empty words

Sometimes I read things in scripture that scare me. This morning, it was Matthew 12:37: “‘But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’”

Wow, that sounds bad. 

I want credit for all the good and constructive things I say. My “full” words, as compared to the empty ones. But Jesus himself is quoted in scripture as saying that I’ll have to explain everything I say. My positive words don’t excuse the negative ones.

On top of that, this is the opposite of my tendency to think what I do is important, but what I say is less so. Sticks and stones, and all that. Jesus says, “For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

The verses immediately preceding this verse help me understand. This statement is made as part of an overall point Jesus made about our fruits - works - and the fact that good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit. And then he says, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”

This sounds to me like Jesus is saying it’s all connected. Our words reflect our hearts; our hearts reflect the things we’ve “stored up” in them. So as we harbor malicious and hateful feelings, they show themselves in callous and cruel words. Conversely, a heart full of love and joy won’t ever express itself in statements that wound or demean.

The words are outcomes of our hearts, and the lesson in the end is to guard our hearts. All the brooding and refusal to forgive and let go, all the frustration and feeling that life isn’t fair, become a toxic soup in our souls that spills across our tongues and out of our mouths to poison other people.

That’s why Jesus says I’m going to have to account for all of it. Thinking back across just the past few days, it makes me want to cringe. Thank God that where there’s recognition and repentance, there’s forgiveness.