Today’s Reading, Matthew 11-12
Focal Scripture: Matthew 12:36 “I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.”
Have you ever been around a person that is careless with their words? I mean a person who says things without thinking. A person who makes broad generalizations and claims about situations and people. These careless words cause pain, damage reputations, and create division where it doesn’t need to exist. As a person who is very literal in his communication, people who do this are very hard to understand and even harder to trust for me to personally.
In today’s reading we see that Jesus is very clear about the words that people speak. He states that people will have to give an account for every careless word that they have spoken. The implications behind this truth are profound for everyone, especially professing believers. Every half truth, manipulation, and dig will be judged. Every form of gossip and division will be laid bare for all to see. Jesus takes our words seriously and excuses won’t do when we face him in the last days.
So what does this mean practically for believers? It means that we must be very careful with how we speak and what we speak. Not only does it impact others in our relational life it also impacts the judgement we receive from the Lord.
What would happen if believers were patient and calm with their speech? I know personally I have seen gossip destroy people and create division. This happens from saying things that are not true and not correcting people who gossip. These people will be judged for their careless words. They won’t be judged by humans but the Lord himself.
The only way to fix this is to be slow to speak and quick to listen. I try to practice this as often as possible. Especially around people who have loose lips and are not trustworthy. One time I had a person question me why I just looked at them and didn’t say anything while they spoke. They accused me of thinking they were stupid and I responded and said “that’s not it at all.” I didn’t respond because I wanted my words to not be careless because this person was very manipulative in their speech and gossiped about everyone. To make sure what I said wasn’t twisted I often just sat and listened because this person could not be trusted with their speech.
The challenge we have as believers is to have words in our life that we don’t mind being quoted by everyone. To have speech that is pleasing to our Savior. How would God judge your speech today? Would he be pleased? If not, it’s time to kill that part of your speech and speak life. It not only is possible it’s expected.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Matthew 13
