By your words

In Matt 12:36-37 Jesus made the following statements about the power of our words:

“I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

These really are amazing statements, having powerful implications to every one of us. In the verses immediately preceding these Jesus said that our mouth speaks out of whatever fills our hearts. If there is a “good treasure” in our hearts, then we will bring forth good words, and if there is an “evil treasure” in our hearts, then we will bring forth evil words. The obvious and irrefutable logic behind these statements is that if we want to change the words come out of our mouth, we need to do more than just pray, “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3) We need to change the “treasure” in our hearts.

This “treasure” in our hearts is twofold. On the one hand, it refers to the spirit which fills our hearts – either the “spirit that works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2) or the Holy Spirit. Our words will be directly influenced, as will our desires, thoughts and actions, by whatever spirit is within us. But the “treasure” in our hearts also refers to whatever words have been deposited in our hearts. In the parable of the sower Jesus made it clear that words are like seeds that are “sown” in our hearts just as the seeds of trees and plants are sown in the ground. The clear implication of this parable is that we need to be careful to plant in our heart only the words we want to come out of our mouth.

Proverbs 18:21 says that “the power of life and death” is in our tongue – because it is with our tongue that we speak. What this means is simply that our words have incredible power – both to give life and to take it. The account of creation makes it clear that God creates with his words. Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” and Psalm 148:5 we are told that, “He commanded and they were created.” The amazing fact is that God’s incredible creative power is unleashed when he speaks. And, because we were created in the image and likeness of God, we are designed to unleash creative power with our words as well. But with this incredible power comes incredible responsibility.

Many passages make it clear that God expects us to be good stewards with the gifts he has given us. (Luke 16:1-2, 19:13-24, 1 Corinthians 4:2, 1 Peter 4:10) In the same way, God expects us to be good stewards with the words that we speak. Jesus makes this clear by reminding us that we will someday have to “give an account” for our “careless” word we speak. The word “careless” in this verse literally means “inactive, unemployed or lazy.” The idea is that every word we speak should have a purpose – a task to fulfill – such as “building others up according to their needs.” (Ephesians 4:30) We need to think of our own words in the same way God speaks of his words in Isaiah 55:11: “So is my word that goes out from my mouth - It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Jesus also told us in this passage that our own words would either acquit us or condemn us on the Day of Judgment. We can see an example of this in the parable of the talents, where the master said to his lazy servant, “By your own words I will judge you.” (See also 2 Samuel 1:16 and Job 15:6) 2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’” This tells us that the reason our own words will acquit or condemn us is because, as Jesus said, our words are simply the result of whatever fills our heart. This is easy to see in regard to salvation. If our heart truly believes in Jesus, then our mouth will confess him as Lord. (Romans 10:10) And ultimately, this same principle applies to everything that comes from within our hearts.