Is talk really cheap?
Perhaps you have heard the saying “Talk is cheap.” While it is true that anyone can say anything, true or untrue, words really are not “cheap”. Do we as humans have the right to determine the value of words? The words we use have great effect on others around us, and reveal whom we really are inside. As Christians, we need to use words the way God intended them to be used. We need to see the value He has placed on them. We need to address the heart issues and see how that plays out in the way we communicate. It is somewhat frightening to write about this topic, as I am warned in James 3: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. One who writes or speaks using words must take great care in doing so.
The significance of the tongue
In ancient Greece, there were seven wise men. One of them, considered the wisest, was a man called Bios. On one occasion, Bios received an animal from a person as a gift to use as a sacrifice. Before he could sacrifice it however, he was to cut out the best and worst parts and send them back to the giver of the gift. Bios sent back the tongue. Bios had it right. The tongue can be the best part and the worst part of the human body. From the tongue can come forth the goodness and kindness of God expressed in the life of a Christian. Yet, from the tongue can come the depths of human depravity. The Jewish rabbis compared the tongue to an arrow as opposed to a knife, for it could kill from a distance and you didn’t have to be close to the victim. In James 3 we read of the tongue: It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. In Romans 3 we are told:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
Notice the emphasis on the tongue and mouth. Of all the things that could have been said of them, the thrust is on their words and tongue. The speech of them simply reflects who they are. As Peter was told in Matt. 26:73: “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Just as a person’s accent reveals where they are from geographically, so a person’s speech reveals where they are spiritually.
Proverbs 18:21 tells us: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. Proverbs 12:18 says: There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Prov. 16:24 adds: Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. In James 3 we see: 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. In 2 Kings 23, Josiah comes and brings a reformation to the land. He tears down the idols and alters. There was a valley of Hinnom was where the worshipers of Moloch would sacrifice their children in a fire. Josiah came and stopped this great evil. The valley of Hinnom came to be despised by the Jews for the human sacrifices, and became the city dump of Jerusalem where garbage and dead animals and criminals were dumped. Fires were burning constantly to get rid of all the refuse. The stench was horrible. This place became known as Gehenna of fire, because the fire never went out. Christ always used the word in the gospels to refer to the place of damnation, where the fire never goes out. Now only outside of the gospels is this word Gehenna used, and it is in James 3:6. Satan wants to use the tongue as his tool for spewing out corruption and pollution. This pollution comes from the pit of hell and all leads back to the pit of hell.
The significance of words
From the tongue, come words. These words are not cheap, as some would say, for God has given words value. Look at Genesis chapter one. Eleven times we read that: “God said”. The first words ever spoken were from God. God gave Adam language and the ability to understand words. Adam’s words were like God’s, in that they were pure, good, and perfect. He could look at an animal and name it with the right word that would perfectly sum up the characteristics of the animal named.
Through the living Word and in the written Word, God has told us the significance and importance of His words. Hebrews 4:12 says: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Isaiah 55 notes: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” 1 Peter 1 tells us that: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” Later on when warning against scoffers, Peter reminds the readers that: For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
God gave us words and He expects us to use them for His glory and praise. Jesus tells us in Matt. 12:36 that: I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Colossians 4:6 commands us: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Ephesians 4, in telling of the new life of a Christian, says: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Word change?
If you’ve been thinking about your speech, and what God has to say about it, hopefully areas have been coming to your mind where your speech needs to change. In James 3:2 we read: For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. Since there is no one who does not stumble in speech, there is no perfect person (other than Christ), although that is the goal. Strikingly, we are told in verse 8: but no human being can tame the tongue. Notice the text doesn’t say that the tongue can’t be tamed, but rather that no human can tame it. Sadly, many people including Christians do not understand or believe this. They believe that they have the power on their own to change their speech. If what the Bible says is true (and it is) however, then a change in speech and words can only come from a divine change. Why? The tongue is related to another part of the body, the heart, and reflects what is in that organ.
Frequently I do landscaping jobs. It seems like someone asks me the same question. They have a tree that they really like and wonder if it’s ok to put it close to the house, in a spot that clearly won’t work for a tree to be in. They say that they will keep it trimmed. My answer to them is always the same. “Sure, you will keep it trimmed for a while. Eventually you will get busy and forget about it. When you remember, the tree will be way overgrown and will have to be cut down.” The problem is not the pruning; it is the nature of the tree. It does no good to teach these people better pruning techniques. They need a plant with the right nature and growing habit. It is no different with us. We don’t need better communication styles or training; rather we need a heart change.
Going to the heart of our word problems
James could have come right out and told us that the problem with our words is our hearts. In typical Hebrew style however, he picked the tongue as the organ that best reflects the action. Other parts of the body are often used in this way. For example, we read of “feet swift to shed blood”. Another example would be that of “haughty eyes”. The specific body members (tongue, eye, hand, foot, etc) aren’t the cause of the action, but rather the member that carries it out. So, when the Bible refers to the tongue, one must look at what it is reflecting.
In Matt. 12 we read: 33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Luke 6:43 says: “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. James 4:James 4 asks the question: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? If I took a bottle of shampoo, you would rightly expect that only shampoo would come out of it. Christ challenges us to look at nature and get a clue. Trees only produce the kind of fruit that they are. The heart is compared to a storehouse, where it overflows with what is stored in it. If you want something different to come out, then what it is filled with must be different.
We should stop right here and get a working definition of the heart. God has a lot to say about the heart in His Word, and we should understand what He is talking about. Biblically, what we mean when we say the heart is that in the heart dwell feelings and emotions, desires and passions. The heart is the seat of understanding, the source of thought and reflection. The heart is the seat of the will, and the source of resolves. Thus, the heart is supremely the one center in man, to which God turns, in which the religious life is rooted, which affects moral conduct.
What God is telling us is then, is that word problems are heart problems. If you fail to understand or believe this, then your solution to your words problems will not be Biblical, and as a result will not succeed. This should raise another question in your mind-“Why is my heart having the wrong feelings, desires, and passions? And, “How do I get the right ones?” These are excellent questions, so let us look to God for the answers.
Recession? Idol factories are running overtime
In the current economic climate, factories all around are facing difficulty in finding enough buyers to keep producing all the goods they could potentially make. Many have been shuttered or temporarily closed. In human hearts, there are idol factories that are running overtime. John Calvin noted that: “The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” A connection between idols and the heart can be found throughout the Bible. In Ezek. 14 we see: Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 And the word of the Lord came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? 4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols. In Jeremiah 2:13 we read: for my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. As the text here points out, the worshiping heart will always be leaving someone/something and cleaving to someone/something. We are either leaving idols and cleaving to the Lord or leaving the Lord and cleaving to idols. When we refer to idols, we mean something other than God that is controlling the heart.
Throughout his ministry on earth, Christ brought up the heart issues of men and women as he taught and met with them. He was not interested in a group of actors who thought they could meet the external requirements of some law. He already had that in the scribes and Pharisees. Christ was there to give new hearts, as Ezek. 11 tells: And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
The issue then is the heart and what it is seeking after and what it is filled with. When the heart seeks after and is filled with the things of God, then what comes out are the things of God. When the heart is filled with self worship and self desires, then what comes out is selfishness and evil. Galatians 5 shows us that a heart filled with the Spirit of God produces: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. A heart following after the flesh produces: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
Filling the heart
If what the heart is filled with comes out, then how does one become filled with the right things? There isn’t a station where one can go to and pump in a physical fluid or gas like you can with a vehicle. In Ephesians 5 we are commanded to: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit”. Just as alcohol takes control of a person and their being, so should the Spirit take control of a Christian’s thoughts, actions, and speech. Literally, we are to “Be being filled with the Spirit”. The filling can be thought of in three ways. One way is like the wind filling the sail of a boat, or floating a kite. It fills the sail and moves the boat. So should the Spirit move the life of a Christian. Another way is permeation. Before refrigeration, meat had to be covered with salt to be preserved. The salt would permeate the meat, and you would taste it when you ate it. The Christian should be so permeated by the Spirit that those who come in contact with them “taste” it. The third way, and the most important, is the idea of control. Just as the Spirit lead Jesus in the wilderness, and Paul on his journeys, the Spirit should control and lead us. It is important to note that all Christians have all the Holy Spirit (There is no “second filling”), but not all Christians are functioning under the control of it as the commandment calls for.
Colossians 3 is a parallel chapter with Eph 5. The results of being filled with the Spirit are expressed in both Chapters. Col. 3:16 says: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. The key then to be continually being filled and controlled by the Spirit is to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. We are to be saturated with it, just as a sponge becomes saturated with water. In Joshua 1:8, God tells the people: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. In Psalm 119 we read: How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. Later on: Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
Words are not cheap, so spend them wisely!
As we have seen, talk is not cheap. Words have great impact and when used according to God’s calling, great value. As Christians, we need to show the world that our hearts have been changed by the words that we use. We need to show that changes in speech come from changes in the heart. We need to point them to Christ, the only one who can do that. Lastly, we need to use words to tell of the goodness and greatness of God, remembering that words really belong to God and should be used for His purposes!
Recommended Reading: War of Words by Paul Tripp
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