You Silver Tongued...
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 10:20
The tongue of the righteous is choice silver…
If you have read much of the Bible, you know how dangerous our tongue can be. James puts a particular emphasis on our words and how damaging what we say can be. He employs imagery like forests being set ablaze to describe the tongue's potential for destruction. We all need divine help to control our mouths.
After reading the examples and exhortations about the problems our tongues can create, one might get the feeling that they would be well-served to follow Barney Fife’s advice and just “zip it.” Before you take a vow of silence, consider the flip side of this issue.
It is generally true that things that have the power to do great damage also have the power to do great good. Nuclear technology can be used to kill thousands with a bomb or provide electrical power to make life better for multitudes of people. Similarly, our words can harm or help, they can tear down or build-up, and they can turn others toward or away from God.
So, while you are right to be cautious, maybe even a little afraid of what kind of damage your words can do, at the same time remember the power to bless and help that resides within the way you use your words.
Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” (Luke 6:45). Therefore, the way to speak life into other people’s lives is to have a heart that is overflowing with life. You deal with the tongue through the heart. It is not merely a matter of self-control, though that helps too. It is a matter of having your heart filled to overflowing with righteousness that it overflows into the things you say to others.
This proverb calls this kind of tongue “choice silver.” That is precious and valuable stuff.
This does not refer to the positional righteousness the believer has in Christ. When we trust in Jesus Christ to save us, we have His righteousness imputed to us. We are counted as righteous before God as a judicial matter. We are forgiven and stand before God as if we had never sinned. That is an incredible gift from God through Jesus Christ. But it is not positional righteousness that is in view here. It is practical righteousness.
This too is a gift from God. It grows and develops through what is often called sanctification. It is God’s work to change our hearts more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. We are not passive in this work of practical righteousness. We participate (or not) with the Holy Spirit in this work.
Through prayer, intake of Scripture (hearing, reading, studying, meditating on, and memorizing the Bible), and worship and fellowship with the people of God our hearts are changed from glory to glory. If we are being intentional about this, practical righteousness will fill and eventually overflow our hearts.
Our words, the kinds of things we say, will be one of the pieces of evidence of this work of God in our hearts.
May God work in us that shows in what comes out of us in what we say.
