Minding Our Words

Proverbs 18:21

The tongue has the power of life and death.

(GNT) What you say can preserve (give) life or destroy it. 

Proverbs 12:18

The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 15:1

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 

Ecclesiastes 5:2

Let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.

For God is in heaven, and you on earth;

Therefore let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 6:11 (NIV)

The more the words, the less the meaning...

Luke 12:2-3

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Colossians 4:6

(KJV) Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

(NLT) Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. 

James 1:19  (Amplified)

Quick to listen, (quick to think), slow to anger and slow to speak.

D. Edmond Hiebert, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary

"Slow to speak" does not mean slowness in speaking but is a call for restraint upon hasty and ill-considered reactions to what is heard. It would allow time for a fuller apprehension and thoughtful evaluation of what had been heard. It offered a valuable safeguard against shallow, immature, and immoderate reactions. A continual talker cannot hear what anyone else says and by the same token will not hear when God speaks to him. 

James 1:26 (NIV)

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues  deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

William Perkins   A Direction For The Government Of The Tongue According To God’s Word  

What a shame is it, that men with the same tongue wherewith they confess the faith and religion of Christ, should by vain and ungodly speech utterly deny the power thereof.

Roman Breviary, 1763

We beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thou wouldest keep our tongues from evil, and our lips from speaking guile; that, as Thy holy angels ever sing Thy praises in heaven, so with our tongues may we at all times glorify Thee on earth.

Alexander Smellie In the Hour of Silence: A Book of Daily Meditations for a Year, 1899

Proverbs 15:4 (HCSB) The tongue that heals is a tree of life, but a devious tongue breaks the spirit.

How many are the sins of the tongue—how many, and how deadly! From anger, from slander, from folly, from untruthfulness, from untender judgments, from impure and defiling speech, good Lord, deliver me.

There is, St. Paul says, a foolish talking which is not convenient (Ephesians 5:4).  My conversation may be insipid, vain, unprofitable, trivial, and idle. It may do no good to anyone. 1t may kindle no consoling, strengthening, inspiring thought. It is not seasoned with the salt of grace. It has not the earnestness and the spiritual quality which befit the Christian.

There is, St. Paul says again, a filthy communication which should never proceed from a disciple’s mouth (Colossians 3:8). It ministers to wantonness. It is suggestive of what is evil and unholy. It paints sin in gay and brilliant and enticing colors, so that its real ugliness is not recognized. All such speech I must abhor. I must not listen to it in others, nor tolerate it in myself.

There is, St. Paul says once more, a jesting which is not becoming in the believer and the saint. In whatever pleasantry and humor I may allow myself, I must ever be refined, noble-hearted, tender. There is a persiflage (light and slightly contemptuous mockery), a wit, a banter, a sarcasm, which is neither high-minded nor kind. It is enlisted in the service of sin and not in that of Christ.