March 8: Careless words

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good man produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.  (Matthew 12:33-37 — HCSB)

Jesus had just been accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan because the religious leaders of His time were jealous of the crowds that followed Him wherever He went. Imagine that… the audacity to accuse the Lord Jesus of being a servant of Satan. Whether they understood the full extent of what they were saying or not, they were very careless with their words, and were responsible for turning people away from Jesus. Even though they were leaders of the Jewish religion, their evil words revealed the state of their hearts… in this case “heart” does not mean emotions, but their true inner selves.

If we are Christians, we must be very careful with our words… about the accusations we make, the advice we give, the people we criticize… We could be the “religious leaders” in this passage at this very moment if we are in the habit of planting seeds of doubt because of our own selfish and jealous feelings. With a good heart and good words, we save people, encourage them, tell them the Good News of Jesus, build them up, and heal them. But if we have bad hearts and bad words we will do the opposite, causing people to be spiritually lost. 

Good words however, do not come from newspapers, books, the internet, and movies produced by people who do not know God. Rather they come from God, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God, the teaching of Jesus, the Holy Scriptures will clean your heart, fill your mind with good things, and enable your mouth to be "a fountain of life."

Every one of us needs to work on this.