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VERBAL PURITY

Limiting all speech to that which is godly, true, helpful, wholesome, peaceful, and necessary.

Objective

  • To agree with God’s word by being filled with it and speaking it.
  • To tell the truth.
  • To refrain from gossiping.
  • To refrain from complaining.
  • To refrain from talking back to your parents and/or being disrespectful to others.
  • To refrain from speaking evil (insults, profanity, dirty jokes, racist remarks, sexist remarks, rumors, general negativity…)

Key Scriptures for Verbal Purity

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Ephesians 4:29

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Ephesians 4:25

A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.
Proverbs 20:19

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
James 1:19-20

Commentary

Words aren’t just a natural force; words have the spiritual power to affect circumstances in the natural realm. You can be blessed or cursed simply by what you say. When you unleash words into the atmosphere they actually affect reality. Speaking negativity of any kind, lying, gossiping, and any other sinful speech are all off limits to God’s people. In the book of James we learn how difficult it is for man to “tame the tongue” although it is a necessity, and Proverbs explains how it’s better to not speak as opposed to sinning by what we say. In both the book of Proverbs and James the importance of listening before speaking is emphasized. Speaking rashly is an easy way to sin.

Steps to Attaining and Maintaining Verbal Purity

1. Watch what you listen to.
If you listen to profanity a lot you’ll wind up thinking it and then you’ll wind up speaking it. The same goes for anything else. If you’re hanging around people who are always talking about sex or drugs, then you’ll start thinking about it and you’ll wind up talking about it to. Trouble is, once it’s in your mind and you’re talking about it, it won’t be long until you start doing it. So, listen to what’s pure, feed on that and fill yourself up with it, and you’ll begin to say what’s pure.

2. Think before you speak.
Most of the time when you speak out of anger or you’re simply talking or answering too fast you’ll say something you regret. This can get you in some serious trouble. The Bible says “Everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). Think first and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble.

3. Don’t speak at all.
Sometimes it’s best not to say a single word. I remember several times where someone made me so mad I knew if I said anything it would be EXTREMELY impure so I wound up just keeping my mouth shut and walking away. It is wise to avoid sin this way. Remember the golden oldie: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Real Life Experience

You can speak life to your situation or death to it and your situation will change accordingly. I know a man who used to lead a sinful life and wound up in jail as a result. He was also diagnosed with terminal cancer. There was a large lump in his chest and the doctors gave him 6 months to live. Fortunately, he found Christ and went to the Bible to see what it said about healing. Against all odds he continued to speak God’s word and even though the doctors and everyone around him claimed that he was dying, he confessed that he was healed and that he was going to live. He mastered this to the point that he even spoke directly to the chemotherapy before it went into his body and told it to only attack the bad cells and none of the good ones! It worked. He was healed completely of cancer shortly after undergoing his treatments.

A few months later he got an x-ray done and the doctors reported that they saw a spot that indicated the cancer had returned. He told them that God had healed him and that there was something wrong with their x-ray machine and asked them to take another x-ray! Irate, the doctor argued with him, but he wouldn’t give in. To prove him wrong the doctor relented and decided to take another x-ray. This time there was no spot, no sign of cancer anywhere. The doctor was astonished, but he couldn’t refute what he saw: God miraculously healed this man of the cancer that was supposed to have killed him. His confession would not allow cancer to come back into his body.

This amazing example of an individual who put God’s word into practice, should have been dead about decades years ago based on what the doctors and everyone around him said. But he chose to say what God said, and as a result he spoke health back into his body. If he would have believed the doctor’s report that the cancer had returned, the devil would have had enough room to make that a reality in his body. But he refused to disagree with God and as a result he is alive and healthy today. We could all learn a great deal about the power of what we say from this man of God.

Additional Key Scriptures on Verbal Purity

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

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
James 3:6-10

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
Matthew 12:36

Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Proverbs 4:24

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.
Proverbs 10:19

He who answers before listening— that is his folly and his shame.
Proverbs 18:13

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
Revelation 21:8

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