“But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.”
“out of your mouth”
This phrase may not only refer to “filthy language” but the entire list of sins in verse 8. If so, this verse catalogs the whole list of these sins as sins of the mouth. “Anger” and “wrath” are forms of this vice when it verbalizes their displeasure. “Blasphemy,” for example, is slander.
Jesus said that the mouth reveals what is in the heart:
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).
Other passages link the heart and the mouth:
How can both bitter and pure waters come out of the same fountain? How can both praise to God and curse of men come out of the same mouth (James 3:10,11)?
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
Some passages warn against the dangers of the mouth:
“Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3).
“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).
“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4:6).
Principle:
We will bring up in the bucket of our speech what is in the well of our hearts.
Application:
We reveal what is in our hearts by what we say. When we open our mouths, we reveal our hearts.
“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:7,8).
Although no man can tame the tongue, the Holy Spirit can.
Our mouth is the last part of our anatomy to submit to the Lord of glory. Some of us have too much mouth; we use it when we shouldn’t.
“But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:3,4).
