Tag Archives: guarding our tongue

Lips Like Jesus (Part Three)

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As we try to establish whether or not our own tongues need healing – let us take a look at Jesus – he is our example – he is the one we should measure ourselves against – not one another, not our spouses or our parents. We are called to judge our character and lifestyle against the character and lifestyle of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 45:1-2 says, ‘My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.’ 

Notice that the first verse is about the psalmist – but that the following verses are about Jesus! What is the first thing the writer draws our attention to? He draws our attention to the ‘lips’ of Jesus! And why are Jesus’ lips recognizable and worthy of recognition? Because they have been anointed with ‘grace’. What can we learn about Jesus from these verses? We learn that Jesus’ grace is primarily manifest through his lips.

In John 7:45-46, we find a wonderful story which supports what the psalmist is saying: ‘Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.’ It was the grace that poured out from Jesus’ lips that set him apart as someone special. It is no use trying to set yourself apart as a Christian if your tongue is left to its own devises. You are never going to be seen as set apart, by your family or friends, if your lips are not anointed with grace.

In the Song of Songs, Solomon refers to Jesus by saying, ‘Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely’ – The scarlet ribbon that Rahab put on the door of her house was a substitute for the blood of the lamb. The blood of the lamb was what the Israelites put on their doors in order to keep away the angel of death. The writer is telling us that the lips have been touched by the blood and have been made lovely – our words should always pass through the cleansing blood of Jesus, before being manifest.

Are your words cleansed by the blood of the lamb before they are released from your mouth? Do people notice that your lips are anointed with grace? Do people stop and say, ‘No one has ever spoken the way this person does’?

Can you recognize whether there is life or death in your words? Can you see that the way to assess what is going on in your heart is not by asking your mind what it thinks, but by taking a good look at what comes out of your mouth?

If your mouth speaks life, you will see life springing up in the people you speak to. If your mouth speaks death, you will see it in those you speak to.

The Heart Overflows through the Mouth (Part Two)

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I once heard a story about a doctor who visited his patients each morning as they were lying in their beds in the hospital.

Every morning the doctor would greet his patients with the same words; ‘Good morning, how are you?’ he would say. But every morning he would follow this greeting with the same requests; ‘Please show me your tongue.’

It was noticeable that the doctor paid little attention to the answer to the patients response to his first question, ‘how are you?’

The patients could only give a rough estimate of what they felt their condition was. But when the patient stuck his tongue out, the doctor paid a lot of attention to it. Each morning the doctor would base his assessment of the patient’s condition, not on what they thought, but on what he could see from the condition of their tongue. The bible would lead us to believe something similar: God doesn’t base his assessment of our condition on our rough estimate of who we think we are, He bases His assessment on His analysis of our tongue! Our tongues are a much better guide to our spiritual condition, than our own self-estimate.

There are many passages within Scripture that establish a clear connection between the heart and the mouth. For example, Jesus says in Matthew 12:33-37: ‘Make a good tree and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’

Jesus establishes a direct connection between the mouth and the heart. He refers to the heart as the tree and to the words that come out of the mouth as the fruit. He says, for instance, ‘The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him’. You will notice Jesus uses the word ‘good’ three times, and he uses the word ‘evil’ three times. If the heart is good, then out of the mouth will come words that are good. But if the heart is evil, then out of the mouth will come words that are evil.

In Matthew 7:17-18, Jesus explains: ‘Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.’

Jesus makes it clear that the nature of the tree determines the kind of fruit it produces. This also means that when we see the kind of fruit a tree produces, we can see the nature of the tree.

The tree is the heart and the fruit is the mouth. If the heart is good, the words that come from the mouth will be good. But if the words that come from that mouth are evil, we know that the heart is evil. You cannot have bad fruit come from a good tree and neither can you have good fruit come from a bad tree. There is a clear connection here between the state of the heart and the state of the mouth.

We may deceive ourselves about the state of our hearts with all sorts of ideas about our own goodness, purity or righteousness, but the sure and unfailing indicator is what comes out of our mouths. If that which comes out of our mouths is corrupt, then it is a clear sign that our hearts are corrupt. The voice tells with words what the condition is of our heart.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.’ Like the doctor attending to his patients, when we give God a rough estimate of our spiritual condition He listens with only one ear – Instead, God says, ‘Show me your tongue – This is what I really want to look at, because this will reveal the true condition of your heart!’

Do You Have A Leaky Tongue? (Part One)

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Every one of us has seven openings in our head.

We have three pairs of openings: two eyes, two ears, and two nostrils.

But God decided to restrict the seventh opening – the mouth - to one.

I have never met anyone who wished they had an extra mouth. For most of us, one mouth causes more problems than all the other holes in our head put together.

Now, if you take a Bible concordance and look up all the words related to your mouth, such as ‘tongue,’ ‘lips,’ ‘speech,’ ‘words,’ and so on, you will be amazed how much the Bible has to say about this subject. There is no area in our personality more directly related to our well-being and peace of heart than our mouth – especially our tongue.

First, consider Psalm 34:11-13: Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies’  Here, the psalmist implies that ‘life’ and ‘many good days’ go with the fear of the LORD. The Word of God teaches us that life in its fullness and the fear of the LORD are always associated together.

Practically speaking, where does the fear of the LORD begin? It is very clear – the psalmist says, ‘Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies’. In other words, the first area of our life in which the fear of the LORD will be practically manifested is our tongue and our lips.

If we can keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking lies, then we can move on into the fullness of the fear of the LORD. Then, out of the fear of the LORD comes life and many good days. The fear of the LORD, life, good days, and the proper use and control of our tongue and our lips are all bound together. We cannot really have good lives if we do not control our tongue and our lips.

Proverbs 13:3 states: ‘He who guards his lips guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.’

Your soul is your whole personality. It is the real you – the area where your weaknesses will first be manifested. If you want to guard your soul, you must guard your lips. But if you speak rashly, you will come to ruin. The alternatives are very clear. If you control the tongue, then you have protection; but if your tongue gets out of control and you are not master of your words, then the end is ruin. It is so clear; there are no blurred edges. The whole book of Proverbs is full of these principles.

Consider Proverbs 21:23: ‘He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity’

Again, the vital area that you must protect is your mouth and your tongue. Once again, the alternatives are black and white. There are no gray areas – if you guard your mouth and tongue, then you guard your soul and your life. You are safe. But if you fail to do that the alternative is calamity. ‘Calamity’ is a very strong word and it is used deliberately. The failure to guard our lips and our tongue will ultimately bring us to calamity.

There are two other passages in the book of Proverbs concerning the use of the tongue which are particularly important:

‘A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness there in is a breach in the spirit’ (Proverbs 15:4).

Where this passage says ‘a wholesome tongue’ – the literal Hebrew says, ‘The healing of the tongue’ – this clearly indicates that our tongues can need healing. ‘The healing of the tongue is a tree of life’ – notice the close connection between life and the correct use of the tongue. The alternative is ‘perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit’ – perverseness means ‘the wrong use’ – The misuse of the tongue is a breach, or a leak, in the spirit.

I remember reading a story about a visiting preacher praying for a certain person in the congregation – the preacher said, ‘LORD, fill this lady with the Holy Spirit’. But the pastor who knew her said, ‘LORD don’t, because she leaks’. Many get filled and blessed, but it runs out through a leaky tongue. You must keep a tight reign on your tongue if you are going to contain the blessing of the LORD. It is one thing to be blessed; it is another thing to contain the blessing. The healing of the tongue is a tree of life that brings life to others.

‘Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit’ (Proverbs 18:21).

The alternatives are always so clear in scripture – it is either death or life. They are both in the power of the tongue. If we use our tongues properly, they will be a tree of life. But if we use our tongues improperly, then the result is death; and whichever way we use our tongues, we can be sure we will eat the fruit. Each one of us eats the fruit of our own tongue. If the fruit is sweet, we will eat sweet fruit. If the fruit is bitter, we will feed on bitter fruit.