The words we speak – even throwaway comments we think nothing of – say something about our hearts. What we really think, or more specifically what we really are, comes out in what we say, maybe especially in those moments when we just aren’t thinking a great deal about what we’re saying at all.

I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. – Matthew 12:36

At our most recent men’s breakfast, we were looking at sins of the tongue. Not, it turns out, licking railings or pulling faces out of coach windows. More specifically, what we say. The bible has lots of say on this topics, but we landed on just two passages to consider: James 3 and Matthew 12

We paused and thought particularly about the phrase I have quoted above from Jesus. Specifically, that accounting for ‘every careless word’. The word translated careless is sometimes translated empty, idle or worthless. The Greek ἀργός (argos) carries several meanings including being unemployed, idle or lazy as well as uselessness and injuriousness (cf. Mt. 20:3, 6; 1 Tim. 5:13; Tit. 1:12; 2 Pet. 1:8; Mt. 12:36; Jas. 2:20 for examples of all these). I think the translation careless is helpful inasmuch as it implies words said carelessly, that is without due thought, as well as words that exhibit a more pointed lack of care and concern for the person we are talking with, that is to say something closer to actively damaging words. I think these sense is words that do not show care for another.

It is perhaps helpful to think about what Jesus is NOT driving at here before we get onto what he is speaking about. It is often assumed that small talk and shooting the breeze are ‘idle talk’ or ‘careless words’. But I don’t think Jesus is saying such things are wrong. They clearly have their place in building rapport and putting people at their ease. Nor do I think joking and banter, of themselves, are really in view here either. Again, within limits that are usually culturally bound and understood, this is a way of building rapport and friendship. These are not the ‘careless words’ and ‘idle talk’ that Jesus seems concerned about. These are words that have a place and can convey, to those attuned to them, a role in our care and concern for other people. None of these things of themselves are in view.

The context helps us understand Jesus’ meaning here. Jesus is speaking to and about the Pharisees. He has insisted that good tree produce good fruit and bad tree produce bad fruit. A tree is known by the fruit it produces. He then goes on to denounce the Pharisees as evil because of the things they say, pointedly noting in v34: ‘For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.’ In other words, what we say speaks to what we are. For this reason, people will have to account for every careless word they speak on the day of Judgement. Our words speak to what we are so what we have said will form part of the judgement for or against our righteousness.

Whilst that is the immediate context of Jesus’ words, the wider context is even more telling. At the beginning of the chapter, the Pharisees take the Apostles to task for plucking ears of corn to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus is fine with it because he is concerned for the welfare of his people; the Pharisees are adamant the law trumps basic human needs. The point is made doubly strong by the immediately following healing of a man’s shrivelled hand on the Sabbath. Jesus, again, is concerned with people’s welfare whilst the Pharisees are angry at his breaking the law (as they perceive it) to the point that they are happy to break the law themselves and plot to kill Jesus for doing good on the Sabbath.

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