In my last message, I shared about the life of bro Chiune Sugihara whose life was salt and light of the world. In the Jerusalem Post, was the frontline, “One man could make a difference in the world”. Chiune Sugihara was the one man who impact the world around him at that time. When all the people in the world only cares for themselves, this brother chose to give up everything that he could have enjoyed in order to save hundreds or thousands of people that he didn’t even know. He sacrificed his prestigious job as a diplomat and a wonderful future his wife and children could have enjoyed. Because of the decision he made, he was fired from his job and he ended up doing odd jobs to support his family. All these he did without expecting anything from those whom he had helped. He bore everything quietly without any expectation, any repayment or recognition.
The Lord Jesus had commanded Christians to be salt and light of the world. We cannot be salt or light of the world unless we are willing to sacrifice ourselves, deny ourselves, to die to our self, to deny the world just like this Japanese brother did. His life was like the salt and light, willing to give of himself. We also saw that it is possible for salt to lose its flavour, to become worthless? It is when we turn our hearts from trusting and depending on God. Once we depart from dependence and trust in God, like in Jeremiah 17:5-6, our lives will be like the bush in wilderness, without nourishment. Gradually we will die, fit to be thrown into wasteland, a salt land. We saw that it is a curse to be in such state of life. In order to be that salt and light of the world, we need to grow in our love, in our trust in Yahweh God because in Him is the fountain of life and light.
Today, we continue to see how we can be salt and light of the world.
Colossians 4:5-6 5 Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.
How can we conduct ourselves wisely towards outsiders?
How can we touch their lives or share the good news with them? We must know how to season our speech as with salt. We must know how to conduct our speech in such a way to know how to respond to each person. It is not an option for us but we are commanded to conduct wisely towards outsiders in our speech. It is in the imperative mood. Therefore, just like salt has healing properties, preserving and flavouring food, it is important for us to know what to say, when to say and how to say, so that our speech can bring about healing, encouragement, hope, reconciliation and peace.
Do you know that there is power in what we say?
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue
Our speech has the power not only to bring life but also the power to bring death. Can you see how powerful our speech can be? With it we can build up. With it we can divide and destroy.
Whatever we say, our speech has the power to bring life or bring death. And even the apostle James warned us that the tongue is a fire.
James 3:6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
The tongue can set the forest up in flames and it can also pollute the whole person. The bible has warned us about the power of our tongue, our speech. We truly need to conduct our speech as with salt so that our speech can bring life, encouragement to men. Is our speech often able to bring unity, healing, hope to people around us?
Recently, I met up to counsel a non-Christian with a coworker. This non-Christian suffered a lot while staying with an uncle. The uncle happened to be a Pastor but according to the non-Christian, the uncle’s speech was racist and his language hurtful and not befitting a Pastor. At a young age, the non-Christian suffered being belittled and sometimes still haunted by the hurt(the words).
So, our words do have an impact on people. I am sure we have our own share of experience as well as we grow up. We do encounter hurting words. Sometimes, such unedifying speech do affect our lives, do shape our character. Constantly, if we are called all kinds of discouraging adjectives like “stupid, useless, or good for nothing”, we tend to grow up insecure, emotional, overly sensitive to words of others. Often suspicious of people’s good intentions.
Lately, I also read about a lady who wrote to her father before she died. In her letter, she begged her father to examine his speech. Her father often bad mouth to her and her siblings about their uncle and auntie and even told them not to associate with them. They obeyed. However, in actual fact, this lady realized that what her dad said wasn’t true. In fact, her uncle and aunties were the ones who cared for her while she was hospitalized. They showed their love to her that even her own father did not while she was sick. So, she asked her dad to examine his own heart and stop slandering her uncle and auntie.
We see that whether in family, at work, or in the church, the way we talk about one another affects relationships. Through our words, when we gossip, when we slander, when we grumble or complaint, all these will have an effect on one another.
Imagine, what will happen in the church when people slander, grumble or gossip about one another? Have we thought about what will happen to the morale of the brothers and sisters? Do we know how our speech/words can affect the perceptions; trust we can have with/for one another. Our words can be healing, gelling the brothers and sisters to be united in oneness to do the will of God, or our words can cause split, divisions, stumbling in the church.
Probably, you have all heard of the story of this ‘dirty laundry” story. It’s about a housewife. Each morning, when she looks out of her window and at her neighbour’s laundry. She would made this comment to her husband. “Look at that laundry, it’s not clean at all. How come this neighbour doesn’t know how to clean her laundry.” She would say to her husband morning after morning. One day, she told her husband, “Wah, today our neighbour’s laundry is so clean! Someone must have taught her how to clean her laundry.” And her husband told her. This morning, I woke up early to clean the window.
This story teaches us to be careful the way we speak. Do we see that the way we talk reveal very much about ourselves. It shows that we are very quick to pass judgment in our speech. Often, we speak without giving much thoughts, often affected by our own lack of understanding and our own personal perception of things.
In the above illustration, how we speak is very much affected by the clarity of that window. If our heart is clouded with jealousy, anger, negativity, then everything we see will be dirty but if we clean that window, we will see things differently and we will not be too fast, too rash to pass judgment.
It is very easy to pass judgments or be very negative through our words, again we have to examine our own hearts, are we able to see the real motive in our own heart when we say certain things or pass certain judgments?
In short story, with what window are you passing the judgments? Are our windows cleaned? The windows here would be referring to our hearts. Are our hearts cleaned or is it clouded with jealousy, anger, negativity. If we have such uncleanness in our hearts, whatever we say will not be upbuilding but destructive.
Our speech reveals a lot about who we are, what we are – It reveals very much what is in our hearts.
Luke 6:43 – 45 “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit; nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar(thorn) bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart”
A good tree only produces good fruit. A bad tree can only bring forth bad fruit. Jesus said a good man out of his heart treasure will bring forth what is good and an evil man out of his evil heart will bring forth evil.
Our speech reveals very much our own heart condition. Are we good tree bringing forth good fruits or we are bad tree bringing forth bad fruits? Are we aware of what is in our hearts? Just listen to our speech, we will be able to see our own heart condition.
How much more we have to safeguard our hearts so that when we speak, we do not bring death to others. May we not be too quick to pass judgement on others, may we not bring discouragement to others but rather may we seek to bring life, bring reconciliation and hope in the church, and also to everyone we come into contact with. How can we be peacemaker if our hearts are not right? How can we encourage others when we have jealousy, envy, dissatisfaction in our hearts? How can we speak love when our hearts are filled with hatred? We need to be clean in our hearts so that whatever we speak will bring life.
These are Jesus’ words. So, before we say anything, it is good to examine our hearts. Why do I want to say the things that I wanted to say? What was my motive or intention? Did I speak out jealousy? Did I speak out of pride? Did I speak out of covetousness and deceit? Did I speak out of anger, out of spite?
We saw the example of Lot’s wife. Do you remember what she says? Job 2:9-10 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!“ why did she say those words? It was out of anger towards God because God took away her children, her servants, her physical possessions.
Many times, when we are angry either with our spouse, with our colleagues, friends, or even with our children, we spill out all kinds of angry words and hurtful words! We make sure that they are hit hardest by our words.
Sometimes when we are jealous or envious, it is difficult to say words of encouragement, especially, when others are better than us. Sometimes, out of jealousy or envy, we end up slandering others just to put others down. So, our speech reflects the condition of our hearts.
So, we must be forewarned, because whatever we say we have to face the consequences as well.
Did I stumble others with my speech? Did I cause division with my speech? Did I discourage others with my speech? Remember our words have the power to inflict life or death. Does your speech bring life or bring death?
Do you know what is one of the reasons for the holocaust? How did it start?
“The prevailing view among historians is that Luther’s anti-Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany, and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an ideal foundation for the Nazi Party’s attacks on Jews.”
One of the reasons was Luther’s words or through his writings. He had constantly instigated hatred towards the Jews because he couldn’t convert them to Christianity. What did he say? These were what Martin Luther said/wrote:
He called for the destruction of synagogues and Jewish homes.
He called for the confiscation of Jewish writings, especially the Talmud
The prohibition of Jewish Rabbis from teaching and also forced labour on the Jewish people.
We saw that Luther’s words could have been one of the reasons which resulted in the antisemitism in Germany. Imagine, carelessness in one’s words could influence others perceptions and hatred towards the Jews.
God will judge every careless word men speak
Matt. 12:36-37 “And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”
God will judge our every careless word we speak. We have to give an account of our words. Therefore, we have to learn to be responsible with what we say. Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. Think before we speak. Think of what the consequences of our speech. Every careless word, God will judge.
This is my constant prayer to be careful in my speech. There is so much to learn and many times, it is so easy to fail in our speech. Many times, I failed the LORD because I don’t know what to say, how to say in ways that can encourage people around me. Sometimes, I find that I blunder more than I bring blessings. There are so much failures, when I examine my speech. Constantly, I have to pray like David.
Ps 141:3 Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips.
Let me not sin against you. Let every word that proceeds from me be able to bring encouragement to others. I felt much discouraged by my own weaknesses. I pray that God may safeguard my tongue so that I don’t provoke others, so that I don’t speak out of anger or evil heart. May my heart be pure and true before Him and men. May I not be a hypocrite. Let my yes be yes and no be no.
I remember 3 weeks ago, XiXi ( a little girl in Church) asked me for scotch tape because she couldn’t find any in the Sunday school room. I told her I will buy for her the following week. However, the following week, I totally forgot about her scotch tape. To a little girl, I have lost my witness because I didn’t fulfil what I said to her. Will she have confident in me and trust what I say in the future? I felt that I have been a bad witness to her.
I hope that our speech can really reflect our character. We are what we say. Our yes is yes and our no is no. Can we live out that integrity through our words? Can we be man of our words?
Can people feel the genuine love, encouragement through our speech? Our speech reflects God’s love. Can people have the trust and confident in us through our speech.
A good tree brings forth good fruits; a pure heart brings forth that which is pure and an evil heart brings forth what is evil. We saw that our words reveal very much the condition of our hearts. Whether we are good or bad trees will depend on what comes out from our lips.
If we want to be salt and light of the world, we must be ready to look into our own hearts. We need to allow God to examine our hearts, to allow God to deal with us. Whatever Yahweh God reveals to us in our hearts, the hidden motives that is not pleasing to Him, are we willing to deal with them. As we learn to yield, lean to be slow to speak, God you help us, so that our speech will be as it were seasoned with salt.
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