Your words can either kill or heal. Imagine someone thrusting a sword into your chest and piercing your heart. That’s a grisly image. Proverbs 12:18 says, “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Wouldn’t you rather soothe someone’s heart with your words than stab and wound it?

“I hate you.” Just like that, I said it. My mother quickly and firmly addressed it. I can’t think of another time after that that I told my sister I hated her. I was a little kid, but I have a faint recollection of my nasty performance. 

I cannot recount the number of insensitive, angry, spiteful, disgruntled, bitter, malicious, vile, vulgar, profane, blasphemous, deceitful, false, and hurtful words that I have said in my lifetime. I’m an excitable, expressive, and extroverted person who feels deeply about many things, and controlling my mouth is difficult for me. Perhaps you’re similar and feel my pain. Even if you’re introverted, you may feel my paint, because introverts can also have problems controlling their tongues.

Jesus once said, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Mt. 12:36). Maybe we should say less or at least be slower in saying what we think we should say. They say, “Look before you leap.” That’s good advice. We should also think before we speak. 

Within its gratitude section, the Heidelberg Catechism helpfully explains what the 10 Commandments mean. All 10 Commandments connect in some way to our words, but here are a few connections. In reference to the third commandment, Heidelberg 99 advocates praising God “in all our words.” In reference to the sixth commandment, Heidelberg 105 says we are “not to dishonor, hate, injure, or kill [our] neighbor by . . . words.” Heidelberg 109 explains that in the seventh commandment God “forbids all unchaste . . . words.” The ninth commandment explicitly addresses words, and Heidelberg 112 explains it to mean that we “must not give false testimony against anyone . . . not gossip or slander, nor condemn or join in condemning anyone rashly and unheard . . . avoid all lying and deceit . . . [and] speak and confess [the truth] honestly.”

God clearly cares a lot about our words, and we struggle with them. However, the gospel is the power of God (Rom. 1:16), and through faith, the Holy Spirit is graciously sanctifying our mouths.

Here are seven points from the Proverbs to encourage you to ask the Lord for His grace and Spirit to help you speak good words, but to also thank the Lord that He is actively giving you the help you need to speak life.

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