Controlling the Tongue

You know, the last couple of weeks, the tabloids, the news, and the cycle has been obsessed with the latest information regarding the personal life of another one of our celebrity superstars of the world. And that individual is a man by the name of Tiger Woods. And I think all of us understand what we are talking about in regard to Mr. Woods's personal life and revelations that came out the day after Thanksgiving and have dominated the news cycle during this particular time and continuing revelations of his own personal life. It's brought to mind an interesting subject that we should spend a few minutes with this afternoon. There was an article in this morning's Wall Street Journal that headlined that, or at least took a whole page to talk about it in their culture section.

It had all the news magazine stories and the tabloids about Tiger Woods and what's been going on, the various women and all of this and that. And the headline was, When Gossip is Good. When gossip is good. Is there ever a time when gossip is good? Normally not. This particular article had an interesting spin on it that we'll consider briefly. Don't worry, I'm not going to be coming out with any message here today that gossip is good.

Gossip is bad. There are things that we should learn from gossip, and that ultimately is what this headline is talked about. Headlines just draw you into the story. You have to get the whole story. But it talks about the social value of Tiger's transgressions. Let me read through portions of this to you as it focuses upon the informational aspect of this.

We're not getting into the details of the story of his personal life. But it begins, Is all this gossip about Tiger Woods just useless prattle or worse? Don't we have anything better to do with our time? Well, we do, but we all know time gets taken up with something like this. Or is there something about this sordid chatter that has a redeeming purpose? Gossip has a bad reputation and deservedly so. Despite its guilty pleasures, gossip is often meant to hurt people. It can be used to exclude, to slander, or attack others in a devious and underhanded way.

And it goes on to talk about gossip can also help people. For instance, telling a new coworker about the boss's negative idiosyncrasies, for example, can help her avoid later unpleasantness. Such warnings are motivated by social concerns. Your mother cautions you about associating too closely with Lucy because she heard that Lucy does recreational drugs. Poor Lucy may well be drug-free, but mom's gossip is still an expression of her love and concern. In cases like this, gossip can be not only well intentioned, but a moral duty. It can also be more than a warning device. It can serve as moral instruction.

Some of what we learn about right and wrong comes from our guardians and teachers in the form of codes and principles. Some comes from our consumption of media in the form of stories and narratives. And that's really the thrust of this particular author who has written a whole book on the subject that with the recent case of Tiger Woods, and we could add any other name of celebrity, even a president of the United States, to this over recent years to bring out the point. But the point is that gossip creates a certain empathy with a victim regulating her own behavior through the desire to avoid social punishment.

And he goes on down further in the article. He says, gossiping about Tiger's intrigues provides some form of moral instruction. Strangely, given the images and the juicy text messages all disseminated by the media, the value of marital faithfulness ultimately is reinforced. And he says, even in our very permissive culture here, keeping long-term commitments still comes through as a thing worth having. And not to be callously thrown away.

Being faithful is good. This is one lesson that the author brings out that can be and should be drawn from this recent example. Keeping a long-term commitment is worth keeping it instead of throwing it away. And being unfaithful isn't, no matter who you are.

And then a second lesson from this drama is that money and fame do not exempt a person from basic responsibilities like marriage, especially with children. The super athlete is subject to the same standards as any other family man. So I think all of us realize that we don't hide and can't hide from our world in a situation like this and these stories. We watch the news. We listen to the radio. We read the papers. We read the internet sites. We know what's going on. What lessons do we learn from something like this or anything else of this nature, whether for ourselves, as we discuss it with our children or within our families. In this particular case, there are things to learn in the midst of a tragedy. You could put the governor of South Carolina into this as well, who recently has been in the news in regard to this type of a situation. But he goes on in this article and says, being on the other end of gossip is a reminder of how pernicious it is. A curious feature of humanity is that we are so keen on how we think we are represented in the minds of other people. Even when we're not actually present, we want others to think well of us and say kind things. Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me is not only untrue because unkind words hurt a lot, as we all know. But it doesn't even apply to words we merely suspect that other people are saying about us. Painful middle school memories are made of these whispers in the corridor. How Tiger Woods or former President Clinton or others who have endured salacious ridicule from practically everyone on the planet could endure these ordeals is unimaginable. There is no denying that gossip often harms others, extinguishes trust, and injures friendships. These are bad motives and consequences, and it is no wonder that gossip has been frequently condemned in religious and ethical writings. From the book of Exodus in the Bible where it says, Don't bear vain hearsay.

One is not given to suppose—one is not even supposed to listen to gossip. Exodus 23 verse 1 says, Don't give others the chance to hear or to bear vain hearsay. The Jewish Talmud compares gossip to murder. Out of the vanity and cruelty of gossip, though, can come socially beneficial consequences. That is the gossip paradox. Just when we thought the airwaves and tabloids could not tell any more lurid tales about the moral failings of sports figures that we admire, it turns out that maybe we're learning something. Well, there are things to learn, as this article brings out, regarding personal behavior. It comes out in public. There's a tremendous cost to it. Gossip, the words, the things that happen in situations like this brethren are lessons for us to learn just on a regular basis. I don't know if a week might not go by in our lives where we are not presented individually, whether it's through an international story like this, or something in our own lives directly connected with us within the church, at work, our kids at school, in our neighborhoods, where words, gossip, slander, information passed along. It shouldn't be passed along. Information slanted and twisted, rips trust, injures friendships.

Damages lives. I don't know that a week goes by in any of our lives where that does not happen. Words are very powerful. The way we use them, the way they impact us, and the way that our words impact other people. The Bible has a great deal to say about that. There's a Jewish teaching that compares the tongue to an arrow. Actually, that comes out of the Bible. And there's a saying about that. Why not another weapon like a sword, for example? Why an arrow to describe words instead of something like a sword, a rabbi will ask? Because he is told, if a man unsheaves his sword to kill his friend, and his friend pleads for mercy, the man may be mollified and return the sword to the scabbard. But an arrow, once it is shot, cannot be returned. That's why words in the Scriptures are illustrated by an arrow. Once you draw that bow, and you let that word fly, verbally or written, you can't bring it back. It's gone. You can say you're sorry. You can say you didn't mean it. But it's too late. And we've all done it. And we've all had it happen to us. The words are simply very powerful. In James 3, verse 1, it says, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to also bridle the whole body.

Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.

Look also at the ships. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among her members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. You know, you can be, and I can be impacted by words aimed at us. We can be the best of health. No colds, no flu. All the joints working fine.

Feet and toes working, you know. Everything's moving. Everything's working as it should. You get hurt by a word.

And we are sick. We are torn up inside. We're filled with anguish. We're filled with anger. We hurt. And that kind of hurt you can't run away from. You can't take a pill for it.

You can't even sleep it off sometimes, can you? That's why it says here that the whole body, in verse 6, defiles the whole body. Just individually, I can defile a whole body of people too. Destroy an office. A camaraderie of a team. Destroy an organization.

Sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man contained the tongue. It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

We pour out bitter words. We're speaking from something pretty deep inside, and we can be dressed just fine. Our hair is done up just right, clean-shaven, but inside there's bitterness.

Inside there's something that is not right.

Words can sculpt a reputation of integrity or demolish years of effort spent building a legacy.

Words can destroy decades of integrity and work and reputation.

We have to be very, very careful how we use those words because once they escape our mouth, they just cannot be returned. In Ephesians 4, verse 13, it talks about our goal to come to the full measure and stature of Christ.

I don't know when I read the Gospels, and if any of you read otherwise, let me know, but I don't know when I read the Gospels and the life of Christ, His words, that I find Christ using words to destroy people, or uses them to correct and chastise Pharisees and religious leaders. But even when you really carefully look at those words, you see how He uses them. He always leaves room for repentance.

He catches people caught in a sin or brought to Him, and He knows how to respond to them. He knows how to use words to teach a lesson and to help a person repent.

And Ephesians 4, verse 13, says that we are to come to the full measure and stature of Christ.

If we come to the ability to use our words to build and edify and create in positive ways, we're helping to accomplish the goal of that verse to come to the measure and the stature of Christ. But when we don't use words like that, when we foment words out of anger, frustration, we're not there yet. It's only when we internalize the full true purpose of our life that we begin to see the necessity to control our words and use language that builds people up and those with whom we come in contact.

It's a lifelong effort. And if we come across this every week, we almost need a weekly lesson in it. In Leviticus 19, verse 16, these are some moral teachings, ethical teachings in this section. Leviticus 19, verse 16, in the midst of being honest, in the midst of instruction about diligent work, it says, Do not go about as a tailbearer, even when the tail might be true or have elements of the truth. My mom used to have a saying about this, and she wasn't perfect. She was a good-hearted lady in many ways. But at times, she and I would have discussions about gossip and strong feelings as things would come out. And remember, she used to say, If it's true, it's not gossip. Is that correct statement? If it's true, it's not gossip? Well, I don't think so. I don't think so. It can still be true. It can even have elements of the truth. Be partially true, which means it's partially incorrect or false, but it's a tail. And if it's repeated, if it's repeated with the intent of casting doubt, gaining an advantage, influencing a situation or a person, it follows in the category of this being a tail-bearer. Don't go about with a tail, which if you really take that and look at it for what it says, you know, a tail is a story. Don't go about with a story. If you hear it, let it die with you. If others start getting into it, leave. Get up from the table. Leave the lunchroom. Get off the email thread.

Get off the social network, whatever it might be. Do not be a tail-bearer.

What else? It means don't take a story and spread it, regardless of whether it's true or not. That's what it says, doesn't it? Now, is there a time to listen to a story and to make observations? You know, this one here of Tiger Woods. Well, I guess none of us live in a cave, do we? And we run across information and we get caught up into a story. And when we do, there are some certain lessons we should learn from it. Moral lessons, and certainly pass on those lessons.

But then know when and how to move away and move on and how to deal with it. Once we really believe the full meaning and the purpose of our lives to become gods, the God family, to come to this measure and the stature and the fullness of Jesus Christ, this instruction takes on greater relevance to us because we can't find Christ in that role and we can't imagine Christ in that role. There's a story, another religious-oriented story. It's a story of a man who went through a small community slandering a minister.

And this went on for a long, long period of time.

One day the man felt remorseful, came to himself, and he realized he'd been doing wrong. And he went to the minister who knew that he was spreading information about him. He asked the minister for forgiveness and he wanted to go through whatever penance to make him ends.

He said, I'll do whatever it takes, but please forgive me. So the minister told him to go back to his home and take a feather pillow from his bed, cut it open, pull out the feathers, a handful at a time, through the streets and scatter them to the wind until the pillow was empty. Take out all those goose feathers, throw them all so that they just picked up feathers in the wind and scattered. The man did that. He went through the streets scattering goose feathers. He came back to the minister and he said, am I forgiven? Do you forgive me now? I did what you wanted. He did penance. Almost came the answer from the minister. You just have one more thing to do. Now go back and gather up every one of those feathers. Gather up every feather.

Well, the man said, I can't do that. They've been scattered all across the countryside now. That's impossible. They've been scattered by the wind. The minister looked at him and said, that's exactly right. That's exactly right, which means the words that he had spread are scattered as well and cannot be brought back. They've been picked up on the wind as well.

There comes a time when every one of us must very, very carefully consider all of this biblical instruction, the many proverbs, the many stories, the many examples, and just decide it stops. This is where it ends. The destruction that comes with words and attitudes and hatred has to come to a stop because things like that spread and they cause great harm. Remember the story in Numbers? I didn't intend to turn to the Scripture, but let me quickly find it. Numbers 16, I think. Yeah, Numbers 16.

This is a story from the children of Israel in their time in the wilderness.

Numbers 16, verse 41. The children of Israel on the next day, this is after a period of rebellion against Moses and Aaron by Korah. The next day the people were still complaining against Moses and Aaron, saying, you've killed the people of the Lord. These were words spoken in anger, frustration against Moses and Aaron. They hadn't learned a very direct lesson by God the day before.

And it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, get away from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces. So Moses came to Aaron. Take a sensor. God said that God had came to a moment where he was going to consume every one of them. And Moses knew what was taking place. He knew the danger to the people. And so he said to Aaron in verse 46, notice carefully the story, take a sensor and put fire in it from the altar. Put incense on it and take it quickly to the congregation. Now, this was kind of a portable incense altar. And just long story short, the incense altar at the tabernacle represented the prayers of the people. Words. Words. Prayers. Going before God. Moses said, take a sensor from the altar with some coals in it, put some incense on it, and quickly take it to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. And Aaron took it as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the assembly. And already the plague had begun among the people. So he put the incense and made atonement for the people. An offering to stay this plague. And he stood between the dead and the living. Aaron got it to some point within the midst of the congregation, the camping area. And he was there with his sensor full of incense, waving it perhaps and going back and forth like this as he saw people dropping. And this plague, if you could imagine it, though this was literally an incident of people dropping, if you will, just for the lesson that we want to draw from it, understand this is kind of the plague that comes with gossip and slander and words that are spreading through a group of people between the dead and the living. And so the plague was stayed. 14,700 people died in this. And so Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting for the plague had stopped. The feelings, the anger that can spread through a group of people, the church, if you will, when gossip, slander, misinformation begins to spread, and the resultant impact literally can kill a people. And in this case, it was a bowl full of incense and smoke wafting off of it, a symbol of the prayers of people going before God that stopped it. Words of complaint started it. Words of prayer ended it. This may be kind of a rough drawing of this for the purposes of the sermon that I want to make, but I think there is an application for us to recognize that there can be and should be a time when our prayers turn toward God rather than our words of anger and hate and mischief circulate among ourselves. Because when they circulate among ourselves, they result in death.

They result in a literal plague, and people get hurt. You've been hurt. I've been hurt.

It is part of it. It's not right. But somewhere it has to stop with us. We have so many different forms of communication available to us today, and especially in the information age, the web-centered world in which you and I live. One of the most interesting developments has been email. For many of our young people, email is kind of gone by the wayside. They send text messages, very short messages. They send tweets. How many of you know what a tweet is? How many of you don't know what a tweet is? There's an internet program, a little social program called Twitter. Essentially, it allows anyone who goes on with an account and a connection to someone to send a very short message. What is it? 150 characters. Very short message. Those little short messages are called tweets on Twitter. The symbol is a bird for Twitter. So you send a tweet. I send a tweet to somebody that's on my list, and I can follow other tweets. It's a whole social network that builds, and people have tens of thousands of people following their tweets. They go through their day tweeting. Going to work. That's a message. They send it out.

Stopping for lunch. Really, a lot of it gets really stupid and senseless. I've sent my share of tweets, and I come and go on it. I've got a Twitter account.

But young people, an instant message, that's more prevalent among our younger people than email. But we all still use email, don't we? We recognize how valuable that is, how quickly we can communicate messages, how quickly information can be spread to a large number of people. Very quickly. You can have a mailing list of 30 people on a message. Send one message, 30 people, hit the button, gone. Those 30 people get it, and they may want to pass it along to somebody else. They hit the reply and add maybe three or four others to it. Well, this is an interesting story. Or such way maybe you would be interested in this, and it multiplies in hundreds and thousands of people, can eventually, in a very short period of time, be privy to a piece of information. Maybe useful information, maybe harmful information, right? How many of us have ever — don't raise your hand on this — composed an email in an emotional moment, and then hit send?

How many of us have done that? I'll raise my hand. I've raised my hand. It's easy to do. Somebody sends you something. You don't like what you hear? You get mad at it, or something's happened. Boom, it's gone. It's like that arrow. And it's gone, and it's there. They get it on their computer screen. They hit reply, and they send something back to you that's, you know, a retort. And then you may go back and forth like this. They may copy somebody else. They may copy someone else, and you don't know they've copied somebody else, because you've got a little feature on their call, blind copy, BCC. And they can send it to five other people who are privy to what used this conversation, and you don't know it. And you think you're having a conversation with one person.

This is how the information age can work at some of its worst levels, and it happens.

You can hit reply and not realize that you're sending the wrong message to the wrong people. You can receive a message or a communique, and if you don't read carefully the whole mailing list there, you can hit reply and maybe somebody else gets added or you haven't noticed or you've hit the wrong message, and you can send out information that is going to get you in trouble to people who don't need to know that. That's happened, too. I've received emails. Sometimes when these replies get two, three, four, five messages deep on one email, and you don't know what's been said, and you've received something and you don't like what you see or you think somebody else needs to know about it, or you hit reply and you send out a message that may have had five different messages on the thread, and you don't realize how dangerous that can be, and it goes out and information is spread to people that you don't even take the time to notice about. Words hastily written on a computer often carry a roughness, and however unintended it can bring out a reaction in people. Sometimes, well, you know, there are times when words that you and I might write on a computer message, we may think to us they're calm. But because of the way the words are composed, it hits the other person wrong, and they may think that they are being battered, abused, verbally, scolded, and you were just writing a regular message you thought.

And misunderstanding comes because they just see words. They don't hear the tone of your voice, and they don't see the look on your face. You could be smiling and just be, oh, so sweet. But if you use the wrong word, or fail to use the right word, you can create the impression that you're mad, you're upset with them. You ever received an email from someone, and you think, man, are they upset? And if you take the time to call them to talk about it, you find out, oh, they're not as upset as I thought. I've done that, too. I'll sometimes receive emails that I wonder, whoa, the flames are licking off out of the screen.

Because I've learned over the years, don't even answer those.

Don't even answer. Don't get into an email exchange. Acknowledge, received it. Can I call you about this? And pick up the phone, and then call them and discuss it. And if necessary, then go and see them in person. Meet them at Starbucks. See them at ... Let's discuss this at church next week, or whatever it might be. Let's sit down, but don't get into endless email exchanges, and be careful what you write. There's a saying I think Mark Twain, the American author, had. If you pour yourself out to somebody in a letter when Mark Twain lived, they didn't have email. Write your letter, seal it, put it on the mantelpiece. This was 100 years ago, remember. And leave it there for a few days. Then take it down and read it again. And if you still feel that way, and if it's still recognized, then go ahead and send it. Well, we don't have that luxury, or we don't do that today, because we have email. And we hit send, and it's automatically delivered.

Words are very, very powerful, and we have to be and need to be very, very careful.

There's a book that was written a few years ago by a woman named Deborah Tannen, The Argument Culture, Stopping America's War of Words. She was probably talking about some of the talk shows that we see. Technologically Enhanced Aggression was one of the chapters. Technologically Enhanced Aggression. She used the example of a businessman who had a reputation among his employees as a Jekyll and Hyde personality, black and white, dual personality. Here's a quote from the book. In person, he was always mild-mannered and polite, but when his employees saw a memo from him in their mail, their backs stiffened. The boss was famous for composing angry, even vicious memos that he often had to temper and apologize for later. It seemed that the presence of a living, breathing person in front of him was a break on his hostility, but seated before a faceless typewriter or computer screen, his anger built and overflowed. A woman who had worked as a dean at a small liberal arts college commented that all the major problems she encountered with faculty and other administrators resulted from written memos, not face-to-face communication. I've seen this. You get a memo, email from someone, and it seems like it's hostile. You call them up, and no, it's not. You can work it through.

I've received emails from people just wondering what they meant. It's better to talk face-to-face. This author, Deborah Tannen, goes on. She says, Email makes it too easy to forward messages, too easy to reply before your temper cools, too easy to broadcast messages to a large number of people without thinking about how every sentence will strike every recipient. And there's plenty of opportunity for error. Sending a message to the wrong person or having a message mysteriously appear on the screen of an unintended recipient. Remember, anything you write in an email and send is virtually permanent.

Permanent. You send it across your corporate server. It belongs to the company.

You send it out on Facebook, Twitter, any other form of social media. It's out there. And it's virtually, unless you go to great lengths and great expense, it's out there forever. Nearly half of companies in America today that are hiring people into their workforce.

As part of the background to determine whether they're going to hire this 23-year-old, this 30-year-old, they go online to look at their online history. All they have to do is Google their name in. Jane Doe, Mary Thomas, whatever it is. Stuart Smith. And they can then find out whatever's out there on the web with that person. Facebook page, pictures on that page.

Pictures at the beach with beer in the hand. Bear bodies all around. Stupid looks on their face, which happens when you've got beer in your hand.

Don't ever, kids, adults, don't ever pose for a picture with a bottle of beer in your hand. It's just dumb. My high school class had its 40th anniversary reunion this year. I didn't go. One of the ladies put pictures of the reunion on her Facebook page, and I was thumbing through them and looking at these people I hadn't seen in 40 years, figuring out, is that who that is? You know, 40 years later. And here comes a picture of one of my cousins, one of my first cousins. I had three first cousins in my high school class in my town. And I said, oh, there's Vic! Bud Light! Bud Light!

And the other two guys that he was with, Bud Light. And I happened to think, they haven't changed much in 40 years. It wasn't Bud Light back then. It was something else, Schlitz or whatever else. Those pictures, those statements endure. You're looking for a job. They're going to look up your history. Go home on Google and type in what's your name and see what's in your name on the Internet. You want to keep it. You want to be careful. Those things don't come back. And sometimes, they're the result of what we do. The way we communicate to people is a very, very important part of human relations. In Colossians 4 and 6, the apostle Paul gave a scripture and instruction that I've thought a great deal about. Continue to think about. Try to live by. Fail at times. But Colossians 4 and verse 6, it says, Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Let your speech be with grace.

Grace is mercy. Grace is pardon. Grace is forgiveness. Grace is kindness. Do you ever run across a gracious person? They're hospitable. They pull your chair out at the table. They see that you need a refill or some salt or whatever, and they would you like some? And they pass it before you have to ask. They anticipate your needs. They want you to feel comfortable. That's a gracious person. Grace gives mercy. Grace builds.

Grace is what God gives every one of us as sinners. Let your words be words that encourage, that help, that teach, that correct in love. Let your words be with grace, seasoned with salt. And by that it means there is a time for salt is a pungent spice. We know all about salt in many ways. You have to have salt to live. Salt doesn't decay. Salt preserves. Salt must be there. Too much of it. Can't eat it. Not enough. Things get spoiled. Too much. You get high blood pressure. Just right. Your body functions the way it should. Your body has to have salt.

Body cannot live without salt. But too much of it. We know we have problems. Let your speech be with grace, seasoned with salt. Know when to apply the salt. Shake it out. To preserve a relationship. To protect a friendship. To preserve someone's life and give them help. But let your words be with grace. Paul is saying that our speech has got to be seasoned with pleasantness and attractiveness. So that draws people to us, rather than repels us or divides. Coupled with all these other scriptures, we know that we've got to be able to control our words. And our words should stand the test of time. That's because salt preserves. If our words are with grace, seasoned with salt, then we can write something today or tomorrow morning on our email. And we can look at it a week from now, two weeks from now, six months from now, and stand by those words. Be pleased with those words. Be proud of those words. Not be embarrassed, because those words are preserved if they're seasoned with enough salt to preserve them. Be careful the words we write. Be careful the words we say and we speak.

If there is a time, the words must be strong. Be measured. Be in control of yourself. Not overcome by anger, emotion, or fear. Leave the opportunity for reconciliation. Always leave that open for someone. Don't say too much. Know when to stop.

Know how to answer. Grace and salt. Kindly and pleasant, yet enhanced with flavor. The right amount of wisdom and sense that makes them worth remembering.

Generally, the fewer words, the better. But make the words memorable as words that build and that help. In Matthew 12, Matthew 12, verse 33, Jesus said this, Jesus Christ, the one to whose level and example is standing. His stature is what we want to achieve. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad, and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.

Root of vipers. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things. And an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things.

But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. Let's read it again, verse 36. I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

May God give every one of us the wisdom and the grace to speak words that help and words that heal, and control our tongue.