IDLE WORDS
Judi Barrett
"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 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."
Matthew
These words
above are in red, a translation of the very words that Jesus spoke. GOD said it!
The King
James Version states:
But I say unto
you,
That every idle
word that men shall speak,
they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment.
The Greek word that the NIV translates as
careless in “careless word” and the KJV version of the Bible translates as idle
is
The dictionary has a word for careless or idle
talk…
That word is gossip. Gossip is defined as:
¨
one
who chatters
¨
or repeats idle talk and rumors,
especially about others’ private affairs
¨
such talk or rumors
¨
chatter – to
indulge in idle talk or rumors
about others.
The dictionary defines the word idle as in idle talk as:
¨
worthless
¨
useless
¨
futile
¨
pointless
Idle also means unfounded or baseless when
associated with rumors.
Gossip is talking about someone with idle
talk, idle words, words that are worthless, useless, futile or pointless.
The use of the Greek word “argos” in the 36th chapter of Matthew tell us these words might
be thought "insignificant"
except for their revealing what is in the heart.
Our idle words, our chatter are the “overflow
or insignificant” words. They are not
thought-out, they just “come out”. Mouth in gear, brain turned off. They are not filtered and hence are the
overflow. When something overflows, the
overflow is the extra, not needed amount of something. Idle Words and chatter are the overflow of
the heart and they reflect the heart's condition. Therefore these words are of critical
importance as fruit in a person’s life.
Good tree – good fruit. Bad tree
– bad fruit.
If
you ask a group of Christians if they participate in gossip, I would think that
nearly everyone of them would give a resounding, “No!” as an
answer and yet when we look at what the real meaning of gossip is, I believe
that we are all guilty.
Most
people think of gossip as telling something bad on someone, telling a secret,
whether it be true or not, airing someone else’s dirty laundry.Actually
that comes under the heading of malicious talk or slander which is a part of
gossip at times, but gossip is also just pointless chatter about others.
It is idle talk.
It is not said to accomplish anything good other
than make the one that said it, feel good.
Gossip is sometimes said to sound witty,
humorous, knowledgeable, smart, etc.
Gossip does not accomplish a positive
productive outcome.
It is telling people things that they do not
need to know.
It is talking about people in anything other
than a positive way unless there is an important reason to say something not
positive.
You
hear it every day without thinking about it.
You may do it every day without thinking about it also. Little things said that make us look better than
someone else.
We
tell one friend, Sally, that another friend Susie, asked
us for our recipe for strawberry cheesecake.
No
biggie, right? But it’s in the motivation for saying it and what it says about
Sally. Why tell Sally this little thing
at all? We want Sally to know that Susie
thinks we make a better cheesecake. We
want Sally to know that we did something unselfish by giving Susie the recipe. We have made ourselves a better cook and an
unselfish person.
Our
speech is supposed to produce good things. It goes back to the saying, “If you can’t
something good, don’t say anything at all.”
If a conversation is about other people, it
should be to build those people up, something good about them or if it is
negative, the person that you are saying it to, had better need to know it for
their own good and not just because you think that they need to know it.
Don’t let that be a false excuse to go ahead
and say things about people.
We
should learn to filter what we say. When
you are going to say anything about anyone, ask yourself what is the hidden
message of what you want to say and why do you want to say it?
Our tongues are lethal weapons and
we carry them everywhere we go. There
was a story carried in the Our Daily Bread,
The story is of a mother that had
not been well since the birth of their second child, but she did all that she
could to be a good mother and wife.
There was love in the home. The father was met each evening at the door
with hugs and kisses from his wife and children. Neighbors could hear through the open windows
of summer time, the laughter from inside the house. Then some idle talk got
started about the possibility of the husband being unfaithful to his wife. After all she was ill. The story was completely without basis but it
was repeated and eventually it fell upon his wife’s ears. One evening when her husband came home, no
one met him at the door. His wife had
taken her own life and the lives of her children. He was overcome with grief. His innocence was proven to all, but the
gossip’s tongue had already done its work.
Now that we know what gossip is (idle talk
about other people, not necessarily slanderous secrets, but just talking about
people with pointless chatter…chattering about people), let’s see what the
Bible says about it. The actual word
gossip does not appear very often in the Bible but the Bible does deal with the
use of our words, mouth, and tongue over and over.
PR
so avoid a man who talks too much
2CO 12:20 For I am afraid that when I come I may
not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be.
I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions,
slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21 I am afraid that when I come again
my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have
sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery
in which they have indulged.
We should never say anything that will cause other people to
dislike someone, disrespect them, distrust them, or think poorly of them
concerning any area of their life. Do
not talk about people. Discuss ideas,
concepts, the weather, etc. Anything but people unless there is a direct need
to say it or unless it is something good that will build that person up. Gossip is included in a list of vile
detestable sins. Here is what Paul had to say about it:
“Being filled with all unrighteousness,
wickedness, greed, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they
are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors
of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy,
unloving, unmerciful” (Romans 1:29,30).
Yet gossip seems to be one of the
Christian’s favorite pastimes. Why?
Often it is because we want to make
ourselves look better and gain greater acceptance. It is a comparison. If we can say something about someone that
someone shows some of their shortcomings, it will make us look better in
comparison to them, we believe that it will build us up but at what
expense? And do we not realize that
people can see through what we are doing? Christians that are walking in step
with the Holy Spirit do not want to gossip and do not want to be around others
that do it either.
EPH
4:29 – 32 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only
what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may
benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom
you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and
anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you.
Anything that injures
others and sparks dissension is covered by the expression. Christians, however,
are to only say what is calculated to build up the
church (Eph
When GOD’s Holy Spirit dwells within us, He will have an effect
on us and one of those ways is in our speech.
(Eph 5:18, 19).
The Expositors
Commentary puts it this way:
Any kind of
careless, unbecoming talk pains the Spirit, since it is incompatible with the
holiness he conveys to those who belong to Christ. The moving anthropomorphism
implicit in "grieve," combined with the full-length title "the
Holy Spirit of God," serves to underline the gravity of the prohibition.
(cf. Eph 5:3-4, 12;
ISA 58:13 "If you keep your
feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
ISA 58:14 then you will find your
joy in the LORD,
and I will cause
you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the
inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of
the LORD has spoken.
1TI 5:11 As for
younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires
overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12 Thus
they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge.
13 Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about
from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies,
saying things they ought not to. 14 So I counsel younger widows to
marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no
opportunity for slander. 15 Some have in fact already turned away to
follow Satan.
This has been a favorite email
message that has circulated around for a while:
Four preachers in the local town got
along so well at ministerial meetings that they decided they should try a
little unstructured recreational time together.
As they conversed with each other, they discovered that they all liked
to fish, golf, read, and attend football games.
They had much in common and planned a fishing trip for the next
Saturday. It was a really quiet day on
the lake, not very many people around. While fishing on the far side of the
lake, in the Baptist preachers boat, one of said, “Our people come to us and pour out their
hearts, confess certain sins and needs, but it’s hard to find someone with
which I can discuss the things that I deal with. He said that he liked to go to movies and would
sneak off when away from his church. He
asked what they thought about that. One
of the others said that while they were talking about this, maybe they could
discuss his problem too, so he confessed to liking to smoke cigars and the
third one followed suit by confessing to liking to play cards. When it came to
the fourth one, he didn’t have anything to say. . The others pressed him
saying, “Come now, either you’ve got answers for all of us or you’re holding
back. If you’ve got answers, then say so
and if you are dealing with things in your life, share and maybe we can all
help each other, after all you’re among friends here. We’re all Christians and even all
preachers. There’s not a better group to
talk about your problems with. Finally he said, “My problem is gossiping and I can hardly wait to get
out of this boat and back to town.”
Think
Before speaking of any person or subject:
V T—Is it true?
V H—Is it helpful?
V I—Is it inspiring?
V N—Is it necessary?
V K—Is it kind?
If you
don’t say it, they can’t repeat it.
We need to remember
that we are made in the image of GOD. We
are the only part of his creation with the ability to think ideas, thoughts,
etc and put them into words, to communicate through words to others, to teach
animals to respond to our words. We have
the gift of words which are translations of ideas and thoughts.
Then why would we use
a part of us
that is in the “image of GOD”, our ability to think and speak, to gossip, to
say things about people that tear them down, to speak unkindly or disrespectful
to or about others?
EPH 5:3 But among you there must
not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of
greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4 Nor
should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of
place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No
immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater--has any
inheritance in the