Your Language Reveals You
Your Language Reveals You
Your speech points to who you are; it reveals your personality and discloses what is within you. “By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Speech is not a trivial matter. By condemnation, you yourself may be condemned. And by the word “fool,” you deserve the fire of Gehenna. Some words defile a person, as the Lord said. The Apostle James says about the tongue that it is “a fire” and that it “is set on fire by Gehenna.”
The sins of the tongue are many, which made the saints love silence.
Among them are blasphemy, lying, insulting, mocking, words of ridicule, words of harshness, anger, bitterness, and hatred, words of pride and boasting, exaggeration, words of flattery, hypocrisy, and deceit, false witness, interrupting others, foolish arguments, idle talk, and so on.
There are sins whose harm is limited to the speaker, and others that cause others to stumble.
Such as what a person pours into the ears of others: conversations that destroy the purity of their hearts and thoughts, or destroy their faith and the soundness of their understanding, or ruin their relationships with others and create division among them, or make them change their opinion about their friends. How many victims there are because of words!
The Scripture advises us to be slow in speaking, at least so that we may think.
The Apostle James said, “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
Whoever hastens in speaking or speaks impulsively is exposed to error. He may regret it, but only after he has spoken, after his words have been recorded against him, and he can no longer take them back.
Yet despite all this, there are beneficial words. The desert wanderers used to come to our fathers from the ends of the earth, seeking a word of profit.
There are words of the Spirit and words of grace, words that God places in the mouths of people so that they may deliver them: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks”—He who spoke through the prophets.
Therefore the psalmist says, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Your praise.” Is it God who opens your lips?
Among good words are: the word of blessing, the word of consolation, the word of encouragement, the word of absolution, the word of guidance, the word of instruction, and even the word of rebuke, if it is spoken with love.
And the word that is from God does not return empty, but it is living, powerful, and effective. It pierces the heart, bears fruit, and transforms souls.
Therefore, speak when it is fitting to speak. And know how to speak and when.
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