Scripture: Matthew 12 v 33 - 37: "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
Romans 8 v 1 - 2: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
Jesus always spoke the truth so we need to find out what He means by "idle words" if such words have to be accounted for and could lead to anyone facing condemnation for those words.
In Matthew 5 v 22 in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says if you call people fools and idiots it would lead to condemnation. No doubt at some time in our lives these condemning words have been used on spouse, children, bosses, colleagues, teachers, students, employees, government officials, other road users, your rugby (soccer, cricket, any other sport) team; other race groups, other nationalities etc.
How long will you stand before God giving an account for these words as they are replayed for all to hear on the Day of Judgment? Rather get it right now and spare yourself the shame!
You see in Romans 2 v 1 it says that in whatsoever judgment you make against another you are guilty of the same things. So do a review of every time you have used these idle words and judge yourself appropriately. Be quick to repent and change the way you think and speak.
The word idle means doing nothing. Like if your motor car is idling it is not going anywhere. So your idle words are worthless in value. Jesus says let your yeah be yeah, and your nay be nay, all else is vanity. This means make a clear cut plan or decision and don't dress it up with innuendo, ambiguity, salesspeak, double talk or frills. Do not be tricky and use fancy jargon as the worldly people do. Speak the truth without adding any embellishment and let Jesus promote your unvarnished truth in His unique way. He cannot bless lies or idle words no matter how much prayer you smother them with.
The same applies to preachers, evangelists, teachers and prophets of God. The "truth" that prophets only have to be right 60% of the time is an idle word that those who say such things will be condemned for. In Israel any prophet who was not 100% accurate was stoned to death.
Preachers who preach half a gospel whom God says have no strength to bring people to be born again are wasting their whole ministry with idle words. If they shun the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (read Acts 19), they are preaching idle words.
Broken promises, broken commitments, broken marriage vows, scams, Ponzi schemes, fraudulent business dealings all rely on a foundation of idle words. Those who make national laws contrary to God's commands will be judged for idle words. We will be forgiven if we confess our shortcomings to the Lord as it says in 1 John 1 v 7 - 10: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
We all want to know the truth and what God will judge us for on the Day of Judgment. We need to change the way we think and speak to get in line with what is acceptable to God. In Romans 12 v 1 and 2 it says we must renew our minds according to the will of God. Old bad habits must be overcome and new good habits must be learned. This is a process that will continue all our lives.
Romans 8 v 1 says "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
So this is extremely desirable and we should leave no stone unturned to achieve this victory. If we are born again, baptized, filled with the Spirit we will be spared any condemnation on the day of Judgment. What a day of rejoicing that will be.
Jesus will say these blessed of My Father stand on the right side, you others go to the left. Then he will say those on the right go into everlasting life and those on the left into everlasting damnation. This is your chance to make absolutely sure that you are on the right side when the Trumpet of God sounds.
Prayer: Father God the time is drawing near when Your trumpet will sound. Cause all the readers to heed Your word and learn the right way to treat all the others. Let us love one another so You can reveal Your ways. In Jesus' name. Amen.
