A survey conducted several years ago revealed that the average person speaks about 18,000 words a day—enough to fill 54 pages of a book. In a year’s time this would be enough words to fill 66 books 600 pages long!
Since speech is such a vital part of our lives you might assume that God is concerned about its proper use. He most certainly is! Christianity is not only a way of thinking, acting, and feeling, but also a way of speaking. No one is living a Christian life who has not given his lips and speech to God. No one is truly converted until his tongue is converted.
There is no area of life where we are more likely to fail God. As Charles Spurgeon once said, “If all of man’s sins were divided into two bundles, half of them would be sins of the tongue.”
The tongue is like a fire. It easily gets out of control. We all need the help and power of God to master our tongues. The Bible says, “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be” (James 3:10). To go to church on Sunday and praise the name of God and then go to work on Monday and profane the name of God is one of the greatest of hypocrisies. It simply ought not to be.
A filthy tongue reveals a filthy heart. A man was having trouble with his watch so he took the hands off and took them to a watch repairman, saying, “These hands need fixing; they don’t have the right time.” The watch repairman replied, “Sir, bring me the works of your watch; the trouble isn’t with the hands, it’s somewhere inside.” So it is with people. If your speech is wrong, it’s because your heart is wrong. If you are having trouble with your speech, let God have your heart. When he makes it right, your speech will be right also.