Matthew 12:36 – I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.
THEME OF THE DAY: SPEECH AND OUR SPIRITUAL HEALTH. Self-examination is an essential discipline in the Christian life. Without it, we may easily find ourselves just drifting through life going about our days and routines with mindless repetition. That is how the world of unbelievers live; anchored in the routines of worldliness because that is the only realm known to them. Not so for the Christian. We live in two worlds and the primary one is the spiritual. To live effectively in that realm for the glory of God demands conscious acts of obedience to known commands of God. The Christian life is lived by what I call “Mindful Intentionality” meaning we must think about obedience to God’s commands and then make conscious steps of putting those commands into action. And the only way to consistently live with “mindful intentionality” is to conduct consistent spiritual self-examination to see how we are doing. If self-examination doesn’t occur, we always default to just living life without spiritual purpose and lacking spiritual intentionality in obeying God’s Word. And the two areas of self-examination needed to give us a true assessment in how we are doing in our walks with the Lord are prayer and our speech. No two areas are more accurate to reveal the health of our spiritual lives. The quality of our prayer lives will tell us our level of love for God. Prayer is communication. Lovers long to be with each other to communicate. A lack of prayer reveals a lack of love for God. The other area, our speech, and particularly how we talk about other people, will reveal our awareness of God’s omniscience and our love for the people we talk about.
Today, we want to consider the second area of needed self-examination to ensure we are right with the Lord and on track in growing in Him; our speech. Think about a recent time when we have been in a conversation with another Christian and the topic came up of another Christian we mutually know. It might be a conversation with a close brother or sister in the Lord. It may also be a late night conversation in the coziness of bedtime with our spouses. Or perhaps it occurred in a small group of Christians. Or even in the confines of a family discussion at dinner. Whatever the setting, how did our speech go in talking about another believer? Was it like the Apostle Paul commands, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29)? Notice the quality and direction our speech is to take when talking to and of another person – nothing degrading, nothing hurtful, nothing which will tear down the other person. Or was our conversation like that described by James, “The tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:8-10)?
Friends, it is impossible to have a healthy spiritual walk with the Lord while we freely talk down or ill about other Christians. We cannot be critical, bitter, gossip, slander, or hurt with our tongues other Christians, even if they don’t know we are talking about them. If we do, the Lord will not be real and personal with us. He takes great displeasure in those who take liberty to hurt His children with cutting words. And one of the clear signs we are under His discipline if we are guilty of this sin is a lack of joy living a Christian life marked by dull and lifeless routines. God will not allow His sinning children to enjoy Him. Many miserable Christians exist and it may very well be because they have sins of the tongue undealt with in their relationships with other Christians.
Yes, our speech will tell us much about our spiritual condition. As we strive to be uplifting in our speech, today’s scripture is a great reminder and help towards that end. Remember, there are no private conversations.
PRAYER: “Father, please put a guard on my heart that my speech may always be filled with grace.”
QUOTE: “How we talk about other people will tell us exactly how close we are to the Lord Jesus.”