hatchcreek.com Bible blog

Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear. Ephesians 4:29 ASV

Earlier we talked about how God can help us control our thought life. He is also interested in our speech.

When we become Christians our talk should change. I know after I became a Christian it started to bother me to be around my old friends who talked rough. When anyone would take the name of Jesus in vain it smarted. I wasn’t really aware of it as much before, but after finding the Lord bad language jumped out at me and made me uneasy. Have you ever felt that way? I’ve discovered the reason is because the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us when we are converted and He causes that uneasiness inside us. The bad language is offensive to Him.

Throughout the years we acquire a lot of habits that we carrying along with us, but we need to recognize them and make a conscious effort to put them off. It is kind of like changing a dirty set of clothing. We take off the old dirty ones and put on nice clean fresh ones.

Here is what God says:

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: (Ephesians 4:31 ASV)

We are to peal all that old junk off and put on the following:

and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32 ASV)

We need to be careful with our speech and make sure it is graceful and kind.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4:6 ASV)

Did you know our tongue can be our worse enemy? It can literally destroy us. God knows this and warns us in the book of James.

And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body,… (James 3:6 ASV)

We need to learn to control our tongues. Have you ever stopped to analyze what you talk about when with your friends and family? Our talk can actually do us harm as well as others. God is not in favor of idol talk, gossip, slander, or swearing and cussing. How do your friends talk?

On the other hand those who learn to control what they say are much better off and keep out of trouble. God will judge us on what we have said.

“Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue Keepeth his soul from troubles.” (Proverbs 21:23 ASV)

God tells us that we are fools if we allow our tongues to rule us.

A fool’s mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul. (Proverbs 18:7 ASV)

Here are Jesus’ own words. He tells us that we have a heart problem. Have you ever said something and thought, “why did I say that?” Or, “that didn’t sound very nice.” The Lord says what we say comes from our heart. It reveals what is on the inside of us and shows us what we need to change. That is a scary thought. I don’t like to think the ugly things that come out of my mouth actually reveal the real me. Ouch!

Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (Matthew 12:34 ASV)

We need to clean up our speech. We need to build each other up and not tear each other down. We are to minister to others in love and kindness. It is so easy to fall into the trap of talking about others. We need to be on constant guard of our mouths. This isn’t a hopeless situation. There are several things we can do. We can pray and ask God to forgive us when we misspeak or when we fall into the trap of gossip. He will forgive us and give us another chance to get it right. We can ask God to put a guard on our mouth and alert us when things are getting out of control. If we are with others who are not speaking in a God honoring way, we can avoid joining into the conversation and sometimes we even have to stop being around certain people. I’ve had to do that too.

Another thing is that God wants us to be ready to tell others about our hope in Christ.

(Psalms 119:11 ASV) but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear: (1 Peter 3:15 ASV)

We have clearly seen from the Bible how God is concerned not only about what we think, but also about what we say. Even though I’ve been a Christian for over 30 years I haven’t arrive at perfection.  I pray you will examine yourself along with me and try to speak in a way that is always pleasing to our precious Savior.