Matt 12:34 Jesus chastises the Pharisees for ascribing His works to the devil. They said “this man casts out demons only by Beelzebub the ruler of demons” (12:24). He calls their statement nonesense, on the basis of it being foolish that one would destroy what is a part of his own kingdom. Namely that satan would cast out a demon, when it is a part of his kingdom. Then in verse 34 he calls them a “brood of vipers” and says of them that they cannot speak good because they are evil. Furthermore He knows that they are evil because of what comes from their mouths because “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”
The word for “fill” is perissumatos which means abundance or superfluity. It is used in the Septuagint in Ecc 2:15 where Solomon is musing about the advantage of being wise. He says “as it happens to the fool, so it happens to me.” Then he asks himself “why then was I more/excessively wise?” He concludes that his too is vanity. He was not merely wise, but he had excelled at wisdom. So here too it speaks of an abundance of wisdom.
It is also used in Luke 6:45 where Jesus is preaching to His disciples principles of the kingdom. Here He says almost verbatim what was said in Matt, “the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
So again there is the idea of abundance leading to an overflow. What is stored in ones heart will eventually spill out.
In Col 3, Paul encourages believers to leave behind the speech that was characteristic of our former lives. He says specifically that we should put aside “anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech from our mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”
Conversely he encourages us to put on a “heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these put on love which is the perfect bond of unity.”
And this attitude of love should also be conveyed to outsiders, but with a slightly different purpose. He says that we should “conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
From these verses we will notice a number of things concerning the use of our speech:
1) Speech is always an indicator of the spiritual condition of a man. Whenever you encounter someone – whether a believer or not – it is their speech that will tell you their quality on the inside. We may be told by such persons of their alleged conversion and love for God and His church; but if their speech does not indicate a heart of love and humility; then there is a good chance that their conversion is not as sound as they had assumed. It is the abundance or overflow of the heart (which is the seat of the emotions, intellect and will) which speaks. Those who speak words of optimism have optimism in their hearts. conversely those who are not optimistic will speak so from their hearts. Those who have wicked desires will show forth those desires from their conversation. For so it says in the proverbs
“A worthless person, a wicked man, i sthe one who wakls with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers, who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife.”
And the end of that man is clear “therefore his clamity will come suddenly; instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes seven which are an abominatoin to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies and spreads strife among brothers.” Prov 6:12-19
This is also so for the wise man. Wisdom is perfectly personified in Prov 8
“To you, o men I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O naive ones, understand prudence, and o fools understand wisdom. Listen for I will speak noble things and the openign of my lips will reveal right things. For my mouth will utter truth and wickeness is an abomination to my lips. All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing crooked or perverted in them…the Fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate.”
Prov 8:1-13
“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.”
Prov 10:11
Who a man is on the inside will be evident. Give him time to talk and it will be made clear. Scripture says that we will know them by their fruit.
2) Our speech will indicate the level to which we have inclined our hearts to the Holy Spirit. Our faith in the Lord may be secure, but our growth in the Lord is in part dependant upon our submitting to the Word of God and the leading of His Holy Spirit. For we are told to “consider the members of our bodies as dead…[to] put aside [the old nature] – interestingly since we “have [already] laid [it] aside” and to “put on a heart of compassion, kindness…etc.” These are things that have already happened to us; but we must constantly clothe ourselves with these things. And I take this to mean that we must participate in the work that the Holy Spirit has done and is doing in our lives to transform us to look more like Christ. We must be purposeful in not speaking perversely, but in speeking words of love. We must be purposeful in not speaking out of anger, wrath, malice, slander or abusively; but rather speaking kindly and out of love for one another. Those who are less given to the Holy Spirit are evident. For they have not mastered their speech. They may have the Spirit within them, but they have not mastered the use of their tongue. These are also not fit for spiritual ministry – as James says – since teachers “will receive the stricter judgment” being those who use their tongues all of the time. Paul also speaks of the spiritual leader as one who is temperate and not quarrelsome. Those who have not mastered their tongue have no place in spiritual leadership and would do best to sit quietly in the assembly.
Further evidence that proper speech is beholding to those who are mature in the Lord is found in what Paul says later in this passage that we ought to “bear with one another and forgive each other, just as the Lord forgave [us]” Col 3:13. This is beholding to one who is spiritually mature because these often have a low view of themselves and a high view of God. Spiritual maturity is not always wrapped up in great and lofty words. But it is often found in those who are meek and humble. Those who would just as soon listen than speak. Those who know that they are but dust and next to nothing in comparison with the Lord. And it is this same Lord who has forgiven us an infinite offense. Being pardoned an infinite offense makes any lesser offense infinitely forgivable. To a humble heart, what offense is there that can not be forgiven, knowing that a Holy and Perfect God has forgiven us all wretched sinners so much? This one who is humble and knows his place before the Lord is also one who is quick to forgive, quick to forbear, quick to love and to speak words of love; not easily becoming angered or quick to speak out in his own defense when he is offended. He may yet be offended, but he will also forgive. We love because He loved. And we love with the same type of Love that He loved, unless we have not truly beheld His love, or at least not for so long as others who are more mature.
3) Our speech may determine our effectiveness in leading others to the faith. Paul says that we must “conduct ourselves with wisdom towards outsiders” therby “making the most of every opportunity.” And he qualifies wisdom in these verses by exhorting us to “let our speech ALWAYS be with grace – as if seasoned with salt, so that we may know how to respond to each person.” In every interaction we do not always have the opportunity to build relationships and show the love of Christ by our actions. However, with most we will have the opportunity to converse with them. And there are many types of conversations and many levels of depth to those conversations that we must consider; ranging from a simple hello to interacting on the latest war efforts. We are encouraged to make the most out of every opportunity. Perhaps we are accustomed to thinking of such opportunities as only what we make of them or else they are interruptions. As if to say that we must either stage an interaction in such a way as to make an opportunity out of it; or that it is merely an interruption of our schedule to be dealt with accordingly. However Paul views any opportunity as an opportunity to deal wisely with an outsider. An in dealing with that outsider, our speech must be of the most excellent kind. Therefore he says that it must be always “with grace” as if seasoned with salt. Perhaps he has here in mind that salt is a preserve and so grace may preserve us through the most difficult of interactions. Or perhaps that it may act to season our conversations so that they may bring glory to God through our interactions with outsiders. Whatever the case may be and to what ever degree he is using the analogy, the point is that our speech should “always” be with grace. In every discourse; no matter how serious or silly, no matter how long or short in duration, no matter if it be planned or spontaneous, our speech should be seasoned with the grace of God. He even gives himself as an example in the previous verses, pleading for prayer that he might “speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak” (4:3-4). Even the Apostle sought for prayer that he might clearly speak the gospel “in the way that he ought to speak” it to anyone who would hear. We never know what our conversations might yield. From a brief hello, to a moment of counseling, we must be certain that our conversations are seasoned with grace so that we may respond to each person and situation in a way that honors the Lord, and draws them closer to Him.
Speech is an indicator of the spiritual condition of a man. For the believer it is a strong indicator of his/her level of spiritual maturity. And we must always be gracious in our speech as we interact with those on the outside, so that every opportunity is redeemed for the glory of God.
By means of application I will merely remind us of the principle of James’ exhortation in 1:19 that we must be “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.” James has often been considered the proverbs of the NT. And yet whereas Proverbs spoke to the nature of things as observed by the wise Solomon; James exercises wisdom through commands. This being one of the most helpful commands in understanding how we may shed our wicked tendencies and put on love – to believer and unbeliever alike; making the most of every opportunity. First we must be quick to hear. Then we are able to evaluate the situation. We are able to discern where a person is so that we can know how to answer them; whether they are a believer or no, whether they are in some manner of trouble or no; whether they are in need of counsel or no; whether their attack warrants action or no; whether we shall be able to turn them to the faith or no. These are generally discernable, as we open our ears to hear what is coming from the mouth of who is before us; and is nearly impossible to discern if we are too quick to speak. Second we must be slow to speak. This logically follows from the first. If we are quick to listen, then we are hearing, ingesting and discerning. This also assumes that we are not merely listening so that we may have ammunition with which to reply. But that we are engaged in our listening, not waiting for our opportunity to speak, but waiting till they have their fill in speaking. Of course there is always wisdom to be applied in knowing how long to listen to a fool. It does us nor the fool benefit to continue listening to foolishness. For us it merely works to irritate, corrode our listening skills (because we end up turning the person off instead of actually listening to them) or else being corrupted ourselves. And for the fool it only helps to encourage their foolishness because they believe that their words are being heard and condoned. Finally we are to be slow to anger. Our anger, yeah even our emotions, are too quickly aroused by the words of another. Regardless of the conversation, we will scarecely come across a man or woman who thinks and feels exactly the same as we do and so it behooves us to listen and to practice self control with regards to our emotions when a particular view of ours is challenged in conversation. We must know this as we consider the conversations that we may have throughout the course of the day and we must anticipate it. And we must never allow our emotions to be aroused to the point that we soil any opportunity that the Lord presents to us to speak truth into someone.
Every opportunity is that, an opportunity. And it is one that the Lord grants to us, for His glory. Daily prayer and self control must rule us if we are to master our tongues for His glory. If in any situation we are lacking wisdom, we are to ask of God; and He will give it. And this so for our conversation. For our speech should always be with grace. Our lives are full of grace, being hidden with Christ in the heavenly places. And it is to this grace that we are to point with our conversation; at every opportunity. So that in all things, God might be glorified through His Church. Amen.
