The Power of the Tongue
“From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:20-21
The words that we say have meaning and impact. Your kindness and cruelty both have the ability to affect someone else’s life in a positive or negative way. The words we say to ourselves have the same effect. Proverbs 18:21 states that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Now I’m not talking about some name it and claim it prosperity gospel because man has no supernatural power the way that God does. What I’m saying is that words hurt. They can be used for good or evil. Do you ever notice how mean things people say stay in your head all day or how a compliment or kind word can make your entire day? There is power in the sense that as humans we all have the tendency to feel insecure, hurt, or overthink in our own particular way. Therefore, what others say often stays with us.
“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24
Not only that, but on the day of judgment we will be condemned by our own words. Did we deny God? Did we speak filth? In fact, Matthew 12:37 says just that, “for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Words reveals what is in a person’s heart.
In the book of Matthew, there is a debate over traditions and commandments. The Jews had many traditions about foods and hand washing, but Jesus tells them that it’s not what goes into a man’s mouth that defiles him, but what comes out. (Matthew 15:10-20). Peter asks Jesus to explain his words to them, and so Jesus tells his disciples that what comes out of a man’s mouth is what is already within his heart. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” Matthew 15:19-20.
This story always convicts me and makes me stop to reflect over my words and how I speak. It’s important to be intentional with our words. It’s why I decided to stop cursing last year. This was not an easy task for me. I used to curse consistently. When I decided to follow Christ again wholeheartedly, I stumbled upon this verse in Matthew and felt like it was a punch in the gut. I felt immediate conviction and felt that God was speaking right to me. He was saying, how can you follow Me and represent Me and talk like that? How does that reflect God’s character of faithfulness, steadfast love, mercy, healing, and grace in any way? The answer was that it didn’t. Furthermore, if I was a new creation in Christ, then how could I continue living with old habits and filthy language? What did that say about my heart? My speech went against everything I was claiming to believe, and I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me before. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says we are Christ’s ambassadors, reflecting and representing His message of reconciliation and salvation to others. How could I represent or reflect the goodness of God with words that were unholy? I made the decision right then and there that I would not curse anymore. Though the intentional practice of moderating my speech has turned into a habit of not cursing, I do struggle every now and then with an accidental blurt. It’s not like I magically stopped cursing when I made the decision. It’s a daily choice that gets easier with more practice and as I continue to pray to God to help me in this. The strength for self control comes from Him, not from myself.
I also noticed the more time I spent around people who cursed, the more I found myself drifting towards similar talk. This is why it’s important to have discernment over who you surround yourself with.
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17
This brings me to my second topic. Gossiping. Do you ever notice how easy it is to join in on gossip when you’re surrounded by people who constantly start it? It’s so easy to let that bad mood be pinned on someone else or judge that annoying coworker without really knowing them. We’ve all been there. It’s easy to curse, to gossip, to speak without thought. It’s much more difficult to restrain yourself, to think in depth about your words before speaking them. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit for a reason. Here’s the thing: how can I love my neighbor and talk badly about them when they’re not in the room? How can I call myself a trustworthy person if I betray confidences to spread gossip? It doesn’t even have to be you spreading it. If you agree with someone else’s gossip, that’s still being a part of it. When you talk badly about someone, you’re not only raising bad impressions about them in others, but you take away their dignity, stripping them of their reputation. Does that honor God or His call for us to love our neighbor as ourselves? Controlling the tongue requires self-control and self-discipline. It requires intention, thought, and the perseverance of continually being put into practice. It’s something you must remember to uphold despite your feelings, objections, moods, situations, etc.
“A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.” Proverbs 16:28
Though this may seem difficult and may seem like too big of a sacrifice, did not Jesus give himself up as the ultimate sacrifice to die for our sins? He paid the debt we owed because of our sin that we may have reconciliation with God. As Ephesians 2:8 says, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. In the same way, instead of seeing moderating our speech as too hard of a task, let us see it as a labor of love to improve not only ourselves, but our relationship with our Heavenly Father. It seems such a small thing to work on for the One we love when God has been so good to us. Dear readers, I hope this makes us all re-think and focus on our words, on our intentions, and on the direction of our hearts. I pray for discernment over our hearts and speech, and purpose over our words today. I pray we honor God with our mouths, thoughts, actions, and hearts. I pray we ask the Lord to help us and guide us in this.
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:1-5
