I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up I was told “Don’t talk with food in your mouth!” As a parent – I said the same thing to my girls! No one wants to see half-chewed food – plus, you can’t understand someone who is “talking with food in their mouth.” Do we need to be understood?
The mouth plays an important role in eating, drinking, breathing, and speaking. It can be our greatest blessing or it can get us into trouble. Matthew 12:34 says, “. . .for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” What’s in your heart? Do you say everything that you think? David evidently had this problem at one time, for in Psalm 141:3, he asks, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” Solomon had similar advice and said in Proverbs 13:3, ” He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: [but] he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.” We need to be concerned with what comes out of our mouths. In Matthew 12:36-37, Jesus said, “. . .every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shall be condemned.” Wow! “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” (James 3:6) “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. ” (Matthew 15:11) What comes out of your mouth can keep you out of heaven!
Paul warned the church in Ephesus, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Eph. 4:29) So, while the mouth can be corrupt, it can also be used for good. We use our mouths to confess our sins. (I John 1:9) The Ethiopian eunuch used his mouth to make the “good confession” before baptism – “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” (Acts 8:37) The mouth is used to teach the Word – “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14b) We are to use our mouths to sing praises unto the Lord – “O Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.” (Psalm 51:15
Yes, Momma was right! We need to be aware of what comes out of our mouth and when! May we, as Paul said to the Colossians, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6) God Bless, Courtney