Slow to Speak

"...for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks."

Luke 6:45b (NRSVUE)

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we communicate these days. Partly due to the nature of always having the world in our pockets and the opportunity to always talk with someone anywhere, I often am struck to stop and think about how we are relating to one another. I think that this reality has altered the way we speak, myself included, more than we can realize unless we slow down and think about it.

The technocratic age in which we live has deeply impacted us. I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue that people, as a whole, are more fearful, more adjacently informed (meaning we are constantly bombarded with half-truths and warped representations), quicker to anger, and more reactionary than ever. If we aren’t careful, we can find ourselves “conforming to the pattern of this world” as Paul warned in Romans 12. 

The pattern of the world is one of pride, selfishness, and shame. Let me provide an example from my life. If I’m talking to someone about something I don’t really understand or an idea I haven’t encountered before, I find that my default response is to smile and say, “oh yeah, for sure,” or “yep, I get it.” Instead of humbling myself and inviting the person I’m talking with to teach me something, my gut reaction is to be prideful and vain, pretending I have more knowledge or wisdom than I really do. As Jesus warned in Luke 6, it is from the heart the mouth speaks. Jesus also taught in Matthew 15:11 that “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

 In this example, by conforming myself to the pattern of the world, not the pattern of the new man that I am in Christ, I am falling victim to two realities of sin. First, I am not allowing the Spirit to put off the pride and embarrassment that Christ has called me out of. Second, I am further defiling myself by allowing this sin to fester in my life. I pray that the Spirit produce its fruit in me, for I know from Philippians 2:13 that God “is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

 We all have areas of our communication that are still formed to the pattern of this world. Maybe we react to hastily and out of anger, hurting those around us. Maybe we default to little white lies to protect our image or to assuage our fears. Maybe we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we isolate and don’t interact with those around us who are image-bearing, loved creations of God just as much as we are.

 I pray that we all become a bit slower to speak, putting off the world and taking up the mantle of Christ. In Matthew 26:73 Jesus’ disciples were known by their accent, and we should be the same. I pray that we can let go of whatever it is keeping us from speaking as Christ-followers. I pray that the Spirit replace our pride, fear, or anxiety with the humility, peace, and gentleness that we are promised through His indwelling power.  

Looking to have quality spiritual content delivered to your inbox? We can help with that.