TEXT: Matthew 12:36-37
By Bro Marvis Kaine
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We live in a society where people are very sensitive to what you say or do. What you say can make or break others. A Chinese saying has it that once an ill word slips out of the tongue it cannot be brought back by a coach and six horses.
One who is angry may do or say sinful things. Apostle Paul in one of his teachings advice Christians to be angry, yet not sin and let not the sun go down on your anger. Anger may flare up in our lives but we must be careful of what we say.
In our text Jesus Christ warned against idle talk. Matt 12:36-37
36But I say unto you, that every idle word men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.37 for by the words thou shall be justified and by the word thou shall be condemned. NKJV
This passage of the Bible alone is one that should cause people to pause and think before speaking. In all that we say we must respect God and show reverence to Him. He is the creator of the universe and he is our Lord. We ought to speak of Him respectfully and hold Him in awe.
Let’s consider how we behave in front of the chief Executive of your company where you work or in front of an important person in our society. We will be on our best behavior, we choose our words carefully, and it is not the time to put our foot in our mouth. Yet, when are we ever not in the presence of God?
Jesus Christ instructed his disciples in the model prayer to call God “Hallowed” which means to hold something as holy, sacred or revered-mtt 6:9.
The children of Israel were warned not to take God’s name in vain. Deut 5:11- Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Vain here means to make something useless, such as an idle remark, to bring to ruin. It is derived from a word that means to rush into something, to be careless with something.
Many a time, we often hear people use God or Jesus name as an exclamation when they are not thinking about God
Let’s consider someone warming or heating a pot of stew and at the same time watching His/her favorite series on television and gets carried away and because of carelessness burnt it and starts screaming ‘Jesus’’ Gosh, “gee”, ’Jess’ when he/she perceived the burnt smell when he could just say “oh no”! Or “oh wow”!
Don’t be careless with God’s name.
Also, do not profane the name of the Lord. Lev 19:12- Ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shall thou profane the name of God: I am the Lord. NKJV
To profane means lack of due respect toward what is held to be sacred. That is to wound, defile. Today we hear people calling God’s name in events that violates the will of God. You see or hear comedians make casual jokes about the judgment day and people starts laughing at it.
God’s name can also be polluted by people who call themselves His Children but disobeys his will Ezekiel 36:20-23. When Christians lie, cheat and steals they are polluting the name of God.
Christians must be careful of cursing. It is to make light of something serious. That is to bring a serious matter to contempt, to show no respect, evil or wicked talk. Apostle Paul while discussing how people sin, states that people’s mouth are full of cursing. Cursing your parents was a punishable offence by death in the Old Testament. Mk 7:10
Today we hear angry parents calling their God given children names such as goats, cow, “E nor go better for u” and so many but a few to mention and when such child grows and not doing well they will be wondering what went wrong. Parents, pray for your children and be careful of what you say to them.
King Solomon warned not to curse kings or rich people. Eccl 10:20- Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. NKJV
They can do something about it.
In a moment of weakness peter cursed to prove that he wasn’t a follower of Christ matt 26:73-74
In our society for instance, when someone kick’s or stubs his toe on a stone, chair, they mutter words to the extent of condemning the stone, chair or their village people to external punishment.
We hear people including some Christians saying God should punish anyone planning evil toward them for mere kicking or stubbing the toe on an object. The question is do you desire to see people go to hell? Doesn’t hell scare you? If it does why treat the topic in a flippant (lacking seriousness) manner.
You hear some saying “I don’t really mean it”. The story of two traders in one of our local markets have been trending of how one threatened to deal with the other while quarrelling and within an hour or two the later start complaining of chest pain and slump to her death and the other woman is been accused of been responsible for the death because she threatened to deal with the acclaimed healthy woman before her demised and now she is on the run because the deceased woman relatives are on the look for her.
One writer observe that the “the tongue of man creates nearly all the mischief of the world”. It is simply a reflection of the heart. Matt 12:34b- Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks
This implies that the heart of the matter with the use of the tongue is the issue of the heart. The fruit you produce with your tongue depends on what you have rooted in your heart. James 3:11-12- We (Christians) must be very careful about inappropriate talk because:
It is one of the attributes of a wicked person. Paul talks about a profane person in I Timothy 1:9
He also admonished on things that should not be associated with us (Christians) Eph 5:1-8
We can achieve this by never leaving the impression that we do these things or approved of them Also avoid filthiness.
That is, talk that is obscene or shameful. Christians should not be using words dealing with body function or sexual actions. Not just words but gestures as well.
Coarse jesting that is; indecent or vulgar jesting, improper jokes should be shun thus let’s be careful of what we say. Eph 4:29- Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers”NKJV
Conclusion
The purpose of our conversation is to build people up, to make them better people. We must be very careful of what we say. Col 4:6- Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. See also; James 1:19-20; 26, 3:1-6, 11&12, proverbs 25:11, 29:11, 20
May the good Lord give us the heart and mind of His son that our very words may reflect His glory, in Jesus Christ name, Amen.
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