One of the things I really appreciate about this sermon is that he builds a solid case for why Christians should give to the poor. He says: "Where have we any command in the Bible laid down in stronger terms, and in a more peremptory urgent manner, than the command of giving to the poor?" And also:

It is not merely a commendable thing for a man to be kind and bountiful to the poor, but our bounden duty, as much a duty as it is to pray, or to attend public worship, or anything else whatever. And the neglect of it brings great guilt upon any person.

• If I give, it won't be with the right spirit, so I won't give
• Being generous will make me self-righteous, so I won't give
• I've tried being generous before, but I didn't get any blessing from it
• Some may be poor, but they're not poor enough to deserve my help
• Some poor people are nasty, and so they don't deserve my help
• I've barely got enough for myself
• I can't be sure that this person really needs aid
• They never asked me
• It's their fault that they're poor
• If others were more generous, I wouldn't have to be so generous
• Leave it to the government

Do you know what this tells me? Things haven't changed. Out of the eleven objections listed, I think I've used at least six, maybe more. There are few issues that create more "Yeah, but..." statements, more objections, than when it comes to our duty to the poor.

Am I alone, or do some of you have objections? We were at Tom's Dairy Freeze this past week, and someone behind us obviously had some financial and other issues. Later on Charlene said, "I wonder if we should have bought him an ice cream cone?" My first thought was, "Maybe," closely followed by all kinds of reasons why we shouldn't have. I find it easy to look for the loopholes, for all the reasons why helping isn't always a good idea.

Yet Proverbs doesn't let us off, which is surprising because it was written by a well-off person likely for other well-off people, and usually well-off people are pretty good at coming up with reasons not to care about the poor.

Proverbs tells us three things when it comes to the poor. One: our duty. Two: the reason. Three: what we learn about God as a result of what he says about the poor.

So first, let's look at what Proverbs says about our duty to the poor.

You're expecting that Proverbs says a lot about giving to the poor, and it does. For example:

The generous will themselves be blessed,
for they share their food with the poor.
(Proverbs 22:9)

Those who give to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.
(Proverbs 28:27)

If you go all through the book of Proverbs, you'll find more verses like this that tell kings to judge the poor fairly, for all of us to share food with the poor, and to give to those who have needs.

So this is the message of Proverbs: to give to the poor. Right? Not even close. That would be letting us off easy. The message of Proverbs actually goes a lot deeper. It's possible to give to the poor, but to do so grudgingly and with a really bad attitude. But Proverbs doesn't allow for this. This comes out in many of the proverbs that have to deal with the poor, but none of them more clearly than Proverbs 29:7:

The righteous care about justice for the poor,

but the wicked have no such concern.

Do you see the word care there? It's one of the most intimate, emotional, and relational terms in the Hebrew language. It means knowing, caring for, having sympathetic knowledge, and considering favorably. It's the same term that was used in Genesis 4 where it says that "Adam knew his wife," which was a euphemism for marital relations with his wife. In other words, you can't just give to the poor. Proverbs says you actually have to care about them. It has to be an attitude, something that you care about, something that touches you deeply.

Let me give you an example. The United Way puts out a report called Poverty by Postal Code. According to the United Way, the income gap is widening, and neighborhood poverty is intensifying in Toronto. Out of every three families you pass on the street, one of those families is living in poverty. One in three! Some are now calling Toronto the poverty capital of Canada. One of the areas that has experienced the greatest increase in poverty is Etobicoke.

Do you see what I just did? I bombarded you with statistics and information about poverty in our area, but I didn't touch your heart. But I've seen people at Richview go beyond statistics and actually develop significant relationships with impoverished people, and it's totally different from statistics. Statistics don't keep you up at night; people do.

It's relatively easy to give money to the poor. You can give a dollar here or there. You can even give lots of money away and volunteer your time. But that's not enough. Proverbs says that it actually has to touch your heart. The righteous person actually cares about the poor and their legal rights. Proverbs says that our duty isn't just to give to the poor; it's actually to care.

Michael Creek is a 50-year-old man who suffers from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After chemotherapy and surgery, he went into remission but developed "debilitating side effects" that left him unable to support himself. Creek recently appeared before a forum in Ottawa and spoke of getting to his apartment.

I must pass drug dealers and their victims often high on drugs. The elevator often has syringes, human waste and garbage covering the floor. Bedbugs and cockroaches have invaded my apartment traveling through holes left for plumbing and heating.

Poverty steals from your soul, leaving you with little or no hope. It robs you of all that can be good in life. It leaves you isolated, lonely and hungry and that is just the start of it. Every day is a struggle.

"The righteous care about justice for the poor," says Proverbs, "but the wicked have no such concern."

Well, we need to ask a question.

Why are we commanded to care for the poor?

You could begin with fairly selfish reasons, and there is some truth to these reasons. For instance:

Those who are kind to the poor lend to the LORD,
and he will reward them for what they have done.
(Proverbs 19:17)

Those who give to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.
(Proverbs 28:27)

At this level, we're helping the poor because of what we get out of it. We feel good, and God promises to bless us.

But Proverbs actually goes much deeper than that. It gives us two very deep and theological reasons why it's absolutely critical for us to care about the poor. One of them has to do with people, and the other has to do with God.

First, people. Proverbs 22:2 says:

Rich and poor have this in common:
The LORD is the Maker of them all.

A few weeks ago I dropped somebody off at a house, except that it wasn't really a house. It was more like a mansion. I walked in and looked around. When I drove off I felt like I had seen how the other half lives. We came home and looked up the prices of houses in that area, and those houses are worth at least six times what our house is worth. We had discussions about how people can afford to live in places like that. We did not belong.

I've also been with people on the other end. I was in a home recently that if they had asked me to sit down, I would have had a hard time doing so. If they offered me food, I would have been concerned for my health. It was disgusting. I couldn't wait to get out.

When I look at people I see them as rich, middle class like me, or poor. But Proverbs tells us that when he looks at us, he sees us not according to class. He sees the rich and poor in just the same way: "The LORD is Maker of them all." There is absolutely no distinction. The poorest person you will ever meet is made and loved by God, and bears his image, as much as you do.

If there's anything that we've learned, it's that wealth is distributed inequitably in this world. There are children born into families in which they will experience every obstacle going. Nobody would say it's their fault that they were born in the wrong part of the world or to the wrong parents or in a bad neighborhood, but they don't stand a chance. But others are born with everything going for them, every advantage: private schools, tutoring.

When those who have had every advantage look at Scripture, and realize that the poor aren't at all different from them, that the LORD is maker of them and loves them every bit as much, and that to God they are worth every bit as much, then it will be impossible for that person not to care if she sees them the way that God sees them. If we don't care, that's evidence that we're not seeing people through God's eyes.

In fact, Proverbs goes even further. Proverbs 14:31 says that God so identifies with the poor that when you show contempt for them, you are showing contempt for God; and when you are kind to the poor, you are honoring God.

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Proverbs 15:25 says that God acts on behalf of the widow:

The LORD tears down the house of the proud,
but he sets the widow's boundary stones in place.

And Proverbs 23:10-11 puts it even more strongly:

Do not move an ancient boundary stone
or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
for their Defender is strong;
he will take up their case against you.

When you pick a fight with those who are poor, or fatherless, or widows, Proverbs says, then you're picking a fight with God. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to pick a fight with God. Proverbs 21:13 says:

Those who shut their ears to the cry of the poor
will also cry out and not be answered.

I don't know how this could be put more strongly. Why should we care for the poor? One: because God made them, and they bear God's image just like you. Two: because God identifies with them and takes their side. God is actually on the side of the poor, and to not care for them is to not care about him. To pick a fight with the poor is to pick a fight with God.

Jesus said the same thing. When we stand before him one day, the way that we cared for the poor will be evidence that we care for him. He so identifies with the poor that he says, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). But to those who did not care for the poor, that will be evidence that we never knew him. "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me" (Matthew 25:45).

It's likely that right now you are feeling pretty guilty. When we hear that we're not just supposed to give to the poor, but we're really supposed to care in our hearts, to see them just as we see ourselves, and to realize that God identifies so strongly with them that to neglect them is to neglect him - this can all be overwhelming. That's why I don't want to leave you at this point.

We need to finish by looking at God.

What is the vision of God we see in Proverbs? It's the vision of a God who defends those who are defenseless, who provides for those without resources, who identifies with the poor and the needy. In other words, we meet a God of grace who provides what we can't provide for ourselves.

This is true when our need is physical. If you are here today and lack food or money, you need to understand that God is your Defender, and that he identifies with people just like you.

But for those of us today who realize that we are poor in spirit, that we don't love the way that he loves, that we need a transformation of the heart so that we can care the way we're reading about: we too are poor, and we need what only God can provide. He alone can solve the poverty within our hearts.

I began by talking about Jonathan Edwards and his sermon. Jonathan Edwards said:

Consider how much God hath done for us, how greatly he hath loved us, what he hath given us, when we were so unworthy, and when he could have no addition to his happiness by us. Consider that silver, and gold, and earthly crowns, were in his esteem but mean things to give us, and he hath therefore given us his own Son. Christ loved and pitied us, when we were poor, and he laid out himself to help, and even did shed his own blood for us without grudging. He did not think much to deny himself, and to be at great cost for us vile wretches, in order to make us rich, and to clothe us with kingly robes, when we were naked; to feast us at his own table with dainties infinitely costly, when we were starving; to advance us from the dunghill, and set us among princes, and make us to inherit the throne of his glory, and so to give us the enjoyment of the greatest wealth and plenty to all eternity. Agreeably to 2 Cor. 8:9, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

Considering all these things, what a poor business will it be, that those who hope to share these benefits, yet cannot give something for the relief of a poor neighbor without grudging! That it should grieve them to part with a small matter, to help a fellow servant in calamity, when Christ did not grudge to shed his own blood for them!

The path to truly caring for the poor is found in seeing how much Christ cared for us so we could be made rich.

Father, we repent. We repent of not really wanting to care, of making all kinds of excuses, of seeing people at statistics without really knowing.

But today we see how much you care. We also see very clearly that you are calling us to care. May we see our own poverty, and what Christ did for us, so that we are changed to love the way that you love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The bad is that I made a separation between everyday work and spiritual work. Do you get what I mean? It's like I made two lists. One one list I put ordinary secular work: business, commerce, construction, law, writing, teaching. On the second list I put things like pastoring, being a missionary, teaching in seminary - that's about it. I thought that you can do ordinary, everyday work, or you can do spiritual work that really matters.

I don't know where I came up with this view, but I know I'm not alone. If you follow this to its logical conclusion then all of you work to make a living and to support those of us who are doing important work. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

Today I want to look at what the book of Proverbs says about work. I hope that it will change the way that you think about career and vocation. I want to ask three questions:

• What does it say about work?
• Why does it say what it does?
• Finally, how does this impact what you do?

All you have to do to answer this question is to read through the book of Proverbs, or else search for the words sluggard or diligent. It's not very subtle. It skewers those who don't work hard, and it praises those who work hard. For instance, look at how it slams those who don't work:

How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
(Proverbs 6:9)

Probably the bluntest passage is this one from Proverbs 26:

A sluggard says, "There's a lion in the road,
a fierce lion roaming the streets!"
As a door turns on its hinges,
so a sluggard turns on the bed.
Sluggards bury their hands in the dish
and are too lazy to bring them back to their mouths.
(Proverbs 26:13-15)

It's not a very pretty picture. The sluggard uses absurd excuses to get out or work. He's not lazy; he just doesn't want to go outside in case there's a lion. Yesterday it was too hot to work; today it's too cold. Instead he lays in bed. Again, he probably has an excuse: "I'm not my best in the morning." There's a bit of humor in verse 14: he lies in bed turning, but his motion is like a door. There may be lots of movement, but it never goes anywhere because he's hinged to the bed. Even when the sluggard is hungry, he is so lazy that he can't manage to lift his hand to his mouth. The writer has no sympathy at all for those who are lazy.

Contrast this to what the writer says about the diligent:

Diligent hands will rule,
but laziness ends in forced labor.
(Proverbs 12:24)

The plans of the diligent lead to profit
as surely as haste leads to poverty.
(Proverbs 21:5)

Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.
(Proverbs 28:19)

Over and over again, Proverbs gives us the message. Work hard. Avoid laziness. The book is completely intolerant of lazy people. Lazy people, according to Proverbs, are the epitome of folly. It parodies them, it pokes fun at them. It has absolutely no sympathy for them.

We could stop right there, but we'd miss out on really understanding the message of Proverbs if we did. If we stopped here, we would think that Proverbs is a little like a nagging parent who is always saying, "Get to work! Don't you have homework that you should be doing?" We could even be driven to workaholism.

We need to go a little deeper and to ask a second question, and the question is this:

Why does Proverbs say what it does about work?

In other words, what is the reason that Proverbs says what it does about work?

To answer this, I want to give you a bit of background about how other cultures saw work at that time. In the other cultures, the gods had to fight to create the world and to bring order out of chaos. When they realized how much work it is to maintain the world, they tried to think of a way to get out of all this work, so they created us. In this view, we're stuck with all the work while the gods sleep. Work is something that we have to do because the gods are too lazy to do it. We'd get out of it if we could as well.

This isn't the view we get in the Bible at all. When you open the Bible you meet a God who loves to work, a God who has no trouble at all bringing order out of chaos and arranging the world just as he wants it. What's more, he even gets his hands dirty. He does manual labor, forming man from the dust of the ground. There's a dignity that God gives to work right from the beginning. He's not trying to get out of work; he does work that expresses who he is and what he wants this world to be.

All throughout the Bible, imagery is used that describes God as a worker. Genesis portrays him as a gardener and a farmer. Proverbs 8 describes his work of creation in terms of architecture and building. Psalm 139 compares him to a weaver, knitting us together in our mother's womb. Jeremiah compares God to a potter and a craftworker.

And when God himself came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, he came as a builder. In Mark 6 we learn that Jesus is a carpenter, a word that could mean carpenter or just builder. Jesus himself was a manual laborer. And when Jesus spoke of his work, he used images from other professions: doctor, shepherd. He even compared God to a homemaker (Luke 15). And he said of his Father, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working."

This is a very different picture of work from all of the other gods of the Ancient Near East. God is a God who works, and who endows all work - manual work, professional work, and so on - with dignity. And we haven't even got to the good part yet.

When God created us, listen to what the Bible says:

Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:26-29)

The next thing we see, Adam is tilling and keeping the garden, naming the animals - which, by the way, has cultural dimensions. So right away, you have humanity doing important work, work that's very similar to God's.

But let's back up a second. Twice in Genesis 1, God emphatically says that he made us in his image. What does this mean? As someone has said, you could fill bookshelves with the three thousand years of conversation sparked by this one verse. What's especially interesting is that God has said that we are not to make anything in his image, but this is a restriction God hasn't put on himself.

What does it mean to bear God's image. It means to be like him. And looking at Genesis 1 and 2, in what ways are we to be like God?

• We meet a God who is a God of limitless and extraordinary creativity
• We meet a God who takes an environment that is disordered and inhospitable, and who transforms it into an environment that flourishes with life and creativity
• We meet a God who has authority over this world

Then God turns to us and says, "I am giving you authority to fill the earth and subdue it." Being fruitful means building families, churches, schools, cities, governments, and laws. Subduing the earth means harnessing the natural world: planting crops, building bridges, designing computers, composing music.

He's given us the job of being, as one person says, "creative cultivators" (Andy Crouch) - to make something of this world. We're talking marriage and family, but we're also talking art, language, commerce, and government. When we do these things, we're bearing God's image and carrying out the cultural mandate God has given us.

Someone else has said that you are here on earth for four reasons: to love God, to serve others, to responsibly cultivate the earth, and to savor the work of your hands. You are here not only to love God and to serve others, but to help bring shalom to this earth, and to savor the work that you do. It's only in our work that we get to do all four of these at the same time.

One theologian says:

To unfold...possibilities - for example, to speak languages, build tools and dies, enter contracts, organize dance troupes - is to act in character for human beings designed by God. That is, to act in this way is to exhibit some of God's own creativity and dominion in a characteristically human way. (Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Engaging God's Word)

Work is not something that entered the world because of sin. We have been made so that baking bread, playing soccer, writing music, creating products, banking, practicing law, is holy work before God. It expresses his creativity, contributes to the flourishing of this world.

That's why Proverbs takes work so seriously. It's not just because the writer doesn't like lazy people. It's because when we're sluggards, we're not taking seriously what it means to be made in the image of God. When we are diligent in our work, we help to shape culture and bring glory to God.

You can see how wrong I was to think that some professions are holy, and some are secular. Every vocation can bring God glory.

It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

One man put it this way, hundreds of years ago:

The homeliest service that we do in an honest calling, though it be but to plow, or dig, if done in obedience, and conscience of God's Commandment, is crowned with ample reward; whereas the best works for their kind (preaching, praying, offering Evangelical sacrifices) if without respect of God's injunction and glory, are loaded with curses. (Joseph Hall)

In other words, the work of a banker or a mother or a teacher or an entrepreneur can be loaded with more blessing than the work of a preacher. Because this is so, Proverbs is right to challenge us to take our work seriously.

We need to apply this by asking one more question:

What does this mean for me?

To answer this, I have a couple of proverbs and then a verse from the New Testament.

Proverbs 13:4 says:

A sluggard's appetite is never filled,
but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

What does this mean? It says that sluggards and those who are diligent both have desires, but the sluggard's desire isn't fulfilled while the diligent person's desires are. At first glance you could interpret this to mean food or money or all the things that money can buy, but I think it goes deeper. There's a sense of satisfaction that comes when we work, even if the work isn't what we would naturally choose to do. Your work is not only for the purpose of paying bills; your work actually brings satisfaction. At each phase of God's creative work in making this world, he pronounced it as good. There's something in us as well that longs to take a step back from our work and say that it too is good. Work can be intensely satisfying.

Proverbs 22:29 says:

Do you see those who are skilled in their work?
They will serve before kings;
they will not serve before officials of low rank.

So we have desire or satisfaction that comes from work, but here we also have skill. There are certain things that you may enjoy doing, but you will never be skilled at doing them. But when you have desire and skill come together, it is a powerful combination. Frederick Buechner said, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

I realize that this can all sound hopelessly idealistic. You may understand everything I've said, but really struggle with how it could ever be true in your life and in your job. It's going to be true here, but the reality is that although we bear the image of God, we've sinned, and neither we nor this world are what God intended them to be.

But God through Christ is renewing and restoring all things. The good news (gospel) for us this morning is that Jesus came into this world to take on our sins, and to begin the process of restoration so that one day things will be as they should.

You've heard of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings. He and C.S. Lewis decided to write fiction they way they thought it should be written. Lewis kept producing book after book. Meanwhile, Tolkien labored over one book and never felt satisfied.

One night Tolkien had a dream about a man named Niggle. Niggle is an artist who paints a picture of a great tree, but is never satisfied. Before he can finish the painting he dies. On the train to heaven he sees the tree that he had been trying to paint. The Tree he sees is the true realization of his vision, not the flawed and incomplete form of his painting.

One day, through Jesus Christ, the tree you've always wanted to paint, the sermon I've always wanted to preach, the work we've always wanted to do - we'll discover it in heaven. Your work now matters to God, but it's only a shadow of the work we'll be able to do, and the satisfaction that we'll get from that work, when God one day restores all things through what Christ accomplished at the cross.

Let's pray.

Yuko Maruyama, a Japanese organist working in Minneapolis, was once a devout Buddhist. Now, thanks to the music of J. S. Bach, she is a Christian. "Bach introduced me to God, Jesus, and Christianity," she told Metro Lutheran, a Twin Cities monthly. "When I play a fugue, I can feel Bach talking to God." Masashi Masuda, a Jesuit priest, came to faith in almost the same way: "Listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations first aroused my interest in Christianity." Our jobs can be used to proclaim God's glory and even to draw people to Christ.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."

Father, today we give our vocations to you. Thank you that you are a God who is still at work. Thank you for your Son, who not only worked as a carpenter, but worked to accomplish our salvation. And thank you that you call us to serve you with our whole lives, including the work that you've called us to.

We offer our work to you today as an act of worship. May you be glorified through our holy vocations. And we look forward to that day when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and we'll do the work we've always longed to do. In the name of Christ our Savior we pray. Amen.

Let me see if you can finish a sentence that I begin. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but..."

You're right, you got it. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." I don't know who ever thought of this saying, but they lied. It's not true at all. Sticks and stones will hurt your bones, but words can actually break your heart. Words matter.

Let me ask you: What's the meanest thing that anyone ever said to you? You may have heard of the person who pretended to be a 16-year-old boy on MySpace. She became "friends" with Megan Meier, age 13. After starting out nicely, the person, pretending to be a teenage boy, started sending Megan messages like, "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends." More messages like this came. Tragically, Megan became so upset by these messages that she took her own life. Sticks and stones can break bones, but words can break a heart. Words can kill.

Let me ask you, on the other hand: What is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you? There was a man that I really respect who came to my wedding. He said something about me that day that I overheard - he didn't even mean for me to hear it - that is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me, and I've never forgotten it. Words can break a heart, but words can also heal a heart.

We've been studying what the book of Proverbs says about how to live. Listen to what Proverbs says about our words:

The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
(Proverbs 12:18)

The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
(Proverbs 18:21)

We need to remember two words: Words matter. Your words are like a fire. Your words, the Bible says, are like a sword that can cut right into people. It can kill. But your words can also bring healing and life. How you speak is going to bring you and everyone around you life, or death.

A pastor was welcoming some members into the church. This is what he told them:

And now, I charge you that if you ever hear another member speak an unkind word of criticism or slander against anyone—myself, an usher, a choir member, or anyone else—that you stop that person in mid-sentence and say, 'Excuse me—who hurt you? Who ignored you? Who slighted you? Was it [the pastor]? Let's go to his office right now. He'll apologize to you, and then we'll pray together so God can restore peace to this body. But we won't let you talk critically about people who aren't present to defend themselves.'

I'm serious about this. I want you to help resolve this kind of thing immediately. And know this: If you are ever the one doing the loose talking, we'll confront you.

That pastor says, "To this day, every time we receive new members, I say much the same thing. That's because I know what most easily destroys churches. It's not crack cocaine, government oppression, or even lack of funds. Rather it's gossip and slander that grieves the Holy Spirit."

We need to take our words as seriously as we do swords, guns, and fires. When someone uses them recklessly, we need to deal with it right away. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words kill. Words matter more than we could ever think.

[song]

Learning How to Speak

So words matter. Words can kill, but they can also give life. How then should we speak?

It's actually quite easy. Proverbs tells us how we should speak: Speak less, speak honestly, and speak fittingly. Simple - yet as we're going to see, impossible without God's help.

Speak less - The average person speaks sixteen thousand words a day. There's lots of room to get into trouble with this many words. One former U.S. president (Calvin Coolidge) said, "I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm." Proverbs says something similar:

Sin is not ended by multiplying words,
but the prudent hold their tongues.
(Proverbs 10:19)

And then one of my favorite proverbs:

Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
and discerning if they hold their tongues.
(Proverbs 17:28)

One of the best ways that we could improve in how we use words is to speak less. Words are so powerful that we need to guard how many words we actually use.

Speak honestly - When we do speak, though, it's important to speak honestly. Proverbs 12:19 says:

Truthful lips endure forever,
but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

Proverbs 24:26 says:

An honest answer
is like a kiss on the lips.

Telling the truth is right, beneficial. Telling the truth is a kind act. One of my friends says that many times we're too unloving to be truthful. Telling the truth is an act of love, even if what we're going to say is hard. What we say has to be for the other person's good, but our words must be honest even when it's hard.

Speak fittingly - This is the hardest. It takes real wisdom to know what to say and when to say it. Proverbs 15:23 says:

A person finds joy in giving an apt reply—
and how good is a timely word!

Proverbs 25:11 says:

A word aptly spoken
is like apples of gold in settings of silver. (NIV)

There's a beauty, artistry, and skill in knowing how to speak. In fact, we can't do it without God's help. Proverbs 16:1 says:

To human beings belong the plans of the heart,
but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue.

What I want to do right now is to ask a few people to pray for all of us in this area. If there's one area that I want to focus on today, it's in our families. If there's anywhere where it's tough to speak well, it's there. I've asked a few people of different ages to pray that God will help us speak well. Let's take a few minutes to pray.

What Words Reveal

Most of all what words reveal is the condition of our hearts. Words reveal that ultimately we need a new heart. Jesus said, "But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these defile you" (Matthew 15:18). What we say reveals what's in our heart.

Proverbs 22:11 says the same thing:

One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace
will have the king for a friend.

What we need more than anything else is for our heart to be changed. A pure heart and words of grace go together.

What we say is a reflection of what's inside. You'll remember that the heart in the Bible doesn't mean our emotions. It means it's the essential you. Your heart is what makes you you. God promised in Ezekiel 11:19, "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh." Paul wrote, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God himself came to earth. One of his closest friends said of Jesus, "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). He's the only person who ever lived who never misspoke. And he died for us so that he could take upon himself all of our sins, all of our misspoken words. He gives us his righteousness, and also a new heart.

Jesus said, "Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). We don't need new words; most of all we need clean hands and clean hearts, given to us through the gospel.