Verbal judgments

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

—Matthew 12:36-37

Obviously all people have feet of clay and all people are sinners. It really is just that simple. By God's grace we find redemption and only by God's grace, Jesus, I believe is the key to that grace. He is grace. To me it is that simple and clear.

As I get older I worry more and more about words. Words and often their judgements are mortal weapons. Often I don't think that people realize just how damaging their words can be. Today at lunch I was listening to judgments regarding Tiger Woods. I couldn't help feeling sorry for Tiger and I couldn't help but feeling sorry for the people talking him down. Yes, he messed up, sadly it is or has been front page news.

Why delight in this man's misery? Why delight in anyone's misery? What do we say about ourselves when we delight in another's agony? What light do we shed upon ourselves when we behave and use our words in such a way? What we do to the least we do to Him. I think that it is worth an effort to be gracious and to find a way to allow those that fall and more importantly those who fall publically a way to redeem themselves.

Sadly and all too often our culture verbally indicts without recourse to the indicted. Our words, glee and acerbic tongues act as judge, jury and executioner and that is sad. What is even more sad is the collateral damage, us. By not realizing what our tongues are doing we forget that at judgment day, before the throne, we’ll have to answer for our words.