Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
tongue
Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Proverbs 13:3
Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
Learning to Speak Well of Others
“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness” (Isaiah 58:9).
The reason we pray, fast and study God’s Word is to be heard in heaven. But the Lord attaches a big “if” to this. He declares, “If you want me to hear you on high, then you have to look at the issues of your heart. Yes, I will hear you — if you quit pointing a finger at others, if you stop speaking about them disrespectfully.”
Learning to Tame the Tongue
The words we speak reflect what is in our hearts. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Your tongue speaks only what is in your heart.
Remember when you said something naughty as a child? Your mother was quick to correct you and perhaps discipline you in some way, right? But now that you are an adult, you must take seriously the admonition of the Scripture that we are to tame our tongue. “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).
