#08. What's in our words
On white lies, idle speech, and life giving words.
A number of times in the Bible, it says a variation of God hates lies or that we shouldn’t lie (I didn’t have time to count, but I googled it and it says over 100 times).
Here’s a short list (emphasis mine)
Do not tell lies about others. — Exodus 20:16 (CEV)
You must not take something that belongs to another person. You must not say something that is not true. You must obey my rules. — Leviticus 19:11 (EASY)
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. — Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)
The Lord ·hates [detests] ·those who tell lies [false lips] but ·is pleased with [favors] those who ·keep their promises [do what is true]. — Proverbs 12:22 (EXB)
These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord. — Zechariah 6:16-17 (NIV)
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. — Romans 1:29-31 (ESV)
Therefore, rejecting all falsehood [whether lying, defrauding, telling half-truths, spreading rumors, any such as these], speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one another [and we are all parts of the body of Christ]. — Ephesians 4:25 (AMP)
But as for the cowards and the ignoble and the contemptible and the cravenly lacking in courage and the cowardly submissive, and as for the unbelieving and faithless, and as for the depraved and defiled with abominations, and as for murderers and the lewd and adulterous and the practicers of magic arts and the idolaters (those who give supreme devotion to anyone or anything other than God) and all liars (those who knowingly convey untruth by word or deed)—[all of these shall have] their part in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone. This is the second death. — Revelation 21:8 (AMPC)
There’s also some mentions of being careful with our words, the power of the tongue etc. Scripture clearly places great importance on words. What we say matters to God clearly.
Something I’ve been thinking of beyond lying and the power of life and death in the tongue is the idea of trustworthiness.
The Bible is clear that God says what He means and He means what He says. It says that every word from God has a purpose and it fulfils the purpose for which it was spoken. God doesn’t peak idly.
… 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. — Isaiah 55:11 ESV
I have been thinking about what it means to be Christ like with my words. To only say what I mean and to only mean what I say.
What does it look like to only speak with purpose? To not have idle speech.
I’m reminded of Jesus’s words in Matthew 12:36
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, (ESV)
The word “careless” is also translated as: thoughtless, unhelpful, idle, lazy, unprofitable, injurious, useless.
The baseline of this, I think, is to speak truth. Lying is distorting the truth. Our words matter to God because we are like Him when we are in Him and His words are power and life. We are held to a higher standard, which is the standard of truth. Jesus is clear in John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. — (AMP)
Lies are characteristic of the devil not of God. And if we are to be Christlike, then we must speak truthfully. Your yes should be yes and your no no. You should be trustworthy. As in some of the scriptures highlighted above, lying is classified with murder, idolatry, sexual immorality, pride, covetousness, theft and a host of other sins.
In addition to lies, gossip, slander, craftiness, perjury, are all wrong ways to use our words. They do not reflect God. 1 Corinthians 6:10 also talks about revilers (also described as verbal abusers and the Amplified Version (AMP) expands it
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers [whose words are used as weapons to abuse, insult, humiliate, intimidate, or slander], nor swindlers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God.
In short, instead of being idle, our speech should have a purpose. And it should be for building up and for doing God’s will. Just as everything else we do. Paul writes in Philippians about the things we should think on.
Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart]. — Philippians 4:8 (AMP)
If we apply those to our speech as well, that would help us be aligned: only say what is true, what is honourable, what is worthy of respect, what is pure, what is lovely, what brings peace, what is admirable, what is of good repute, what is aligned to and confirmed in God’s word. Thinking on these is a great place to start, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).