Scripture Text – April 26, 2008

Proverbs 15

 1A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

 2The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.

 4A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.

Luke 6 

43For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

 44For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

 45A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

James 3

 1My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

 2For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

 3Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

 4Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

 5Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

 7For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

 8But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

 9Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

 10Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

 11Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

 12Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

Slow to Speak

Welcome to the message of the week. Today I want to focus on an important area of our Christian walk; our words. I will be looking at what the Word of God says and also sharing some practical experience from my own life.

Let’s start in the Book of Wisdom, Proverbs. There are many Proverbs regarding what we say but I will narrow it down today to a few in chapter 15. In the first verse Solomon shows an example of two kinds of response to a person; giving a soft answer as opposed to giving grievous words. Let me challenge you to try something this week. You will probably be approached by someone who is upset and angry in the next few days. They might be directly angry at you or possibly at someone else and you are catching the flack. When they attack you in their words answer them slowly, calmly and compassionately. Anger is often a chain reaction just like dominoes falling.

          Suppose a father gets attacked by his supervisor at work because his performance is not what it should be. That man goes home angry and attacks his wife about the bills. The wife turns around and gets mad at the child and the child goes out and kicks the dog. It is a cycle that can be broken by any of the people in line. Solomon said that a soft answer turns away wrath. It stops the cycle when you apply this spiritual principal to your life.

           The question that comes to mind is,” how can I answer someone who is angry with a soft answer?” You need to understand that anger often has a root that is far removed from you. Perhaps in the example above the stock-holders of this company got angry over the financial report and demanded that this business become more profitable. In turn the management turns to supervision as the problem and supervision turns to the staff. By the time the anger gets to the wife she has no idea what has happened that day and it’s a personal thing to her. Her feelings get hurt and she feels insulted just like the rest of the people up the ladder. But if she can just stop and realize that something different has happened to her husband that day she can quickly stop this.

          Yes, words are powerful. Using the right words in the right tone can do miracles. Proverbs 25:11 says that words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver. This is Solomon’s way of telling us that it’s like a masterpiece. There are no masterpieces that I’ve ever heard of that didn’t take effort. It takes some willpower to say the right thing, true. But it takes something else. We must have it in our hearts. Look at Luke chapter 6.

          In verse 43 Jesus is speaking and gives us some spiritual insight. He is comparing a tree’s fruit to the condition of the tree itself. A good tree brings forth good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit. If an apple tree is healthy and free of disease; if it blooms and has the pollination that it needs to fertilize the flowers, they will turn into healthy apples. But if that tree has a disease or doesn’t get the pollination it requires there will never be apples on it. If it has corruption on it in the form of worms or other insects it will produce bad fruit.

          One evening as a young man, while coming in from the field after dark my dad and brothers all stopped at the pear tree in our orchard and ate handfuls of the ripe fruit. We could barely see the silhouette of the pears but found them and ate until we felt nourished. The next day, on the way back to the tractor shed we stopped at the pear tree again. This time we discovered that every pear had a worm in it. We ate corrupt fruit! 

          In verse 44 Jesus said that every tree is known by its fruit. We all discovered that the particular pear tree had a certain worm that regularly fed on the fruit.  Maybe you are planting your garden right now and are comparing varieties of what you want to harvest. You pick our seed by what you want to produce. Some tomatoes are good for slicing, some are small and good for salads and others are better for canning. We have a Bartlett pear that produces soft, sweet pears. There is another type of pear that people sometimes grow on farms known around our area as sand pears. It’s is hard as a rock and grainy. I don’t care for it and wouldn’t waste the ground to grow one, personally. But you get the picture. Each tree is known by its own fruit.

Now examine verse 45. Jesus is still talking about the same subject and speaks about things coming out of our hearts. He compares a good man with good things in his heart producing good. The comparison is to an evil man with evil in his heart producing evil. The last line in that verse is explaining what the fruit or product is. Jesus said that words coming out of your mouth will be a clear representation to everyone what is in your heart. Let’s say you hit your thumb with a hammer and curse God. It proves that you have a wrong attitude toward God regarding bad events happening in your life and you haven’t completely turned your life over to God. Maybe you are prone to talk in an un-Godly manner about women when you are around other men (locker room talk). That proves that you have a problem with lust in your heart and it’s being manifested in your speech.

You may have heard of a Freudian slip in which someone accidently says something else that they are really thinking but had no intention of saying. Angie said something funny today as we went to an oriental food store. She had picked up some tea and was going to explain to the girls that it was good for your heart. At the same time she turned the corner and there were beans in front of her. She said, “this tea is supposed to be good for your beans.” !!  Our words reveal what is in us. We can say certain things trying to look Holy in front of some people but eventually what we say will reveal who we are in our hearts. Just listen to the candidates that are running for president right now. They are being quoted on almost every word they say and almost all of it is derogatory and revealing their character as corrupt.

Our words reveal who we are. Look again to Proverbs 15 and verse 2. Solomon says that the wise use their knowledge aright (or to be pleasing) but fools pour out foolish things. I know that aright isn’t a word that you probably use. Think of someone turning a boat upright or even steadying it for the passengers. A wise man knows how to stabilize a situation. Look also at verse 4. He says that a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. If your words are healthy words they bring healing.

On the remainder of that verse he says that perverseness in words (crookedness, flattery or slipperiness) brings a breach in the spirit. That word breach brings to mind a dam holding back water. If it is in good condition with no structural defects we can sleep at peace below it. But if the integrity is broken and a crack occurs, all of the water will come down on whatever is downstream. This is the direct effect of the wrong words. The dam breaks and there is nothing that can be done to stop the wall of water that floods the area.

How many times have you ever said something that as soon as it came out of your mouth you wanted to get it back? We’ve all been caught thinking the wrong thing by saying the wrong thing. This is what happens in a court of law. People testify and the truth comes out. The lawyer’s job is to get people to talk. If someone is hiding something it often can be brought out and the judge and jury hear what is inside people.

For our final scripture look at James chapter 3. James is sometimes referred to as the New Testament Proverbs. It is full of practical life applications. In this chapter James made it a special point to teach us about the tongue. In the first verse he says that we should be cautious if we are teachers as we hold a higher judgment than others since we influence so many (by our words). In the next verse he says that we offend people in many ways but that if we do not offend people in our words then we are mature (perfect) and able to control our whole bodies.

This is a principal that even some people in the world understand. There are self-help courses where you are taught to think positive things and speak them out loud. In the next two verses James compares our tongue to bridles on horses and rudders on ships. Both of these are controlled with just a slight amount of pressure or power. Our tongues can heal and hurt. They can influence, challenge, exhort, encourage, direct and uplift. They can also degrade, incite, provoke, belittle, abase, and lead astray. Our words cause actions in others. The receiver thinks about them and then makes decisions for their lives.

James goes on to say (v 5-6) that our tongue is compared to a little fire. A small match can ignite a stick of dynamite or can of gasoline. A word handled incorrectly can bring immediate disaster.  

In verse seven and eight he says that all kinds of animals have been tamed but the tongue can’t be tamed by any man. In the next verse we read that some blessed God and cursed men. James’ comparison is to a spring of water bringing forth good and bad water at the same place. Also, a fig can’t bring forth olives. Even so our words should not be mixed and will be whatever is in abundance in our hearts.

I’ve just returned from a graduation service of two of our friends and there were a lot of important things said. We always look to such events in anticipation of powerful, life changing speeches. But to be very honest with you, I don’t remember any of the speeches in my graduations; not a single one. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they weren’t important. On the contrary, they caused life changing decisions for everyone in the class. We do put a lot of importance on being able to say the right thing at the right time. Take a wedding, for example. The pastor wants to say the perfect words. The groom (if he speaks) wants to say the perfect thing, too. Everyone is put on the spot and all eyes and ears are on them. It’s all well rehearsed. We even practice what we are going to say ahead of time.

Our walk with God is sometimes thought of the same way. We put together our Christian talk for our Christian friends and use it anytime that we are around them. We are spiritual with certain people and worldly with others.  We have religious events like church service in which we can impress the pastor with spiritual talk. Then, when we get to work on Monday we tell dirty jokes.

          A groom can say loving things in his wedding vows and may later say hurtful things to the woman he promised to cherish. The truth is we need to work on our character, since who we really are will come out. The bottom line is we must make sure that we have purity in our hearts. We can all be really good actors when we want to be. But eventually, life puts us on the witness stand and the judge and jury hear the truth.

          I want to finish with one more verse in James 1:19. James says to be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath. We must quickly try to listen to what someone is saying and read between the lines to evaluate what is in their hearts. Next we must be slow to speak. Often, we could wait a few moments and we would never say hurtful things in response if we had only waited and thought about it. I always try to think, “It’s not worth it” when someone attacks me. Let them have the road and give them the last word. In almost every situation they move on. In school I learned that when the bully challenges you to a fight and says ugly things about your mother you ignore him. He always moves on somewhere else. I now realize that he was probably abused and was hurting inside.

          Well, as always I run short on time and could go deeper. I would like to encourage you to evaluate everything that you say this week. Friend, find out who you really are and try to see what others see when the look and listen to you. When you encounter wrath use a soft answer. You will be amazed at the results.

Prayer-Father, help us to be truly mindful of our words and careful when we speak. Let our hearts become pure so that we might always speak healing to those who need it. Make us aware of others and try and see beyond what they speak so that we can hear what they are saying.

          In Jesus’ Name--Amen