Responsibility Over Our Speech

 

We have a responsibility over our speech.

The bible is clear about the issues of the tongue.

First Peter 3:10 says, “If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies.”

Colossians 4:6 says, “Let you conversation be gracious and attractive, so that you will have the right response for everyone.”  The KJV uses the word ‘salt’ for attractive.  Our words are to salted…properly preserved.

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.”

Proverbs 10:19 says, “Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.”

And these are just to name a few of the places where we are warned against the words we speak.

The time has never been more crucial for us to live like Jesus.
The One who only did what He saw the Father do, and only said what He heard the Father say.

And we have a responsibility to not only keep pure and clean the words we speak, but also to keep in check the words we see our sisters and brothers in Christ saying.  Those who are inside the faith.

Why?

 Because our words are spirit - and in them are the powers of heaven and hell… light and darkness… life or death.  “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.”  Proverbs 18:21, MSG

And the words of others can shift the very atmosphere we’re living in and affect our the reputation and credibility of an entire body of Christ.

Isaiah 56:3 says this, “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will never let me be part of His people.’ And don’t let the eunuchs say, ‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’”

“Don’t let them SAY.”
It would appear here that there was responsibility given to the servants of the Lord to carefully watch over and protect the spoken word of another in the family of God’s grace.

“Foreigners” here were those previously carefully regulated.  Deut 23:3 says of these, “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”  “…. they are to live as foreigners among the Egyptians.” (verse 7)

“Eunuchs” were those in the past who had been emasculated and excluded from the community.  (Deut 23:1)

Both had no share in Israel’s holiness and were considered marginal to God’s kingdom.

But this was a new season they were entering upon.
In the age to come, King Jesus would bring into the fold those who had been previously marginalized, discounted, or forgotten.  “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.” (Matt 20:16)

Here we see this beautiful image of restoration.
And moreover, a call for the body of believers to rehabilitate the speech of those once overlooked.

The promise is found in Isaiah 56:6-8, “I will bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord…. I will bring back them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.  I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices…the sovereign Lord… brings back the outcasts of Israel.”

But we must remind them who they are.
We must remind them Who’s they are.
And we must not let them SAY out loud the words that keep them in their season of painful separation.

Holding others accountable for the spoken word is critical in these shifting seasons.
Because there is life found in the conversation of the cleansed, and as true, death found flowing from an irresponsible mouth that has momentarily forgotten their rightful place in the kingdom of God!

Be careful that your speech doesn’t confine you to the imprisonment of your old lifestyle dear child of God.  “…. if anyone is in Christ, the NEW creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  (2 Cor 5:17)