Jesus said, ‘By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned ‘ Our destiny is coupled to our words The tree is known by his fruit, Matt 12:33 A man is known by his words How can one being evil, speak good things?? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”, and the result is as we read in verse 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things’
Note the warning in verse 36 ‘ But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment ‘ We must give account Idle is “pernicious ‘ in the Diaglott Webster defines pernicious, “Having the quality of injuring, destructive, malicious, wicked”, of such words we shall give an account For as we read in verse 37 “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”
Words can bring about the greatest of all good Salvation comes by the use of words “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” I Cor 1:21 And on the other hand “Words can set on fire the whole course of nature” James 3:6 “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity so is the tongue among our members, that It defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell “
The Scriptures speak of sound words, Wholesome words, and they also speak of words that eat as doth a canker
Job and Moses knew
Job knew the value and responsibility of words, even before his affliction, and afterward he realized even more the need of great care in what we speak “How forcible are right words Job 6:25 And the testimony in Job 1:22, was that Job, despite all the evils that had come upon his house, “Sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” And then, after, even his body was stricken with a horrible disease it was testified of Job in 2:10, “In all this did not Job sin with his lips”
Here was a man of whom God spoke, saying, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil ? Here was a man we may well endeavor to follow We would that God could so speak of us.
Yet, to show the danger of words, we cite how even Job was later reproved, because he was led, or provoked to say words he ought not to have said God addressing Job in Job 38:1-4 “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a mars, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding’ And God went on to take Job to task for some of the things that Job had said
“Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth Once have I spoken, but I will not answer yea, twice, but I will proceed no further’ Job 40.3 And finally “Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not” Job 42:1.
What a lesson for us
We have the lesson also of Moses, another man who stood very high in the sight of God, a man who was of a quiet and meek spirit It was his desire that God would choose someone else for the high position of delivering Israel And later on when his own brother Aaron, and his sister Miriam, chided him concerning the Ethiopian woman he had married, he held his peace, and it was testified of him at that time, “Now this man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth”
Such a man was Moses Yet as we read in James 3:1 “The tongue can no man tame” And the one thing recorded against Moses is found in the 106 Psalm, “They (Israel) angered him (God) also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes Because they provoked his spirit, so that he (Moses) spake unadvisedly with his lips”
If such strong men as these, Job and Moses, could be provoked to speak things they ought not, how careful we need be.
Solomon knew
Many of the Proverbs give us instruction along this line One that often comes to mind is, In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin” In other words, if we do a lot of talking, we are sure to say things we ought not to have said Perhaps, in this, is one of our most common failings Most of us say too much—too carelessly For where care is used, many thoughts will never become spoken, or written words “A fool we read in Ecclesiastes 10:14, “is full of words’ , “But”, says the Proverb, “he that refraineth his lips is wise
James says that words “can set on fire the whole course of nature ‘, and “in many things we all offend ” Talebearing is one of the greatest evils—”The words of a tale bearer are as wounds, and they go down into the inner-most parts of the body” It is repeatedly condemned in the Proverbs James also says, “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth”, whereas on the other hand we read in the Proverbs, “where there is no talebearer the strife ceaseth “
Hasty words are condemned We are exhorted to be swift to hear—slow to speak “Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words ? There is more hope of a fool than of him” The exhortation to us is, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” Colossians 4:6
“Using as the apostle says elsewhere, “sound speech that cannot be condemned”
Good words are Precious
Good words are highly commended in the Scriptures The desire to encourage by a good word A word of appreciation A word of real comfort “A word in due season how good is it ‘ Proverbs 15:23 And of Christ is was prophesied in Isaiah 50:4 “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary
We read, “heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop but a good word maketh it glad’ And again, “A word fitly spoken” is likened to “a beautiful picture of apples of gold in pictures of silver ” “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones”
Finally Brethren and Sisters we have this well known verse “Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon His name” Of what must such conversation be that is worthy of a record in heaven
What are we recording day by day ?
“By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One