in “he was squallin’ his head off) which was almost immediately after he took his first good breath of air, we noticed that there was a little sliver of skin that attached the end of his tongue to the bottom of his mouth. The doctor promptly informed us he was tongue-tied. He assured us this was not a problem and as long as it didn’t affect his speech or his ability to eat then he could remain that way otherwise we could have it clipped. Well, as a first time mother I was in no hurry to cause my child any undue pain and suffering so we decided to wait it out. Eleven years later I can report with certainty that it has neither affected his speech or his ability to eat! Just like he had a connection that couldn’t be severed without some kind of intervention, we also have a connection between our hearts and our mouths that is in need of an intervention!
Yesterday, we looked at the biblical definition for the word “tongue” and discovered that it means language or speech. We also discovered that the power of our tongue or speech can be used for good or evil. Let’s venture back to scripture and pick up where we left off in Genesis 11:1-9. If you aren’t familiar with the story of the tower of Babel or even if you are, take a minute to read this passage again. Do you see in verse one it says that the whole earth used the same language and the same words? Up to this point everyone was “uni-lingual”, that’s fancy for saying they all spoke the same language, no language barrier here. So, the people used their powers of communication to make a plan to build a tower so tall that they would be known for their abilities. In other words, they would seek to usurp God’s glory and take it for themselves! We aren’t even eleven chapters into the first book of the Bible and we are already using our words to try and make a name for ourselves and we have been doing it ever since! Do you see how the power of the tongue, mixed with our sin is a toxic combination?
Let me take a minute here to encourage each of you to take an inventory of your speech as a whole. I find myself doing this more and more often especially after I have had a conversation where I have done most of the talking instead of listening. I know the truth that “where there are many words sin is unavoidable” (Prov. 10:19). So, I try to retrace when I could have listened, what wasn’t necessary for me to say and Lord help me, what I shouldn’t have said. The more I do that in my own life, the more I become “swift to hear and slow to speak” (James 1: 19)! I realize I could avoid a lot of trespass by just shutting up! One thing that I try to remind myself of often, “just because you think it, doesn’t mean you have to say it.” Just because I have something to contribute to the conversation doesn’t mean I should. I’m not talking about “if you can’t say anything nice”, I’m just talking about the need to be heard. There is humility in realizing maybe what you have to say really isn’t that important! Why? Because of one verse that ruminates in my head regularly, “I tell you on the day of judgment people will give an account for every idle word they speak” (Matt. 12:36). The word “idle” can also be translated careless or empty, UNFRUITFUL. Every one of us will stand before the Lord and give an account for our very words! When I think of all the words I have spoken, I know I will be there a VERY, VERY long time and I will have no excuse for all of the careless, empty, idle words I have spoken over a lifetime. Scripture says, “It is to your Father’s glory that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). There is no qualifier there so I can bear fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in word OR in deed BUT I can also be unfruitful in word or in deed! The link is easily made that it is NOT to our Father’s glory when we don’t bear fruit with our words.
You may be wondering, what’s the big deal in just a little meaningless talk here and there? I mean, goodness knows, I’ve whiled away hours talking about little less than nothing with my best friend since I was 10 years old! The danger is not the length, although we have discovered that more words increase the probability of sin. The danger is in the nature of the conversation. Lengthy conversations tend to digress in benefit and increase in futility. Remember the connection I talked about in the beginning between our hearts and our mouths? Here’s the connecting analogy (hang in there with me): good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit! On occasion a good tree will produce some bad fruit but not as a rule! It is an accurate indicator of the state of our hearts when we cannot control our tongues and when we spew venom with our lips! “Out of the treasure of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). I am going to paraphrase James 3:9-12: Blessing and cursing can’t come from the same mouth just like a spring of water cannot bring forth fresh and salty water at the same time. An apple tree brings forth apples not figs! The lesson? Like produces like! So, whatever resides in your heart is what comes out in your speech that is why it says in Matthew 7:16 “you will know them (believers and unbelievers) by their fruit! Oh, the importance of examining our lives, speech included, to see if we are truly believers. Wow! Don’t you just love how God’s word affirms itself over and over?
I would be remiss if I did not give a clear message for the necessity of a change of heart in order to precipitate a change in speech. If we are trying to apply all of these truths to our lives on our own, we may succeed for a time but in the long run we will always come up short. The only permanent change for our hearts is the cleansing that comes from faith in Jesus alone by grace alone. The scripture is clear that our hearts are “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” which doesn’t make for a good outcome for us! Every single one of us has “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and we are required to pay for that sin with our death because the “wages (payment,price) of sin is death.” This is a fatal wound that leaves us dead in our sins and unable to bring life to ourselves. Can one bring life to himself after he is dead? So, we are dead and unable to pay the price to buy back our lives from the grips of sin and hell. But God...don’t you love that statement...BUT GOD intervened! “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6-8). What a glorious truth! The payment is made, we are justified by the blood of Christ and then we are given a new heart and the gift of the Holy Spirit which in turn makes us alive! From death to life, from an evil heart to a heart of love, from words that wound to words that heal! I will close today with Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
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