READ MATTHEW 15 

Several years ago I counseled with a couple who were having serious marital problems.  Within ten minutes the counseling session erupted into a vicious shouting match.  The gross profanity and murderous threats that spewed out of their mouths absolutely shocked me.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!

I’m not naïve.  I grew up playing athletics in a public school and I worked for one summer in a foundry and I’d heard all the words before.  So I wasn’t shocked at what I heard.  But I was shocked at the people!  This couple had attended our worship services and participated in our church activities for years, yet they were screaming the f…. word and even taking God’s name in vain!  I couldn’t imagine anything like that gushing out of their mouths – and with no sense of shame.  I was really disappointed.  And I think I learned more about who they really were down inside during that sad, five-minute outburst than I did in ten years of attending worship with them.

There are a number of indicators that reveal a person’s true character.  The calendar and pocketbook reveal a lot about priorities.  The comments and conduct of our children reveal a great deal about our home life.  Our work habits reveal quite a bit about integrity.  But perhaps the clearest indication of a person’s heart is their speech.  People’s words, especially those spoken under pressure, reveal their true nature.

Jesus said, “Listen and understand.  What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean’ (vs. 10-11)… “the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  These are what make a man ‘unclean’ (vs. 18-20).

Have you noticed how often an airline pilot’s final words uttered just before a crash are profane?  You would think when people know they are going to die in seconds, they would be calling out to God for help and forgiveness.  Instead, recordings of the final words are often curses because under pressure we instinctively revert to who we really are inside.

Someone suggested the mouth is the “billboard of the heart” because it publicizes the truth about our character.  The most ready expression of who you really are is how you speak…especially when your guard is down.

There’s another side to the coin, however.  A positive side.  Disciplined words, encouraging words, God-honoring words spoken under pressure reveal a pure heart– a heart devoted to doing the Lord’s will.

Pastor Dave Stone relates that when he was a young boy his family was in a horrible, head-on collision.  He remembers his mother being unconscious in the front seat and his dad sitting behind the steering wheel with his glasses shattered and face bloodied.  Dave could hear the siren of the ambulance coming in the distance but he said he’ll never forget hearing his father, Sam Stone, in that moment of desperation repeating the 23^rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…”

Jesus said in an earlier passage, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. …For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:35, 37).

Lord, I pray the words of my mouth will exalt Christ, edify others, and reveal a pure heart.   Amen.