Many times in God's word we are cautioned about our speech and the importance of honest and edifying words. One of the most poignant truths was spoken by Jesus and recorded in red in Luke 6:45 which says, "The good man brings forth good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings forth evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." We are more transparent then we realize every time we open our mouths.  Psychologists might make any number of excuses for why certain things are spoken by certain people, but as Christians we know that all words rise out of either our sin nature or our grace nature that is being conformed into the image of Christ.

Being an English teacher, I am fascinated with language. I love to explicate and dissect and research the meanings that words deliver.  Language actually began long before there were any people to speak.  In Genesis 1:3 we begin to understand that speech was always a characteristic of God. "And God said, 'Let there be light' . . . and God called the light 'day,' and the darkness He called 'night.'" God literally spoke all things into existence. By Genesis 2, God had given the power of words to man: "Now the Lord had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field" (19-20).  Unfortunately, it was not long before the words God had given began to be perverted. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman [beginning to play at word games], 'Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?' The woman said to the serpent [not seeming amazed that he was speaking to her in the first place--just a thought to ponder], 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it [not what God said], or you will die.' 'You will not surely die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it" (Gen 3: 1-6).  Using God's own invention against Him, satan issued the first challenge and Eve told the first lie, and the downward spiral of sinful speech in humankind began. 

The story goes on in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel. "Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, 'Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used  brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth'" (1-4). A tower reaching to the heavens would provide a place for them to escape from flood waters such as those that came in the day of Noah, and they would then be saved by their own creation and not by the grace of the Lord, and they would not have to be known by the name God gave them or be known as His people any longer--they would have "a name for themselves." "But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that men were building. The Lord said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them'" (5-6). In other words, pride and man's own creation will overtake his  relationship with and dependence upon God. They could attempt anything, their successes would appear to be all of their own doing, and they would receive all the credit themselves, forgetting that it was God who created all things in the beginning. "'Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.' So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city" (7-8).

Our speech can certainly get us into trouble. Warnings against evil speech and encouragement for righteous speech come from wise writers in both testaments, teaching us to be careful what we do with God's gift of words. "An evil man is trapped by his sinful talk, but a righteous man escapes trouble. From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him" (Prov. 12:13-14); "He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin" (Prov. 13:3); "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit" (Prov. 15:4); "A wise man's heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones" (Prov. 16:23-24); "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.' Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for'" (Isaiah 5:5-7); "Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person . . . it is a restless evil full of deadly poison" (James 3:5-8) "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony" (Rev. 12:11); "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16). Obviously, words are a powerful gift from God that we must guard and use correctly as God intended. "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Does it speak pride, arrogance, anger, doubt, despair, fear, bitterness, jealousy, mockery or hatred? Or is it a "spring of living water welling up to eternal life"?

We must listen to our words and recognize the source from which they spring. A last sobering thought, written in red in Matthew 12:36-37: "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

Heavenly Father, send an angel with a coal from the altar to touch my unclean lips and make my words pure and useful to You. Keep me from careless and sinful speech. Put a gate on my mind to stop perverse, distorted or false words before they escape my lips. Teach me to live in the kind of integrity that will be "springs of living water welling up to eternal life" for those who hear and those who read the words You send through me, and deliver me from a prideful heart. I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.