Transformed Speech (3)

In the last 2 weeks, we have been considering the topic of our speech and how our words are very important. We have also pointed out that God expects His children to have a new kind of speech which I termed a “transformed speech”. In this concluding post, I want to briefly address the issue of how we can develop the type of speech that God expects of us His children.

I will direct us to a few passages of the Holy Scriptures in this regard:

“A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart”

Matthew 12:33-35 New Living Translation (Emphasis mine)

“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

Luke 6:45 New Living Translation (Emphasis mine)

These 2 passages are from recorded teachings of our Lord Jesus when He was on earth and they give us profound insight into the issue under consideration. Words are a reflection of the contents of our hearts and our speech will never rise above the state of our hearts. To say this in a different way: rotten words will come from a rotten heart and only a transformed heart will express transformed speech.

To be precise, it’s not only our words that spring from our hearts. Even our attitudes and actions are outflows of our hearts (see Matthew 7:21-23 and Matthew 15:19). This is the reason the Scriptures continually instruct us on guarding our hearts and keeping a watch on what we allow to dwell in our hearts:

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Proverbs 4:23 KJV

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Philippians 4:8 New Living Translation

I must stress it again: a transformed speech will only proceed from a transformed heart. This means we must continually allow the word of God settle and take root in our hearts. And as we fix our thoughts on true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable things, the words that proceed from our mouths will be gracious words just as it was said of our Lord Jesus: “Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from His lips…” (Luke 4:22).

Photo credit: http://www.carolecgood.com

Final Thoughts…

Sometimes we only hear good things being said about people at their funerals. We call such speeches eulogies. The word “eulogy” come from the Greek word “eulogia” which means “good speech” or “fine language”. It means that the word eulogy itself is not necessarily tied to funerals or to dead people though we generally only associate it to these. We can actually “speak well” of the living. We can “eulogize” our family members, friends, colleagues and neighbours.

Someone I respect once said “Our parents were generous with criticism and frugal with praise or commendation”. Apparently, the assumption is that if you commend people, they will become conceited and full of themselves. But I think when we hold on to such mind sets, we are robbing ourselves of the powerful positive effects of our words. Those words of commendation (or eulogies) will go a long way in creating a healthy milieu for children and also provide needed affirmation in peoples’ lives.

Think about this.