Integrity. Do you words truly reflect how you feel in the moment? Can you justify them?
This is somewhere I fall short. As a prolific user of sarcasm, stories, and suggestiveness, I run often into the risk of most of my words in fact not being a true reflection of how I feel. How can I claim integrity where what I say does not match up with my convictions?
Common speech often betrays our implicit conviction, and every day, especially in this fake social media culture, we are beginning to acknowledge the importance of character. One man may use the most persuasive words, but no one listens because they are not the result of a true soul; another may speak in the simplest of terms, and his neighbours respond because every word holds the stamp of an honest heart.
So, is this just to do with social interactions? We want people to take our words at face value, and in order for them to do so, we need to make sure that they can? They need to be able to believe that we mean what we say. Imagine evangelising and they don’t believe your words because of your character.
Yes, that’s true, but we can’t limit it to simply social interactions. Think back to Matthew 12:37.
“Most people think that God is not interested in details, particularly idle chatter, which, they assume, He overlooks. Yet here we learn not only that such useless words exist, but they also are being recorded for review on the day of judgment. The Lord wants us to measure our words before we speak. He wants us to speak valuable words that justify His presence in our lives and advance His kingdom.” (Zodhiates)
I think J C Ryle puts it perfectly saying:
“There are few of our Lord’s sayings which are so heart-searching as this. There is nothing, perhaps, to which most men pay less attention than their words. They go through their daily work, speaking and talking without thought or reflection, and seem to imagine that if they do what is right, it matters but little what they say.
But is it so? Are our words so utterly trifling and unimportant?
We dare not say so, with such a passage of Scripture as this before our eyes. Our words are the evidence of the state of our hearts, as surely as the taste of the water is an evidence of the state of the spring. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The lips only utter what the mind conceives. Our words will form one subject of inquiry at the day of judgment. We shall have to give account of our sayings, as well as our doings. Truly these are very solemn considerations.
If there were no other text in the Bible, this passage ought to convince us, that we are all “guilty before God,” and need a righteousness better than our own, even the righteousness of Christ. (Phil. 3:9.) Let us be humble as we read this passage, in the recollection of time past. How many idle, foolish, vain, light, frivolous, sinful, and unprofitable things we have all said!”
There are many ways we may attempt to avoid being humbled by these passages.
“They’re just jokes. I can’t make jokes anymore?” “Nobody ends up hurt by them.” “Everyone is soft these days. We can’t get away with anything.” “As long as I’m not being explicit then I can’t be held accountable. It’s not my fault.” “You can’t expect me to be careful of every single thing is say.”
“But that’s just our level of banter. There are no rules!”
Maybe, we need to consider the things we talk about with our friends, and consider whether it really is just the level of banter we have, or maybe, just maybe, we’ve let our morals fall, and there really are no rules anymore.
They say anyone can get it, but I’ll end with this:
“What we utter now so freely and without blushing, will then strike us dumb, and be matter of greatest shame and confusion to us, in the presence of God and his holy angels. (John Tillotson)
(Just saying, this is far from easy. This is probably one of my weakest areas, but through His grace, direction, and guidance, I am sure it is something, not only myself but also everyone reading this can hope to work on)
My Sunday Skl 