Matthew 12:35 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.
Maybe you have heard a story similar to this. There is an old hermit who lived in a cave. Every couple of years he would come out and say two words. So, one year he came out and the only two words he said were, “Room, cold.” Then he disappeared for two more years of solitude. After two more years he came out and said, “Food, bad.” Then he walked back in for another two years. Finally, he came out a couple years later and said, “Bed, hard.” His friend who had heard his two words every couple of years said, “All you do is complain, complain, complain!”
I don’t know if you have heard that story, but it is true that most of us communicate more frequently than our great-grandparents did. That may not be true in every case. I know the people who lived here on the Ranch property during the early 1840s would not have seen nearly as many people in a year as I see in a few months. They would have been far from a small town, and being pioneers, they would not have had the same communication or the need of it as I have. In fact, my main responsibility is communication, whether I am preaching or just serving here at the Ranch.
Proverbs 10:19 has a word of warning, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.” We never lack for sin when we are in an abundance of words. Yet, our words are not our primary problem nor are they the primary cure. Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees, said very plainly, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Most of their problem was being evil, not speaking evil. What they were speaking was a result of what they were. It was the fruit. It was out of the abundance of their heart that their mouth spoke.
Jesus is not saying that your words do not matter, but He is saying that there is something even more important. He is saying that your mind is the matter. What we say reveals what we are. Even empty words, idle words, are words that matter. They matter because they show what is in the heart.
So, there are two things to think about. First, communication begins with input. Your mind is the matter so that means that input is crucial. It is obvious to people around me what I have been reading and who I have been talking to because that often comes up in what I say. Analogies and illustrations naturally come to my mind depending on what I have been reading. For a month I was in Normandy, and now I am on a ranch in Texas because of what I am reading. So, communication begins with input.
Second, our communication ends with accountability. Jesus said that “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” We are justified or condemned by what we say. Even idle words matter. So, does it matter what I say? Most certainly! But, what matters even more is your mind.