Monday
Matthew 4.3-4 ”The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Words matter. With words we tell truth or lie, we heal or wound, we lift up or humiliate, we inform or mislead. The life we lead can be indexed to the words we say, and the words we say reflect back on the God we serve. Jesus’ answer to the temptation to bend the world to his own interests was not to abuse the power of words, but to listen to what God says. Obedience to God starts with careful listening to God’s words and finding in God’s Word the way, the truth and the life.
Tuesday
Matthew 12. 33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognised by its fruit.”
Matthew 12.33-37 contains some of Jesus’ most uncompromising words about human speech. Christians are called to live into a Christ-like ethic of speech, to be the kind of people who speak the language of the Kingdom of God. “Speak unto others as you would have others speak unto you” should be a post-it on the keyboard or phone screen. Would we change our ways with words if the fruit of the Spirit were introduced as quality control? If a mind is truthful, and a heart compassionate, then words display the fruit of integrity, kindness, trustworthiness and relation building.
Wednesday
Matthew 12.34 “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil, say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Jesus is addressing religious leaders who are out to get him any way they can. They distort his words, twist the truth, present ‘alternative facts’, and use their power to try to silence the truth. In our time, when someone is criticised for saying something truly offensive they apologise and say “That’s not who I am.” That is not repentance. That is denial – “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” What we speak is an index of who we are inside, how we think and feel, how we view other people. The words we speak are the audible fruit of our inner life. Our words matter!
Thursday
Matthew 12.35 “The good person brings good things out of the good stored up in them, and the evil person brings evil out of the evil stored in them.”
What do you sound like when you speak? Do you ever play back in your head what you shouldn’t have said? I do, and sometimes it involves an apology. At the very least, repentance for words we have spoken, that have hurt or diminished others, should involve our honest recognition that we did indeed speak those words. To say “I didn’t mean it!” may be true, with hindsight. But at the time the person on the receiving end heard it as meant. Perhaps we could use this prayer: “May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.”
Friday
Matthew 12.36-37 “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.”
This is one of the most serious and searching sayings of Jesus. It is first spoken to powerful people. ‘Empty’ words are those that add nothing to the wellbeing of those who hear them. That includes, but is not limited to, inciting hatred, outspoken ridicule, articulated racism, truth-twisting to deceive, sarcasm that wounds, gossip that damages reputations – every word that makes life harder or less safe, that aims to diminish rather than affirm, that is intentionally offensive or abusive, every one of them will have to be accounted for. I genuinely tremble for much of the speech that has become characteristic and normalised within our society. “Lord have mercy.”
Saturday
Colossians 3. 17 “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Words and deeds go together. Actions speak louder than words, sometimes. Words are themselves speech acts, they do things and get things done. Both words and deeds spring from the heart, and a Christian heart is already given. Words and deeds are done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Speech and behaviour are the outflow of the love of God poured into our hearts, and so our words and actions are to be formed in minds and hearts responsive to the grace that has forgiven, renewed and enabled our whole being. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. So speak, and so act.
Sunday
May the mind of Christ my Saviour, live in me from day to day,
By his power and love controlling, all I do or say. (Kate Barclay Wilkinson)
This hymn was a favourite consecration hymn at Keswick holiness conventions in the early 20th Century. This first verse is a good concluding prayer for a week reflecting on the power of words to do things, and make things happen. To be in Christ, and to know Christ in us, is to experience the guidance and enabling of Christ by his Spirit. In a world where words are regularly weaponised to injure and harm, Christian speech must bear witness to the truth-telling, peace-building language of Christ’s Kingdom.
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