What Words Reveal

Jesus said, “...For out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks.” -Luke 6:45

If the “fruit” of your mouth is criticism, incessant badgering, fiery barbs, and snide comments, then your heart is rotten, because Jesus Himself said, “...an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.”

Jesus, i.e. the Living Word, knew His Bible. He was the one who inspired someone to write, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” in Proverbs 18:21.

There is no amount of penance, gift giving, or acts of kindness that can undo hateful and hurtful words. The wounds caused by a sharp tongue may (or may not) heal, but the scars from those words endure.

Proverbs 12:18 states, “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Are yours the kinds of words that cause wounds or healing?

Ecclesiastes 3:7 tells us there is “a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” Are you someone who has to perpetually run your mouth and be heard, or are you someone who is always listening carefully so that you can hear, understand, and share words of life when the invitation or opportunity comes?

Proverbs 16:24 tells us “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”

Do the words of your mouth flow from, and produce, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? Are your words gracious, edifying, sweet, and healing to those who hear them? Or are your words like a raging bull in a china shop - smashing, crushing, destroying, and sucking life?

Maybe your response is, “People are just too sensitive! I should be able to say whatever I feel inside.” The problem with that is exactly what we opened with, “out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks.” A rotten, corrupt, evil heart is revealed through hateful words.

For us to say, “People are just too sensitive” is like saying, “You shouldn’t cry when I poke you in the eye with a sharp stick.” Wrong.

Getting jabbed in the eye with a sharp stick hurts. The smallest speck of dust in the eye causes discomfort and pain. The human heart was never designed by our Creator with “defense mechanisms,” because we were never intended to be the recipients or targets of criticism, badgering, bullying, barbs, or sarcasm.

Paul wrote, “and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Countless thoughts and potential comments, remarks and retorts fly through our heads daily. Scripture tells us that we must “take captive every thought” and make every single one obedient to Christ.

This task is impossible apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” If the Holy Spirit is not in us - then we cannot know God or His desire to transform us into the image and likeness of Christ.

But if we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within, then He will rebuke and correct us in matters of the heart and the words of our mouths because transformation and regeneration are exactly what God desires for us: “...be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Practice the art of listening - to God.

Practice the art of hearing people. This requires us keeping our mouths closed the majority of the time and attuning our ears to others.

Before ever uttering a word, take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

Consider whether your words flow from a heart of malice and evil - or from one of love and grace.

Consider whether you truly know Him who is good and holy and if what you speak is a reflection of His will and character.

Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious,

but fools are consumed by their own lips.

At the beginning their words are folly;

at the end they are wicked madness—

and fools multiply words.

-Ecclesiastes 10:12-14

What legacy are you leaving your children? Is it one of venom and vinegar, barbs and bitterness, sarcasm and scars? Or is your legacy one of kindness, love, compassion, and joy? What words of yours will they remember? Have your words today been words of life and love or words of destruction and pain? Were your parting words riddled with manipulation and malice?

Idleness in the face of evil is no better, for Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

What do the words you speak reveal about your heart?

More importantly, what do they reveal about your relationship with Christ?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com