Many years ago, there was a trend that was popular among Christians, many even had wrist bands following this trend, that said WWJD, “What would Jesus do?” The principle was to examine our heart and our actions and compare it with the heart and actions of Jesus and not only compare it but also align it with Jesus. The goal was to have Christlike behaviors.Today, it seems like many need a reminder of not only WWJD but WWJS, “What would Jesus say?”
Saturated by God’s word, our words are also to be Christ-like. This calls for an examination of our speech and more so of our heart to see if our words and conversations align with the words and conversations Jesus would have. This is not to presume that we use the same words as Jesus but we ought to use words that are truthful and sincere like Jesus.
We live in a time and age where there is a great need to be truthful and sincere in our speech. From news to Facebook posts to a simple tweet, we are daily reminded of the reality of the sinfulness of this world by how the truth is abused. Many tend to distort the truth in their favor whereas many tend to use words that are not meant to help or build or encourage but to actually put the other person down. The goal is to elevate themselves. Just look around us, we see truth being misrepresented, and exaggerated, we see promises being made without any intentions to fulfill, we see excuses being made to ignore responsibilities. A quick glance at the social media can reflect such reality but it also calls for the urgency for us believers, who have been transformed by the gospel to this new life of righteousness; to be truthful and sincere.
Christ not only demonstrated with His life but also taught His believers to be truthful and sincere. In His magnificent ‘Sermon on the Mount’, while correcting the false teachers of His time, who were flippantly and carelessly taking false oaths, Jesus encourages His believers by teaching, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”(Matthew 5:37 ESV) While Jesus was not prohibiting or banning the taking of oaths, He was definitely calling upon His believers to be truthful and sincere in everything they say. If we want to talk like Jesus, our words are to be trustworthy and reliable just like Jesus’ words. As Christians, we don’t even need to take an oath, for our words are to be truthful and sincere to such a point that people around us don’t even have to question if it can be trusted or not. Just as an oath binds a person to tell the truth, our gospel transformation, and our goal to be like Christ should bind us to have the reputation of truth-telling.
The Scripture provides ample teaching on how we can trust God and His word to foster the habit of truthfulness in our speech so that we can have a Christlike speech. Here are few ways we can foster truthfulness and sincerity in our speech:
Examine your speech: You know better than anyone else with an exception to God Himself, if you are being truthful or not in your speech. In fact, this might also be a motivation to not speak and stay silent rather than speak in an untruthful and insincere manner. James 1:9 can be our motivation to be slow to speak when the speech is not God-honoring. Moreover, Ephesians 4:29 can be a great source for us to examine our speech. Even when we are being truthful, does our speech include sincerity to build the other person? Does it fit the occasion or is it an appropriate time? And lastly, does it provide grace to the hearer? Imagine how many social media arguments would have been avoided if believers filtered their speech through the lens of the above verse in Ephesians.
Examine your heart: It makes sense biblically that examining our speech should lead to examining our heart. Because our speech is a revelation of our heart? Jesus says in Luke 6:45, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (emphasis added by me) What is the state of our hearts? Even when we may be speaking the truth, is it motivated by love with the goal of building the other person up. As Luke 6:45 teaches, we are to examine the state of our heart to evaluate if it is a storage of good treasure or evil treasure. Moreover, as our sinfulness of heart is exposed, we are compelled to seek God’s mercy, who alone can change our heart from flawed-ness to truthfulness. If you tend towards being untruthful, repent of your sins and plead with God to change your heart. God is faithful to forgive, and He is faithful to change us. Moreover, this also leads us to ask ourselves “what kind of treasures are we feeding our heart?” Thus, it is very essential that we consume God’s word on a regular basis so our heart becomes a storage of good treasures. And when you take time to read, meditate and submit to God’s word, it will reflect upon your speech.
Saturate your speech with God’s word: One of the things that I have learned from my experience of counseling is that I am less prone to fail with my words and harm others with my speech when I am more dependent on using God’s word in my conversations. While our words are flawed and cannot be fully trusted, God’s word is trustworthy. This is where James 1:9 is helpful again, we are to be slow to speak but quick to listen. While we spend time in God’s word’s we are opening our ears to hear what God has to say, which will impact our speech to be glorifying to God. God’s word warns us not to be quick to speak (James 1:9), to speak the truth with love (Ephesians 4:15), to not speak corruptly but to speak to build the other person up in grace (Ephesians 4:29), and to encourage others gently towards righteousness (Galatians 6:1).
As we saturate ourselves with God’s word, it renews our heart through the help of the Holy Spirit to change our flawed heart towards the heart of truthfulness and sincerity, as exemplified and taught by our Lord and Savior. As in every other aspect of our life, our speech is also to be Christlike. Let us remember that everything in our lives and conversation is in His presence and it may indeed be the thing which will determine what others think of Him. We represent Christ not only with our actions but also with our speeches and the heart behind it.
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